Sir Gowther

I found this story very hopeful and satisfying.  It’s like rooting for the underdog; it’s enjoyable to see people make a come back.  The beginning was a little rough.  They definitely made sure to let the reader know that this was the devil’s son.  The things he did were a tad disturbing to probably everyone; however, I feel like the goal was to try to upset Christians in particular.  I did appreciate Gowther’s intelligence though.  When the old earl came to him about being the devil’s son, he was horrified and went straight to his mother for the truth.  He could have been in denial about it, or ignored it, or just not cared, but he listened to what was being said to him and immediately did something about it.  I feel like that’s a rare thing in medieval romances. 

I also thought the falchion played a pretty important role.  The falchion was a big part in all of the damage he created in the beginning of the story, so it has a negative connotation to it.  While reading, I didn’t understand why the Pope wasn’t more forceful about taking it away from him.  I think while Gowther made a complete transformation by the end of the story, the one thing that didn’t change was that the falchion remained by his side.  Not to mention that the falchion was what helped him through his transition from a devil to a saint.  It helped him fight in the battle to save the captured king.  He became a hero for those people.  The falchion had the power to make him a devil as well as a hero, and all it took was his changed attitude. 

He did go through a good amount of punishment though.  I give him props for not giving into the food that was offered to him or talking to anyone.  He was literally treated like a dog, but he stuck it out.  If you think about the type of crimes Gowther committed at the beginning, it included crimes through both his actions and his words.  Actions like killing people and burning buildings, but also using threatening words, like when he was speaking to his mother about his parentage.  It makes sense that the Pope would assign him two punishments to endure: one that involved an awful action and another that wouldn’t allow him to speak.  They were suiting to what he had done. 

I liked the ending, as well.  It may have been a little over the top because everything turned out so perfectly, but the beginning was over the top in how horrible Gowther was.  So the ending balanced the story out.   

Sir Orfeo

I’m not sure how much I enjoyed this tale, which could have been because I am not familiar with the origin of it.  But it began and ended like a classic fairy tale, so it was sort of boring. 

The beginning was a detailed description of a beloved, harp-playing king and beloved, beautiful queen.  The sun is shining and the flowers are blooming and everything is just perfect, which is an obvious sign that something horrible is about to happen. And it does.  But for who?

From the name of this story, it seems to want us to focus on Sir Orfeo.  It is his story about how he lost the love of his life and how he got her back and how he  - they  - lived happily ever after.  But why focus on him when you can focus on her?  What happened to him really isn’t that interesting comparably.  But I’m sure she’s got stories.

It’s like this horrible thing is only bad because it means the king has lost his queen, instead of thinking about what actually happened to her.  I’m pretty sure she’s the one worse off.  However, he’s sad, quits his job and wonders in the forest.  It’d be one thing if he said, “Alright I’m leaving to go get my wife back,” but he doesn’t.  It seemed more pathetic than romantic to me.

They spend such little time wondering about Herodis and where she was and how and who and this evil king who kidnaps women for no reason.  I was confused and disturbed by the descriptions of the people in the castle.  Some didn’t have a head or arms and were wounded and were on fire and drowning.  I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I don’t think it’s a good thing.  However, when Orfeo and Herodis leave the castle, they just go on living their happy fairy tale life as if it didn’t happen.  Like can there be a sequel with a fight and some revenge? Isn’t that the point of medieval romances?

This story did include the honor debate, as all of these stories do.  When the king refuses to grant Orfeo his request, Orfeo plays the honor card.  Orfeo says that he wouldn’t be a noble king if he didn’t keep his promise and grant him his wish. But what about the fact that he took your wife?  Does that make him noble?  If this guy is fine with going around taking women then I think he’d be okay with not giving you what you want.  However, the king says that Orfeo has a good argument and gives him Herodis.  If only Orfeo had requested that the king release everyone else.

The Wife of Bath's Tale

I sort of really enjoyed reading The Wife of Bath’s Tale due to the rhyming.  Rhymes are simply universal, they’re always fun.  However, The Canterbury Tales version was less than enjoyable…  

This story revolves around the idea of power.  How much power should a person have and who should that person be?  Classic men verse women and too much verse too little.  The story begins with rape – a knight taking advantage of whatever power he has as a knight and using it against women.  At first I didn’t understand why all the women immediately came to his defense to help save his life.  But that’s when the tables turned in this story.  The knight went from having all of the power to having none.  The women were in charge, controlling whether he lived or died. I’m not sure if they even cared whether he died or not, as long as he felt the same powerlessness that he had done to the girl he had raped.  But is that really the best way to teach someone a lesson?  You hit someone, so they can hit you back?  You could argue that it is a little hypocritical. 

However, it ends exactly the way the women want it to, of course.  He “learns his lesson” by giving his wife all the power to make decisions, since after all, the thing women want most is power over their husbands.  But how is that fair?  These women have issues with men having all the power, but only because they want it all.  In reality, nobody should have all the power. 

The topics in this story, like sex and marriage and decision making should all be mutual.

I don’t think the knight has learned his lesson of the crime he committed.  I think he learned what he has to do in order to get what he wants.  As long as he gives his wife the power, she will give him what he wants. But then who really has the power?  And does it even matter if he has learned his lesson? Either way, he’s giving his wife control, which is what she wants.  And in return, she is giving him what he wants.  So technically, they should both be happy.  But logically, it makes no sense.  By the wife having all the power, it’s really the same as her having none since she is willing to do anything for him anyway.  Everyone in this story needs to realize that too much power in any situation is just bad. 

The beginning of the Knight of the Cart reminded me of the beginning of Erec and Enide because of how it set the story up, but sort of switched its focus after only the first couple pages. 

I was expecting to read about the King and Gawain trying to follow Kay and the queen. But instead we read about some other knight searching for the queen. 

This bothered me.  Mainly because we were never even given his name… I wasn’t sure who he was or why he mattered or even why he cared so much to find the queen.  It was confusing.  It also made the dialogue hard to follow since it would just say the knight said this…. And then the other knight said this… then the first knight said this... like what?

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

I’m not sure what the point was of not revealing the characters names, especially the main character, but I’m hoping to find out during the rest of the story. 

The title of the story did come into play a lot because it was how they distinguished the main knight from the others.  He was not just a knight; he was the knight that rode in the cart.  It was crazy how quickly that rumor spread.  Pretty much every person they ran into knew he was the knight that rode in the cart.  It must have been very very important for him to find the queen knowing that the ride in the cart was going to basically ruin his reputation. 

Not to mention he was willing to risk his life by going across the sword bridge.

Everything he did though was for “Love.”  So he must have a great love for the queen then. 

 

I also didn’t get why the knight and Gawain didn’t choose to go the same way.  When they found out that there were two different paths to get there, they immediately decided to each take a different path. Why? I think sticking together would be the better, less scary option.

 

 

 

 

The sword bridge bothered me too though.  I feel like they made such a big deal about it by saying how dangerous it was and how no one has ever crossed it and whatnot.  Then it took him forever (way too long in my opinion) to actually get to the bridge, and once he did, he got across it very quickly and easily.  He may have had some injuries, but I felt like they built up the whole thing for basically nothing. 

But once he got there, I liked how King Bademagu and Meleagant were so different and how the king defended and helped out the knight.  However, since I really don’t know who the knight is, it makes me care less about what happens to him.  Which hurts the story.  Although, I’m sure he’s going to rescue the queen since he’s like super human.  But we shall see.

 

Equitan & Le Fresne & Bisclavret

I found the very dramatic story lines of Equitan, Le Fresne, and Bisclavret interesting to read.  Apparently no topic was too extreme.  There were murderous wives, abandoning babies, and forced werewolfism…which is not that different from stories nowadays.  I found it amazing how much can happen in a matter of 10 short pages.

Equitan  bothered me.  When the king confessed his love to the woman, all she did was argue that he would eventually get bored of her because he was of much higher rank than she was.  And love only works if it is equal… but what about her husband?  I personally think that the fact she has a husband is a much bigger problem for them than his rank in society.  They may have focused on that because of how important hierarchy was at that time, but I found it weird.  

It was definitely a classic tale of karma where the secret couple got what they deserved in the end.  I’m sensing this is a common theme among most of these stories, which makes them somewhat satisfying.  Happy endings are universal, no matter the time period.  Although I do think that the seneschal could have kept his cool a little more than he did…

Le Frense confused me.  I’m not sure why the wife spread the rumor about the pregnant woman in the first place.  It said she was deceitful and evil-tongued, but was that it?  I think nowadays, there’s always more to the story.  People don’t just do messed up things.  There’s always a very specific reason behind it for a more interesting plot. 
I do also want to give props to the woman for not killing one of her babies when she had twins herself later on.  That was tough decision to make…  And it wouldn’t be a separated at birth story if they didn’t reconnect at some point.  That story line has definitely been used more than once.   

 

 

                                                                                                       

Bisclavret was weird.  Why did the wife even want to leave and get rid of her husband? Just because he was part werewolf?  If that happened to me, it would certainly come as a shock, but it would be pretty cool.  Hasn’t she heard of Jacob Black?  I think love means sticking by your partner no matter what mythological creature they turn into every once in a while.

I found it even stranger that the king trusted a werewolf enough to let it come up to him, bring it into his life, and basically have it become a pet… Like it’s not a dog.  However, I think this story makes it clear that werewolves and vampires and zombies have always been a good read for the public.  I also thoroughly enjoyed the ending of the ex-wife’s noseless children. Definitely a nice touch.