![]() ![]() Best Answer: That recent film version is not a good reflection of the story, although I recall it having some similarities. ![]() ![]() (This is why scholars say romances are episodic-the plot can be stretched or contracted so the author can insert or remove any number of small, short adventures along the hero's way to the larger quest Tristan is once again sorely wounded, and sends for Iseult. He may incidentally save a few extra villages and pretty maidens along the way before finishing his primary task. ![]() Along the way, this knight encounters mysterious hermits, confronts evil blackguards and brigands, slays monsters and dragons, competes anonymously in tournaments, and suffers from wounds, starvation, deprivation, and exposure in the wilderness. Their standard plot involves a single knight seeking to win a scornful lady's favor by undertaking a dangerous quest. However, unlike the Greek and Roman epics, medieval romances represent not a heroic age of tribal wars, but a courtly or chivalric period of history involving highly developed manners and civility, as M. The medieval metrical romances resembled the earlier chansons de gestes and epics. ROMANCE, MEDIEVAL (also called a chivalric romance): In medieval use, romance referred to episodic French and German poetry dealing with chivalry and the adventures of knights in warfare as they rescue fair maidens and confront supernatural challenges. In the play, their desire to control their offspring (Romeo and Juliet) could be linked to their usual capability to control the people around them. That's a very basic way of describing it, I'm sure any history professor would put it a better way. In the feudal system, in very basic terms, there is a strong class structure in which the leading classes control the land and therefore the lives of all the workers (also known as peasants or serfs). For instance, in the late medieval period, this military service was often abandoned in preference for cash payment or an agreement to provide a certain number of men-at-arms or mounted knights for the lord's use he two main families, Montagues and Capulets, are the leading powers in the area. Often this military service amounted to forty days' service each year in times of peace or indefinite service in times of war, but the actual terms of service and duties varied considerably on a case-by-case basis. The deal was often sealed by swearing oaths on the Bible or on the relics of saints. The individual who accepted this land became a vassal the man who granted the land became known as the vassal's liege or his lord. Feudal society is a military hierarchy in which a ruler or lord offers mounted fighters a fief (medieval Latin "beneficium"), a unit of land to control in exchange for a military service. Tristan not only possesses the chivalric trait of valuing honor more than his life but also holds a knight's service to his lord in high esteem.įEUDALISM: The medieval model of government predating the birth of the modern nation-state. Even when he is suffering from the wound dealt by the Morholt and possibly nearing his death, Tristan still hopes for a chance to serve King Mark in the future: "perchance some day I will once more serve you, fair uncle, as your harper, your huntsman and your liege" (Bedier 20). The duty of the chivalric knight to serve his lord is constantly on Tristan's mind. He has served his lord, King Mark, by accepting the Morholt's challenge, killing the adversary of the Cornish people, and thus redeeming the honor of Cornwall. Other matters associated with chivalry include gentlemanly contests in arms supervised by witnesses and heralds, behaving according to the manners of polite society, courtly love, Tristan has also demonstrated another aspect of chivalry in his battle with the Morholt. The chivalric ideals involve sparing non-combatants such as women, children, and helpless prisoners the protection of the church honesty in word and bravery in deeds loyalty to one's liege dignified behavior and single-combat between noble opponents who had a quarrel. The tenets of chivalry attempted to civilize the brutal activity of warfare. The right to knighthood in the late medieval period was inherited through the father, but it could also be granted by the king or a lord as a reward for services. The word "chivalry" comes from Old French cheval (horse), and chivalry literally means "horsemanship." Normally, only rich nobility could afford the expensive armor, weaponry, and warhorses necessary for mounted combat, so the act of becoming a knight was symbolically indicated by giving the knight silver spurs. CHIVALRY: An idealized code of military and social behavior for the aristocracy in the late medieval period. ![]()
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