A Comparison Of Medieval And A Essay

, Research Paper

A Comparison of Medieval and Anglo Saxon Characteristics

A survey of Lerner and Loewe s Camelot, based on T.H. White s Once and Future King, and The Road to Camlann by Rosemary Sutcliff, will exemplify many facets of Medieval civilization. Three Medieval cultural traits which appear in both plants are belief in charming phantasy, humbleness, and the importance of adult females. Comparing and contrasting the historical novel and the movie to Anglo Saxon poesy will uncover that the belief in thaumaturgy and phantasy was a alteration of Anglo Saxon features, and humbleness and the importance of adult females were cultural features which were wholly new to the Medieval period.

The belief in thaumaturgy and phantasy is a characteristic displayed in the movie largely by a adult male named Merlin. Merlin is the instructor of Arthur, King of England. In Camelot, the first clip Merlin appears he seems to emerge from a tree in a wood. This gives the thought that Merlin is portion of the tree and the forest. Arthur tells Guenever, to whom he is betrothed that Merlin is said to be person, whom: lives backwards. He can retrieve the hereafter so he can state you what you will be making in it. He doesn t age, he youthens ( Lerner ) . Mordred, the illigitement boy of King Arthur, besides shows the utmost belief in thaumaturgy and phantasy when he says, Mother had a potion to take off ten old ages. They gave it to me when I was 9 to do me 1 ( Lerner ) . The belief in thaumaturgy and phantasy was something that everyone genuinely did believe in, non something that people merely talked approximately.

The novel besides shows that the belief in thaumaturgy and phantasy is a portion of the lives of everyone in Camlann. Merlin plays the same function in the novel as he does in the movie. He is Arthur s instructor, and wise man who can see into the hereafter to warn Arthur of things that will go on in his life. However, Morgan La Fay, the half sister of Arthur, truly shows the belief in thaumaturgy and phantasy. Is it said that she is a kept woman of black thaumaturgy, and sought ever to make injury to her half brother Arthur with her many enchantments ( Sutcliff 9-10 ) . This shows that there is a belief in thaumaturgy among everyone.

The belief in thaumaturgy and phantasy was a alteration of the Anglo Saxon feature. The Anglo Saxons did believe that these things happened, but the belief was much stronger in the medieval period than in the Anglo-Saxon period. In the Anglo-Saxon clip, the lone grounds there is in the belief of thaumaturgy and phantasy is Grendel, a atrocious monster from Beowulf. Grendel is described as a horrid monster that lives is the underside of a lake and comes up at dark and eats people. When Beowulf, Prince of the Geats battles Grendel he gets aid from some of his work forces. However when his work forces articulation in, the contending scene is describe by stating:

Their [ Beowulf s work forces ] bravery

Was great but all wasted: they could chop at Grendel

From every side, seeking to open

A way for his [ Grendel s ] evil psyche, but their points

Could non ache him, the sharpest and hardest Fe

Could non rub at his tegument, for that sin-stained devil

Had bewitched all work forces s arms, laid enchantments

That blunted every person adult male s blade. ( 798-804 )

This is one of the lone examples that show the belief in thaumaturgy and phantasy that the Anglo Saxons had.

Humility was another of import medieval characteristic. In the movie, it is largely Arthur who shows this trait and how much of unwanted trait crow was. When Arthur meets Sir Lancelot of the Lake, from the land of Benwick who has come in response to Arthur s call for great knights to fall in the unit of ammunition tabular array, he has knocked Arthur off the Equus caballus he was on, and is looking down on him. This was an awkward minute for Arthur after the two were introduced. Lancelot, nevertheless, besides does a batch of boasting when he foremost arrives in Camelot. In a conversation with Guenever he says, I would ne’er inquire anyone to populate by my criterions, milady ( Lerner ) . This shows a great trade of boasting being done by Lancelot ; particularly when Guenivere asks, Have you jousted with humbleness recently or isn T it stylish in France this twelvemonth? ( Lerner ) . From this conversation with Lancelot, the people who are around to hear it make up one’s mind right manner that they do non like him because of his inordinate crow. This shows how of import humbleness was to the people of this clip period.

In the fresh many of the same illustrations of humbleness are shown. Guenever is out of the blue captured by Sir Meliagraunce, a member of the Round Table, whom at the clip held one of Arthur s Castles and in secret loved Queen Guenever. Sir Meliagraunce and Guenever were siting through the wood when he forced her to travel with him to his palace, where he held her confined. Finally intelligence spread back to Camlann of what is traveling on. Sir Lancelot, member of the Round Table and from Benwick, who has jousted for Guenever in the yesteryear, goes to her deliverance. When Sir Meliagraunce hears of Sir Lancelot s reaching he says, Mercy, dame! Pray you have mercy on me, for I was driven to this lunacy by my love for you! & # 8221 ; ( Sutcliff 42 ) . Guenever replies, It is non for me to hold clemency, but for the knight who comes to deliver me, and for my Godhead the High King [ Arthur ] , who I doubt non follows difficult after ( Sutcliff 42-43 ) . Sir Meliagraunce so realizes that he has made a error and should non hold taken the Queen. After the Queen speaks, Sir Meliagraunce says, You can talk for me! State them I have done you no injury, but used you with all courtesy- ( Sutcliff 43 ) . This is a good illustration to demo how people let themselves be humiliated when they knew they w

ere in problem.

The feature of humbleness was a cultural feature which is wholly new to the mediaeval period. It was the antonym of their feature of boasting. In the Anglo Saxon period, everyone was supposed to boast, and supposed to do a name for themselves that would populate on after they died. In the heroic poem verse form Beowulf, Beowulf, prince of the Geats, appears to be really narcissistic to the readers. However, he is really representative of the Anglo Saxon society values. Beowulf fights a monster named Grendel without any blade or shield, stating that the monster is non utilizing any other arms or agencies of defence, so neither will he. After he kills the monster, no 1 reacts negatively to this crow, unlike in the Medieval period when people who would boast or seek to do a name for themselves were looked down upon.

The importance of adult females was a cultural feature that was wholly new to the Medieval period. In the movie, it is Geunivere who shows how of import adult females were in society. Arthur says that because of Guenivere he wants to be the best male monarch that of all time lived, and negotiations to her about his land and how it is non united and asked her how he can do it united. Arthur decides that he is traveling to do everyone untied by holding knights from all over the land semen and fall in a brotherhood that would be called Knights of the Round Table. They would sit around a unit of ammunition tabular array so that there is no caput. The tabular array that will typify Arthur s new thought is supplied by Guenivere. All of these illustrations show how of import adult females were and how valid their thoughts in society were.

In the novel, much like the movie, the importance of adult females is shown threw the relationship that Arthur and Guenever have. Guenever was accused of holding an affair two different times in the novel. Arthur believes she is guiltless and says, If Guenever was non my queen, I would joust for her artlessness, because I am non able to, I must happen a Knight which will take my topographic point and make this for me ( Sutcliff 61 ) . This shows how of import it was to Arthur that his queen be represented strongly. Many of the Knights in Camlann leap at this chance besides demoing how of import Guenever was to them. The first clip assorted knights of the land tilt for her artlessness against those who believe she is guilty. The 2nd clip Guenever chooses Lancelot to joust for her artlessness, and like the first tilt, her knight wins. These actions show that adult females were of import non merely to their hubby, but besides to all work forces.

In the Anglo Saxon clip period, adult females had small importance. There is no reference of adult females in the poesy of this clip period, which in it self is important. Womans were non thought approximately or paid attending to by anyone in society. The lone illustration is from Beowulf, when Welthow, queen of the Dane s, brings Beowulf a drink and says:

Accept this cup,

My Godhead and male monarch! May felicity semen

To the Danes great ring-giver ; may the Geats receive

Mild words from your oral cavity, words they have earned!

Let gifts flux freely from your unfastened custodies,

Treasures your ground forcess have brought you from all over

The universe. I have heard that the greatest of the Geats

Now rests in your bosom like a boy. ( 1169-1176 )

This quotation mark shows how the queen was handling Beowulf, and how she serves him and delaies on him and tells him how great he is. This makes it obvious that if this is how a queen lives ; surely ordinary adult females have much less significance.

Many of these alterations from the Anglo-saxon clip to the Medieval period were brought approximately by Christianity.

The belief in thaumaturgy and phantasy was a characteristic that was changed because of Christianity. Before Christianity, people believed in the overpowering power of destiny, and when Christianity came about so did the belief of God and of marvelous and charming things go oning. Humility and the importance of adult females we two wholly different thoughts that arose from Christianity. Humility was the antonym of the Anglo-Saxon thought of crow and hazard taking. They felt that there was no hereafter so you had to boast and take hazards so that you could do a name for yourself that would populate on after you passed off. Where as when the thought of Christianity came, people believed in an hereafter so it was non right to boast ; people who did were mortifying themselves. The importance of adult females was a direct consequence of Christianity. It came out of the Cult of the Virgin. This was the highly belief and devotedness to the Virgin Mary, which came straight from the thought of Christianity.

Christianity was non responsible for the direct alterations in everything, but did soften the passages that different features had from one clip period to the following.

Plants Consulted

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Beowulf. Trans. Burton Raffel. New York: Penguin Books, 1963.

Lerner, Alan Jay, author. Camelot. Dir. Joshua Logan. Music by Frederick Loewe. Perf. Richard Harris,

Vanessa Redgrave, France Nero, David Hemmings, and Lionel Jeffries. Warner Brothers Seven

Humanistic disciplines, 1967.

Sutcliff, Rosemary. Road to Camlann. New York: Penguin Group, 1982.

Thompson, Eileen et Al. Introduction. The Anglo Saxon Period. Prentice Hall Literature: The English

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