Based on the author's thesis, Universite de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [307]-367) and indexes.

This study addresses chivalric writing and court culture during the reign of Juan II of Castile and aims to examine the changing chivalric ideal in Castile during this turbulent period of Castilian history. My thesis argues that political crisis in Castile led to a corresponding crisis in Castilian chivalry as commentators at the royal court tried to correct the failings of the Castilian nobility. The study is based around the work of Alonso de Cartagena, an esteemed diplomat, translator and the Bishop of Burgos in the latter years of Juan II’s reign. Like many of his contemporaries, Cartagena lamented Castile’s descent into civil war and felt compelled to take up his pen in response to the drawn swords of the Castilian nobility. His Doctrinal de los caualleros, produced in 1444 at the height of the civil war, was a highly critical look at chivalry and nobility in the Kingdom of Castile. Cartagena’s view of the chivalric ideal was one which was fundamentally shaped by the civil war. This study seeks to set his ideas in their broader context and argues that they should be seen as part of a wider Castilian debate on chivalry and nobility. This debate involved a number of Cartagena’s contemporaries including, Diego de Valera, Juan Rodríguez del Padrón, Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo and the Marquis of Santillana Íñigo López de Mendoza. Cartagena, along with a number of these authors, challenged traditional views on chivalry and nobility and instead argued for a view of knighthood grounded in individual good conduct and personal worth, in place of lineage and inherited status. This study argues that the civil war in Castile paved the way for the development of a rich literature of chivalric reform and facilitated the development of the sort of knightly criticism seen elsewhere in Europe in the later Middle Ages. However, rather than simply being a theoretical discussion, the civil war and unique social pressures on the Iberian Peninsula made the debate highly relevant. Chivalry became a vehicle for political criticism and reform. For Cartagena and his contemporaries, chivalric writing offered a means of ending the civil war by addressing what they saw as endemic issues with the rebellious Castilian nobility. My work has thus argued for a view of chivalry as a changing and developing body of thought shaped by the intellectual and political context in which it developed. Chivalry was, in essence, a code of military ethics governing conduct on and off the battlefield. However, whilst its basic tenants of virtue, honour, prowess at arms and piety were broadly similar across Europe, how they were understood differed greatly. Rather than seeking an all-encompassing definition, I have argued that the focus should fall on the differences and complexities within chivalric thought.

This thesis analyzes David Jones’s In Parenthesis to demonstrate the failed notion of chivalry, courtesy, and knighthood in modernity during and after the war. Jones’s semi-autobiographical prose poem recounting his experiences of WWI was published in 1937, nineteen years after the war ended. Jones applied the concepts of chivalry, courtesy, and knighthood to his experiences during WWI through In Parenthesis. Jones used these concepts, which originated in the classical period and the Middle Ages, to demonstrate how they have changed over time, especially given the events of WWI. The best way for Jones to demonstrate the impact of WWI was to use the medieval ideas of knighthood (which were arguably idealized up until the war) to describe how the modern world could no longer be identified with those ideals.

Originally issued as the author's Thesis (doctoral)--Uppsala universitet, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [255]-302) and index.

Originally issued as the author's Thesis (doctoral)--Uppsala universitet, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [255]-302) and index.

Thesis--Université de Paris I. / Published in 1979 under title: La pensée alchimique et le Conte du Graal. Includes index. Bibliography: p. 625-639.

Cette thèse consiste à une étude comparative entre les romans arthuriens d’un côté et le Shâh-Nâme de Ferdowsi de l’autre coté sur le sujet de Graal. L’enjeu est d’étudier l’origine du Mythe du Graal et essayer d’expliquer la ressemblance entre le mythe du Graal avec le Khvarnah l’équivalent de mythe dans la littérature persane. Dans une première partie, la thèse se concentre sur une étude du mythe de Graal chez Chrétien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach et Ferdowsi. Les différentes manifestations du mythe, le sens spirituel tout autour de ce mythe seront l’objet de cette recherche dans cette partie. Dans un second temps, la thèse fait porter l’analyse sur l’origine de ce mythe tellement contesté chez les chercheurs de différentes écoles, soit l’origine celtique ou irano-aryenne. Cette thèse défendra la théorie d’origine iranienne en prenant en considération l’influence celtique du mythe. Selon ce travail, dans la structure du roman de Graal, il existe une base du folklore Alano-celtique que le néo manichéisme cathare, en l’utilisant comme la matière première, construit une couche d’initiation propre à la conviction dualiste afin d’ajouter le personnage de Perceval/Parzival à l’histoire du roi Arthur. Parzival, de ce point de vue, est plus proche de sa modèle persane Kay Khosrow. La divergence entre l’auteur français par rapport à son homologue allemand dépend de leur situation sociale ; Chrétien est l’artiste proche du pouvoir religieux de l’église catholique et Wolfram, le chevalier qui gagne sa vie en chantant, était proche des hérésies cathares et des templiers. Enfin, ce travail essaie de montrer que ce mythe d’origine aryenne, est déformé par les religions à leur fin et que le vrai sens de la quête n’est pas le salut mais le surhomme. / This thesis is a comparative study of the Arthurian romances on the one side and the Shâh-Nâmeh of Ferdowsi on the other side, referring to the subject of the Grail. The challenge is, to study the origin of the Grail myth and try to explain the similarity between the myth of the Grail and Khvarna, the equivalent myth in Persian literature. In the first part, the thesis focuses on a study of the Grail myth in the work of Chrétien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach and Ferdowsi. Different manifestations of the myth, the spiritual sense around this myth will be the subject of this research in this part. In a second step, the thesis focuses the analysis on the origin of this myth much disputed among researchers of different schools, either Irano-Aryan or Celtic origin. This thesis defends the theory of Iranian origin, taking into account the Celtic myth too. According to this work, the structure of the Grail novel is based on Alano-Celtic folklore. Thereafter, Catharism, using it as the raw material, built a layer initiation specific to dualistic belief, in order to add the character of Perceval/ Parzival to the story of King Arthur. From this point of view, Parzival is closer to the Persian Kay Khosrow model. The divergence between the French author in relation to his German counterpart depends on their different social situation; Chrétien was an artist close to the religious authority of the Catholic Church and Wolfram, the knight who earned his living by singing, was close to Cathare heresy and the Templers. Finally, this work tries to show that the origin of this Aryan myth is that distorted by religions to achieve their ends and that the true meaning of the quest is not salvation but the “Übermensch”.

<p>  </p> <p>Gender, anxiety, identity, and Gawain’s impossible choice have long been identified and examined as worth studying in the fourteenth-century alliterative poem <em>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</em>. By focusing on the different states of dress that Gawain finds himself in, the gendered behaviors he engages in, and the fact that he takes on and wears a piece of woman’s clothing as his own before his final encounter, it becomes clear that Gawain begins to utilize and slip into a gender fluid state of identity. His behaviors in Haut Desert cross gendered lines, but also the lines of private and public identity: Gawain’s fault is revealed at the Green Chapel, when the Green Knight reveals himself to be Bertilak as well as his knowledge of Gawain’s girdle. By taking up the green girdle, Gawain cross-dresses and gains access to alternative courses of action and paths towards virtue and survival. Upon returning to his court, his community must take on the girdle as a token of Gawain himself and integrate it in a way that allows for his gender fluidity to become enclosed within the borders of the chivalric community. Gawain’s survival and the benefit which he brings his court are materially represented by the girdle which stands for both the honorable and shameful, the knightly and the monstrous, and the feminine and masculine. </p>

The thesis is a contribution to the social history of the Middle Ages. It investigates a phenomenon called courtly love, fully expressed at the noble court through an analysis of Thomas Malory's and Chrètien de Troyes' Arthurian romances, letters of Christine de Pisan and auxiliary sources. Its origin and expressions in a period literature, mostly of southern France, its inspirational sources and a continuation of Celtic folklore tradition is discussed in the initial chapters. The next part deals with individual forms of the courtly love and their effects on a gender relationship in a knightly class. The actual activity of a medieval woman and her opportunity to participate in public, ascribed social roles and a development of a masculine view is discussed in following chapters. The final part is engaged in a falling of a knightly ideal as well as a significance of the knight and his dame.

This thesis in historical-anthropological point of view deals with the ways of reception of ?miles christianus? ideal among Bohemian lower noblemen during the second half of the 16th Century. The medieval ideal of ?miles christianus? was revived in connection with new Ottoman Empire expansion in the South-East Europe. The theme is studied in case of Šťastný Václav Pětipeský of Chýše and Egrberk, a chosen lower nobleman. The attention was concentrated on the reconstruction of nobleman?s inner life and changes in thinking during his whole lifetime with additional insight into the history of Pětipeští of Chýše and Egrberk noble family. The paper contributes to the study of everyday life, political activities and thinking of Bohemian lower nobility before the Bohemian revolt in the context of ?new political history? research.