“Turk and I met over a Bloomin’ Onion. I like to think of it as a metaphor for our Bromance, ‘cause it’s delicious, but not so healthy.” -JD from Scrubs season 9, episode 2.
Fellowship of the Table Round is damned by conflicting family values… As I noted in the margins of Le Morte D’Arthur (somewhere in the middle of yet another slaying during the book of Sir Trystams de Lyones): eventually, someone will have to pay for all this slaying!
And pay they have. It’s fascinating that the very strength that built the fellowship is the strength that brings it down completely. These knight’s formed bonds out in the wilderness having adventures and their fame built the Round Table from an idea to the whole world’s aspiration. Yet these friendships, family factions and above all Bromances are what tear apart the table. Arthur expected everyone to hold the fellowship of the Rount Table first and personal issues second… he could have made them swear to this, but that wouldn’t have mattered (if lady’s heads can go out the window, so can a fellowship). They needed to believe in it (to use T.H. White’s phrase), but in the end how can so many strained alliances not come to a head?
We had several lovely bromances blooming (Trystam and Lancelot being the centrifugal force of Bromance to which all other bros aspired- Sir Palomydis, Percyval, Lamorac, and Gareth all have a go at broing it out with T & L, but though others may aspire to their Bromance no one may join in it… until Trystam disappears and Lancelot decides to keep his broings on in the family for the remainder of the book) and then it all falls apart. Well, like JD’s metaphorical Onion, the relationships forming within the round table are lovely on their own, but for the fellowship they are deeply unhealthy. You cannot have a love greater than the Table Round, and everybody does.
Let’s explore our key players loves that extend beyond the fellowship:
-Lancelot: Gwenevere, Saintliness, disguise.
-Arthur: Nothing… except maybe an instinct to protect his family even if he doesn’t like them as much as his pal Lance… whom he can always recognize even in disguise (whatever happened to L & A Bromance? By ignoring Lancelot’s formative year, Malory makes their relationship confusing and I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.
-Gwenever: Lancelot. Arthur (she seems to enjoy being around him, just not sleeping with him) and freaking out all the time in ways that confuse her character because Malory made a choppy Queen at best.
-Gawain: Orkney. Orkney. Orkney. Lady’s heads. Orkney…. wait, now I love Arthur! I did all along really, I just couldn’t show it… I get jealous of Lancelot…
-Aggravain: Chopping off his mother’s head and killing people in general.
-Mordred: Power. The occasional murder. Orkney (because it will = power)
-Gareth: Getting Lancelot’s love over his creepy brothers.
-Bors: Staying alive and keeping Lance out of trouble. Fat chance.
-Galahad: Jesus. I mean me. I mean Jesus.
-Kay: Getting people to notice he’s in the book since Malory gave all of his lines to Gawain.
-Sir Bedevere: Ditto, replace Gawain with Lancelot. The Welsh liked me. Stupid Frenchies.
-Everyone else: If they’ve stayed alive this long, they deserve a meddle. They won’t be alive much longer after the final battle.
You’ll notice I’ve listed some character conflicts as well as conflicts within Malory’s text. There’s really no point whining about it though, because even with flaunts listed and not listed Malory is the foundational text for all Arthuriana written after it (often subconsciously). It’s the first time everything had been assimilated into one text and even though I have raging fights with it on occasion, having completed it just now I can’t help but think.
Well damn, that’s a really good story.
&, feel free to argue this, but isn’t that the point?
I won't argue that it's a good story. It is! (Several, in fact...)
ReplyDeleteI do at times share your frustration with some of the unexplained gaps in the narrative(s) that Malory inherited and adapted; and yet I'm not sure that the Arthur-Lancelot relationship would be more satisfying to read about if it were less confusing, less complicated. I tend to *believe* it more because it's so variable, with true loyalty challenged by willfulness.
Poor Arthur. Everyone else has something/someone that they love, but all he really has is the ideal of the Round Table and of his fellowship, which, as you pointed out, is not nearly as whole as it seems. When you lay it out like this, it seems obvious that Arthur would choose the law over everyone else. The sad thing is that I don't think anyone else would do the same. In the end, the only one really fighting for the ideals of Arthur's court is Arthur.
ReplyDeletePoor Arthur.
Usha, I had that same sense of dismay for Arthur at the end of Malory. When we looked at the "wholly together" passage in class (sorry, I don't have my text with me), it really reinforced Arthur's personal investment in the Round Table Community, and made the ending that much more sad. I think you're right to note that no one else seems as invested in the "wholly togetherness" of the Round Table. Everyone else seeks to be individualized through a romance or another preoccupation. I suppose Arthur's downfall demonstrates the impossibility of every truly being "wholly together" as a community. It really struck me on finishing the text just how depressing the death of that dream is, and the death of Arthur who desperately wanted it.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is a good story, a great story and worth reading again. By the way it is Gaherys (spelling?) who chops off his mother's head for adultery but is killed (his brain pane)by Launcelot for 'protecting' the queen against the other knights. Talk of irony!
ReplyDeleteI dont want to disagree but I wouldnt call Gareth creepy. He is this Galahad alter ego. It's a wonder he didnt go sailing off after the Grail. I guess because he didnt in the original story and because Lyonesse trapped him with her beauty.
As for Gawain ... can anybody really call him creepy? Yes, he stabbed Lamorek in the back when the other brothers ambushed Lamorek in the forest. I cannot remember how everyone knows that it was Gawain. I feel uneasy about that murder as Arthur had sworn to protect Lamrek if he came back to the court, so one would think he would have spoken and warned his nephews. The other instance is how Launcelot taunts Gareth. Other than Malory telling us in the book of Sir Gareth that Gawain was envious I do not see instances of Gawain's evil behavior. After all he was king to Gareth when he did not know him.
Usha and Amanda, in the end, as the two of you pointed out, the book is really sad. Perhaps Malory is pointing out that ideals stand on a weak foundation and in a way is the dream of a particular individual (or group as the case may be. Others can never visualize what the ideal is to the idealist. We see that repeatedly in our modern communities. Someone's ideal/dream falls apart when that person weakens (as did Arthur through the expose-Guinevere plot/jealousy of Lancelot)or leaves this world. It also seems to symbolize that we must not put so much faith into temporal things as they are just that. Therefore, the Round Table cannot go on and the Grail is only achievable by the purist of the poor, Galahad and Percival. For the rest of us, the ups and downs of life.
ReplyDeleteI think the saddest part of Arthur, other than the deaths of Gareth and Gaherys, is when Arthur is injured and Sir Bedewere(?Dont have my book) at that moment (a knight of the Round Table no less) does not throw the sword into the lake but hides it out of greed. How awful at that moment for Arthur!Which of course reminds me, Arthur had the sword thrown into the lake to summon Morgan and the other ladies because for some reason he 'knew' that is what he was supposed to do? This part of the story is just as mystical as the beginning of Arthur when Merlin sets the stage for Arthur's conception and then has him removed from his parents. No one mentions what happened to his two half-sisters until he becomes king. I guess a myth has to be wrapped up in some mists, the mists of Avalon.