The Image of Saracens in the Middle
English Arthurian Romances King Horn
and Sir Tristrem: a comparison
Horn kills the Saracen leader (J. F. Bacon, A. R. A. Byam Shaw, W. H. Margetson, R. I.
Gertrude, Demian Hammond et al., 299)
Marie-Claire Theunissen, 3342506
Bachelor Thesis English Language and Culture
Utrecht University
8 July 2011
First reader: Dr. Anita Auer
Second reader: Dr. Merel Keijzer
7126 words
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Contents
Contents ...................................................................................................................................... 2
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 4
Chapter 1: The Image of the Saracens in King Horn and Sir Tristrem: a comparison .............. 7
1.1 King Horn ......................................................................................................................... 7
1.2 Sir Tristrem .................................................................................................................... 10
Chapter 2: Contextualising the Image of Saracens in King Horn and Sir Tristrem ................. 16
2.1 King Horn ....................................................................................................................... 16
2.2 Sir Tristrem .................................................................................................................... 21
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 26
3.1 Outcome of My Research ............................................................................................... 26
3.2 Possibilities for Future Research .................................................................................... 27
List of Works Cited .................................................................................................................. 29
Illustration ............................................................................................................................ 32
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Acknowledgements
During the process of writing my thesis, I found out that thesis writing can be quite a
challenging experience. However, I learned a lot from this experience since I improved my
academic skills and I am now able to focus on a topic that interests me very much and show
this interest in the academic approach of my research. For these achievements I would
especially like to thank my supervisor Anita Auer, since I greatly appreciated her supervising.
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Introduction
“[þ]e pains come to londe & neme hit in here honde : [þ]at folc hi gunne quelle & churchen
for to felle.” (Hall, l. 59-62, 5) As this quote from the Middle English Arthurian Romance
King Horn clarifies, the pagans (“pains” in this quote), which denote Saracens in this story,
are seen as aggressive peoples who want to conquer Christian lands, convert its Christian
inhabitants to Islam and kill them if they refuse to do so (Hall, l. 59-62, 5). This negative
image of Saracens, being Muslim peoples, apparently is not only an issue that Geert Wilders
advocates in current politics (PVV, 13-17), but it already existed in the Middle Ages (Hall, l.
59-62, 5). This made me wonder whether the image of Saracens in Middle English Arthurian
Romances, where Saracens often are discussed (Hall, 3-89; Mallory, 273-338), differs during
the long Middle Ages (c. 450-1500) (Rosenwein, 21-348). I in fact assume that the image of
Saracens or Muslim peoples is dynamic, and it therefore might have been more positive at
some point in the Middle Ages than it seems in the earlier Middle Ages when King Horn
(Hall, VII-XV) was written. Therefore, in this thesis I will carry out a comparative study that
investigates whether the image of Saracens in the late Middle English romance Sir Tristrem
(Mallory) and the earlier Middle English romance King Horn (Hall, VII-XV) differ from each
other and what the possible reasons might be if any difference occurs.
In the last few decades, a fair amount of research has already been carried out on the
image depicted of Saracens in Arthurian romances of the European Middle Ages by numerous
scholars. For instance, the Medieval image of Saracens has been investigated by authors such
as Cohen, who linked it to the development of race (113-147) and Goodrich and Hoffmann
who looked at the Saracen image in Le Morthe Darthur in particular (10-28; 43-65).
Furthermore, Sobecki and Speed examined the Medieval image of Saracens in King Horn
(443-445; 564-595) and Hardman viewed the Saracen image in the socio-political context of
“Insular romance” (45-68). The reception of Arthurian romances in the Middle East and the
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possible reasons for a negative image of the Saracens in the Middle East has been examined
by Hermes (131-144). My investigation will contribute to existing studies in that I will not
only investigate the image of Saracens in two specific Middle English Arthurian romances,
King Horn and Sir Tristrem, but I will also compare the image of Saracens found in the
selected romances with each other. This aims to shed light on whether the image of Saracens
differed in Middle English Arthurian Romances that were written during different periods in
the long Middle Ages and what the possible reasons for these differences might be.
As regards the methodology applied in this thesis, I carried out my philological study
of the image of Saracens in the Arthurian romances King Horn and Sir Tristrem through
making a comparison of both texts by close-reading them, comparing them to findings on
these texts discussed in existing secondary literature and viewing them in their social and
political context. Of these works King Horn was first written down in the middle of the
thirteenth century (Hall, VII-XV) and Sir Tristrem was first written down in the early
thirteenth century, in the form of the “common tradition” regarding this work (Lupack). The
story of Sir Tristrem in fact originates in Celtic written and oral sources and the earliest
written forms of it can be divided into two groups: those that use it as “courtly” and those that
use it as “common” (Lupack). The Middle English version of Sir Tristrem by Mallory, which
was written in the late Middle Ages, in fact in the latter half of the fifteenth century (Mallory)
which I used for my research, is based on the first manuscript of Sir Tristrem described in the
“courtly” way. This was “Tristrem”, written by “the Anglo-Norman poet Thomas”, a work
in verse of which almost nothing survived (Lupack). Additionally, the Middle English
romance King Horn is dated approximately two centuries earlier as Mallory’s Sir Tirstrem
(Hall, VII-XV: Mallory). King Horn exists in three “copies” of the original work: one is kept
in the “British Museum [in] London” and is dated in the last decades of the thirteen hundreds,
one is kept in the “Bodleian Library [in] Oxford” and is dated from in between the thirteen
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hundreds and the fifteen hundreds and the last version is kept in the “University Library [in]
Cambridge” and is dated at “1260 A. D” (Hall, VII-XV). The original manuscript does not
exist anymore, and since the Cambridge version of the manuscript is the oldest of the three
“manuscript copies” and it resembles the original work the best according to comparative
studies by Hall, I felt that this version was the best to use for my thesis (Hall, VII-XIV).
Therefore, concerning the selected works, I used the Cambridge version of the edition of King
Horn (1901) by Joseph Hall and for Sir Tristrem I used the online version of Sir Mallory’s Sir
Tristrem in his Le Morte Darthur, published by the University of Michigan, based on H.
Oskar Sommer’s William Caxton edition. According to Speed, King Horn can be placed in
“the Middle English Romance tradition” (564), which is also noted by Hall in his introduction
of King Horn (VII). According to Herzman, Drake and Salisbury, King Horn is quite likely to
be the first Middle English romance ever written. Regarding Sir Tristrem, this work can be
placed in the tradition of Medieval “prose” (Lupack). In terms of structure, I first discussed
my own findings concerning the image of Saracens in the romances King Horn and Sir
Tristrem, then I put my findings in the context of the research that has already been done on
both works and finally I compared the image of Saracens in both works. Furthermore, as a
second step I viewed the results of my comparison of the selected works of the first chapter in
the context of the general image that Christian writers had of Saracens in the Middle Ages,
taking into account the social and political context. Finally, I formed a conclusion on the basis
of my investigation regarding my research question whether the image of Saracens in the late
Middle English romance Sir Tristrem (Mallory) and the earlier Middle English romance King
Horn (Hall, VII-XV) differs from each other and what the possible reasons might be if any
difference occurs. Moreover, I pointed out any shortcomings in this thesis and possible topics
for future research.
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Chapter 1:
The Image of the Saracens in King Horn and Sir Tristrem: a comparison
1.1 King Horn
The story of King Horn mentions numerous encounters with Saracens. These encounters start
with King Murry who finds a fleet of Saracens attacking his coasts. This event is mentioned
as “ariued on his londe Schipes fiftene wiþ sarazins kene.” (Hall, l. 36-38, 5). The word
“kene” (Hall, l. 38, 5) denotes that apparently, these Saracens were known to be brave men
(Hall, 212). After this invasion of Saracens, King Murry is killed during the Saracen conquest
(Hall, l. 40-58, 5) and the remaining Christians are killed or forced to practice their religion
secretly, as for instance queen Godhild and the monk Wurft. Through this, Christian devotion
is stressed in the story (Hall, l. 59-65, 5; Hall, l. 67-78, 7). After the king is slain by the
invading Saracens (Hall, l. 40-58, 5), Horn is sent away on a ship by the Saracens to avoid
that he kills the Saracens to revenge his fathers death (Hall, l. 81-114, 7-9). When Horn
arrives at the court of “Westernesse” he is received very kindly (Hall, l. 155-160, 11). After
he is staying there for some time, he wishes to marry princess Rymenhild but that has to wait
until he proved his true knighthood in a fight (Hall, l. 533-560, 31-33). Additionally, Horn
gets into a fight with Saracens again, and he kills them. After this event Horn shows his true
knighthood to the king by describing the battle he fought against the Saracens (Hall, l. 601644, 35-37). At a later stage, Horn meets the Saracen again who killed his father and he kills
him in return (Hall, l. 865-884, 49-51). Afterwards, Horn explains that he spent some time
among Saracens but that he will remain Christian, thereby indicating that he resisted the
temptation of the wild Saracens (Hall, l. 1315-1321, 77).
The image presented of Saracens in King Horn as discussed above consists of a few
main concepts: the writer stressed the danger of the Saracens by describing them as a people
whose only goal is to fight and kill Christians in order to conquer their lands, destroy their
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churches and force them to convert to Islam (Hall, l. 59-62, 5). Speed underlines this since she
states the goal of the Saracens in a similar way, and she adds that this leads to a “secular and
religious” goal for the Saracens (Speed, 583). Similarly, the superficial narrow-minded view
of the pious West versus the devilish East is emphasised by Scott’s view (44). She supports
this view with the example of the Saracens who state the earnestness of their threat to harm
the Christians by immediately doing that (49). Moreover, the writer of King Horn alienates
Christians from Muslims by pointing out that Muslims are the enemy since they are not
Christened (Hall, l. 59-65, 5; Hall, l. 67-78, 7 ) and by showing through Horn’s action not to
convert to Islam though he spent some time around Muslims that Christianity is preferred to
Islam (Hall, l. 1315-1321, 77). Additionally, the writer of King Horn stresses the importance
of Christianity by stressing that the monk Wurft and queen Godhild are devote Christians
(Hall, l. 59-65, 5; Hall, l. 67-78, 7) and that Horn fights against Islam to defend Christianity
against these evil invaders (Hall, l. 601-644, 35-37). That Horn proves his knighthood by
slaying Saracens (Scott, 59; Hall, l. 601-644, 35-37) suggests once more that the Saracens are
the enemy and are therefore not viewed in a positive way at all. The negative image of
Saracens in King Horn is therefore mainly painted through a specific use of lexicon in
describing Christians, Saracens and their actions.
Other factors do of course also tell us something about the image of Saracens in King
Horn: for example, which details the text reveals on the whereabouts of the Saracens, who
they exactly are and what they look like. Concerning the looks of the Saracens, the Saracen
giant is described as very big (Hall, 865-884, 49-51) and the rest of the Saracens are denoted
as “blake” (Hall, 1319, 77), meaning “black” or “dirt” (Hall, 198). My findings are in line
with Speed’s view on this issue, since she also describes the looks of the Saracens in King
Horn as “fierce” (Speed, 580). However, no clues are given as to the Saracens exact
whereabouts and origins (Hall, 3-89). Again these findings are in line with Speed, since she
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also states that there is no clear solution to be given concerning the whereabouts of the
Saracens in King Horn for the text gives no clues on their roots (567). She also mentions that
the only way the Saracen’s mother country is referred to is “paynyme”, meaning “‘pagandom’
(821)” in modern English (Speed, 567). Additionally, my conclusion that the text of King
Horn does not clearly state who these Saracens are is in agreement with Speed’s view on this:
she also says that the definition of the word Saracen is not clear in this poem. Additionally,
McKnight feels that the term was ambiguous which was common in the average “medieval
romance”. Similarly, Hall suggests that Saracens are random “heathen[s]” rather than
Muslims (Speed, 566). The Middle English Dictionary is not very precise on the definition of
Saracen either (Speed, 566). For its citation on King Horn’s Saracens, there is no clear
definition of its meaning to be found, while later the meanings of “pagan”, “Turk”, “Moslem”
were assigned to the word Saracen in different situations (Speed, 566). Furthermore, the chief
of the Saracens is an “’Admirald’ (91)” (574), which should merely be seen as “Saracen
leader”, according to the Middle English Dictionary (Speed, 575). However, the goal of the
Saracens might reveal something of the origins and identity of the Saracens in King Horn:
they wanted to kill Christians in order to conquer their lands and to convert them to Islam,
which is similar to the goals of the Vikings who were also looking for “land” and “power”
(Speed, 585). Additionally, in terms of the journey the Saracens made, their “fleet” could in
reality just as likely be from Saracens as from Vikings, since in the Middle Ages both peoples
were infamous regarding “their strength at sea” and their “fleet[s]” (Speed, 590). Therefore,
the Saracens mentioned in King Horn could be both of real Islamic descent as of
Scandinavian origins (Speed, 585-595). Since the origins and whereabouts of the Saracens are
therefore quite unclear the negative image of Saracens in King Horn is stressed even more.
Additionally, the looks of the Saracens are described as “fierce” (Speed, 580) and “black”
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(Hall, l. 1319, 77; Hall, 198), which underlines the negative image depicted of Saracens in
King Horn as well.
1.2 Sir Tristrem
After examining the image of Saracens in King Horn, I will now look at the Saracens in Sir
Tristrem to see whether their image differs from that in King Horn. In Sir Tristrem, the only
Saracen mentioned is Sir Palamydes, who is one of the main characters of the story. He is
introduced in the story of Sir Tristrem in chapter IX as “Sir Palamydes the sarasyn was in that
countrey and wel cherysshed with the kynge and [leaf 143v] quene/” (Mallory, 286-287).
Therefore, it is immediately clear that the royalty think highly of Sir Palamydes, which
suggests that he is not necessarily a bad person. However, in the following lines, it becomes
clear that Sir Palamydes is in love with Isolde, the daughter of the king and queen of Ireland,
with whom Sir Tristrem is in love as well, and therefore, Sir Palamydes becomes the archenemy of Sir Tristrem (Mallory, 286-288). Additionally, it turns out that Sir Palamydes is
depicted as a fearsome knight who has slain many knights in duels (Mallory, 287-288). He
wore “a black sheld” (Mallory, 287), which might denote the dark, bad nature of Saracens
according to Western people of the time (Tolan, 3-4). Since Palamydes killed so many
knights, he is strongly admired for he defends his honour by winning many duels (Mallory,
287). As Sir Tristrem is the only one who dares to fight with the fearsome Sir Palamydes, Sir
Tristrem and Palamydes fight in a duel. Tristrem wins the battle and makes Palamydes vow
not to make any move towards Lady Isolde, to which Sir Palamydes obeys (Mallory, 287289). At this point, Sir Palamydes seems to be like any other Christian knight: he defends his
honour in duels, he is in love with a lady who he cannot reach (i.e. he practices courtly love),
and he plays fair in his duels (Mallory, 287-289). Hoffman underlines that this is an example
of courtly behaviour since he feels that Palamydes’ stoical attitude concerning his “courtly
love” for Lady Isolde shows that Sir Tristrem is less of a “courtly lover” than he is, with
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which he puts into question “the Western medieval chivalric ideal” (54). Goodrich agrees on
this, since he feels that Palamydes’ love for Isolde is similar to a courtly love, in which
Palamydes resembles a proper Christian courtly knight (20). Moreover, the only term which
denotes that Sir Palamydes is anything other than a proper Christian knight is the word
“Saracen” which Mallory neatly puts in front of “Sir Palamydes” throughout the entire story
(Mallory, 273-338; Hoffman, 49-50). After this event, Sir Palamydes is not mentioned again
until chapter twelve where he is listed as one of the knights who was defeated by Sir Tristrem:
“and knyghtes beheld sire Tristram/ and moche speche they had of hym by cause he slewe sir
Marhaus the good knight/ and by cause he foriusted sir Palamydes the good knyght” (Mallory,
307). As is quoted above, Sir Palamydes is named as “the good knyght” (Mallory, 307) which
means that Sir Palamydes is still not seen as a bad Saracen, but as a “good knyght” (Mallory,
307). Another example of Sir Palamydes behaving like a proper Christian knight is his rescue
of the favourite Lady of Lady Isolde when this Lady Bragwayne is kidnapped and he takes
her to a monastery for she will be safe there (Mallory, 317-318). However, what could be
denoted as a darker side in Sir Palamydes, is his demand that Lady Isolde will “graunte me
my bone” (Mallory, 317). He demands this of her if she wants him to take her to her best lady
Bragwayne, when he finds Lady Isolde desperately wandering around the woods in search for
her best lady Bragwayne (Mallory, 317). In her despair, Lady Isolde immediately agrees to Sir
Palamydes proposal. Subsequently, Sir Palamydes takes her to Lady Bragwayne who is living
safely in the monastery. After that Lady Isolde does not want to grant Sir Palamydes’ wish
anymore, since he wishes to “lede her and gouerne her where as me lyst” (Mallory, 317-318).
When Lady Isolde asks the king how to solve this problem, the king does not like Sir
Palamydes’ proposal, but since Lady Isolde agreed to it, he does as well. Therefore, Lady
Isolde is going with Sir Palamydes, who only gets what he rightly deserved since Lady Isolde
had given him that promise (Mallory, 317-319). Even at this stage, Sir Palamydes is still not
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depicted as a bad person, for he lives according to knightly virtues. Through his courtly
attitude, Sir Palamydes also stands for many faults rooted in “knighthood” during those times
(Goodrich, 17). However, now that Sir Palamydes has taken Lady Isolde away, the king asks
several men to go after Sir Palamydes and save Lady Isolde from Sir Palamydes: “Allas said
the kynge now I am shamed for euer that by myn owne assente my lady and my queen shalle
be deuoured” (Mallory, 319). This is where the tone changes, and Sir Palamydes and his
action are talked about in manners of “deuoured”, “rescowe her”(Mallory, 319), “he wold be
auenged upon palamydes” and “thenne she made the yates to be shette strongly” (Mallory,
320). As is visible from these quotes, all of a sudden the best men including Sir Tristrem are
assembled to fight Palamydes and get Lady Isolde back. The view of Sir Palamydes has thus
suddenly changed: he is no longer praised as a good knight, but mainly regarded as the enemy
who might hurt Lady Isolde (Mallory, 317-320). “[T]elle hym that I am here his mortal foo”
says Sir Tristram about Sir Palamydes when Sir Palamydes took Lady Isolde. This is certainly
proof of the change in tone when Mallory writes about Sir Palamydes (Mallory, 321).
However, Lady Isolde takes pity on Sir Palamydes, for she says “[…] and the other I love not/
yet it were grete pyte that I shold see sir palamydes slayne” (Mallory, 321). Lady Isolde does
not want Sir Palamydes to die as a Saracen because he is not a Christian and thus will not go
to heaven. She therefore begs Sir Tristrem to stop fighting and she demands of Sir Palamydes
to leave her country and never come back as long as she lives. Even though Sir Palamydes
does not like her proposal, he still obeys her wish (Mallory, 321-322). Furthermore, Lady
Isolde underlines her feeling of pity as she also speaks about sir Palamydes as “this unhappy
sarasyn Palamydes” (Mallory, 321).
As in the case of King Horn, the exterior factors also contribute to the creation of the
image of the Saracens in Sir Tristrem. Concerning the whereabouts of the Saracens, in this
case Sir Palamydes, they are not very clear (Mallory, 273-338). Sir Palamydes’ looks are not
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described in great detail either and neither is his goal (Mallory, 273-338). Hoffman and
Goodrich also confirm my statement concerning the whereabouts of the Saracens, since
Goodrich feels that it is not easy to predict whether the author Mallory knew that the Saracens
of the thirteen hundreds which are the subject of his story of Sir Tristrem, were not the same
peoples that lived in Mallory’s own time. He probably saw them as one group of Saracens
(12). Hoffman, in his turn, says that the exact origins of the Saracens were unclear, but that
they were always seen as the “Other” (43). He also agrees with Goodrich that Mallory did
think of an exact kind of Saracens when he wrote Sir Tristrem in his Morthe Darthur, but he
just used the Saracens in the undefined notion that was common in his times (43).
Additionally, Hoffman also states that the lack of description concerning Sir Palamydes’
appearance might show a disinterest in Saracens which depicts them negatively (Hoffman, 50)
and he also feels that Palamydes is not only a good man and therefore the image depicted of
him is more nuanced (49). Since Palamydes in Sir Tristrem does not ascribe himself to the
Islamic nor to the Christian faith, he belongs nowhere not only in earthly life but also in the
heavenly life thereafter. The fact that Sir Palamydes is therefore unbelieving makes him a
creature from “hell” no matter if he belonged to Christianity or Islam (Goodrich, 19).
However, according to Hoffman, Sir Palamydes is not only a good man, since he is also
“lustful and deceitful” (49). However, Sir Palamydes never completely belongs the culture of
the virtuous knight Tristrem and neither does he ever completely belong to the culture of the
alien Saracens (Hoffman, 49). Hoffman (49) convincingly argues that Sir Tristrem would
never have been able to make such a good impression on Lady Isolde, if he had not had Sir
Palamydes as his opponent, for example when Sir Palamydes is perceived to shame Lady
Isolde by “threatening her virtue” (Mallory, 319) . Thus, Sir Palamydes is not portrayed as the
stereotypical bad Saracen, since no descriptions of his features or customs depict him as such
(Mallory, 273-338). While it could be that Mallory’s readers already had a certain image of
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Saracens in mind, which verified why Mallory did not stress a certain image of Saracens in
his work that much, it could also be that with this minor amount of information on Sir
Palamydes origins he denied “the Other” (Hoffman, 50). Since Mallory in his works makes
Saracens who are more like “Western Europeans” look less Eastern in their features, the lack
of description of Sir Palamydes physical appearance might denote that he is a good Saracen
and his difference from “Western Europeans” does not exist (Hoffman, 50). Palamydes,
however, displays an image of an “oriental” person, according to the “orientalism” displayed
in “Said”’s work (Hoffman, 50): he is “deceitful and doomed to fail from his very first
appearance” (Hoffman, 50). Since Palamydes knows he will never belong to either the culture
of chivalrous knights nor the Saracens who are seen as bad people, he will go to any length to
at least try to become part of the chivalrous knights, which however cannot be combined with
his unlucky destiny (Hoffman, 53). His bad luck in his love life could also show that in a
“religious” sense he does not belong anywhere (Hoffman, 53), for he is neither a Christian nor
a practicing Saracen (Goodrich, 19). Goodrich, on the other hand, does not mention the looks
or the nature of the Saracens in Sir Tristrem that specifically (10-28). The image of Saracens
shown in Sir Tristrem is therefore much more nuanced than in King Horn (Hall, 3-89), since
in Sir Tristrem the image of Saracens is at first even positive (Mallory, 286-287) and only
then changes to negative (Mallory, 317-320) and then to pitiful (Mallory, 320-323). This
shows that all in all the image of Saracens in Sir Tristrem (Mallory, 273-338) is not
necessarily negative but much more positive and it shows a more open minded-attitude than
in King Horn (Hall, 3-89).
What becomes clear after this analysis of the interpretation of King Horn and Sir
Tristrem concerning the image of Saracens by myself and others is that King Horn depicts a
much more negative image of Saracens (Hall, 3-89) than Sir Tristrem, which is much more
nuanced on Saracens (Mallory, 273-338). In my next chapter I will examine why this might
15
be the case, though investigating the social and political context in which the versions of the
selected works that I used for my thesis were written and their possible effects on the image of
Saracens depicted in both works.
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Chapter 2:
Contextualising the Image of Saracens in King Horn and Sir Tristrem
In this chapter, I will examine what might possibly have caused the difference in the negative
image depicted of Saracens in King Horn compared to the relatively positive, nuanced image
of Saracens in Sir Tristrem. It might be interesting to see whether the timeframe in which both
works were written, concerning their social and political context, might reveal why this
difference appears. Therefore, I will first put the image of Saracens in King Horn in its social
and political context, then I will look at the image of Saracens in Sir Tristrem in a similar
manner and finally, I will form a conclusion by comparing both works and their timeframe.
2.1 King Horn
The most important concepts which determine the view on Saracens in King Horn are the
emphasis which is put on the danger that Saracens cause, their evil and violent nature (Hall, l.
59-62, 5) and the fact that they are the enemy of Christians and Christians need to defend
themselves against these evil invaders (Hall, l. 601-644, 35-37). The version of King Horn
which I used, is one of the three remaining “manuscript copies” of the “original” work of
King Horn, which got lost. This “manuscript” was written around “1260 A. D.” and this copy
is saved in the “University Library [in] Cambridge” , and is therefore called the Cambridge
manuscript copy. Though this copy is based on an earlier work, I assume that it is safe to take
into account the social and political circumstances of the time of the Crusades as a timeframe
for this copy of King Horn, since the Cambridge copy of the original work is the earliest
surviving copy and therefore could not be written too long after the original (Hall, VII-XIV).
Furthermore, the Cambridge manuscript itself was also written during the Crusades
(Rosenwein, 301), by “an Anglo-French scribe” (Hall, X). This might denote that the image
of Saracens depicted in King Horn was influenced by the image the church had of them, since
a scribe could also work in a clerical function (The Middle English Dictionary). What is
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visible of the concepts with which the image of Saracens is depicted in King Horn in the
political and social developments of the time? The stress on the evil and violent nature of
Saracens, their enmity towards Christianity and the need for Christians to defend themselves
against Islam could be explained by the social and political tendencies of the time. Around the
time of the Crusades, Christians were astonished about the victorious expansion of the Islamic
empire. They wondered why God would let people of another faith win the Crusades.
Muslims, however, explained their success by Allah who rewarded their piety in this manner.
Nonetheless, many Christians, answered explained the victory of the Muslims by turning to
Islam, since apparently God added a higher value to that religion (Tolan, 37-39). Others could
not accept their defeat against Islam, so they took an “apologetic” or “polemic” approach
towards it (Tolan, 170-173). They tried to put that new religion into the world shaped
according to Christianity which they knew. They took whatever they did know about these
strange peoples and tried to make sense of them in their own worldview of Christianity
(Tolan, 19-20). Since they did not know very much about Muslims or Islam, they tried to fit
them into well-known categories such as “Jew, pagan and heretic” (Tolan, 3). This made it
easier for Christians to deal with this strange, scary religion and its peoples and it allowed
them not to investigate them any further. That is why current Muslims in those times never
were named according to their true identity but as “Arabs” or “Saracens” (Tolan, 4). This
worldview explains why in King Horn the Islamic peoples are denoted as Saracens or pagans
even though they might not even were Saracens but another kind of Islamic peoples (Hall, l.
59-62, 5). Additionally, it explains why in King Horn not much attention is paid to the exact
whereabouts and origins of the Saracens (Hall, 3-89). Apart of this denial of the origins and
roots of the different Islamic peoples present in the Middle Ages and the naming of them
irrespective of their identities (Tolan, 3-4), Christians related the danger they felt of the rise of
the Islamic world to their believe in the advent of “the Anti-Christ” and “the end of time”.
18
Christians in fact believed that Muslims wanted to trick Christians so that they abandoned
their own faith and that they were “heretics” (Tolan, 8). The influential Medieval historian
“Isidore” also instituted Christian superiority to avoid chaos among Christians due to the rise
of Islam (Tolan, 15). Political leaders and writers of those times wanted to prove this
superiority to the Muslims by beating them in a confrontation (Tolan, 172). Religious groups
such as “the Franciscans” and “Dominicans” however, took a different approach towards
Muslims. “The Franciscans” ignored the cultural or political customs of Muslims and only
wanted to suffer for their faith and thereby earn prestige. “The Dominicans” took a different
approach, since they learned everything about the culture and politics of Muslims and thereby
tried to convince Muslims of Christianity as the best religion (Tolan, 172). The rise of Islam
and its empire often was explained as God’s torn aimed at the Christians who were not pious
enough (Tolan, 42). Nevertheless, Muslims allowed Christians to practice their religion
(Tolan, 34-35). Christians, however, kept their negative attitude Islam despite the signs that
Islam in some respects was friendly towards Christianity: they wanted to show that
Muhammad should not be seen as equal to Jesus concerning his relationship with God (Tolan,
61). Nonetheless, Muslims did see Muhammad and “Jesus” as messengers from God in a long
line of messengers from God , thereby recognising important Christian figures (Tolan, 33-35;
Tolan, 62). At this point in the Middle Ages, Christians “attack[-] the Qur’ān” and the
customs of Muslims (Tolan, 62-63). On the other hand, Islam did not regard Christianity as
equal since it did not agree with the Christian idea that “heaven” was only for people of their
own faith (Tolan, 33-34). Furthermore, Islamic writers wrote that Christians misused the word
of God: they would have understood the message of God wrongly. Moreover, the Qur’ān
disregards Christianity for seeing God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost as an important entity and its
belief in a life after death (Tolan, 33-35). Such errors as these even caused Islamic invasions,
since the “Jihad” mentioned in the Qur’ān was often used as a reason for wars against foreign
19
empires. This “jihad” among others means that Muslims should enlarge their Islamic territory
wherever possible (Tolan, 35). This fact together with the actual rise of Islam and its empire
(Tolan, 34-35; Tolan, 77) explains why in King Horn Horn and his fellow Christians feel such
need to defend themselves against the Muslim invaders (Hall, l. 601-644, 35-37) and it
explains the goal of the Saracens in King Horn which was to gain “power” and “land” (Speed,
583). During these uprisings Christians could lead quite similar lives, since only the political
system adjusted to the new rulers. In response to Christian anti-Islam texts, Muslims began to
write works which discredited the view on Christianity for Muslims. Thereby they tried to
ensure Muslims of the superiority of their own faith and to discourage them to change to
another religion. Additionally, they wanted to bind new Muslims to their own religion (Tolan,
36). This might explain the goal of the Saracens in King Horn to convert the Christians they
conquered and to kill them if they would not (Hall, l. 59-62, 5). The negative image of
Saracens is stressed even more “to justify and glorify the actions of the first and second
Crusades.” (Tolan, 106). At the start of the Crusades, Muslim peoples were depicted as
“idolaters” while by the end of the Crusades they were depicted as “heretics” (Tolan, 134).
This attitude is also visible in King Horn, since Horn and his fellow Christians very fiercely
fight the Muslims and only the dangerous side of the Muslims is shown in that story (Hall, 389). Northern Europe only started to examine Islam when the Crusades advanced and writers
(which were often linked to the church) showed Muslims “as idolaters who had polluted the
holy city […] with their profane rites” (Tolan, 69). What was also important to the church was
the idea of “crusader[s] and pilgrims” (Cook and Herzman, 153). Another image occurring
was that of Islam as a wrong version of the Christian faith (Tolan, 69). This might explain
why King Horn shows a more negative, polarised image of Muslims than Mallory’s version of
Sir Tristrem, which was written in the fifteenth century (Mallory). The Cambridge manuscript
of King Horn which was written just after the Crusades, perfectly displays their decorum of
20
polemical language and actions concerning Saracens (Hall, VII-XV). This image displayed in
King Horn fits perfectly in the decorum concerning Saracens of the Middle Ages around the
time of the Crusades (Tolan, 69). The approval of the conquests of Christian lands by the
Muslims through their religion (Tolan, 39), the approval of “Jihad” to expand their faith and
territories (Tolan, 35-36) which I named in above did show the threat Islam and Muslims
posed to the faith and territories of the Christians in the Middle Ages. However, since the
opinion of the church was of great importance at the time, the decorum was that Muslims
were “[…] idolaters who had polluted the holy city […] with their profane rites” (Tolan, 69)
while the fact that Islam also granted Christianity quite some religious freedom (Tolan, 34-35)
was ignored. Around the time of the Crusades, “the Seljuk Turks” ruled in the East and
conquered a part of “Byzantium”. “the Fatimids” ruled south of Europe in the current North
Africa. Then “the Berber Almoravids” conquered the land on the North-West border of
Europe. During the Crusades, these Muslim groups fought in unity to beat the Crusaders
(Rosenwein, 177-180). During the Middle Ages, England was under ongoing attacks from
“the Vikings”, and the king had a hard time dealing with them and the Danish settlers on his
lands. Finally, they settled an agreement that “the Danes” would live under the “AngloSaxon” rule, while they kept their own politics (Cook and Herzman, 162). These political
events might explain why in King Horn the exact whereabouts of the Saracens are not
specified (Hall, 3-89) and why Speed explains the possible whereabouts and origins of the
Saracens as Danish, since she sees them as Vikings who invaded England in the Middle Ages
(585-595). Most of Europe had a “feudal system” in which a king would grant land to his
lords, who would divide this again into smaller plots of land for their inferiors (Cook and
Herzman, 167-168). These people owed their protection to the king as reward for their lands
(Cook and Herzman, 170). The Crusades could be denoted as “wars to win back the Holy
Land from the Muslims”. It was not the first time such wars were fought: in Britain the
21
Christians also fought against enemies but this time in the form of “the pagan Danes” (Cook
and Herzman, 188). The Crusades started with “[t]he Byzantine Emperor” who wanted “to
win back the Holy Land” (Cook and Herzman, 188). The Crusades were not all very
successful, but after the first Crusades, so-called “Crusader States” were formed, being the
“County of Edessa”, the “County of Tripoli”, the “Principality of Antioch” and the “Kingdom
of Jerusalem” (Rosenwein, 196-197). These flourishing Christian areas got their Islamic
counterparts in “the Maghreb” ruled by “the Almohads” and “Saladin” took over the south
eastern lands on the European border, who fought fiercely against the Christian Crusaders
(Rosenwein, 219-221). He fought back the Christians until “the Crusader states” were almost
nonexistent. After a while, “Saladin”’s rule had to succumb to the overruling power of “the
Mamluk Sultanate”, which ruled until the sixteenth century (Rosenwein, 221). This political
climate of Crusades and religious disputes and threats of strange peoples conquering nearby
lands could explain the negative image of Saracens in King Horn, since the decorum of the
Crusades was to fight for your faith, the image of Saracens put forward around the times of
the Crusades was very black and white (Cook and Herzman, 5: Rosenwein, 190-195).
2.2 Sir Tristrem
Concerning Sir Tristrem, the most important concepts which determine its image of Saracens
are the use of vocabulary used and actions in the story. The story presents the Saracen Sir
Palamydes first as a brave, courteous knight who defences his honour in duels and behaves
according to knightly virtues (Mallory, 273-317). However, when he takes Lady Isolde with
him, with whom he is in love, the protagonist Sir Tristrem protests for the king is afraid that
Sir Palamydes will “devour” (Mallory, 319) Lady Isolde. This makes Sir Palamydes from “a
good knight” (Mallory, 307) a “mortal foo” (Mallory, 321). However, when Sir Tristrem in
the following duel wants to kill Sir Palamydes, Lady Isolde begs him not to do that for she
22
takes pity on him (Mallory, 321-323). This turns Sir Palamydes from a “mortal foo” into “[an]
unhappy Saracen” (Mallory, 321).
The time frame in which the Middle English version of Sir Tristrem by Mallory,
which I used for my research, was written is the latter half of the fifteenth century (Mallory).
This version of the story of Sir Tristrem is based on the first example of Sir Tristrem treated
in the courtly way. That earliest example was Sir Tristrem, written by “the Anglo-Norman
poet Thomas”, a work in verse of which almost nothing survived (Lupack). Concerning Sir
Thomas Mallory, this presumably is “Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revell in
Warwickshire”, a layman who earned the title “Sir” and who was summoned to court for quite
a number of offences. He also fought in the “War of the Roses” on the Lancastrian side, but
he switched sides twice. Therefore, the heroic story of Sir Tristrem is most likely to have been
written by a criminal doing his sentence (Greenblatt, 438). Concerning this evidence on Sir
Mallory, my educated guess would be that the elite milieu of Sir Mallory and his switching
sides in “the War of the Roses” might have given him insight in the human side of society and
gave him a humanist perspective (Greenblatt, 438). That would explain the open attitude
towards Saracens in his version of Sir Tristrem perfectly (Mallory, 273-338). Additionally,
many writings from the Middle Ages say Mohammad is too lustful towards the opposite sex
and he preaches sex as a good, pleasurable thing to Saracens by promising them pleasurable
things in the afterlife (Tolan, 156). This might explain why in Sir Tristrem the king fears that
Lady Isolde will be “devoured” by Sir Palamydes when he takes her with him (Mallory, 317319), and why the positive attitude towards Sir Palamydes all of a sudden becomes a hostile,
negative attitude (Mallory, 273-319).The social and political context in which Mallory’s Sir
Tristrem was written, was one of great wars which turned the map of Europe around, of
economic adjustment to the diminished population of Europe due to the “Plague”, of big
chances in the church and of new inventions (Rosenwein, 305). From the beginning of the
23
fourteenth century until half way the fifteenth century, England and France fought their
“Hundred Years War” for English rule over France. This war left France ruined, but after it
ended in “1453” (Rosenwein, 312) France quickly became as prosperous it was before. In
England, the loss to France lead to a similar misery: “the Wars of the Roses” (Rosenwein,
318): the houses of “York” and “Lancaster” fought over the English “throne” (Rosenwein,
312-318). Due to these wars among the nobility so-called “super-princes” (Rosenwein, 319)
emerged: mighty and wealthy men with their own armies and weaponry. While the “superprinces” established themselves, the peasantry also provoked havoc: they wanted more
political freedom and independence, which lead to the peasantry collecting taxes in
“Flanders” (Rosenwein, 321) and the “end [of] serfdom” in “England” (Rosenwein, 322;
Rosenwein, 319-323). Because of “the Black Death” (Rosenwein, 323) that shocked Europe
the economic system that Medieval Europeans were used to had to be adjusted to the new
diminished population and the new needs of this population (Rosenwein, 323-324).
Concerning the church times were also very turbulent in the fifteenth century, since “the Great
Schism” occurred (Rosenwein, 324). In this period, “popes” fought over the right to “the
papacy”, and at this point, three different “anti-popes” ruled: one in “Avignon”, one in
“Bologna” and one in “Rome”. To counter this development, a group of elite who wanted to
solve this clerical problem was instituted, at their second meeting they succeeded in
appointing a new pope at “Rome” to replace the other three (Rosenwein, 324-325). During
“the Renaissance”, which already advanced in the fifteenth century, the culture of the Middle
Ages was substituted with a love for the Classics (Rosenwein, 327-328). “Humanism”
became very popular, the stream of thought concerning the nonexistence of the afterlife, and
the belief in an “ethical and fulfilling live[-] on the basis of reason and humanity” (What is
Humanism?). It also put the purity concerning the Classics forward, and it degraded the recent
past, those years that we now call Middle Ages (Rosenwein, 328). This might explain the
24
open attitude towards Saracens in Sir Tristrem, since the attention for the positive and human
side of Sir Palamydes (Mallory, 273-317; Mallory, 321-338), such as the scene in which Lady
Isolde begs Sir Tristrem not to kill “that unhappy Saracen” (Mallory, 321) relates to the
reasonable and human attitude of “humanism” in the “Renaissance” (Wat is Humanism?;
Rosenwein, 327-328). “The Great Schism” (Rosenwein, 324) and new inventions of “the
Renaissance” (Rosenwein, 327) also gave birth to religious reform, which later showed in
history with the establishment of among others “Protestant groups” (Rosenwein, 342).
Additionally, with the invention of “the printing press”” the growing need for books was met.
This lead to a greater availability of books and consequently, more people becoming learned
(Rosenwein, 342-343). Furthermore, concerning “navigation” also new inventions were done,
which made it easier to “navigate” at sea (Rosenwein, 343). The “voyages” (Rosenwein, 343)
of discovery and travelling for trade relations increased in the fifteenth century, with fleets
travelling as far as the current America’s and Indonesia. This also lead to an increasing
contact with Saracens since the Crusades (Rosenwein, 267-270; Rosenwein, 343-344). This
might also explain the open attitude towards Saracens in Sir Tristrem, since in the fifteenth
century people could understand much more of the Saracens since they had had more
possibilities to meet them and experience their culture. The voyagers on “voyages” of
discovery brought back spices, “slaves […] honour and glory” (Rosenwein, 343). These
“voyages” (Rosenwein, 343) gave birth to “European colonialism”, which meant scaring
away the natives and taking what you want from their lands (Rosenwein, 344). Concerning
the Saracens, in “1453” “the Ottomans” conquered the Byzantine Empire, which lead to a
vast, great Islamic front in the East and the final defeat of the European ally in the East
(Rosenwein, 310).
As becomes visible through the discussion of the cultural and political background of
the centuries in which the versions of King Horn and Sir Tristrem that I used for this thesis
25
were written, the cultural and political developments of the fifteenth century and the thirteenth
century could very easily explain the more open and nuanced attitude towards Saracens
displayed in Mallory’s fifteenth century version of Sir Tristrem (Mallory, 273-338) compared
to the negative attitude towards Saracens in the thirteenth century manuscript copy of King
Horn (Hall, 3-89).
26
Conclusion
3.1 Outcome of My Research
Concluding, what did my examination of King Horn, Sir Tristrem, the works of other writers
on these romances and the political and social context tell about my research question whether
the image of Saracens in the late Middle English romance Sir Tristrem (Mallory) and the
earlier Middle English romance King Horn (Hall, VII-XV) differs from each other and what
the possible reasons might be if any difference occurs? During my research on both works I
discovered that King Horn depicted a more negative view towards Saracens as Sir Tristrem,
which was more nuanced on the image of Saracens. These attitudes towards Saracens could
be explained by the timeframes in which they were written: the version of King Horn that I
used for this thesis was written in the late thirteenth century (Hall, VII-XV) while Mallory’s
Sir Tristrem was written in the fifteenth century (Mallory). The thirteenth century saw a very
negative attitude towards Islam and Saracens, since most Christians could not acknowledge
their defeat in the Crusades and therefore started writing “polemical” or “apologetic” works
on Islam and its followers (Tolan, 171-173). The Crusades themselves were also fought since
the church claimed that the Saracens as “idolaters who had polluted the Holy City […] with
their profane rites” (Tolan, 69). Furthermore, since the Crusades were seen as God’s torn for
Christians which were not pious enough, the image of Saracens was not depicted very
positively (Tolan, 42). Moreover, the “Jihad” of Saracens to expand their religious and
political territory, visible in Europe being surrounded by Saracens in the thirteenth century,
stressed the fright Christians felt for Saracens at that time (Tolan, 35). “The Almoravids” in
fact ruled the lands at the South-Western border of Europe, “the Fatimids” ruled current
“North Africa” and “the Seljuk Turks” ruled in the East (Rosenwein, 177-180). Since
Europeans of the thirteen hundreds did not know very much about the Muslim peoples, and
they did not meet them very often, it was very easy to adopt a negative attitude towards these
undefined, strange peoples (Tolan, 3-4). This is also visible in the undefined meaning of
27
Medieval Muslim peoples, since they are named by various notions, such as “Jew”, “pagan”
or “heretic” (Tolan, 3).
While the thirteenth century in which King Horn was written (Hall, VII-XV) saw a
negative attitude towards Islam and its followers, this attitude became more nuanced in the
fifteenth century when Mallory’s Sir Tristrem was written (Mallory). This attitude is again
explainable through the timeframe in which Mallory’s work was written. In the fifteen
hundreds, Europe was tortured by “the Plague” and continuous wars, which left less room to
think about foreign enemies such as Saracens (Rosenwein, 305). Additionally, the church
faced internal struggles through “the Great Schism” which saw “the papacy” divide itself into
three different “popes” and restore peace again by appointing a new person as the head of the
church in “Rome” (Rosenwein, 324-327). “Humanism”, a philosophy centred around a way of
life concentrating on “reason” and humane behaviour (What is Humanism?), was rising
(Rosenwein, 327-328). Additionally, through the increasing “voyages” (Rosenwein, 343) of
discovery and travels in order to trade, more Europeans got into contact with Muslims which
humanised these former strange people (Rosenwein, 343-345). Furthermore, politically, “the
Byzantine Empire” was defeated by “the Ottomans”, who founded their stable empire,
thereby taking away the constant fear for Muslim attacks (Rosenwein, 310). The negative
attitude towards Saracens in King Horn is therefore easily explainable through its social and
political context as is the nuanced attitude towards Saracens in Sir Tristrem, which was
written two centuries later (Hall, VII-XV: Mallory).
3.2 Possibilities for Future Research
In this thesis I only had the opportunity to examine two works with respect to the image of
Saracens, but in the future more plays and prose ought to be examined and compared in order
to get a better view of the general image of Saracens in the Middle Ages. Additionally, it
might be interesting to see whether prose and plays (thus genre differences) display a different
28
image of Saracens, or whether studies from the Middle East on Islamic works on Christians of
the Middle Ages display the same kind of image of Christians as Christians depict of
Muslims. A research angle that becomes increasingly important is how and why the image of
Saracens or Muslims still seems to be the same as in the Middle Ages. In fact I find it striking
that the polemic and apologetic rhetoric visible in the timeframe of the thirteenth century
work King Horn (Hall, VII-XV; Tolan, 69) still is visible in the anti-Islam rhetoric of Geert
Wilders today (PVV, 13-17). How this recurring negative attitude towards Islam can be
explained is a topic which is definitely worth investigating in the future.
29
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