King Arthur Selfish

“The most unlucky generation is the one which couldn't produce a hero to look up to.” (Kalantri). As a young age, children start looking up to heroes. They begin to mimic them and mirror their actions. Clearly, heroes noticed the little eyes upon them and knew that a proper way to act needed to be scripted. This led to the code of chivalry. To be honorable of the code of chivalry, you had to have courage, honor, and manners. These characteristics were put together during the days of King Arthur. King Arthur invented the round table and had knights surround this table. Each knight had to follow the code of chivalry. However, it was not unheard of for a hero to present these qualities before the days of King Arthur. In The Iliad, Achilles proved to have these qualities while he was fighting

The famous story of Knights of the Round Table is well known. King Arthur is the figure at the heart of the Arthurian legends but the Knights of the Round Table play an important part in the story and legend of King Arthur. “Various ceremonies were attended and oaths made before a man could become a knight”(Web). The basis for the code of Chivalry followed by King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were Honour, Honesty, Valour and Loyalty. “The Code of Chivalry dictated that a Knight should be brave and fearless in battle but would also exhibit cultured Knightly qualities showing themselves to be devout, loyal, courteous and generous”(Web.) King Arthur chose the Knights of the Round Table to show that the knights shows the characteristics of The Code of

Whats a good medieval romance without chivalry? The combination of qualities expected of an ideal knight, especially courage, honor, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help the weak. “The world of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is governed by well-defined codes of behavior. ... The ideals of Christian morality and knightly chivalry are brought together in Gawain's symbolic shield. The pentangle represents the five virtues of knights: friendship, generosity, chastity, courtesy, and piety.”

In two stories there is a code that knights follow. Chivalry is the code that they follow. The code says that a knight should be a brave warrior, a good christian, and selflessly fighting for justice. The knights are supposed to fight for their king and queen. In the stories Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and from Morte d’Arthur they show the idea about chivalry.

There are many misunderstandings with the word chivalry, one of them being that the knight never actually swore an oath of chivalry until later in the middle ages. Chivalry was a word that was created by French-speaking English nobility, during the medieval period. The word originates from the French word cheval meaning horse, and the French word Knecht meant knight, by putting the two words together, we get the word chevalier which meant horseman. During the early medieval ages, a knight was known as a chevalerie which meant horseman. Then the lords, who ruled over the

     An act of chivalry is described as the qualifications or character of the ideal knight. Knights were expected to uphold this code of conduct. In the English literature Le Morte d?Arthur, French for ?The Death of Arthur?, by Sir Thomas Malory, the characters display acts of chivalry from beginning to end. Though the code of chivalry contains many qualities or acts, nevertheless bravery, loyalty, and courtly love are demonstrated more throughout this literature.

Chivalry is the type of thing that would be great to have in our society but I don’t believe that it exists too much anymore in the world today. Let me break down here some of the chivalry rules compared with the actions of the people of the current world.

A king was expected to sit on his throne, give demands to his people and rule his kingdom. It is unheard of for a medieval King to charge around on his horse and organize knights or to look for the Holy Grail. According to the information that has been given; King Arthur has fought in twelve battles. However, based on the facts, these battles took place in so many different times and places that it would have been impossible for one man to participate in all of them. The actions of King Arthur do not correspond with the typical actions of a king because after the death of his mother, Merlin (the powerful wizard) took him away. Merlin gave young Arthur away to Sir Ector, who raised young Arthur as his son. However, Sir Ector did not know that young Arthur was the son of Uther Pendragon (King of Britain). Eleven years later, the young Arthur ends up pulling the sword out of the stone and becomes the king of Britain. For a kid to pull the sword out of the stone subsequently and being crowned after that event is very extraordinary.

The origin of the word chivalry is from the French term “chevalrie”, literally used to describe the characteristics of armed knights on horseback.1 It did not originally include the moral aspects which it had become later known for. Into the later times in the Middle Ages, chivalry began to be a more concrete code of conduct which was followed by the high class and knights.1

Introducing perhaps the most major difference between the two versions of Arthur is the age difference and experience. In First Knight, Arthur appears to be old and full of wisdom. His appearance is nearly identical to those of his knights. He does seem old enough to fit the ideal status and although he more so preaches that “rules”. Arthur also seems to think that he can make decisions without notifying or asking his knights first. The knights are naturally startled when one of their enemies enters the room. Arthur then says “Malagant is here on my invitation” (First Knight) referring to their former knight. His age becomes even more evident towards the beginning of the film Arthur remarks “As you all know, I am soon to be married, And about time too,

Chivalry was relevant in many ways in the Middle Ages. High expectations of virtuous and noble behavior on behalf of God, the church, and those the church marked as worthy of protection were the Christianized form of chivalry (Gregory-Abbott). “The ideal chivalric knight was brave, loyal, and determined as well as compassionate, just,

At this point in history the men who fought the wars were lead by their leaders with a code of chivalry. Chivalry can be explained as “the Anglo-Saxon code on steroids.” (McGee) Which is, explained further, a moral system for a good way to conduct fighting. The knights in Arthurian time went even further with that code to say that it was a way to conduct oneself not only in battle, but at all times. Knights, by being chivalrous, were kind to all people, fought well and true, kept faith and believed in the Christian God, and fought for their kings. Chivalry can be found across the Arthurian texts, The Song of Roland is one of the texts that has multiple examples of chivalry.

Meanwhile Arthur was growing up in Sir Ector’s house hold. He was ignored by Sir Ector and treated like a servant by his adopted brother, Kay. Kay was practicing to be a knight for as long as Arthur could remember and he was Kay’s sparring partner ever since he could take a punch.

Chivalry was considered to be the code of behavior expected of a knight. It was the conduct, ideas, and ideals of the knightly class of the Middle Ages. It became standardized and referred to as chivalry, a term derived from the French word chevalier, meaning knight. The code urged the knight to be brave, courageous, honorable, true to his word, and loyal to his feudal overlord, and to defend his Church. A knight was truthful, honest, capable, educated, physically fit, noble, sincere, and subservient to the king. A serious violation of these vows could result in a knight being classed as an undignified knight, which was the ultimate insult because of all the hard work that was put into becoming a knight. It made it seem as if all of work

Arthur did a lot of his work at the Camelot. The Camelot was the name of the place where King Arthur held court and was the location of the famous Round Table: (“Camelot, Court of King Arthur”). There were a bunch of people that went to the round table to help Arthur make decisions on what to do for his country. The Round Table is where court was held. It was allegedly fashioned at the behest of Arthur to prevent quarrels among the knights: (“Round Table”). The legendary King Arthur was