“Inside the table's circle,
Under the sacred sword.
A knight must vow to follow
The code that is unending,
Unending as the table—
A ring by honor bound.”
Yes inspiration struck, and here is another Chivalry essay, one surrounding the Old Code of Dragonheart. A topic near and dear to my heart (and which I figured should be followed up on, while waiting for a copy of Charny’s chevalerie book).
This time it won’t be a single line, but rather a trio of them. We’ll start with ‘A knight must vow to follow,’ and work our way through the other two lines. This first part is simple, it does not hearken to the idea that a knight must always follow and serve. Sure he must follow the Code, but if others break it they have broken with him. It is that simple.
Many in power would probably like the line on its own, because it guarantees a willing slave. But as proven by Bowen in the movie Dragonheart, this line is bound up with the previous one and with the next two, and with the rest of the Code. A knight must follow, the Code.
Follow has also the ring of servitude to it in this context, but servant to what? Traditionally as has been harped upon previously, a knight is sworn to God, the preservation of ladies and to King/Country. So that in this way he was is no less a servant than a Samurai would be.
Truth is, knights just as all men who take up arms, should serve their country and countrymen/countrywomen above all else. The problem is that this is rarely what happens as brutes rarely abide by any code, and love doling out pain, though in some cases you do still have chivalry being abided by. The problem is that you need God as the highest authority in a state, less the thug in the street think he is exempt from all punishment unless he displeases an oligarchical madman up above him.
Knights must follow, in literature also because they follow in the literary traditions wherein the likes of Bowen, sure, but also Gawain and King Arthur exist. But not only them, but others such as the likes of Gimli and Conan the Cimmerian.
These latter two characters are two of the most chivalric characters to come out in the past century or so. Gimli is honestly Gawain in Dwarf-shape, and is easily one of the most kindly, impressive and valiant warriors to ever come out in fiction. A very serious figure (in the books, not the movies which subverted him), while as to Conan ever the rescuer of maidens and keen to uphold the rights of all Aquilonians, he follows and serves the customs and ideals of Aquilonia, even when it would be harder to do thus. Thus, he is servant and King over the realm, even as he is a knightly figure in his literature (most especially in Hour of the Dragon).
The Code that is Unending, is a great line. I love this one. The Code can never fully die, so long as a single man remembers it, it is bottomless and it is everything that men could hope for. It is unending in truth.
Bowen in Dragonheart thinks it dead, when he hits rock-bottom. Truth is, though others had forgotten the Code, he had not so that it still existed. This is ever the case, if one thinks about what a new friend of mine recently told me regarding Rome, ‘Rome is now an ideal, and anyone who carries her legacy in their hearts, carries forth Rome and is heir to her’. Powerful words, and it is the same for chivalry.
Anyone who carries the ideals in their hearts carries her in their hearts. Rome, was heir to the Greeks, and was to usher forth some of the finest poetry in history, some of the finest architecture and an ideal of civilisation one could imagine, an ideal of strength and justice that though not always just could prove itself to be for at least a century after Nerva’s death, and that had staying power for nigh on a millennia as something worth fighting for and dying for.
Rome herself had many of the ideals of chivalry first thought of, in part thanks to her Legions, who carried forth the duties of protecting the Empire from the outside world for centuries. After them, the likes of Charlemagne was to pursue the shadow of Rome and was to seek to emulate the ancient Empire, even as he tried to set a high-bar of civilisation and honourable behaviour for his vassals to follow after. He failed, to be quite blunt but the idea of chasing Rome was planted there.
The point here is that the Code is Unending, the ideals must be. The ideal of being servant to your fellow man, to treat them with kindness and to be valorous and strong when it’d be easier not to be, must be unending. Honour demands it.
When writing heroes, they must always take the harder path. Heracles in Legendary Journeys, must eventually fight against Dahak disguised as Iolaus, even when he’d prefer not to, if only to liberate his friend. Luke must redeem his father, even if it’d be easier to destroy him, Theoden must charge to his doom in the Pelennor Fields. He’s scared, frightened but courage is not the absence of fear but the overcoming of it, so that he proves himself the most courageous of the Rohirrim because he forfeits his own wants and desires in favour of charging forward. He knows he’s likely to fall, and despise wishing to see his beloved adoptive daughter Eowyn one last time, he charges. He never sees her again, and he accepts it but this only adds to the man’s greatness, as he places the needs of others before himself. He as knight and king is servant, and the Code that he is bound to comes first.
The Code is as unending as the table. The idea of the table in this situation, is not simply that it is a table to be eaten off of, but rather that the table represents the ideals and the civilisation. The Code/ideals of Camelot can never die.
And really if one thinks about it, the ideals of knighthood perpetuated by the Arthurianiac myths have become a mainstay and are unlikely to wholly die out. They will be reborn generation after generation, just as the myths of Troy and the stories of the likes of Charlemagne and Rome will be. Why? Because they are not simply good yarns, but come with them great ideals, great warnings of what not to do and counsel of what to do.
One should comport oneself with the selfless valour of Roland, one should be as good a friend as Olivier, or Gawain, or Legolas, and one should be as sincerely good as Gimli. One should love as he does, selflessly, without a second’s hesitation and do so with no thought to oneself, as he does, or as Aragorn & Conan do, or Samwise or King Arthur.
The table is unending, because the table is greatness. The greatness of our ancestors, who suffered and threw themselves into the killing fields that we might have more. The table is our heritage, and it is unending because we will in turn sacrifice ourselves upon it, for the next generation. The table is our civilisations and is to be passed down, sure it’ll be chipped, might lose a leg or three, might even on occasion end up heavily damaged and fall over. BUT it will in time be repaired, have new legs added, be propped back up and will be passed down.
It is unending, because the table was there before Arthur. His own legends are modelled after Charlemagne, who modelled himself in some manner after the Roman Emperors of old, who modelled themselves after the Princeps, who modelled themselves after Julius Caesar, who modelled himself after Marius, who modelled himself after the Gracchi brothers, who modelled themselves after the greatest of the Roman heroes, and the most self-sacrificing of them all Scipio Africanus.
Africanus himself modelled himself after his father and uncle, who did the same after the likes of Aeneas, that great inspiration to all Romans. What is more is that in the legends Aeneas clearly modelled himself after Hector, greatest of the princes of Troy, who sought after the example of his beloved father Priam.
Thus you see? The table is unending, it goes back into the mists of legends and songs, and goes back to the dawn of civilisation. And why shouldn’t it?
“Anyone who carries the ideals in their hearts carries her in their hearts. Rome, was heir to the Greeks, and was to usher forth some of the finest poetry in history, some of the finest architecture and an ideal of civilisation one could imagine, an ideal of strength and justice that though not always just could prove itself to be for at least a century after Nerva’s death, and that had staying power for nigh on a millennia as something worth fighting for and dying for.”
J’adore ça ! J’ai besoin de lire vos essais passés.
Thank you for writing on this topic!!!!!!!!!!!!!