Queeste. Tijdschrift over middeleeuwse letterkunde in de Nederlanden. Jaargang 1997

Uncourtly knights and humiliated damsels in the Lancelot Proper
Bernadette Smelik*

Introduction

In the thirteenth-century Lancelot Proper, the first part of the Lancelot-trilogy,1 a great number of damsels and knights appear on the scene, only to disappear after a short while, usually without leaving a trace. Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court2 treats this aspect of the Lancelot Proper with great irony:

Hardly a month went by without one of these tramps arriving; and generally loaded with a tale about some princess or other wanting help to get her out of some faraway castle where she was held in captivity by a lawless scoundrel, usually a giant. Now you would think that the first thing the King would do after listening to such a novelette from an entire stranger, would be to ask for credentials - yes, and a pointer or two as to locality of castle, best route to it, and so on. But nobody ever thought of so simple and common-sense a thing as that. No, everybody swallowed these people's lies whole, and never asked a question of any sort about anything.3

This endless appearing and disappearing of minor characters is surprising and makes one wonder about their function in the narrative. At first sight, the narrative structure of interface4 and the wealth of characters5 give the impression of a disordered labyrinth. Closer inspection, however, shows that this labyrinth is in fact a well-organised structure, as shown by the studies by Elspeth Kennedy,6

Carol Chase7 and Frank Brandsma.8 The Lancelot Proper was very popular during the Middle Ages. More than one hundred (fragments of) manuscripts have survived to the present day. This popularity is not confined to French speaking areas: the Lancelot-story soon caught on in the Low Countries. Three translations into Middle Dutch have come down to us:9 two verse translations (one of the Préparation à la Queste preserved in the Lancelot Compilation10 and one consisting of 36 fragments, known as Lantsloot vander Haghedochte11 ) and one prose translation, attested by two fragments (the Rotterdam Fragments).12

The aim of this article is to elucidate the use of minor characters in the Lancelot-romance. It concentrates on the one aspect that is common to both the Old French text and its Middle Dutch translations: the structure of the story. An analysis will be given of the narrative functions of knights and damsels who are not mentioned by name by the narrator in the transition formulas.13 The material

for this article is taken from three episodes in the Lancelot-romance; (references will be given to the various editions of the Old French and Middle Dutch texts).14

Episode 1

Micha iv: lxxiii (1-11) 110-118; Sommer 5: 60-63; Lanceloet, pars 3: 10.947-11.174. In the Lancelot-narrative, the story is told of a damsel who arrives at the court of King Arthur. She tells Arthur that her lady, the lady of Galvoie, requests the help of Gauvain or Lancelot. She wants one of them to champion her cause. But neither is present at court: Gauvain is searching for Lancelot who, as rumour has it, is dead. The damsel then asks Bohort to help her. Bohort complies with the request and he accompanies the damsel to the lady of Galvoie.

Episode 2

Micha iv: lxxvii (1-6) 168-172; Sommer 5: 89-91; Lanceloet, pars 3: 13.445-13.630. Hector, a knight of the Round Table, encounters a weeping damsel in a forest. She tells Hector that she is crying because a valiant knight (Lionel) has been abducted by a cruel and disloyal knight (Teriquam). After describing the treacherous knight and warning Hector of him, she indicates the direction in which Teriquam went. Hector pursues Teriquam, provokes him and fights with him. In the end, however, he is imprisoned by the disloyal knight.

Episode 3

Micha ii: liii (24-25) 278-279; Sommer 4: 305-306; Lanceloet, pars 1: 399-424.

Micha ii: lv (1-10) 299-305; Sommer 4: 313-315; Lanceloet, pars 1: 1050-1252; Lantsloot: 5.195-5.354.

Micha ii: lix (1-5) 312-314; Sommer 4: 318-319; Lanceloet, pars 1: 1477-1561; Lantsloot: 5.486-5.562 (end is missing).

A certain damsel greets Dodinel, who is watching a fight between Sagremor and a minor knight. She asks Dodinel if he is one of those cowards who do not dare to accompany a damsel. Dodinel denies the accusation and she then asks him to

accompany her, which he does. When they are on their way they meet a knight, preceded by an ugly dwarf. The dwarf does not greet Dodinel or the damsel, but immediately tries to kiss her. A fight between Dodinel and the unknown knight ensues: the latter is defeated but not killed and he identifies himself as Malruc li Rous. After Malruc's submission Dodinel sends him to queen Guenevere to inform her that Dodinel is following a damsel. The dwarf subsequently tells Dodinel and the damsel that Malruc had ordered him to kiss all damsels accompanied by knights, thus providing Malruc with an excuse to fight these knights. Dodinel continues his trip with the damsel and arrives at a river bridged by a narrow plank. The damsel and Dodinel dismount, and she asks Dodinel to follow her across the plank. Dodinel, however, falls into the river. When he finally reaches the other side, the damsel has disappeared and a knight lies in wait for him. They fight, the knight wins and imprisons Dodinel. Later the story relates that the damsel who guided Dodinel to this place was forced by the knight to bring Dodinel to his castle.15

As observed by Twain, none of the principal characters ask questions about the reason for a fight or accusation, about the opponents, or about their destination. As one can see from these examples, damsels ask for assistance, provide a knight with useful information, warn and challenge knights. Minor knights fight with principal knights. When the minor characters are defeated, they are sent to the court of Arthur, or to another court, as happened to Malruc li Rous. The knights usually provoke the principal characters before the fight starts. The provocation can take the form of a prohibition (for example not allowing passage across a bridge), or the provocation can be performed by another minor character, like the dwarf in the Dodinel-episode and the damsel who guided Dodinel to the plank bridging the river.

But why do so many of those damsels and knights appear in the course of the narrative? What is their contribution to the story-line? To rise above the level of the incidental similarities and dissimilarities that appear in the adventures, the actions of the characters will be submitted to the concept of ‘function’ as introduced by Vladimir Propp in 1928 in his Morphology of the Folktale.16 Propp's definition lies at the basis of the analyses in this article. He gives the following definition of function: ‘Function is understood as an act of a character, defined from the point of view of its significance for the course of the action’.17 In other words, ‘function’ is something a character says or does that has its consequences and implications for the development of the story. Considering the examples of adventures given above, the question arises what actions of minor characters can be labelled as functions, and following this, what kind of functions there are in the Lancelot-romance.

The functions of the minor characters in the three episodes

In the episode where a damsel requests help for the lady of Galvoie, the damsel conveys the message that her liege-lady is looking for a knight who will fight for her. This is the first action of a minor character in this episode and it can be described as the relaying messages function. The definition runs as follows: a character is sent by one person to another one to take a message or to gather information (either overtly or covertly). A knight, Bohort, complies with her request and the damsel guides him to her lady. This activity can be identified as the guidance function: a character guides a principal character to another character. Both functions are common in the Lancelot-narrative.

In the second episode summarized above (where Hector meets the weeping damsel) the damsel informs Hector of what has happened to Lionel. This undertaking can be characterized as the information function: a character gives information concerning past and/or present events to one or more of the principal characters. The information may either be solicited or unsolicited. The weeping damsel also warns Hector to leave Teriquam alone. Her behaviour can be marked as the warning function: one or more characters warn the principal character not to undertake something that may turn out to be unpropitious for him. At the end of the episode the damsel indicates the direction in which Teriquam went. This can be called the reference function: a minor character informs a principal character of the whereabouts of an activity, often the site for a fight. Hector fights Teriquam and is defeated. This event has the function of determining the hierarchy as it shows that Teriquam is a better knight than Hector. This function can be defined as follows: a character fights a principal character. These are also quite common functions for minor characters in the Lancelot-narrative.

The third episode, Dodinel's adventure, presents us with new examples of the functions of guidance (the damsel) and determining the hierarchy (the fight with Malruc li Rous and the knight who lies in wait across the stream), but it also illustrates a new function: both the damsel and the dwarf provoke Dodinel. Such an action can be described as the function of provocation: a character provokes a principal character.

The order of appearance of the functions

So far seven functions have been defined: relaying messages, guidance, information, warning, reference, determining the hierarchy, and provocation. At this point, the suggestion is that such functions can be used to explain the great number of damsels and knights in the Lancelot Proper. The next step in my analysis is to determine whether or not there is a certain order in the appearance of these functions.

The end of the first episode with the lady of Galvoie has not been related yet.

Bohort is taken to the lady of Galvoie, who explains her difficulties to him: Mariales has seized one of the castles that she had inherited from her father. She now needs a knight to fight for her against Mariales. On the following day the lady guides Bohort to the castle of Pelles, where the fight will take place. Bohort fights Mariales and defeats him. As a result of this, the lady of Galvoie regains her castle.18 The order of the functions in this adventure is first guidance (which occurs twice: first by the damsel, then by the lady), with in between information (the lady explains Bohort why she needs a knight to champion her). The adventure ends with the function of determining the hierarchy.

In the second episode the adventure begins with information (the damsel tells Hector what has happened to Lionel), followed by warning (Hector should not pursue Teriquam), and succeeded by reference (she shows Hector the way), and it ends with determining the hierarchy.

The episode with Dodinel is a complicated one. At the beginning of the adventure there is a provocation by a damsel. Next comes guidance, also by a damsel. And during this guidance, there is another provocation, this time by a dwarf; after this one can recognise the function determining the hierarchy in the fight between Dodinel and Malruc li Rous. Then there are the functions of relaying messages (Malruc li Rous who is sent to Guinevere) and information (by the dwarf who explains why he provoked Dodinel). After this there is a continuation of the guidance function by the damsel, and finally the function of determining the hierarchy in the fight between Dodinel and the knight across the stream.

One can conclude that an episode always has to be set in motion. This is done by the guidance, reference or provocation functions. At least one of these functions get the story going and this type of function can therefore be called story-propelling functions. Another function that always appears in the episodes is the function of determining the hierarchy. These two occur in the same order in every single episode, namely a story-propelling one at the start and the determining the hierarchy function at the end. These are the ‘basic’ functions. The remaining three, the functions information, warning and relaying messages, appear in different positions and sequences within this basic framework. These functions are called ‘optional’ as opposed to the basic functions. An episode can therefore be defined as an adventure in which the two basic functions occur. Dodinel's adventure then can be described as an episode with another one embedded in it. The overall episode relates the story of the damsel who guides Dodinel to the plank that bridges the stream and to the knight he has to fight there. The embedded episode is the one with Malruc li Rous and the dwarf.

The episodes turn out to have a stereotype pattern. But does this pattern give any clue as to the part played by the damsels and knights in the Lancelot-romance? In other words, is there a difference between the functions of damsels and the functions of minor knights?

Functions of minor character: damsels19

The function damsels most often perform is information, second comes guidance, and third reference. Less frequent are warning and relaying messages. It is striking that the damsels who are passing messages are always originally sent by a lady. If they carry messages from knights, it is only after they have been sent out to carry a message by ladies first. The story-propelling functions of the damsels (guidance and reference) are usually combined with the function information, as in the episode in the prose adaptation of Chrétien de Troyes' Charrette, where a damsel tells Gauvain and Lancelot where they can find Meleagant, who abducted the queen. She shows them the way to the bridge under water and the swordbridge, and tells them how to pass them.20 Damsels hardly ever provoke and never have the function of determining the hierarchy. That is, they do not establish the hierarchy in the same way that knights do.21 This last observation is not unexpected if one remembers that a fight between a knight and a damsel is not very honourable for the knight in question.

So how can one characterize the role of the damsel in this part of the Lancelot-romance? Joachim Bumke22 states that stories about women whose rights are being infringed, who are humiliated, tormented and beaten, often occur in courtly epic. He further observes that these stories form a peculiar contrast to the official glorification of women in this genre. Then Bumke says: ‘Aber es scheint so, als hätten die Erzähler diesen Gegensatz gar nicht bemerkt’.23 Is Bumke right in assuming that the authors24 themselves did not seem to notice this contradiction? The humiliations damsels undergo are most often inflicted by knights whose behaviour can be characterized as uncourtly. It seems that the principal characters either have to prevent these actions or to put an end to them. In this way the passive role of women in the Lancelot-romance (women who are being treated unfairly) incites the principal knights to courtly behaviour. In this respect, the Lancelot-romance is a narrative that is aimed at utile dulci or in other words: the pleasure one has when one reads or listens to the story is combined with the instruction of how one should behave and act in life.

Functions of minor characters: knights25

The function of determining the hierarchy is by far the most frequent one minor knights perform. It can be recognised in the many fights between knights of the Round Table and these minor knights. In this way the latter help in establishing a hierarchy among the former. As Rutledge26 has shown, there are two ways of setting up such a hierarchy in the ‘chevalerie terrienne’. The first method is that knight A releases knight B from prison. In most cases knight A will have to fight the knight who has defeated knight B. This third knight usually is a minor character. In this capture-release-pattern, the liberator has a higher position in the hierarchy than the knight he has released. The second way of establishing the hierarchy is a direct confrontation between two principal knights.27

Other functions which minor knights perform are relaying messages (usually after they have been defeated28 ), provocation, and information. But these do not occur as frequently as the function of determining the hierarchy.

Patterns of functions and the appearance of minor characters

The analysis has shown that knights and damsels each have clearly defined functions. Combined with the stereotype pattern of the adventure, it is plain that many episodes start with the appearance of a damsel and that they end with a fight between two knights. An exception is an episode that starts with a provocation. These provocations are normally performed by the minor knights or by dwarfs, the latter usually at the instigation of a minor knight. When a provocation begins an episode, a knight and/or dwarf arrives at the scene first and the adventure concludes with two knights fighting. That the episodes seem so different from one another is caused by the fact that details change from one adventure to another due to the use of the ‘optional’ functions and because of the alternation of simple and complex episodes in which an episode is embedded in another episode. It is clear that the narrative of the Lancelot-romance is less complicated than it seems at first sight.

Until now, attention has been paid to the function of minor characters in three episodes only. As mentioned before, however, the Lancelot-romance consists of an

enormous number of episodes which together give the impression of a confusing labyrinth of events. This apparent confusion is partly due to the narrative technique used. This interlacing technique causes bewilderment in the perception of the audience. It is difficult to keep the whole framework of the story in mind when it first deals with the adventures of one knight, then with those of another one, repeatedly switching from knight to knight. But as Elspeth Kennedy has pointed out in her study Lancelot and the Grail,29 and as Brandsma30 said a few years later, there are many cross-references between the different episodes. These cross-referential activities ‘have the general effect of tightening up the narrative process, of helping the reader as well as the characters to keep track of what is happening’.31 Some of the seven functions defined above can be seen as manifestations of cross-referential activities; for instance, the functions information, relaying messages and warning. When Malruc li Rous is defeated by Dodinel, for example, he is sent to court by the latter to inform the queen of Dodinel's actions and of the fact that Dodinel is following a damsel. In this way, the court is informed of Dodinel's whereabouts. Generally speaking, only the so-called ‘optional’ functions can imply cross-referential activities, because they sometimes provide information about adventures other than the one in which they occur. The story-propelling functions and the function of determining the hierarchy on the other hand, rarely have a cross-referential function. These basic functions form the framework of an episode and they describe actions of minor characters within just that single episode. To provide a closer look at the cross-referential activities of optional functions, I will discuss two examples.

Example 1: Micha iv: lxxi (5-8) 15-18; Sommer 5: 21-22; Lanceloet, pars 2: 7.128-7.293.

Guerrehet, brother of Gauvain, has just saved the life of the daughter of an old knight. As he takes her back to her home, he wants to make love to her. As soon as the damsel hears his name, she refuses: Guerrehet already has a sweetheart. She asks him about Lancelot. Guerrehet tells her that he himself is in search of Lancelot, together with some other knights of Arthur, but that it is feared that Lancelot is dead. The damsel praises Lancelot and says that if Lancelot loved her as much as she loves him, she would not trade him for the rest of the world.

This conversation emphasizes two things: first, the unfaithfulness of Guerrehet and, secondly, the reputation of Lancelot as a lover. The conversation also recalls the narrative threads concerning Lancelot and those concerning the knights who are looking for him. The damsel's statement cannot be interpreted as the information function, since she does not give Guerrehet information concerning a past or a present event. Her interest in Lancelot's wellbeing and her praise of Lancelot in fact only recall Lancelot's adventures and his reputation without referring to specific episodes. Her statement therefore can be defined as the function of recalling: a minor character asks one of the principal characters a question concerning

the wellbeing or whereabouts of another principal character (usually Lancelot) or a minor character undertakes something that brings out a certain characteristic trait of the principal character. An example of the second possibility mentioned by the definition is the comparison the damsel makes between Lancelot's ability to love and Guerrehet's, which shows that Guerrehet is an unfaithful lover. The function of recalling can be seen as mnemonic device, both for the characters and for the audience. In this example Guerrehet is reminded of his search for Lancelot and the audience, who has not been informed of Lancelot's whereabouts for some time, is reminded of his adventures, of the quest for him, and of one of the main themes of the Lancelot-romance, namely the love between Lancelot and Guenevere.

Example 2: Micha ii: xlvii (21-33) 177-183; Sommer 4: 260-262.

Agravain and Bohort meet a knight with a sword through one of his hands. Only the best knight in the world will be able to remove the sword. Agravain tries, but fails. Bohort does not even want to try, since he is of the opinion that Lancelot is the most outstanding knight in the world. Agravain gets angry and fights Bohort because he thinks Gauvain the most excellent one. Bohort wins the duel and Agravain has to acknowledge Bohort's opinion.

In this scene, both Agravain and Bohort are put to a test by this wounded knight. This testing can be described as the following function: a characteristic or distinguishing feature of a principal character is put to the test by a minor character. In this example the testing function refers to the theme of Lancelot as the most brilliant knight in the world.32

Both mnemonic functions work within the total framework of the Lancelot Proper and surpasses the framework of a single episode. They help the characters in the story to have up-to-date information about the events and whereabouts of the other characters. On the other hand, however, their aim with regard to the audience is to recall the different narrative threads of the knights, and to draw attention to the main themes of the Lancelot Proper. Another important aspect of these functions is that they stress that events which may seem far apart actually happen simultaneously. At the moment that Guerrehet is rebuked by the damsel, Lancelot has disappeared and several knights are looking for him. In this way the function of recalling strengthens the cohesion of the Lancelot Proper.

The mnemonic functions thus focus the attention of the audience on themes that relate to the Lancelot Proper as a whole. Analysis of these mnemonic functions show that they are mainly exercised by damsels. This means that the role of damsels, among other things, is to take care of the cohesion of the Lancelot Proper.The role played by the minor knights is of a different nature. As observed before, their role in the romance is an active one: they assist in establishing a hierarchy among the knights of the Round Table.