Designing the End of History in the Arming of Galahad

Author(s): MICHELLE R. WRIGHT

Source: Arthuriana, Vol. 5, No. 4, ARTHURIAN ARMS AND ARMING (WINTER 1995), pp. 45-55
Published by: Scriptorium Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27869147 .
Accessed: 17/06/2014 21:34
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Scriptorium Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Arthuriana.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.146 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:34:40 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Designing the End ofHistory

in theArming of Galahad
MICHELLE

This

article

analyzes Galahad's
of the chivalric

synecdoches
narrative moves
wife

and

(MRW)

R. WRIGHT

swords
function,

from an Arthurian

Perceval's

sister construct

in La
which

queste del saint graal as

in the course of the

to a celestial
the signs of

Solomons
allegiance;
this transformation.

a durable
arming ritual defines
allegiance of mutual obligation
donor
between
the
the
and
The
recipient of the arms, both in historical
as Jean Fiori has defined it (290-330) and in literature.Of the various
practice

involved in the ritual, only the sword incorporates both the idea of
means to enforce it; it thus acts as a
synecdoche of
allegiance and the physical
the early thirteenth-century French
the chivalric function itself.Throughout

objects

Arthurian Vulgate Cycle, for example, the circulation of swords through giving,
receiving, and rejection traces the conflict between Arthurian knighthood

and the chevalerie celestienne.Without developing the full logic of these gladial
distributions from Lestoire delgraalthrough La mort le roiArtu (the subject of
on the
a
in La
arming of Galahad
longer work in progress), Iwill focus here
to
demonstrate that the representation of swords
queste del saintgraal I hope
events into
that collapse
organizes
temporal
relationships
typological
differences, thereby removing the constraints of history from both the hero
and the sword.

Inmythological criticism, which has strongly influenced many readings of

Arthurian literature, the initiatory rite is almost always read as an ontological
rebirth.Michel Stanescos Jeux derrance du chevalier m?di?val, for example,
draws on themythological analyses ofMircea Eliade in order to explicate the
representation of ritual in chivalric literature (6off). In the Vulgate Cycle,

however, the arming ritual most often does not actually transform a male
character into a knight. Rather, the investment of the hero with arms renders
visible an ontology, that is, an essence of being, that always already exists:
Arthurs kingship exists even before the barons recognize it;Galahad knows
ARTHURIANA

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.146 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:34:40 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

5.4(1995)

ARTHURIANA

46

he will succeed in theQuest even before he begins. The apparent absence of a

transformative function in the Queste suggests that theories of symbolism
cannot always serve as effective theories of representation.

to the end of the

Although Galahad may not, change from the beginning
arms
three different times. Each episode redefines his
narrative, he receives
role in salvation history for the reader.Taken as a group, they traceGalahad's
translation from earthlyArthurian allegiance to celestial Christian devotion.

sword marks a new stage of the narrative journey that culminates in

communion with the grail: the first associates Galahad with the Arthurian

Each

a celestial
court and is
allegiance
given by Lancelot; the second establishes
and appears mysteriously in a floating stone near Arthurs court; and the third
final spiritual perfection. This last sword, originally King
signals Galahads
to
Davids,
undergoes two transformations before completing its journey
s side. These

transformations, engineered by Solomons wife and

sister respectively, sign the redemptive process of salvation history.
The moral import of the text as a whole thus becomes formally encoded in
the semiotics of the sword and the patterns of itsdistribution.
Galahad

Percevais

first arming
Galahads
abbess summons Lancelot

occurs at the
abbey where he has been raised. The
to conduct the initiatory rite (2), which he does

then asks the new knight to accompany him

toArthur s court, but he
avec voi n'irai je
pointedly refuses: 'Sire, fait il,nanil,
not
at
not
he
I
with
will
Thus
all,
said,
you
pas' (3) ['Sir,
go'].1
although
Galahad appears to have joined theArthurian order as the son and initiate of
the following morning. Lancelot

its greatest knight, he in fact refuses to enter the company of

knights. He
demonstrates clearly his rejection of theArthurian allegiance implied in the
receipt of arms when he enters the court the next day 'sans espee et sans ecu
thus receives chivalric
(7) [without sword and without shield]2 Galahad
to
to
initiation from Lancelot only in order
signal his rejection of allegiance
the court and to his earthly father.
To

these Arthurian

draws the sword from the

arms, Galahad
stone
a
In
(12).
gesture that circumvents the socially binding
mysterious floating
function of the arming ritual,Galahad places the sword around his own waist,
whereupon he informsArthur: 'Sire, or valt mieux que devant. Or ne me faut
replace

mes fors escu (12) ['Sir, now is better than before. Now I lack
nothing except
a shield']. Arthur
easily recognizes thatGod alone will complete the arming
of Galahad:
'Escu vos envoiera Diex d'aucune part, ausint come il a fet espee'

(12) ['God will send you a shield from somewhere, just as he did the sword'].
And indeed, Galahad meets his shield soon after leavingArthur's court. Having
hung it about his neck, he immediately separates himself from his Arthurian
endowed with his divinely inspired arms,
companion, Yvains (31). Once

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.146 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:34:40 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ARMING

OF GALAHAD

47

severs all relations with Arthurs court, as ifhe had

passed through it
arms
to
in
his
from
it.
order
demonstrate
distance
the
However,
only
acquired
inArthurian company, although apparently granted by divine intervention,
will not accompany Galahad
into the presence of the grail. Because Galahad
and the grail both oppose Arthurian chivalry, all Arthurian connotations will
Galahad

be effaced from the arms before the completion of the quest.3 This second
sword, a sign of singularity and perfection, will be superseded by the third, a
to
sign of the process of redemption that leads
perfection. The third sword

thus provides the imitable example thatGalahad himself does not.

The complex adventure of the third arming spans millennia. Solomons
wife and Percevais sister re-fabricate nearly every aspect of the ancestral sword

before it joins Galahad. The changes in the swords appearance and location
the stages of a semiotic process inwhich the artifact becomes a sign of
Christian spiritual perfection, of a theory of history as a redeemable text.The
intervention of female craft in this process demonstrates
the power of

mark

typological

interpretation

and

the redemptive

capacity

of transcendent

authority.
The first transformation of the sword strips away itsOld Testament history
in order to begin the construction of a sign of eternal truth. Like Galahad,
the

swordcomes fromthe 'haut lignageleRoi David' (7) [the loftylineageof

Both the hero and his sword represent rather than resemble
King David].
their past because their significance lies outside of time. Thus Christ (as a
figure of eternal truth), rather thanDavid and Lancelot (Galahad's genealogical

fathers), defines the ultimate significance of Galahad's actions.4 Likewise, the

re-fabrication of the sword gradually replaces its historical relation to David

its semiotic relation to redemptive truth, that is, theOld Law with the
New (Leupin 72; Quinn 206). To apply the formula of Laurence de Looze, its
terrestrial signifieds are disinherited in favor of celestial ones (129). Physically,
then, the rebuilding of rhe sword disguises, or re-guises, history as a sign of
with

eternity.

The sword resides in a temple, along with the rest of David's

superlative
armor.When Solomon learns that the last of his linewill be a hero
surpassing
all others, he wishes to communicate his knowledge of the future to his distant
heir. Following the advice of his wife, Solomon has the sword removed from
the temple so that itmay be placed in the ship thatwill travel to the future.
Constructed by Solomon's wife, this ship will ultimately meet Perceval's sister
and provide the heroes of the grail quest, providing
the distant past. The closure of this communication

them with knowledge of

gap facilitates Galahad's

completion of the quest at the same time that it seals the judgment of
condemnation
against Arthurian chivalry: unlike Lancelot, who fails to

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.146 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:34:40 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ARTHURIANA

48
apprehend the past (Maddox
his most distant ancestors.

communicates

39-42), Galahad

successfully with

Solomons wife does not simply advise him to present the sword to his
distant heir as an antique artifact, she directs him to dismantle the ancestral
weapon:

Ou temple que vos avez fet en l'onor vostre Seignor est l'espee le roiDavid
vostre pere, la plus trenchantet la plus merveilleuse qui onques fustbailliee de
main

de

aions

chevalier.

Si

la prenez
tornee

tote nue

l'alemele

et en ostez

le pont

a une

(223)

part.

et l'enheudeure,

si que

nos

[Atthe templethatyoumade inhonor of yourLord is theswordofKing David your

it
that ever was handled by a knight. Take
father, the sharpest and the most marvelous
and remove the pommel and the hilt, so that we have the blade all bare returned to an
state.]

original

removal of the pommel and hilt strips the sword to its bare essence?the
blade?and
effaces the personal imprint of David. Furthermore, the phrase
a
une
Cornee
part potrays the blade in an original state of meaninglessness,
tote nue' and empty of
signification. In salvation terms, then, the stripping
of the sword dissociates it from the processes of history initiated by the Fall,
and suggests a state untouched by the consequences of sin.

The

Solomons

wife continues with

instructions on how to rebuild the sword

with a new pommel, hilt, scabbard, and baldric:

Et vos, qui conoissiez lesvertus des pierres et la force des herbes et lamaniere
de toutes autres choses terrienes, si i fetes un pont de pierres pr?cieuses si
soutilment jointes qu'il n'ait apr?s vos regart terrienqui po?st conoistre Tune
de

l'autre,

ainz

quit

chascuns

qui

le verra

que

ce

soit une meisme

chose.

Et

apr?s i fetesune enheudeure simerveilleuse qu'il n'i ait elmende si vertueuse

ne simerveilleuse. Apr?s i fetes le fuerre simerveilleus en son endroit corne
l'espee

est ou

suen. Et
quant

vos

i avroiz

moi plaira. (223)

ce fet,
i
je metrai

les renges

teles come

[And you, who know the virtues of stones and the strength of herbs and the manner
of all things earthly, make a pommel of precious stones so subtly joined that after you
there will be no earthly look that can recognize one from the other, rather everyone
will see it as one single thing. And then make a hilt so marvelous
that there be none in
the world

so virtuous

or so marvelous.

And

its own way as the sword is in its. And

baldric^ such as will please me.]

These

instructions demonstrate

then make

when

a scabbard

you have

done

the limits of Solomons

as marvelous
in
just
this, I will put on a

wife's access to the

truth, limits that will be signed by the artifact that the instructions aim to
create. First, her
as well as Solomon's are
knowledge
grounded in the terrien:
within these limits theymay be superlative, but theywill never comprehend
the celestien. Second, her knowledge is restricted to the world of romance,

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.146 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:34:40 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ARMING

OF GALAHAD

49

where the height of achievement ismerveilleus rather than spirituel.And indeed,

romance genre by
as the
identifying
figure of the
Stephen Nichols portrays her
a
romance
itself (31). Her assertion of
vehicle of the
her with the ship,
individual will ('come moi plaira') is another element of her romance persona,
for this formulation presents the new baldric as a product of romance desire
In these ways, the description
rather than of devocion to a transcendentWill.
to
the artifact emphasizes the gap between thisOld
of the proposed changes
Testament world and the spiritual perfection that isGalahad's destiny, where

the terrien, themerveilleus, and themoi all give way to the celeste.The completed
sword will embody this process of redemption, which necessarily includes a
stage elided inGalahad's own journey.
stage of limited knowledge?a
Solomon accepts these instructions, except where they require the creation
of illusion:
Et il fist tout ce quele li dist, forsdou pont, ou il ne mist qu'une sole pierre,
mes elle ertde totes les colors que len po?st deviser .... (223)
she toldhim, exceptwith thepommel,where he placed only a
[Andhe did everything

single stone, but

itwas

of all the colors

that one

could

name

. . . .]

time in the construction of the ship,

Defying his wife for the first and only
over his wife by
a
of
his
Solomon here reclaims portion
authortiy
refusing the
deception that she herself constantly practices by grant engin' (220) [great
craftiness6]. By substituting the single stone for the fabricated one, Solomon
to its
ontological reality.?
presents a pommel whose surface is transparent
a
or
constitutes
se,
Solomon's refusal of craft,
per
rejection of the
engineering,
an acceptance of divine authority: the engineor, after all,
and
of
evil
principle
as a devilish activity explicitly opposed to divine will (Hanning
practices deceit
83n4; Queste 211). In effect, the substitution demonstrates a recognition rhat
the pommel must ultimately satisfy not only a regart terrien, but the regart
celestien as well. The true wholeness of the stone thus signifies the future

wholeness of the hero, as the narrator's laterdescription of the pommel suggests:

chascune des colors avoit en soi une vertu' (202) [each of the colors had in it
a virtue], Galahad's virtues, like the colors, form his singular devotion toGod
and are inseparable from each other.
When
the sword arrives, it appears to Solomon to be a product of his wife's
at which he expresses anger: 4ele i avoit mises renges
usual deception,
(223) [she had put on a baldric of crude fiber...]. Estoupe suggests
d'estoupe...'
a lie or error by association with the verb estouper,which refers to the use of
can thus be
fibers to create a stopper or blockage
(Godefroy). Estoupe
a
baldric
as
the
the
crude
On
understood figurally
surface,
blockage of truth.
does indeed belie the richness of the sword itself.But the transformation of

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.146 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:34:40 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

SO

ARTHURIANA

the sword into a sign of the redemptive process remains incomplete at this
Solomons wife's refusal to fabricate or engineer
appropriate baldric
thus communicates truthfully the limits of her knowledge. The rich sword
and the crude baldric together represent a moment of partial understanding,
which cannot be completed in the historical moment of theOld Testament.

moment.

Solomon's wife

recognizes fully these limitations: 'Sire, sachiez que je n'ai

nule si haute chose, qui soit digne de sostenir si haute espee corne cest est'
(223) ['Sir, know that I have nothing so lofty that itwould be worthy to
support such a lofty sword as this is']. Thus while Solomon condemns the
baldric as a product of engin as deception, it in fact carries no artifice at all.
Instead, ithonestly marks the limits of her engin as intelligence and invention?
She cannot sustain the sword because it is a sign of a Christian purity whose
advent lies in the future and which cannot be invented: the baldric, presented
initially as a product of Solomon's wife's romance desire ('come moi plaira),

here testifies to the supreme Truth of divineWill. Thus

just as the redemption

ofMan byChrist,ofWoman byMary, and ofChivalrybyGalahad lie inthe

future, so does the 'redemption' of the baldric by Perceval's sister.
The devoted handiwork and flawless exegesis of Perceval's sister
complete
the design of the sword begun by Solomon's wife. When
the ship launched

from theOld Testament

finally reaches itsArthurian destination, the sword

itselfactually does a lot of
explaining. The hilt claims that only the knight for
can
one side of the blade warns of the
whom
it is destined
grip it (203),
to the
dangers
unworthy who try to draw it (203), while the other alludes to
the fate of one who did try to use the blade (206), and the scabbard explains
at great
length how only the purest can bear it,how the poor baldric will be
replaced by a rich one, and how the damsel who does thiswill also provide the
true names of the sword and the scabbard (205-06).
When

Perceval's sister has recounted the entire history of the ship and its
contents, and the veracity of her tale has been guaranteed inwriting, Perceval
declares to his companions that theymust leave immediately in quest of the
to take on his
virgin who can replace the poor baldric and enable Galahad
sword (226). Perceval, like Solomon, fails to understand the correct action to
be taken concerning the baldric. And as Solomon's wife corrected Solomon,
so Perceval's sister corrects the
knights. Overhearing their resolve to leave, she
tells them that the appropriate baldric will be in
place before they leave. She

then produces
'unes renges ouvr?es d'or et
richement' (227) [a baldric worked in gold and
narrator remarks on her great skill in
attaching
eie l'eust fet toz les jorz de sa vie' (227) [aswell
of her life].This is of course the first and
only

de soie et de cheveux mout

silk and hair very richly].The

it to the sword, 'si bien com se
as if she had done it every
day
time Perceval's sister performs

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.146 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:34:40 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ARMING

OF

GALAHAD

51

this feat of engineering. But she has no need to learn it, for her absolute
devotion inspires her movements. Her unique work is thus
perfect from
inception, just like the hero itwill adorn.
In addition to
completing the physical transformarion of the sword,
Perceval's sister provides the swords proper name, TEspee as esrranges
renges'
(227) ['the Sword of the Exrra-ordinary9 Baldric']. The reference of the name

remains ambiguous, for the phrase designates only the object's powerful alterity
nature of its
or
qualifying the
departure from the normal
expected.
can
to
either
thus
refer
Solomon's
wife's
Estranges renges
surprisingly poor bladric
or to Perceval's sister's
inconceivably rich one. The ambiguity of the reference

without

thematizes the object's distance from the familiar while effacing thememory
of its association with David and Solomon. In place of this genealogy, the
name presents an
interpretation of Galahad
beyond history, beyond the

ordinary. Thus he becomes fully visible as the superlative hero of the spiritual
quest when he becomes the Knight of the Extra-ordinary Baldric.
Having re-designed the sword through her craft, and re-signed it through
her onomasric inrervention, Perceval's sister uses it to mark Galahad's
total
celestial allegiance:
Certes, sire,or ne me chaut ilmes quant jemuire; car jeme tiegn orendroit a
la plus beneuree pucele dou monde, qui ai fet le plus preudome dou si?cle
chevalier.

Car

bien

sachiez

vos

que

ne

Testiez

pas

a droit

garniz de l'espee qui por vos fu aportee en ceste terre. (228)

[Certainly,

sir, now

I don't

happy girl in the world, who

For know well that you were
sword

quant

vos

n estiez

I die, for I hold myself now the most

the most worthy man of the earth a knight.
one when you were not invested with the
not
rightfully

care at all when

have made

that for you has been brought

to this land.]

never been in thewrong, those who encountered him

Although Galahad has
could misread him as an ordinary Arthurian knight because he did not yet
carry the sign of his true knighthood, the chevalerie celestienne embodied by
the Sword of the Extra-ordinary Baldric. The sword designates him as the
as the chivalric
perfected spiritual knight that he has always been; it functions
new
severs his
to
associations.
the
sword
eucharistie
The
counterpart
grail's
ties, affirming his place inChristian history and marking his
to
readiness
achieve the grail' (Quinn 210). The sword itself,now physically
and semiotically complete, is only fit for one battle (Queste 238): the defense
lastArrhurian

of the maiden who

Himself.

redeemed

it from history forGalahad

on behalf of God

Perceval's sister's role in the redemptive process of Christian history ismade

clear in her death, a Christological
sacrifice. She gives her blood to heal a
a la
to the woman:
thus
and
her
damsel,
life,
leprous
'je sui
gives
declaring
mort venue por vostre
come
to
for
have
death
[I
your healing].
garison' (241)

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.146 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:34:40 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ARTHURIANA

5*

The formula expresses succinctly the function ofChrist s own death: Percevais
as Christ
sisters saintly blood redeems the body of the sick woman
just

redeemedall believerswith his death (Quinn 204; Ribard 44). The blood

in an escuele, theword initially used in

is
Lestoire del saint graal for the grail itself (33). Thus although Galahad
as the type of Christ in the Queste, Perceval's sister's
conventionally identified
more visible and her actions imitatemore directly
are
in
fact
redemptive powers
those of the Saviour, (Aronstein 218-19). Indeed, her body arrives in Sarras
before the knights (Queste 276).
The two women who re-design the sword can be read as an expression of
the relationship between history and salvation, between the terrestrial and the
itself is delivered

to the sick damsel

celestial that governs the text as a whole. The joint effort of Solomon's wife
and Perceval's sister to redeem the sword from theOld Testament past for the

stages themovement from literal to typological

spiritual arming of Galahad
mere
from
interpretation,
physical to ontological transformation, from artifact
to
is
crafty,and although she recognizes the inadequacy
sign. Solomon's wife

of literal reading, she remains grounded in a past that lacks any other mode of
access to divine vision
understanding. Perceval's sister, by contrast, has direct
between men

Her grant devocion, which effaces

individual invention, replaces Solomon's wife's grant engin: her skills derive
not from her own craft, but from the
emptying of herself before God.
and mediates

and God.

Between engin and devotion liesMary Herself as themediator between Eve

and Solomon's wife on the one hand (the text links them explicitly [220]) and
sister on the other. According

to the Queste, Mary also descends

from Solomon (220-21); she thus provides a purified historical link between
theOld Testament and theArthurian world. From this perspective, original

Perceval's

sin and engin both signify a distance from divine truth, a distance that has
been erased for Perceval's sisterbyMary. The sister thus becomes the redeemed
to Galahad. Like
counterpart of the wife, as the sword passes from David

Mary, the sword mediates between two poles of history.

Perceval's sister can also be understood as Mary's Arthurian double,
a
considering her mediating rather than static figure. (Baumgartner 194; Lot
Borodine
54; Quinn
198; and Ribard 43-46). In this way, Solomon's wife
mediates between Eve (the original sinner) andMary (the firstdevoted virgin).

sister's arming of Galahad, which she explicitly represents as

transformative, becomes a symbolic re-birthing that parallels Mary's birthing
of Christ (Locke 77; Matarasso 71). This perspective on mediation enables a
symbolic reading consistent with mythological criticism and notions of the

Perceval's

as a moment of
arming scene
ontological transformation. Other typological
are of course
relationships
possible, and the analogical mode of the Queste
(Burns 354-61). For Susan Aronstein, for
encourages their multiplication

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.146 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:34:40 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ARMING

OF

GALAHAD

53

women in the Queste,

are
example, all
including Perceval's sister,
typlogically
bound to Eve because themale discourse of the text negates all female power

even
of multiple,
(221-23). The possibility
conflicting,
relationships
demonstrates the flexible authority of typology in the Queste, where Biblical
and Arthurian modes of understanding repeatedly merge in the service of a
transcendent signified that effaces the historical significances thatwould

limit

typological analogies.
is translated to heaven along with the grail, the sword is
When Galahad
not said to accompany them. Instead, it remains on earth as a
sign of the
The
swords
transformations
do not
redemptive process (Baumgartner 122).
a
reflect those ofGalahad (ifhe has any), but those of fallen figurewho achieves
or inanimate,
perfection. In fact, the sword may be the only figure, animate
that does undergo an ontological transformation in the text s static universe
the perfected characters, who are only admirable, the
sword understood semiotically is imirable. It presents and represents the
possibility of change as it parallels the process of redemption from a fallen
of eternal truths.Unlike

state (history) to a sanctified one (eternity). The women who effect this
transformation mark the end points of the process, as engin becomes devocion.
The transformation of the sword engages chivalry itself,not only bacause

of the synecdochic relationship between the hero and the sword but because
the engin thatmotivates the first reformation also transforms the practice of

chivalry in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Ipomedon, for example,

chivalric engin causes the heroes to throw down their arms, 'symbolically ending
the reign of prowess' (Hanning
the
100). The devocion that completes
transformation of the sword also renders prowess obsolete: when Lancelot
attempts to engage in combat with the lions that guard the grail castle, a

out of his hand, and the lions only let him

flaming hand knocks his sword
to
merci' of the Lord and sworn never again
after
he
has
the
submitted
pass
to draw his sword (Queste 253-54).
Together, engin and divocion displace force;
in the queste, this displacement

is signed by the sword, the very emblem of

force.

wife and Perceval's sister design the sword to signifyGalahad's

to the celestial order, an
unique
allegiance sealed by his
third and final arming. The sequence of arming scenes traces the translation
Solomons

and eternal devotion

ofArthurian chivalry (the sword given by Lancelot) to celestial chivalry (David's

sword re-formed by Solomon's wife and Perceval's sister) via the idea itself of
divine intervention (the floating sword). Each of these scenes engages a new
order of understanding. Together, they encode in their formal details a
view of the text's deepest concerns with spiritual hermeneutics,
historical exegesis, and the limits of chivalric force.

microcosmic

UNIVERSITY

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.146 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:34:40 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

OF

MIAMI

ARTHURIANA
R. Wright
isAssistant Professor of
(mwright@umiamivm.ir.miami.edu)
at the University
in the
of
Literatures
and
Department
Foreign Languages
of Miami
Coral Gables,
Florida. She is currently at work on a cultural history of
in insular and continental narratives.
the sword Excalibur

Michelle
French

NOTES

2
3

This and all subsequent translations are my own. For a complete English
translationof theQueste, see The Questfor theHoly Grail ed. Pauline Matarasso
especially 31-66 and 207-51.
Alexandre Leupin suggests a similar interpretation(74m5).
EstherQuinn interpretsthesecond sword as a sign of theOld Law rather than
of divine intervention (207-08), while Albert Pauphilet interpretsboth the
second and third swords as symbols of a chevalerie spirituelle' (140). The
I

interpretation

Christ,

see

however,

the

emphasizes

swords'

chivalric

92-94;

Baumgartner

Locke

passim-,

Matarasso

38-95;

Pauphilet

and
140

56; and Quinn 212-15.

I translate rengesas baldric (that is, the belt that hangs from one shoulder
diagonally across the chest, towhich the sword attaches at thewaist) following
Legge's argument that thismeaning had become common by the end of the
twelfth-century

here,

present

significancewithin theArthurian order.

For extensive discussion of the typological relation between Galahad

(89).

Earlier,

renges seems

to have

referred

to the ties that attach

the scabbard to the belt rather than to the belt itself.

Georges Mator? suggests intelligenceas the best general translation of engin
(76). In English, however, craftseems preferable because it suggests both the
deceptive and mechanical aspects of theOld French semantic field.
In discussing the Queste's thematics of fracture and dissimulation, Leupin
somewhat surprisinglydoes not discuss Solomon's substitution (73). Solomon's
refusal to dissimulate as well as the stone's real unity suggest a modification of
Leupin's interpretationof fiction and illusion,which focuses only on thewife's
intentions.

Douglas Kelly considers only these latter two aspects of engin in discussing
Solomon (120), as does Grace Armstrong in reading Solomon's wife herself.
The term'smoral ambiguity,however, infuses itseveryuse (Hanning 83-85).
I

prefer

to the common

extra-ordinary

rendering

of estranges

as strange

because

it communicates the element of surprise that results from the sight of the
utterly unexpected without the pejorative connotation of strange. In addition,
the phonetic resonance with sword communicates part of the rhythmof the
Old French phrase.
WORKS

CITED

Armstrong, Grace M. 'Enide and Solomon'sWife: Figures of Romance Sapiential

French Forum 14 (1989): 401-48.
Aronstein,

Susan.

'Rewriting

Perceval's

Sister:

Eucharistie

Visions

and Typological

Destiny in theQueste delsan graaV Women sStudies i\ (1992): 211-30.

Baumgartner,

Emmanu?le.

V arbre

et le
pain:

essai sur La queste

del

saint

Soci?t? d'?dition d'enseignement sup?rieur, 1981.

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.146 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:34:40 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

graal.

Paris:

ARMING

OF GALAHAD

55

Burns, E. Jane. 'Feigned Allegory: Intertextualityand the Queste del saintgraal!

Kentucky Romance Quarterly 29 (1982): 347-63.
de Looze, LaurenceN. A Storyof Interpretations:
The Questedel saintgraal asMetaliterature.'
Romanic Review 76 (1985): 129-47.
Eliade,

Mircea.

Initiations,

rites, soci?t?s secretes, naissances

mystiques:

essai sur

quelques

typesd'initiation. Paris: Gallimard, 1976.

Lestoiredel saintgraal Ed. Oskar Sommer. The VulgateVersionofArthurian Romances.
Carnegie InstituteofWashington, no. 74, vol. 1.
Washington: Carnegie Institute
ofWashington, 1908.
Fiori, Jean.Lessor de la chevalerie,Xle-XIIe si?cles.Geneva: Droz, 1986.
Godefroy, Frederic. Dictionnaire de Tancienne languefran?aise. Paris: Viewig, 1881
1902.

Flanning, RobertW. 'Engin inTwelfth-Century Romance: An Examination of the

Roman dEn?as and Hue de Rotelande's Ipomedon! Yale French Studies 51 (1974):
82-101.

Kelly, Douglas. 'L'invention dans les romans en prose.' The Craft ofFiction: Essays in
Medieval Poetics. Ed. Leigh Arrathoon. Rochester,MI: Solaris P, 1984. 119-42.
Legge, M. Dominica. 'Les rengesde s'espethe.' Romania 77 (1956): 88-93.
sur la vulgatearthurienne enprose.
Leupin, Alexandre. Le graal et la litt?rature:?tude
Lausanne:

L'Age

d'Homme,

1982.

Locke, FrederickW. The Questfor theHoly Grail: A Literary Study of a Thirteenth

CenturyFrench Romance. Stanford: StanfordUP, i960.
Lot-Borodine, Myrrha. 'L'Eve pescheresse et la redemption de la femme dans La
surLe Roman de Lancelot du Lac et La qu?te du saint
qu?te du graal! Trois essais
en
graal. Paris: Champion, 1919.Rpt. from Ferdinand Lot. ?tude surTe Lancelot
Paris:

prose.

1918.

Champion,

Maddox, Donald. 'L?vi-Strauss inCamelot: InterruptedCommunication inArthurian

Feudal Fictions.' Culture and theKing: The Social Implications of theArthurian
State U ofNew
Legend. Ed. Martin B. Shichtman and James P. Carley. Albany:
York P, 1994. 35-53.
Matarasso, Pauline M. The Redemption ofChivalry: A Study of theQueste del saint
graal.

Geneva:

Droz,

1979.

Mator?, Georges. Le vocabulaire et la soci?t?m?di?vale. Paris: PU de France, 1985.

Nichols, Stephen G., Jr. 'Solomon'sWife: Deceit, Desire, and the Genealogy of
Romance.' Space, Time, Image, Sign: Essays on Literature and theVisual Arts. Ed.
James A. W.

Heffernan.

Champion,

1921.

New

York:

Peter

Lang,

1987.

19-40.

Pauphilet, Albert. ?tudes sur laQueste del saint graal attribu?e ? GautierMap.

Paris:

The Quest for theHoly Grail. Trans. Pauline Matarasso. New York: Penguin, 1969.
La questedel saintgraal. Ed. Albert Pauphilet. Paris: Champion, 1984.
21 (1965):
Quinn, Esther. 'TheQuest of Seth, Solomon's Ship, and theGrail.' Traditio
185-222.

Ribard, Jacques. 'Figuresde la femme dans La qu?te du saintgraal! Figuresf?minines

et roman.

Ed.

Jean Bessi?re.

Paris:

PU

de France,

1982.

33-48.

Stanesco,Michel, feux d'errance du chevalierm?di?val: aspects ludiques de lafonction

guerri?redans la litt?ratureduMoyen Ageflamboyant. Leiden: E. J.Brill, 1988.

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.146 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:34:40 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions