Violence In Sir Isumbras

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“God giveth and God taketh away”: Violence and Religion in Sir Isumbras
Violence is an important topic in many medieval narratives, especially those concerning travel. Sir Isumbras, written in the fourteenth century, is a travel narrative about a wealthy man, Sir Isumbras who is travelling to the Holy Land to atone for his sins of pride. Throughout his journey, Sir Isumbras and his family come into contact with many different varieties of violence, ranging from war to kidnapping. While the purpose of the narrative is to atone for sins and make it to the Holy Land, the plot would be nothing if it were not for the violence acts that were splattered across the story. In turn, violence and religion seem to go hand in hand throughout many narratives, …show more content…

And again, many are justified by explaining them as the will of God. All three of Sir Isumbras’ children are taken away by wild animals not returning until the end of the narrative when Isumbras finally makes it to the Holy land. His wife is later taken hostage by a heathen King. Again, connecting religion and violence, Sir Isumbras and wife would have been saved from violence had they renounced their faith and God. Since they did not, violent acts were committed. When the Sultan commanded to have Isumbras’ wife, Isumbras again returns to violence and exclaims “'I will not sell you my wife! You will have to kill me first! I married her in the sight of God and vowed to remain with her until my dying day, in sickness and in health.” He again connects religion and violence in the way that he would have to be killed in order to break any vow he made with God. Every character, at least once, experiences some form of violence, either by causing the violence themselves or acting as a victim of the violence. At the end of the narrative there is a war against the “heathen” people, the Saracens, for who is going to rule the Holy Land. The Sultan had been “rampaging around Christendom, causing mayhem and destruction everywhere” and violence ensued. The two groups, Christians verses Saracens would “meet one another in deadly struggle.” Even if a war is not needed and the story could go on without it, it makes for an interesting and highly entertaining plot. Violence, for a reader, is entertaining, despite what people like to

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