THE KNIGHT ERRANT AND THE CASTELLAN: TWO FACES/PHASES OF NOBILITY
THE KNIGHT ERRANT AND THE CASTELLAN: TWO FACES/PHASES OF NOBILITY

Summary/Abstract: My paper aims to comment on the identity of the adventurous knight errant as opposed to the socially engaged castellan. I shall identify and contrast these two different male typologies within the aristocracy and the ways they are illustrated in the literature of the time. Reference will be made to Chrétien de Troyes’ Arthurian Romances and to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I intend to regard Sir Gawain as the representative of the knight errant and the Green Knight as an example of a castellan. Becoming a castellan was the secret (or not so secret) desire of most of the knights living at the court of the king or any other lord, and thus the expected fulfilment of a life of adventure and self-sacrifice was acquiring a castle with its allotted domain. By leaving with the green girdle Sir Gawain could be considered the Green Knight’s heir, the one who transmitted his lord’s message forward. We cannot fail to see therefore that in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as in real life, the castellan (the Green Knight) is favoured, and even if the title gives them equal positions, it becomes clear that the castellan is in control, and that he has precedence over the knight errant.

• Details
• Contents