“Knighthood in Malory’s book of Gareth” by R. M. Polk
Knights as we know them today, those bold, savvy men who have a bit of a deep emotional hurt,
a bit of a dark side etc., but are determined to move on and live through their pain- basically
what would be called an anti- hero, are not what knights in the 15th century were like. Most
knights were not even pure of heart, chivalrous, or even behaved like a noble or knightly man
should.
Take for instance, Sir Thomas Malory- the knight believed responsible for writing the
“Winchester Manuscripts”. - Which is a set of tales detailing the adventures and achievements of
knights of the roundtable. These tales put all knights in a positive light – showing them do all
kinds of noble quests and the like; but if one takes a closer look at Malory’s life and the crimes
he was accused of like: rape, robbing the church, murder, and extortion- and these are just the
crimes that he was caught doing- who knows what other countless crimes that he got away with.
Though to be fair, Malory does portray a good many knights with flaws and prejudices fitting
the upper class. Take for instance, the tale dealing with Sir Gareth- a knight who was just starting
out and decided to prove himself worthy of receiving the title of knighthood. He did this by
presenting Arthur and his court three strange requests: one- that he would be allowed to eat in
Arthur’s court for one full year, second- once that year was up, he requested to be given the
honor of accepting the quest, that a strange lady had asked of Arthur’s court, and thirdly he
requested that he be knighted by Sir Lancelot and nobody else. Arthur granted all of his requests
and Sir Gareth began his quest to rescue the strange woman’s sister (pg. 121, 123)
2
Now so far this may sound like your typical knight story- but it isn’t. Simply because Sir Gareth
refused to reveal his name to Arthur, thus letting everybody in the court believe that he was just
some thieving knave (pg. 121). He is this in order to prove that he was worthy of the title of
knight- instead of relying on his family lineage to gain him the rank of knighthood. I also believe
though that he did this, not only to prove to others but also to prove to himself that he was indeed
worthy of the title of knighthood. Though an interesting thing to note- in order for Gareth, (who
was also given the nickname: Beaumains- meaning fair hands (pg.121) ) to be knighted by
Lancelot- even though he (Gareth) beat him in a far fight- still was required to give his full name
up before Lancelot was even willing to knight him. This just goes to show that even though
Gareth had all the character traits of the perfect role model knight- So no matter what he tried, it
still came down to his lineage and that is a perfect example of how life and class worked in the
15th century.
So all in all, I fell that Malory did a fairly good job portraying what knights were really likesince he showed the ugly with the beautiful. It is our own fault- the people of the twenty-first
century for glamorizing the knights – who were no more than common soldier and ranking
government officials. But then who can blame them, since all they had to go on were fictional
tales- based partly on true events that may or may not have happened.