Magic in Medieval Fantasy: An Ordinary Event Turning into Something Magical

Medieval and 16th century writers frequently used supernatural elements to tell their stories. Two stories that are examples of this writing with supernatural elements are “Beowulf”, written by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, and “Lanval”, from The Lais of Marie de France, written by Marie de France. Both writers use supernatural elements in their stories to reflect emotions such as love, evil, and power. The role of the supernatural in medieval writing helps writers to tell their stories by developing the theme and the emotions of the characters as shown in “Beowulf” and “Lanval”. “Beowulf” has many characters from the supernatural.

In the world of medieval literature the supernatural is a consistent theme, presented in extraordinary encounters, mysterious experiences and with magical objects such as potions, spells, and the prominent image of the green girdle of Lord Bertilak de Hautdesert’s wife in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Magic and the supernatural is seen as the driving force behind several narratives and acts as a method by which we might judge human achievement against that of a species that appears to be greater than us, akin to

Magic once ruled the land of Briton, before the time of King Arthur. Not everything was as it seemed, and truth was hidden by a veil of ugliness. When a lusty knight must prove himself to be a gentleman after he rapes a young maiden, he discovers that which every man wants to know: what women truly want. According to the tale told by the Wife of Bath, “Women desire to have sovereignty/ As well over their husbands as their loves, / And to be in mastery them above” (Chaucer 1044-1046). This statement means that to be masters over their husbands is the ultimate desire of all women. Therefore, the power women have in this time is the power over their husbands, and this power is what they truly desire. However, this is not a common occurrence,

Orual is not pleased with this negative portrayal of herself, but she has to admit that her ambitions took precedence over Bardia's personal needs.   Orual writes, "Heaven knows how we had tormented him, Ansit and I.  For it needs no Oedipus to guess that many and many a night, her jealousy of me welcomed him home to a bitter hearth" (202).

Literature during the medieval period is where magic and the supernatural are constantly present: in otherworldly encounters such as when the knight Lanval meets the lady who becomes his love, in the strange adventures experienced by knights on quests as Sir Gawain does, and in mystical objects such as the green girdle given to Sir Gawain by Lady Bertilak. Without the magic and otherworldly circumstances that exist in these stories, none of them would have been interesting and they probably wouldn’t have survived the test of time, and would not exist today for us to read. Having an element as fantastic as the supernatural being used in poems like Marie de France’s Lanval and the anonymously written Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, can be explained in different ways, including illogical manifestations being brought to life in order to carry the plot of a story, and to illustrate lessons about medieval society through magical and supernatural elements. Examples from Lanval and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight can be used as demonstrations to support these claims of how the supernatural serves its purpose in medieval literature.

The knights and heroes our parents tell us about in storybooks and bedtime tales that set our impressionable brains to rest breathe a simplicity untold by real life. There is always a knight who is always dashing and always wholly good in his intentions. His goal is a princess, who breathes beauty and distress as she squirms in the hold of dragons and giants who only hold the ambition of bullies and villains: to give the knight something to chase. We revel in these tales as children, but as we grow we ache for something more human. The knight often finds himself with tragic pasts and a guilty conscience, so much so that he is no longer shining or dashing or ever wholly good. The princess takes different forms, a dreamer in a world bent on dragging

When an author or historian writes an account of a medieval tale, it must be taken with a grain of salt. In other words, not everything the writer has to say is complete fact even if it is a historical tale. In every piece of literature, an author’s experience and life is blended into the story. Their lives and experiences cause them to perceive the medieval world differently. Some of them alter the Middle Ages to escape from the bleakness of their own time, write their own account into history, or attempt to solve an issue in their own time. This holds true with many of the

Love is always one of the most everlasting themes in the Arthurian stories. While referring to the famous love stories, Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Iseult are a kind of example, and another kind of example is Perceval. As we all know, Lancelot is often exemplified as the perfect image of a qualified knight, and the most unique quality of Lancelot as a perfect image of a lover is his staunch belief in love. However, he is isolated from the divine love and only limited in sexual self- love. On the other hand, the spiritual pursuit is the center theme in the story of Perceval. Both love and Christian charity emerge in the development of Perceval. The transformation of knighthood from erotic love, amor into Christian charity, caritas deeply

The Quest of the Holy Grail is an exciting tale that follows the adventures of King Arthur's knights as they scour the countryside for the legendary Holy Grail. Throughout their journeys, the knights engage in many exciting jousts and sword fights with a variety of enemies. The author of The Quest of the Holy Grail intends for the story to be more than just entertainment: the knights' search for the Holy Grail is analogous to the pursuit of morality and spiritual chivalry, showing success through asceticism, confession, chastity, and faith.

Magic, as refferred in this article, pertains to mystical, paranormal, or supernatural activity as it appears in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional realm of Middle-earth. In an unsent draft of a letter in 1954,[1] Tolkien argues that magia and goeteia are both used for good and bad purposes, but neither are inherently good or bad in

What is Evil? Is it, by definition the thing that comes into your life with the sole purpose of destruction or is it the thing that begins deep inside, causing internal friction? The concept of evil is defined through various forms of recollection and wears a multitude of faces, but somehow always manages to make itself known in the most peculiar schemes. The forms of evil depicted in Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by the Pearl Poet vary in terms of how each heroic figure handles the challenges created by their adversary. The protagonists of each epic face a unique form of evil that defines their fate in terms of whether or not honor and loyalty will be bestowed upon them following the completion of their tasks.

Before exploring the historical truths, it is important that some of the well-known tales, myths and legends are brought into the light. Many stories revolve around themes such as young Arthur pulling the sword out of the stone, the epic love/hate relationship between the wizards Merlin and Morgana, and the

Orsino is an unpredictable and inconsistent Duke who lives according to what his feelings are at that very moment. In the first scene we see him request for music to be played, and then suddenly becoming bored by the music. He requests for his servants to play a song that they had played for him before as he expresses his love for music, but then he quickly commanding them to stop, claiming that it was not as sweet as before. “If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it...Enough; no more. ’Tis not so sweet now as it was before.” (Orsino).

The concept of magic and magical creatures has been around for a long time, however, in the time period ranging from Beowulf to Malory's Arthur, there has been an evolution in attitudes and the consequent treatment of magic in medieval literature. The discussion of magic involves not only the disparity between Christian and pagan tradition but also of gender roles, most notably in the Arthurian mythos. Beowulf, Marie De France's Bisclavret and Lanval, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Sit Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur involve the concept of magic and magical creatures and consequently, illustrate the treatment of magic of their time.

For example, the English fairy tale teaches the reader to distinguish between good and the evil, empathize and help the weak, and believe in justice. The main heroes of this tale are the wolf from the evil and the cat from the good. The whole plot of a fairy tale built on a permanent clash between good and evil. The wolf is very tricky and dangerous. But humor softens the force of evil, which takes place in English weighty tale. Evil characters constantly ridiculed and often fall into the absurd, comic situations. This technique enhances the action that leads to the climax and denouement. Feature of fairy tales is that it is off from the real-time. Strict sequence of events creates a special fabulous time in which the cat has to overcome a series of tests before they will find happiness. Usually tale ends with the victory of good. Evil is punished. The wolf in full receives their just deserts for their actions. In the English fairy tales usually do not have a traditional beginning and end: “living – were”, “and I was there”. In the English fairy tale is a tragic denouement.