The Best and the Brightest:

A Look at Some Knightly Knights

Stephen L. Cain

February 3, 1995

524-33-3221

Medieval Romance

The Best and the Brightest

In reading all these Arthurian romances, it occurred to me to ask who was the knightliest, the greatest, be-all and end-all knight of all Arthur's men. Then I realized how daunting a task it really was. There are so many knights to consider. However, some were easy to eliminate quickly. Our knight must be from the assigned text, so that leaves out those like Gareth and Tristram. He must have a large quantity of text so as to gather a relevant sample of his behavior, so King Evelake is eliminated. He must be a contemporary of Arthur, leaving out Troilus. Finally, he must be acknowledged as a great knight by those around him, such as Launcelot and Gawain.

So, in the "primary election," I decided to observe closely the following knights: Yvain, Launcelot, Gawain, and Galahad. These four are the foci of each cycle of narratives: Launcelot and Galahad are Mallory's primary knights, while Yvain and Gawain are the most prominent knights in Chretien's romances. I feel that from this small pool, we shall figure out the greatest knight of Arthur's court.

My next question then became, how to catalogue them? There are several categories in which the Arthurian knight must be proficient. He must be a great warrior, a faithful and loyal servant, he must be pious and he must be courtly. We also must define each of these categories and decide what criteria we need for the premier knight in each category.

Skill at arms is an important category. It determines who is the strongest in body and the most skilled at the tournament. Since a knight is the guardian of the king, a warrior for all occasions, this is an important category. Feudalism is based on a man performing military service to his lord in exchange for property. Puissance is the basic commodity of the entire social order. Since the four above are all contemporaneous, we can see how they fare against each other. The knight who has unhorsed most of the other knights and is also said to have unhorsed many knights will be considered the winner.

The knight must be faithful. He has to uphold his feudal duties and the oath of allegiance he swore to his lord. His trustworthiness forms the backbone of the feudal system. If knights cease to pay homage to the king, feudalism falls apart. As an extension of the trust given him by his lord, the knight must also be grateful to his benefactors. All that do good for him must be repaid in kind. He also must be judged by his credibility with respect to other characters. If anyone can trust him to keep his word and then find their trust was not misplaced, then that knight is an example of the faithfulness that we seek.

Third, the knight must be a pious man. He must spread the Christian faith and serve as an example of how Christian charity works. This knight should be true to the ideals of the Grail, since that is the greatest quest of Arthur's knights. He must also be commonly known for his piety and faith.

Finally, the knight must be courtly. Politeness is required, as is devotion to a lady, whilst observing the guidelines of decorum. Under no condition should he embarrass his paramour, nor should he be a wanton lover. His good speech, proper etiquette and physical appearance are all very important.

So, let us begin with Yvain, who is also known as Uwain to Mallory. Unlike Gawain and Launcelot, he plays only a background role in Mallory. His adventures in The Knight with the Lion are shared with several of Mallory's knights. Yvain runs from the court and lives wildly, just as Launcelot does. He finds the lion, like Percival, and he survives the Castle of Most Ill Adventure like Launcelot. This intertextuality occurs several times between Mallory and Chretien.

As Chretien tells us, Yvain is a physically powerful knight and a noble man. He leads a lion, the symbol of fierce courage and royal demeanor. His prowess is unmistakable. According to Chretien, the only knight he cannot defeat is Gawain. After their battle, each continues to insist that the other won the battle (Chretien 332). He also defeats Kay at the fountain, before anyone knows who he is (Chretien 284). Variously, he also defeats Harpin of the Mountain (Chretien 307), the three knights accusing Lunete (Chretien 309), and two demonic men-at-arms in the Castle of Most Ill Adventure (Chretien 324). He is truly great warrior.

Yvain suffers in the category of trustworthiness. He falls head over heels for Laudine: "By Love's decree, I am fated to be forever in her power ". . . for I never desired to love anyone so much" (Chretien 274). Chretien devotes three pages of our text to an internalized discourse by Yvain on the nature of his love for this woman he sees. After he marries her, she asks him a simple favor: "If you want my love and hold me dearest of all, plan to return again at the latest a year from now" (Chretien 288). I have a hard time remaining objective here. I wax sarcastic every time I read this part of the romance. Yvain forgets all about beautiful Laudine while he is out jousting with Gawain. He doesn't even think of returning home until a servant of Laudine's reminds him. "He realized that he had broken his promise and overstayed his time . . . the entire year slipped past, and much of the next year too" (Chretien 289).

Yvain marries his dream girl despite having killed her previous husband. His marriage bed barely has time to get warm before he runs off to joust and he forgets all about her and his promise. That single mistake really hurts him in the trust department. He also leaves Arthur's court for that of Laudine's castle. Yvain becomes a lord in his own right and forsakes Arthur as his liege-lord.

In the piety department, he really suffers. In the entire Chretien narrative, he doesn't mention it once, as if the author purposely left out all matters sacred and focused on the secular adventures. In Mallory's work, he never goes for a confession like the other knights do. It seems as if he just isn't a religious knight.

He is a courtly man, for he is polite. When talking to his cousin and fellow knight, Calogrenant, he speaks thusly: "If I have called you a fool, I beg you not to take offense" (Chretien 264). When he is naked after roaming the forest, he realizes his condition of nudity and is affected by it as all polite and modest people should be: "Disturbed and embarrassed by his nakedness, he admitted that he would be undone and dead if anyone discovered and recognized him in this condition" (Chretien 293).

Let's move now to Gawain, the "star" of Chretien' cycle, who also figures prominently in Mallory's cycle. This is a distinction he shares with Launcelot. He is Arthur's nephew, and the knights of his lineage are among the most loved and powerful, especially Gareth of Orkney. Gawain also remains with Arthur until the end.

Gawain is a powerful warrior and a very strong man. While Arthur was fighting against Emperor Lucius, Gawain hit Feldenak on the head, "which stroke stinted not till it came to his breast" (Mallory I 178). Beyond that, Gawain slays three Roman admirals in the same war (Mallory I 182). He unhorses Meliant of Lis with little effort in a tournament setting (Chretien 406). Gawain also slays a lion after sitting on the Bed of Marvels (Chretien 433). He doesn't seem to fight masses of men, but those he does fight are slain or unhorsed with a single blow.

Gawain is also faithful to Arthur, from his very beginnings until death. As he tells Priamus the Saracen, he was dubbed a duke by the king's own hand and is known in his court and chambers (Mallory 1 187). Until the end, when Gawain is fatally wounded by Launcelot, he remains always on the side of Arthur. Arthur also says that Gawain is his favorite: "Alas, Sir Gawain, my sister's son, here now thou liest, the man in the world that I loved most; and now is my joy gone," (Mallory 2 508). Earlier in the romance, when Balin's sword approached, Gawain attempted to draw it at Arthur's behest. Launcelot tells him that he will be grievously wounded by it, but Gawain says, "I might not withsay mine uncle's will and commandment" (Mallory 2 242).

I found evidence of Gawain's piety and mindfulness of the Lord in The Story of the Grail. I would expect as much, since the romance is about the Holy Grail, but it is interesting since Chretien leaves it out of The Knight with the Lion. He speaks with deference to God when he greets the queens in the Castle of the Marvelous Bed: "May He Who sent His son to earth to honor Christianity grant you great joy, lady" (Chretien 439). Gawain tells Priamus the Saracen, "it is the goodness of God that lent to me my strength. Later, he converts Sir Priamus while fighting against Lucius (Mallory 185-187). Gawain also gets shriven for his sins while out seeking the Holy Grail (Mallory 2 266). However, he refuses the hermit's penance, saying "I may not do penance; for we knights adventurous oft sufferen great woe and pain" (Mallory 2 266).

As for Gawain's courtliness and manners, they are not too coarse. When Kay speaks ill about Yvain, Gawain defends him:

Enough, Sir Kay, enough! If Sir Yvain is not here at the moment, you do not know what prevents him. To be certain, he never lowered himself to utter such insults about you. For his part, he has shown courtesy. (Chretien 283)

Gawain defends Yvain, who is not there to defend himself. Later, Kay abuses Gawain for his politeness after being unhorsed by Percival:

"You are able to employ words of beauty and polish. Will you speak to him in abusive language, using malicious insults? Damn whoever believed or will believe that! You may take pride in the fact that if your tongue does not fail to utter, 'Sir, God save you and grant you life and health!' he will do your will. Well you know how to coax him just as one strokes a cat," Sir Kay exclaimed.

"Oh, Sir Kay, you might have spoken to me in fairer words," he replied. "Do you now expect to avenge your anger and your rage on me? On my word, my dear friend, I shall bring him, if ever I can."

"Proceed there now on my behalf, nephew, since you have spoken courteously," said the king. (Chretien 393)

Gawain is polite even when dealing with Kay. Arthur himself acknowledges the fact.

Now, let's consider Arthur's greatest warrior, Launcelot. Launcelot is the primary champion of Guenivere. He eventually secedes from Arthur's court, taking his kin and Guenivere with him. This split causes a civil war among the knights of the Round Table, since some of the knights left to join him. Launcelot kills Gawain and most of his bloodline, including Gareth, a man Launcelot himself knighted. His skill at arms in the trial of combat makes him always in the right. Like Yvain, Launcelot leaves Arthur's court when he gets a castle of his own.

Launcelot has unhorsed more knights in the Mallory Cycle than any other knight. In more places, he is called the "greatest knight of the age" than even the Pious Galahad. Once, while masquerading as Le Chevaler Mal Fet, he holds a tournament at the Castle of Bliant. At that tournament, he downed five hundred knights in three days (Mallory 2 225). He saves Guenivere from Mador and the accusations of Mordred in trials by combat. Arthur refuses to allow Gawain to fight in the tournament outside Winchester, since "never had Sir Gawain the better and Sir Launcelot on the field" (Mallory 2 392). At that tournament, he downed thirty knights (Mallory 2 395). He is so physically strong that once he ripped the iron bars off the window of Guenivere's chamber (Mallory 2 438).

Launcelot is strong, but he is faithful only to Guenivere, not Arthur. The downfall of the Round Table, though caused by Mordred, is due to Launcelot breaking with Arthur over Guenivere. The pope himself must interfere and he orders Launcelot to give back Guenivere and Arthur to accord with Launcelot, on pain of interdiction (Mallory 2 482). Launcelot cuckolds his lord and fights him, taking his kin with him into Joyous Gard. The entire relationship between Arthur and Launcelot is based only on Launcelot's love for Guenivere. Without her, Launcelot leaves the court and abandons Arthur. He only returns to save her from the flames and when Arthur finally dies.

Launcelot isn't very pious. All the "piety genes" he has seem to be recessive, and manifests only in Galahad. His primary god-fearing act is to enter the holy orders after Arthur's death. The Bishop of Canterbury "put an habit upon Sir Launcelot, and there he served God day and night with prayers and fasting" (Mallory 2 525). Launcelot is a man of battle-glory and illicit love for his queen, not a man of God.

Neither is his behavior in court exactly exemplary. Every time he returns to Arthur's court, he leaves in a hurry. Either he goes out seeking the Grail, goes crazy with stifled desire for Guenivere or retreats into the wilderness. Toward the end of the cycle, he withdraws further from Arthur's court. It reaches a point where he uses Bors as his agent in the court, to remain alert to plots against Guenivere or tournaments.

Last we take Galahad. Galahad is probably the best of Arthur's knights, But he is also ephemeral. He comes, fulfills his purpose and dies. The rest of the court goes on without him. Galahad and Percival are "Grail knights." Their only purpose is to participate in the quest for the Grail. They have no bearing on the rest of the cycle. I think an appropriate analogy would be that of the candle. They burn brightly and achieve that which no other knight can, but they also consume all their purpose very quickly and pass out of the cycle. He is also unique among the top four knights because he doesn't appear in Chretien' cycle.

As befitting Launcelot's son, Galahad is also a fighter without parallel. He even goes so far as to defeat his father and the other "Grail knight," Percival (Mallory 2 267). Defeating Launcelot is the ultimate skill at arms. However, he can also defeat multitudes like his father: Twenty attacked him at once and he smote one down with each strike (Mallory 2 280). He is merciful in combat, though. According to a hermit, "Sir Galahad himself alone beat them all seven the day tofore, but his living is such he shall slay no man lightly" (Mallory 2 266). No matter what else he achieves, defeating Launcelot once is more than enough credibility as far as combat goes.

I think Galahad is lacking in feudal trust. He isn't really Arthur's knight; he is aKnight of the Grail. I feel that his loyalty is not for Arthur, but for the quest of the Grail. He says that the quest is not an affair of the rest of his knights, but that of himself alone: "For this adventure is not theirs but mine" (Mallory 2 245). Galahad is knighted by Launcelot (Mallory 2 239) and is his son, but he doesn't belong with the kin of Launcelot. But, like Launcelot, he spends very little time at Arthur's Court. As soon as he claims the Siege Perilous, Gawain proclaims the opening of the Grail Quest (Mallory 2 248). Galahad doesn't return to the court, but instead dies after attaining the Grail (Mallory 2 370). I feel that Galahad isn't attached to Arthur; he is a device to achieve the Grail.

Achieving the Grail is the greatest of pious acts. Galahad alone is pure enough to do it. He doesn't like to take lives (Mallory 2 266). He is a paragon of purity, a paladin. In the churchyard with the tomb of the false Christian man, a fiend comes out of the tomb. A voice says, "Galahad, I see there environ about thee so many angels that my power may not dere thee" (Mallory 2 257). The fiend cannot even approach him. The monk that told Gawain that Galahad did not take lives lightly also compared the men he spared to the Seven Deadly Sins (Mallory 2 366). This implies that he has overcome the tendencies of mortals and vanquished these sins, and thereby purged himself of them.

Since he spends even less time in the court than his father, Galahad has even less time to be courtly. In an encounter with Guenivere, he acts a little disconcerted when speaking to the Queen: she praises Launcelot and compares Galahad to him, thus implying a similar knightliness in the young knight. But Galahad seems ashamed of that (Mallory 2 250), bashful to be speaking with the great queen and his father's lover. Galahad's function, overall, is not courtliness, but piety.

At long last, let's tally up the winners. The winner in each category gets one point, second place gets two, third three and so on. The total winner is the knight with the fewest points. In the category of combat prowess, Launcelot and Galahad tie for first, and Gawain comes out second. Galahad defeats even his father, but Launcelot remains as the greatest knight long before Galahad's birth and long after his death. Gawain is just a sturdy and solid knight, while Yvain gets a last place by default.

In the category of trust, Gawain wins easily. Arthur relies on him until the very end. Each of the other three deserts the king for other things and Launcelot even makes war with the king. Yvain leaves Arthur for Laudine's court, and Galahad goes off on his Grail quest and dies. However, since he doesn't actively betray Arthur, Galahad gets second. Yvain and Launcelot get third and fourth respectively.

In the piety category, Galahad wins easily. He achieves the Grail, chases demons with his presence and vanquishes the Seven Deadly Sins. Gawain follows as second, since he converts the Saracen. Launcelot is too busy with Guinevere and Yvain is too interested in solving his personal differences with Laudine. Those two tie for third, since neither seemed too concerned with religious matters.

Lastly, Gawain is the most courtly of the four. He is polite and helpful. Not even the abrasive Kay can ruffle his feathers. Yvain would take second for his lengthy discourse on love and politeness. Launcelot gets a third for pursuing the traditions of courtly love with Guinevere, although carrying her off is a bit too extreme. Galahad had no way to rank himself in that department, since he spends no time in court.

The totals place Gawain at first with six points, Galahad at second with eight, and Launcelot tied with Yvain for third at eleven each. This is close to what I originally thought, since Gawain is Chretien' greatest knight. Launcelot and Yvain finishing as a tie is a bit of a surprise, since Yvain seemed outclassed initially. Launcelot was the transcendent warrior, but combat alone does not make a knight.

So, all hail Gawain, Arthur's right-hand man.

Works Cited

Chretien De Troyes. The Complete Romances of Chretien De Troyes. Trans. David Staines. Indiana University Press. Indianapolis: 1990.