It's Just A Flesh Wound

         Let me start by asking what I hope others in our class have been wondering as well: just how high is Lancelot’s pain tolerance. I mean, come on! Throughout the entire story (and that’s a lot of pages) he is either wounded, or healing from his terrible wounds. He refuses more treatment than I can count, and he is somehow able to participate in battle throughout it all—and that’s not even taking into account the weight of the armor which is necessary for him to wear! 

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                I had to add this image because it’s the only thing I could think of while I was reading. It’s funnier because the first time I ever watched Monty Python and The Holy Grail, I found it funny…well…simply because it was funny. After learning and reading so much more Medieval literature, the movie has reached an entirely new level of humor. If you haven’t seen it, I highly suggest you watch it at some point.

            ANYWAY, I couldn’t help but to laugh while reading, “Little worried about injuries to his hands and feet, he would rather maim himself than fall from the bridge and bathe in water from which he would never escape” (208). MAIM himself? For goodness sake! Let’s just take a look for one moment at the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of maim.

“Originally: a lasting wound or bodily injury. Subsequently: an injury to the body which causes the loss of limb, or of the use of it; a mutation, a mutilating wound.”

            Chretien wasn’t talking about a scratch. He wasn’t even talking about a broken bone or something which requires a few stitches. If I’m following the text correctly, Lancelot has possibly lost major portions of his body (or maybe even a few small chunks), but isn’t worried about it. Yeah, I’d probably bow down to him too.

            The best part about the injuries in this story, in fact, is possibly the way in which they barely affect the people who have received them. Toward the end I wasn’t even surprised to hear that Lancelot, while ripping metal bars out of a concrete slab (something I hope somebody tackles in their blog), accidentally severed his finger (and part of another), but didn’t notice until he is in his own bed (226).

The image below accurately depicts my facial expression when I have accidentally given myself a paper cut, or maybe even caught a piece of my hair in the zipper of my jacket. 

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            So, overall, I only covered one aspect of the story which caught my attention. But then again, the entire story questions what it means to be a knight, and I think receiving injuries without complaint is a major part of that. 

 Works: 

 http://www.oed.com/

Chretien de Troyes. The Complete Romances of Chretien de Troyes. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1990. Print.