The Medieval Hero

Women became the main audience for the travelling troubadour(itz) and with it we see a shift away from the rough and tough heroes and into a more romantic and galliant hero. The Lais of Marie de France are argued to be the source of courtly love being so present in literature. In this collection of texts there are individual knights and thus heroes to each story but they all share many of the same qualities.

 

Love: True love beats everything, even marriage, and you should work towards obtaining it or if you have should work towards doing everything to keep it. For instance in “Eilduc”. It is also suggested that true love may be sanctioned by god as is the case in "Yonec" when her prayers are answered by him. Due to the fact the women were in charge of the castle during the day because their husbands were gone, they wanted to hear these grand stories of love. They used these stories as a mode of escape and entertainment and thus wanted to hear about things they may not have had. Another reason that showing courtly love and the actions surrounding it in court would encourage that same behaviour in the men of the court.

 

Selflessness: This is how one obtains love or keeps true love by being selfless and sacrificing things for your true love. It is also how you prove yourself worthy to your love. If someone is selfless in the text they are often rewarded with their love as is the case in "Le Fresne". This trait is linked to the idea of love because one has to be selfless in order to find or let others find their true love. By having this as a major trait in their literary heroes it encourages the men in the court to become selfless, for both their lady loves and also their king/kingdom. They would want their men to be selfless to prove that they are willing to do whatever for their ladies/king.

 

Faithful/Loyal: There are two different kinds of faithfulness within this text. The first and the most important is being faithful to your true love like in “Equitian”. The second is to remain loyal to your king like in “Bisclavert”. They encouraged the trait of loyalty within their literary heroes in order to show men how important it was to be loyal. In a time where a knight or lord would wonder vast distances on some errand, they would have many opportunities to stray from both their wives and their bond to their king. It was important to encourage loyalty so that no matter where they were, the society could depend on their men coming back and protecting the kingdom/families.

 

Patience: The ability to wait long periods of time for your true love to find you or to be able to be with your true love. This is seen in “Guigemar” when they are both banished and spend months away from each other. The trait of patience appears in both the males and females of the text and thus shows how they were trying to encourage this trait in both genders. This is important because men could be away for weeks or months on some errand and it was important that the lady not lose patience and thus not lose hope (especially if she was in charge of the lands). During battles or war it was also important that soldiers not lose patience while waiting for it to commence, in case they did something that would lead to irreversable actions.

 

Possessiveness: This trait seems most prominent in father-daughter relations or older husbands and their wives. It is the idea that you should be able to control and covet your women, simply because they are yours by birth or marriage. In the text embodying this trait normally leads to unhappiness, death or anguish. The father-daughter possessiveness is seen in "Les Duex Amanz" and the wife-husband possessiveness can be seen in "Laustic". This trait was seen in a negative way because they were trying to discourage men thinking of women as possessions and instead teach them that women should be valued and respected. Possessiveness would only lead to unhappy situations that would lead to rules and hearts being broken.

 

Fate: This kind of fate is interlinked with love, if you have true love than you are fated to be together in some way or fated to be tragically separated. Often she speaks about love as a force of fate and one that strikes regardless of our feelings. Although the idea of Fate is very present in the novel she also emphasizes that even if it is fate one should still act respectably in the situation. The idea of fate is very prominent in the story “Milun”. The idea of fate is promoted because it suggests a sense of the divine or the presence of God, which was important for the Christian faith to be supported. However, the text underlines this, through the literary heroes, with the idea that one is still in charge of their actions, so that certain actions cannot merely be shrugged off. They obviously did not want to give men free reign to do whatever they wanted with ladies and then just attribute it to being fated, so the text makes it apparent that one should act properly when in a morally grey situation.

 

Chivalry: Being courteous, kind and respectful towards ladies and being willing to do anything for them as many of the knights in the stories do, especially “Les Deus Amanz”. Much like the idea of including courtly love in their literature to encourage certain behaviours, they include chivalry for the same reason. They emphasize these traits in the literary hero, in order to encourage the men of the society to behave in a similar fashion. They wanted their men to try and live up to the ideals that are presented within the hero, so that their men would treat them well and behave in a respectable manner when away from their wives.