Arthurian Halloween

Today I will tell you an Arthurian story appropriate to the date.  One of the characteristic features of medieval writings about King Arthur is that they are often built around the liturgical year.  It isn't just that the passage of time is marked by whether they are holding the feast of Easter or Pentecost, but the feasts often have some appropriate function in the story.  This tale is an example of what I mean.  Some appropriate music:



Sir Guingamor fell in love with a fairy lady, and the two had a son whose name was Sir Brangamor.  Sir Brangamor's body turns up in a swan-shaped boat with written instructions to avenge his death -- but failing to mention his name, or on whom vengeance should be taken.  The letter does mention a secret shame that had befallen Sir Gawain's brother Guerrehes, however, so Sir Gawain goes looking for him.

Sir Guerrehes does not wish to speak of this -- remember that in an honor and shame culture, shame is only really significant if it becomes public!  Eventually, though, he admits to his brother (in private) a story about a red city he encountered in a wilderness.  He went in through the window, and found a wounded knight there being tended by a lady.  The wounded knight was furious at his arrival, and called for another knight to fight him.  The 'other knight' proved to be two feet tall -- not a dwarf, but a man perfectly formed, just small.  This little knight beat Guerrehes soundly, and made him promise to return in one year either to fight again, or to submit to being beheaded, or to submit to being enslaved as a weaver in the castle.

Guerrehes doesn't understand what this has to do with the mysterious dead body, so they go and look at it.  Guerrehes does not know the victim, but when he touches the spearhead that is lodged in the body, it falls out, and is perfect and bright.  He has it affixed to the stoutest spear he owns, and agrees to take on the quest of vengeance.

Now we get to the liturgical part.  All this happens right before Easter.  At the Easter feast, Guerrehes is asked by Arthur to sit near him.  Guerrehes is in such a foul mood that Sir Cei notices, and asks Arthur for a boon.  Arthur grants it, and Cei says he wants the story of why Guerrehes is so unhappy.  Guerrehes is angry, but has to confess his shame to Arthur and the whole court.  In one sense he is now fully shamed, because his shame is public -- but in another sense he is free of it, because he does not have to hide it any longer.  He takes horse and weapons, and goes off to quest for the vengeance he has (now quite publicly) sworn to perform.

It turns out that when he goes back to the red city, he is able to kill the little knight without difficulty.  Then the lord of the castle -- the formerly wounded knight -- called for his own weapons to fight Guerrehes.  The two take horses and arms, and Guerrehes selects the spear with the bright spearhead from the corpse.  He and the lord of the castle run together, and the spear penetrates and kills the lord of the castle just where it had penetrated the corpse.

Now the lady who had been tending the lord of the castle came to him, and thanked him for setting her free. She had been enslaved by that man after he killed her lover -- the knight Brangamor, as you will have guessed.  So they return to Arthur's castle at Caerleon, and the swan-shaped ship.

The lady explains to Arthur that Brangamor had to die in this world because he was part mortal, but now he will be able to live in the Otherworld with his queen and with his mother.  The ship is loaded with the corpse and its wrappings, and the lady goes aboard it, and it sails off to disappear.

This occurs on Halloween, the day when the fairy mounds are said to be open.

You can read the original story in William Roach's edition of the Old French Arthurian poems that follow Chretien de Troyes -- you may be able to find this through an academic library, if you have one nearby.  There is an easy English translation is available in John Matthews' The Book of Arthur, although it omits the fact that the final part of the story occurs on Halloween.

No comments: