King Arthur's Literature: Courtly Love

Courtly love as seen in King Arthur’s tales

The tales of King Arthur and many of their numerous characters are well known in literature. The Arthurian world is one of the great myths of modern times. Those great pieces of literature have many common themes, one of them being courtly love “L’amour Courtois”. This paper talks of courtly love as seen in King Arthur’s world especially examining “Yvain or the Knight with the Lion” and “Lancelot: or the Knight of the Cart”. Furthermore, one of the goals is to show how that courtly love could be seen in today in our world.

In general, Courtly love was developed during the twelfth century in France. It was a celebrated and idealized form of sensual passion among the nobility. It often involved infidelity

on the parts of the parties. It would be wise to remember that, this was a time when people did not marry for love and often spouses lived separate lives, and knew very little of each other. Falling in love with one’s spouse was rare, and since the Church frowned upon sexual pleasure, married couples viewed sex as a way of continuing the lineage, not as an enjoyment. There was this idea that it should be alright or that at least it was beautiful for people to found love outside of the confinement of their marriage through secrecy. The limitations of the people from that time cause them to idealize this type of love .Often what is seen with courtly love is the knight is almost always certainly in love while it isn’t necessary for the woman in question to be. It mostly seems that in the tales, the knights are the one suffering with this love and the one that has the most to lose.

In King Arthur’s tales
In the tales of King Arthur, various version of this European literary conception of love that especially emphasized nobility and chivalry and is recognized by knights in various adventurous endeavors in order to please ladies in the name of love could be deducted. Courtly love in the tales In the Arthurian world, or at least in the tales, the ideal courtly love is beautiful, passionate and sacrificial. That love is seen as romantic, and to all reading and following the development of this love, it is seen as adventurous and limitless. The courtly lover seemed to exist only to serve his lady through this sometime invariably adulterous love. This love, although it can be socially and religiously sinful is seen as whole-hearted and delightful and certainly acceptable at least in literature. Often it seems to be the idea of being faithful only to one’s heart and its desires.
Often that love, which seems so beautiful, was between a man and woman that shouldn’t be together, in other word, a lady who was already involved and her lover.

Despite the fact that this lady was supposedly untouchable due to her status as “taken” this man or rather knight made it his mission to win her over or it was his mission to please her. This Knight would go to great lengths sometimes setting into long journeys, battling other knights and going into chivalric adventures in what is known as the other world. This knight or the courtly lover is like a slave to this passionate, romantic love for example in the tale “Le Chevalier de la charrette”, a courtly romance whose hero obeys every imperious and unreasonable demand of the heroine. A slave willing to put his own life at risk in order to show his love and passion for this one woman. For example, In “Lancelot, the Knight of Cart” Lancelot first part is a physical quest though driven by love, the knight tries to rescue Guinevere. However, once he finds her, he does not stop, he continued to quest in order to deserve her love. Even after they consummate their relationship in the tower, he must continue to do her bidding, suggesting that the quest for love never ceases. We see this untouchable love through his love and adulterous feelings for the queen, Lady Guinevere, this lady made untouchable through her marriage to King

Arthur.
Many times, that gesture and love that was seen as courtly love, that was seen as passionate was one-sided; some sort of forced love. That love rose out of rejection, it came out of the need for the woman in the superior position to have the love that she felt returned. Regardless, it can be said that the notion of courtly love is very complex and what is regarded as courtly love has a very wide perimeter. There is no simple definition of courtly love but if it were to put be put in words, courtly love would be a love sometimes forbidden or obstaclized between a Lady and a knight in which the knight goes through obstacles in the name of love. I found Shakespeare’s quote “The course of true love never runs smooth” to fit the idea of courtly love perfectly.
The Tales of King Arthur are full of this courtly love that is not easily defined. In “Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart” this courtly love is fairly obvious. In this tale, we have this mention of Lady Guinevere, King Arthur’s wife, having an affair with a Knight named Lancelot. Through this, we see the idea of forbidden love between a Lady who is married and a knight. Through the numerous obstacles he goes to when Lady Guinevere is taken and he sets out to get her back, even going through his knighthood being shamed in order to get to his lady in the name of love, we see the knight going through obstacles for/because of this lady. The love between Guinevere and Lancelot could be said to be beautiful and passionate; the idea of forbidden love, loving despite the fact that you shouldn’t be. The idea of loving passionately despite the fact that the lovers have to keep that passionate love under wraps, of sharing a night of passion here and there in order to satisfy their passion for each other. Guinevere and Lancelot’s love could also be said to be sacrificial after all, not many would put their lives at risk, not many would have their honor shamed, and not many would have dared set out to in dangerous adventurous that gets him captured all for this one woman that he sees as deserving to be the beneficiary of such sacrifices in the name of love.
The love we see in “Yvain or the Knight with the Lion” is different; it is not the same adulterous love as the Love between Guinevere and Lancelot but it nevertheless could be seen as courtly love. The knight Yvain goes through obstacles for his Lady Laudine first as a widow that he falls for despite killing her husband and later as his wife that he needs to gain back after being rejected. Taking out the adulterous, sinful factor almost seems gives the romantic love in this story another name, however, the nobility and chivalry that this knight endured for his Lady is what defines his love as courtly. Their love may not have been seen as forbidden as it was in Guinevere and Lancelot’s love story, but the idea that this knight killed this lady’s husband and made her a widow almost made her seem untouchable by him. To go further and add that he in turn falls for her and set out to conquer her heart is fantasy-like; that simple factor in their initial coming together we can agree almost seem forbidden like, as if it shouldn’t have been made possible.

Courtly love today
In today’s world, at first glance, one would say that this courtly love that is seen in the tales of King Arthur does not exist. It simply is this fantasy like love that could only be seen in books and Television. However, today we still value many of its customs and rituals. Courtly love, not specific to the tales of King Arthur is simply made of a set of code of behavior for certain people in love and in the grand scheme of things, the current society also has its set of codes of behavior , certainly different to accommodate social change. People no longer run away singing and writing poems to the one they love, and they certainly no longer sets out to fight but we still find modern day declaration of love in songs and even books. One example of what could be considered courtly love in modern’s day books could be found in the book “Hunger Games” through the characters of Peeta and Katniss. Peeta's love for Katniss in has strong aspects of this. He's deeply in love with her, has no real hope that she'll ever feel the same way, he thinks she's in love with her best friend Gale but is willing to die and kill for her without a moment's hesitation. Another example of that love in a popular fiction book would the love between the characters “ Edward and Bella” in the Twilight Sagas, where despite the fact that Edward is a vampire and cannot be with an human, he loves Bella and they set out to love each other despite the secrets. He revealed himself to her as he was and eventually surpass plenty obstacles in order to be with her.
Today, love is more a feeling of deep affection .It typically comes from the recognition of attractive qualities, natural attraction, or from sympathy. We show love in our concern for the other's welfare and pleasure in his or her presence. Whereas courtly love in the Middle Ages seems more of a certain suffering coming from loving one person where often it is a forbidden love and that love cannot or is not openly be reciprocated.
Upon a deeper analysis, factors that make up courtly love as seen in the Tales of King Arthur could be found here and there in this world. We see the limitless love through that young man relentlessly pursuing a young woman to the best of his abilities. We also see it through that young man or boy looking to impress that young woman or with gifts, words, and favors. Furthermore, we can define this limitless factor in such love today as the love of a man for a lady who has accepted to take a woman, to pursue a woman who comes with what most would call baggage. The sacrifice that it takes for a man to love a widow and mother of 3 children that would make him an instant father or maybe through the sacrifice that it would take for a man to love and pursue a broken woman, a woman who have previously been hurt by another and will have to prove himself worthy of her.
The sinful forbidden love could be found in that wife who have been in an arranged business marriage and suddenly found love with another man and has to make clandestine visits in order to see her lover. It could be argued that clandestine visits could be done a lot more freely nowadays due to the many ways of getting around and divorce is definitely a solution to many people so there is no reason for that love to be forbidden. Furthermore, marriage is no longer run by a man now, and being unfaithful is no longer seen as taboo in today’s society though we say we do not value adulterous behavior. A few people have too much to lose in leaving a marriage they are no longer interested in being faithful in so they resort to loving this way.
Unfortunately, the typical courtly love that we encounter in King Arthur’s tales, that was seen as beautiful, in reality would be seen as sinful and bad today. Courtly love would not only be seen as bad by the usual unfaithfulness that at all times is seen as wrong even if it is no longer taboo because a lot of people today are unfaithful but by the idea that a man needs to go through so much for one lady would also make the courtly love of that century bad and outrageous. There might be different set of codes today that determine what courtly love is, but the courtly love read about in King Arthur’s tales, the codes and rules that determine a love as courtly love may not all be in play however, no matter what, the idea still exist today.