Research Paper on "Guinevere Depictions of Guinevere in Medieval Texts"

Research Paper 15 pages (4674 words) Sources: 15

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Guinevere

Depictions of Guinevere in Medieval Texts: From Silent Companion to Active Adultery in the Span of a Century

The Arthurian legends have been a subject of intense fascination and inspection by readers and scholars alike since they first appeared towards the end of the eighth century or perhaps the beginning of the ninth century BCE (Bruce, 319). Appearing to refer to events of the sixth century BCE, and without any clarity as to the actual existence of the hero or his true connection to the literary character introduced in the horribly inaccurate historical writings of the Welsh monk Nennius, it cannot be said with certainty whether Arthur -- if existed -- was truly a king or more of a general, though it appears certain he was not the king of a peacefully united Britain or the long-reigning champion of honor and chivalry that most stories have made him out to be (Bruce, 319). As with most similar fictions rooted in some level of history, the Arthurian legends contain references to events, places, and perhaps some people that can be tentatively identified using more accurate historical documents and archaeological findings, however a mere two centuries after Arthur might have fought the Saxons back from his British dominions his story was already warped and exaggerated beyond recognition to create the hero king celebrated by schoolboys today (Bruce).

The transformation of Arthur did not end with Nennius' original (or at least first known extant) version of the legendary figure, but rather continued to morph quite freely over the ensuing centuries. Emerging from the Welsh tradition still clouded in a great deal of mystery, French poets and troubadours soon picked up the tale and embellished, altered, and added to the stories in a manner that answered many questions and supplied extraneous details and exploits, as well, almost certainly conflating other tales and legends with Arthur's own while also twisting the stories to their own purposes (Putter; Taylor). This was occurring in a world still most of a millennia away from post-modern concepts of textual fluidity and unreliability in the positions of the authors and narrators as they are presented through their texts, and yet the lack of explicit recognition of such post-modern concepts can perhaps be attributed more accurately to their ubiquity and their pervasiveness rather than through a simple lack of critical examination. In a time when few were literate and when storytelling was explicitly fluid and open to interpretation -- when each oral telling of a tale was a new event in and of itself in a manner that is far more direct than the creation of meaning that occurs when a reader engages with a fixed text -- this fluidity and freedom on the part of the author is not only expected but necessary, and the drastic changes that occur in the Arthurian legends in the medieval French tradition are highly understandable.

The purpose and effects of the shifts, emendations, and whole-cloth creations made by various authors in the medieval French tellings of the Arthurian legends are far less easily understood, however, and require a deeper level of examination and scholarly consideration. Many different aspects of the tales, from Arthur's own character to the chronology of events to the identities and actions of certain of the Knights of the Round Table, are significantly altered in these later versions of the legends in manners that meaningfully illustrate the difference in perceptions and values that occurred in the four-or-so centuries that intervened between Nennius' tales and those scribed by the poets of medieval France (Bruce; Putter; Taylor). Any and all of these aspects can and have been the subject of abundant scholarship in modern and post-modern literary criticism and historical contextualization, yet one issue takes precedence in many examinations of the ever-more-detailed tales of King Arthur: that of gender and sexuality. Specifically, changes in the character of Guinevere as she is portrayed by these median Arthurian authors seem to demonstrate highly significant changes in the manner in which women, sexuality and sexual action, social conventions, and loyalties were perceived and interpreted by the authors and cultures that produced the various forms of Arthur and his subjects' exploits. In the brief span of approximately a single century, Guinevere is transformed from a largely silent and deferent Queen to a manipulative and conniving creature of lust and jealousy, signifying a clear shift in the interpretation of her role and its reflection on contemporary society in terms of chivalry, royal loyalty, and certain aspects of courtly love.

Monmouth's Monolith

Geoffrey Monmouth, a twelfth-century scholar at Oxford, can be credited as the foundation upon which modern conceptions of Arthur are built, through the French romantic traditions that would build on Monmouth's tales decades after he himself either translated or invented a set legends and tales more complete than those mentioned by Nennius (no part of the book that Monmouth claims to have been working from when he wrote his History Regum Brittaniae (History of the Kings of Britain) has ever been found) (Putter, 38-9). His text does not focus solely on the Arthurian legends, describing many kings and events that supposedly came prior to Arthur, but the bulk of his work (Books Four through Twelve) is devoted to Arthur's rise to power and the events that occurred during and immediately following his reign according to this version of "history." Though many notable embellishments are given, it is interesting to note how small and how consistent a role Guinevere seems to play throughout the work. She is introduced almost in passing, after a description of Arthur's unification of the country that had long been long plagued by a series of internal and external wars: "he took unto him a wife born of a noble Roman family, Guenevere, who…did surpass in beauty all the other dames of the island" (Monmouth, Book Nine, chapter IX). The text quickly moves on to more of Arthur's adventures as he leaves his new Queen behind to conquer Ireland (a feat he accomplishes handily), and she is not mention again for quite some time (Monmouth, Book Nine, chapter X).

When she is mentioned again, the mention is as brief as the first: she along with Arthur's nephew Mordred are charged with defending Britain while Arthur is off on another expedition (Book Ten, chapter II), and later Arthur discovers that Mordred has crowned himself king and forced a marriage between himself and Guinevere (Book Ten, chapter II). Arthur quickly returns with some of his army and puts the usurper Mordred on the run, and "When this was reported unto Queen Guenevere, she was forthwith smitten with despair and fled from York unto Caerleon…she purposed thenceforth to lead a chaste life amongst the nuns, and did take the veil of their order in the church of Julius the Martyr (Monmouth, Book Eleven, chapter I). This last mention of Guinevere seems to suggest that she bore some guilt for Mordred's tyranny, though it is not made clear whether this guilt should be seen as political, sexual, or both, and indeed Guinevere's motives, desires, and attitudes are never explicitly expressed in this text. When she is mentioned she seems highly important, but the brevity and the infrequency of these mentions tells another story altogether.

Guinevere (or Guenevere), in Monmouth's recounting of the "history" of Arthur as a British king, is essentially a footnote. Her infidelity with Mordred is mentioned though not described, and it appears more likely that her guilt was inescapable and unplanned than that she was an active conspirator in giving Mordred Arthur's kingdom and bed. In this, she is like a rock -- an ever-standing testament to the place and duty of a good wife and Queen, symbolizing her chastity and her subservience even in the actions/scenarios that establish her guilt. Her individual character, which includes the elements of her gender, her sexuality, and her social ties and duties, is not ever detailed and is clearly not seen as important; she was beautiful and nobly born and raised, making her fit to be a Queen to Arthur, and she essentially seems to do what she is told by one male figure after another, without any deeper considerations necessary. While it would be dangerous to read too deeply into this description, it is fair to assume that Guinevere's character and true individual identity is simply unimportant to Monmouth and to others of his time, with only her relation to Arthur's crown and solidity of leadership issues of any meaningful import. Guinevere, in this early telling of what is primarily a military and political history, is truly a feminine object, primarily inanimate and without any true agency or ability to affect events and actions.

Chretien de Troyes' Romantic Visions

Whether Monmouth's depiction of Guinevere can be seen as indicative of cultural attitudes towards women at the time of his writing or if it was simply authorial discretion to depict her as politically unimportant and un-powerful is a matter of debate that can never be settled; there… READ MORE

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