Round Table

He introduces all sorts of courtly elements to the text.

He, so far as we know, is the inventor of the round table.

Our very first mention of the round table is in Wass's Roman de Brut or Romance of Brutus.

He's He's a very important figure in the history of Arthurian literature.

Chrétien is definitely the pioneer of Arthurian romance, but the transitional figure is Wass.

I'm a little bit biased against Mallory as having sort of the final word on what Arthur is canonically for English audiences.

Yeah.

Well, all I could say is that's spoken like a true medieval literary scholar now, but you know, Mallory is the source for most modern novelists, uh, And the storytellers who have tackled King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, he's the source, for example, for T.H. White's The Once and Future King.

Chapter 2 The Code of Chivalry The First Three Commandments The author begins by arguing that the true code of chivalry has often been misunderstood.

Later romances, especially those surrounding the round table, helped to create the popular image of chivalry as a world of courtly love, elegance, adventure, and gallantry.

But the older chivalry of the 11th and 12th centuries was, in his view, something harder, more religious, and more closely connected with war, duty, and the Crusades.

He reduces this older code of chivalry to ten commandments, and the first three form the foundation of everything that follows.

By the 13th century, however, he believes that the first signs of decline were already beginning to appear.

One cause of this decline, in the author's view, was the changing nature of medieval romance.

The older heroic literature had celebrated war, loyalty, religion, sacrifice, and the defense of Christendom, the newer romances of the Round Table increasingly emphasized adventure, courtly love, elegance, enchantment, and personal glory.

The author is particularly critical of this development, because he believed it changed the image of the ideal knight.

And it completely recontextualizes the mythology of King Arthur.

It follows him from his innocent boyhood, where he is known simply as the Wart, all the way through the triumphant rise of Camelot, the establishment of the Round Table, and the eventual, agonizingly tragic fall of his kingdom.

The educational mechanism in the first part of the book is utterly fascinating to me.

His tutor is the wizard Merlin, who famously lives backward in time.

White is using the animal kingdom to give Arthur a PhD in political science.

So Arthur takes all this incredible education and he tries to build a perfect society.

As the later books progress, White examines the high, shining ideals of the Round Table.

Arthur looks at the brutal, warlord-driven world around him and tries to establish a society based on a revolutionary concept.