Knightly Love And The Narrative Structure Of Malory's Tale Seven

Grimm, Kevin T. “Knightly Love and the Narrative Structure of Malory’s Tale Seven.” Arthurian Interpretations, vol. 3, no. 2, 1989, pp. 76–95. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27868661.
Grimm’s article examines the love affair between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere in Book VII of Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. While Grimm acknowledges that scholars condemn Lancelot and Guinevere’s adulterous love, he does not criticize the romance. Instead, Grimm’s argument, which relies heavily on Malory’s definition of “virtuous love” from the May passage, suggests that the passion between Lancelot and Guinevere is honourable because it is formed and governed by reciprocated feelings of worship. This sense of worship, emphasized by Grimm, makes Lancelot a “virtuous” lover. Grimm’s examination of Lancelot’s relationships, specifically with Guinevere and King Arthur, is useful for a potential consideration of Lancelot’s behaviour towards his fellow knights and other women, such as Elaine, the Fair Maid of Astolat, because it suggests the feelings of admiration that Lancelot receives — from both men and women — is an accepted, even natural, consequence of his status as the greatest of King Arthur’s knights and, in turn, absolves him of blame. However, in contrast, Elizabeth

She argues that Malory’s use of adultery, which plays a crucial role in the conception of King Arthur himself, serves to present three distinct “types,” or ideas, of knighthood based on sexual behaviour: the Heroic, the Worshipful, and the True. Her arguments, which define Sir Gawain as the “Heroic” knight, Sir Tristram as the “Worshipful” knight, and Sir Lancelot as the “True” knight, examine the corresponding behaviour of each category of knighthood in order to produce not only a modern interpretation, but also a fifteenth-century interpretation of the medieval knights who engage in sexual relations with