The Old Code: His Blade Defends the Helpless
Here’s an ideal I think we can all get behind, an ideal that the Western World seems obsessed with, so that the question becomes; ‘what does helpless mean?’ Well the answer would be someone who cannot defend themselves.
But who cannot defend themselves? Is it a choice? I know it seems like a very easy question to answer and to be mere semantics but arguably in the pre-modern world it was easier to answer. It meant women and children. Certainly it could men, usually those too young or too old to protect themselves, or too sick in some manner to do so. It could also mean the clergy as they were forbidden in some cases from defending themselves, and the reason many monks refused to pick up arms such as Prior Philip in the incredibly well written Pillars of the Earth, was that it was believed that violence was bad and therefore to be deplored.
Admirable belief, but it means that defence of such folk as Philip fall on the Bowens’ of the world and upon those who believe that the Strong should stand with the Mighty but only ever in defence of those weaker than themselves.
Helplessness is not something to be glorified or gloried in, or to be shunned as people would do in the Modern world. It should be recognised, and those who currently find themselves helpless should be uplifted so that they might someday defend another also. But if this cannot be done quite so directly than let us simply recognise reality, and accept it for what it is.
The Blade that defends the helpless is the blade of Gawain from the Arthurian legends, the ‘Maiden’s Knight’ got his title when he accidentally slew an innocent maiden who rushed out to throw her head atop that of her homicidal husband. Down went the blade and Gawain was utterly traumatised for life, and was to swear to always serve every lady he came across.
His blade was that which defends the helpless, it is why he serves as such an inspiring icon; he defends the helpless in particular women and children against all who might menace them. This is his duty as a knight, and it is what he also does to atone for his inadvertent sin, so that the only way to achieve redemption for him is through service to others. An admirable notion.
As to characters such as Kara in Dragonheart, the Shieldmaiden archetype in traditional literature such as that of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings where Eowyn takes up the defence of her dying uncle/adoptive father, these are two fine examples. But the trouble is that traditionally it has fallen on men and so it will in the future, to protect the ladies in their lives.
This is not intended to lower women, but rather for men to live up to an ideal and to feel needed. It is a simple desire and it is one that allows him to ensure he is doing the right thing, and it was once understood as natural for him. Just as it must be acknowledged that it is so for the Eowyns & Karas of the world.
The ideal of defending the helpless is one that to an extent philosophically goes back to Scipio Africanus’s day, when during the Punic Wars Hannibal’s army crossed the Alps. True the Romans committed countless sins under the likes of Sulla later, and even Caesar, but before their time the Romans had pushed for a war with Carthage. This was back in the 200s BC, and at the time Carthage and Rome were locked in a death-battle of epic proportions. Hannibal won the early advantage, as the Romans preferred to charge rather than think.
If they had taken time to think they’d realise the simplicity of Barca’s tactics, and could have easily defeated him. But they were possessed by the natural urge to defend their homeland and so rushed in without thinking. The thing about the blade that defends the helpless is that it must be utilised intelligently, never fight stupidly as the Romans learnt at Cannae.
The Roman legions of the day though, were to under Scipio fight not only well but smartly to defend their homeland, and took the fight to Africa where against all odds, they fought and defeated Hannibal (in spite of being outnumbered and outgunned). Hilariously they used Hannibal’s own stratagem to mock and defeat him in turn. Historians are still mad that Scipio won for some reason, as they dislike the Romans to a large extent for some reason.
That said the Romans’ sought merely by the time of Zama to defend what was theirs, the legions that fought under Scipio wished to defend Italia, to finally end the conflict not to destroy. Destruction for Carthage came almost 70 years later for those who might quibble.
As to the Legios of later days from the time of Rome’s golden age, they were there to defend the borders and marches and to thus keep the barbarians out. This meant that what was helpless? Weirdly the people of the Empire, so that the duty of the men who served in the legions were tasked with this almost sacred duty.
It should be recognised that knights were supposed to aspire to this ideal but didn’t always live up to it. But in literature they certainly often do as is the case of Roland, Gawain, Arthur and countless others such as Merry, Pippin and Bowen, and Conan the Cimmerian.
The reason men should aspire after this ideal isn’t simply because he needs to feel necessary, but it is because it highlights the virtue of duty. Duty as an ideal is a beautiful one, it suggests that when called to right action men shall answer, men shall help others and recall naturally that to be a man means to sacrifice. There is no shame in this fact, but rather it is why the traditional man is celebrated so high and so much.
The sacrifice of the likes of say Bilbo who gave up all that he had to protect and raise Frodo, cannot be measured in words. Or what of that of the likes of Huma from Dragonlance? Who gave up his life to die in torment, all so that he might seal away Takhisis for a thousand years, and keep her evil out from the world of Krynn. Or for older literature, the likes of John Silver who sacrifices all that he could for his beloved wife only to compromise his honour what little there is left for Jim Hawkins, when the lad redeems him and believes in him? And then there is the likes of Ivanhoe, who sacrifices for his loved ones. Or there is the example of Musashi in the Musashi novel, or even that of Merlin sacrificing to help bring up Arthur alongside the boy’s foster-father.
These are all great examples of men sacrificing for others. This is what it means to defend the helpless, it is a symbolic ideal tied with the notion of sacrifice and duty. It is something that ought to be natural for men and ought to be done especially for those he loves.
It is also why superheroes have had so much cache in American culture, or the likes of Zorro. Such characters embody the heroic ideal of defending another, and of helping others. Characters such as Superman, and Zorro seek only to the best of their capabilities to defend their fellow men, and women and children who cannot defend themselves against the monsters that plague them.
There is a reason Superman’s last words in the story where he dies is to ask after the civilians of Metropolis. Why Zorro goes so far for his people, he feels a sense of duty and love for them all, so that he seeks to protect them from those who would otherwise rob and despoil them.
In the Mask of Zorro movie this means shielding the people from the Robber-Barons who would put them all in chains and defying all the odds.
In the Superman mythos, it is why Superman constantly fights against those mightier than himself, such as Darkseid, Doomsday, Mongol and others. Why the likes of Green Lantern fights so ardently against the likes of Sinestro, Atrocitus and many others, why Batman seeks to defy the likes of Ra’s Al Ghul, Two Face, Hush and Falcone.
The blade that defends others is important, also as Mathias discovered in Redwall, and why the ideal is one that must be matched with compassion, moral rectitude and courage/valour.