Hartmann von Aue was a Swabian German knight and poet, who authored Erek and Iwein. This late 13th-century miniature shows his coat of arms. (Alamy)
Awed by Enide’s beauty, Erec was immediately presented with a chivalrous way to win her affection: the very next day, his host explained, a tournament was to be fought outside the citadel. The prize was a sparrowhawk, which the winner would carry from its silver perch to present to his chosen lady. Knights travelled from across Logres to take part, but one knight had triumphed in the previous two tournaments and had declared that he intended to fight again and present the hawk to his lady; the townsfolk already called him the Knight of the Sparrowhawk. This knight, a great warrior named Yder, had been cheered into the citadel earlier that day, wearing his splendid blue and gold armour and accompanied by a lady and his mean-spirited dwarf. Erec realized that by winning the tournament, he could declare his love for Enide and defend Guinevere’s honour together as one.
In armour borrowed from the old knight, Erec rode out the next morning with Enide beside him. Yder’s dwarf trotted around on his mule, mocking Erec and every other knight who attended the tournament. Every other knight declined to fight against Yder, such was his warlike reputation and his dwarf’s vocal derision, but Erec came to blows with the blue and gold knight. The pair fought first from horseback, and when their horses fell dead they drew swords and hacked away each other’s armour. They duelled all day and as night approached both knights were weak from spilled blood; Erec fought in a fury, remembering the dwarf’s insult to Guinevere and his whipped face, and as Yder’s blade drove into his thigh, he felled his opponent by carving his own blade through the blue and gold knight’s shoulder. Erec then split Yder’s helmet in two, exposing his enemy’s skullbone; leaping forward to unlace the wounded knight’s helmet to remove his head properly, Erec paused as Yder begged for mercy. This was a tournament, not a fight to the death, so Erec regained his composure and sent Yder to beg for Guinevere’s mercy. The vulgar dwarf slunk away before Erec could find him. Triumphantly presenting the sparrowhawk to the blushing Enide, Erec found his gift accepted and they married soon after; Guinevere rewarded Erec’s deeds by making him a Knight of the Round Table.
Erec lived to please Enide; he could not bear to be apart from her, and in a short space of time he no longer found time for jousting, tournaments, or questing. All he wished to do was spend time with his beloved wife, and shunned his knightly duties to do so. Whispered stories spread around Camelot about this knight who would not quest, and Enide came to hear of them. Embarrassed by her husband’s reputation, and upset that the whisperers blamed her for distracting Erec, she confronted him about his lack of adventure, and told him that he must act more like the brave knight she had first met. Erec’s reaction was instantaneous: upset that she doubted his valour, he told her to mount her horse and ride out with him… he would prove himself and his wife would witness him doing so.
COURTLY LOVE
Courtly love is a key plot device in many Arthurian romances. This emotion mirrored the loyal and devoted relationship between a knight and his lord, but was enacted between a knight and a lady. The knight’s love for his lady inspired him to accomplish great deeds in order to win her favour; the knight’s motives were not necessarily sexual, and on occasion the lady in question was unaware of the knight’s devotion as courtly love was sometimes pursued secretly. Ladies, in return, could offer a token of their affection to a knight at tournament (such as a ribbon to hang from the knight’s lance), regardless of their own marital status. The tales of Erec and Yvain explore courtly love, as does the rather more amorous evolution of Lancelot and Guinevere’s love.
‘Geraint rode in silence.’ By TH Robinson. Erec and Geraint are one and the same character: Chrétien de Troyes’ original tale named the hero as Erec and Welsh legend named him as Geraint.
Erec armed himself for adventure, and departed from the gates of Camelot alongside Enide. He requested that she would ride ahead of him, and would not speak to him unless he first spoke to her. He wanted Enide to see his deeds of redemption, and wanted to be by her side as always, but he needed to prove his honour unaided. Saddened that they would not speak, and fearing what might happen on their adventure, Enide nevertheless obeyed and rode ahead into the forest beyond Camelot’s walls.
Through the cool, shaded forest their horses took them. Enide did not speak, and Erec rode some distance behind her. As they crossed a gently bubbling stream, three roguish robber knights charged out from the shadows, heading towards Enide intent on stealing her horse. Enide cried out in alarm to Erec, and he spurred his horse into action, knocking the first of the false knights from his saddle. Erec whirled about and sent the second knight sprawling to the floor with a heavy wound, and upon seeing this the third knight turned his own horse about and started to ride off. Erec gave chase for only a few moments before catching up and delivering a mighty blow that felled the final villain. The three knights scuttled away into the undergrowth, well beaten. Turning to Enide, Erec pardoned her this once for having spoken her warning, and asked her to lead the three knights’ horses as a prize.
As they travelled through the countryside in silence, five riders approached. Enide, riding ahead of Erec, realized that these were five more knights intent on attacking them. She turned in her saddle and called out a warning to Erec. He launched his horse at the first of the five; this opponent fell from his saddle wounded by Erec’s ferocious assault. The second and third knights’ helmets and skulls were cleaved into halves by Erec’s deft swordplay, and the fourth and fifth turned their horses about and began to flee. Once more, Erec gave chase and knocked the fourth knight from his horse, cutting him down when he stood his ground before the mounted Erec. As the fourth knight slumped to the ground, the fifth rapidly dismounted and surrendered. The danger past, Erec once more chastised Enide for calling out to him, but once more forgave her. She now led eight horses but Erec insisted that they must press on to allow him to properly prove his honour.
Journeying deep into the old, untamed forest the knight and lady took shelter at an imposing castle, dining that night with the castle’s lord. In return, they gifted him the horses they had won. This lord watched Enide eagerly, noticing for himself her beauty and feeling the same desire that had attracted Erec the very first time he had met her. Asking to speak to her in private, the lord asked Enide to marry him; when she rejected him – for she still truly loved Erec – the lord threatened to kill Erec unless Enide accepted. Fearing for her love’s life, Enide agreed. But Enide’s beauty was matched by her quick thinking; she told the lord that to keep her honour intact, he must pretend the next morning to abduct her and kill Erec in the process. The lord agreed, and allowed his guests to retire to their bedchamber.
That night, Enide explained to Erec what had happened. They left the castle quickly and quietly, and only when they had gone did the lord realize that Enide had fooled him. In a fury he rode out with one hundred of his horsemen to track them down, remove the head from Erec’s shoulders, and forcibly take his wife-to-be. As they closed in on the fugitives, Enide called out a warning to Erec: the strength of his sword arm allowed them to cut through the horsemen and ride to safety, leaving the wounded, and by now humiliated, lord to retreat to his castle. Erec once again forgave Enide, as he now realized that she shouted her warnings only because she wanted no harm to touch him.
Erec and Enide now rode together through the forest, side by side. They talked as they rode, but their conversation was interrupted by a scream. Erec asked Enide to dismount and wait for him away from the unknown danger, and spurred his horse forward. He met a tearful, trembling maiden who explained that two giants had captured her lover and were torturing him. Erec charged ahead with such speed that he almost collided with two foul ogres, standing at twice the height of a fighting man. They brandished whips and clubs, and were using them brutally against a knight they had hanged from a tree. Ignoring Erec’s demand to release the injured knight, the
y continued to whip him. Charging at them, the first giant battered Erec’s horse with his club and stabbed at him with a sword, sending the knight sprawling from the dead horse’s saddle with a savage cut to his stomach. Springing to his feet, the wounded Erec plunged his broken lance through the eye of one of the giants, who dropped dead. He cleaved the second in two with a powerful blow from his sword. Freeing the captured knight, Erec ran back through the forest to where he had left Enide, wishing to spend no longer apart from her than was absolutely necessary.
ALFRED LORD TENNYSON
Tennyson was a British Poet Laureate who wrote a series of Arthurian pieces during the Victorian period (an era which saw a resurgence of interest in Arthuriana). Collectively his works are known as Idylls of the King, and include ‘Gareth and Lynette’, ‘The Marriage of Geraint’, ‘Geraint and Enid’, ‘Balin and Balen’, ‘Lancelot and Elaine’, ‘The Holy Grail’, and ‘The Passing of Arthur’. At an earlier date, he created several shorter poems with Arthurian themes, including ‘The Lady of Shalott’ and ‘Sir Galahad’. Broadly based around Malory’s Le Morte Darthur and the Welsh Mabinogion, Tennyson altered plots to suit his Victorian audience, and as such his contribution to Arthurian literature is far greater than a simple retelling of medieval tales.
Erec and Yder fight a bitter duel to establish which of them will win the sparrowhawk prize for his lady. By C Walter Hodges.
As he approached Enide, his wound split open and Erec fell to the ground, his innards becoming outtards. Enide ran to his aid, but fainted over his body. As she came to in the now silent forest, Enide was sure that Erec had died, and she took his sharp sword intending to kill herself rather than live without him. But before she could do so, a troop of knights rode past. Dismounting, they removed the sword from Enide’s hands, and the lord who rode at the head of the troop offered to bury Erec and marry Enide: once again, her beauty had enthralled a knight upon his very first gaze. Refusing his help, and determined to end her life, she ushered the lord and his knights away. Ignoring her wishes, the lord placed Enide on a horse and gathered up Erec’s body, determined to bury the brave knight and marry the beautiful lady.
At the lord’s castle, Enide refused to eat or drink. And she refused to marry him. Angry at her discourtesy and overcome with passion, he slapped her across the face. As Enide exclaimed that she would never marry him, for she loved the dead Erec, he hit her again.
But Erec was not dead. The sound of Enide’s cries roused him from unconsciousness, and he staggered groggily to his feet. Holding his bleeding wound together with his hand, he stumbled into the castle’s hall, picked up a sword, and cut the abusive lord’s head from his shoulders. The castle’s knights, ladies, and servants all fled in panic, supposing that Erec had risen from death and was a demon from beyond the grave. Enide embraced him.
His wound bound, they rode back to Camelot through the night, each having redeemed themselves to the other: Erec vowed to continue to act as an honourable knight, and Enide would never need to doubt this again.
* * *
Two versions of the story of Erec (also known as: Geraint; Guerec) exist: Chrétien de Troyes’ romance Érec et Énide written around 1160–70, and the Welsh folktale Geraint: Son of Erbin or Geraint and Enid. Érec et Énide is the earliest surviving Arthurian romance written by Chrétien de Troyes, and is one of three of his stories for which similar Welsh tales exist (Yvain/Owain and Perceval/Peredur being the others); it seems most likely that the Welsh tales were reworked from Chrétien’s original stories, although it is possible that all three were originally Welsh or (more likely) Breton tales adapted by the Frenchman.
In both versions, Erec (or Geraint) wins the sparrowhawk tournament, and the hero forgets to fulfil his knightly duties as he revels in marital bliss. In the Welsh tale, Enid laments that she is the cause of her husband's dishonour, and Geraint believes his wife to have been unfaithful, taking her on an adventure in which he proves his honour and she her fidelity. In Chrétien's version, Enide tells Erec of the talk of the court about his failure to fulfil his duties as a knight, and he once again rides out with her. Both versions end with the lovers’ differences resolved.
The late 12th-century German writer Hartmann von Aue’s Erek and the 13th- century Icelandic Erex both evolved from Chrétien de Troyes’ tale. In the Victorian age, the poet Tennyson was inspired by the Welsh tale to write the poem ‘Enid’, which he later expanded upon as the two-part ‘Geraint and Enid’. Neither Erec nor Geraint feature strongly in other medieval Arthurian tales, and they do not meaningfully bother the pages of Malory’s work.
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
Tristan was to become a famous Knight of the Round Table, one of Arthur’s greatest knights. Yet he found fame before ever setting foot inside Camelot, as the champion of King Mark of Cornwall.
Tristan was Mark’s nephew, and was a young man equally renowned for his skill with a sword blade as he was for his ability with a harp. Mark summoned him to his Great Hall one morning in need of that first prowess: the barbaric and bellicose King Anguish of Ireland had demanded his annual tribute of gold from Mark, but this year the Cornishman did not intend to pay. Anguish had threatened to send an army of howling Irish pirates to raid the Kernow peninsula if cartloads of gold were not sent to him, but Mark’s response had been to challenge Anguish. An Irish champion named Marhault – himself a Knight of the Round Table and the brother in law of Anguish – had set sail from the southern shores of the Irish king’s realm. Mark’s challenge was a shrewd move: instead of an invading army laying waste to his entire lands, the greatest warrior from each kingdom would clash in battle over the king’s tribute.
Tristan prepared himself for the coming fight. Marhault, being a servant of Arthur as well as the champion of Anguish, would be a formidable opponent. Many lesser knights would have shirked their duty and declined to fight such a warrior, but Tristan desired to serve his uncle well. He rode from Mark’s hall to meet the Irish ship.
Tristan (James Franco) and Isolde (Sophia Myles) embrace in the 2006 movie Tristan and Isolde. (Alamy)
Marhault waited on the beach fully armed; in the hazy morning sun, Tristan could see that the Irishman’s helmet and armour were old fashioned – the men of Ireland were not always so well-equipped as knights of Logres – but he also sensed that before him stood an experienced warrior worthy of respect. As was the custom of Cornwall, the combatants were ferried to a tiny island off the coast, big enough for two men to manoeuvre in a duel but no larger than that.
Both knights touched blades and the duel began. With his first blow, Marhault’s Irish axe cut into Tristan’s thigh, slicing through his mail armour and drawing blood. It was not a terrible wound and the Cornishman fought on, dexterously skipping away from Marhault’s sharp blade time and again. Tristan’s sword fell repeatedly on his opponent’s shield, relentlessly hammering on its face. The two knights clashed throughout the morning, the tiny island allowing neither any breathing space. Marhault was a superb axeman, but Tristan’s dancing agility prevented the seasoned warrior from landing any further blows. Both men began to tire; as their arms became heavy with exertion it was usual for the duellists to step back and catch their breath, but the seawater lapping around the island’s edge prevented either from doing so. The exhausted Marhault stumbled, and Tristan delivered a mighty blow to the Irishman’s helmet, slicing through the iron and snapping his sharp blade as it cut into the skullbone. Marhault fell, unconscious, and Tristan, realizing that blood oozed from his single wound, collapsed moments later.
‘How La Beale Isoud nursed Sir Tristram.’ By Aubrey Beardsley.
A boat collected both men and Marhault was returned to Ireland for his savage wound to be healed. Tristan had fulfilled his champion’s duty. King Mark would not pay any tribute this year.
Tristan’s wound was attended by Mark’s wise man. He realized that Marhault’s axe had been envenomed with a dreadful poison, and that the single wound inflicted on Tristan might well end hi
s life. The solution, he explained, was to send Tristan to Ireland, as only those who had mixed the poison could prepare the cure. Tristan was placed in a ship and washed up anonymously on the shores of Anguish’s kingdom.
ARTHURIAN HERALDRY
Although various coats-of-arms have been created for the Knights of the Round Table, there was little formal heraldry associated with these fictitious characters in the earliest medieval stories. Tristan often appeared with a lion, but German artwork preferred to show him with a boar and some more modern designs focus on his harp; the background colour of Tristan’s arms varies but is usually vert (green). Gawain was often depicted as carrying the arms of Orkney (a double-headed eagle), but the poem Gawain and the Green Knight describes an or (yellow) pentangle on a gules (red) background, and on some occasions he carried the heraldry attributed to Tristan in this book: an or (yellow) lion on a vert (green) background. Yvain also carried a lion, although whether this was due to his fame as The Knight of the Lion or a hereditary right is difficult to determine.
However, the arms of some knights stabilized quite rapidly into their traditional form: Lancelot, for example, was often shown from the early 13th century onwards with an argent (white) shield bearing three bends gules (red stripes), although sometimes with only one or two bends. Yet disguised in his first appearance in Arthurian literature, in Le Chevalier de la Charrette, he carries a plain red shield.
The coats-of-arms used in this book’s colour plates are compiled where possible from a 15th-century French manuscript known as D’Armagnac Armoral or La Forme Quon Tenoit Des Torynoys, and on Jean Froissart’s Meliador written in the 1380s.
The Knights of the Round Table Page 6