LLT 180 Lecture We left off with Guivret, or however we want to pronounce his name, the little -- he's -

Transcription

1 LLT 180 Lecture 18 1 We left off with Guivret, or however we want to pronounce his name, the little -- he's - - as you know, having finished this, I hope, that he's an important character because he'll come back, showing what a true friend is and trying to help rescue Erec when Erec really doesn't need rescuing because he's already rescued himself. But I think we stopped right in the middle of page 52 or thereabouts, where it said -- after he's defeated Guivret the king, he says in the middle of the page, line what would it be, 3910 or something: "There is one request I make of you: that, should I ever be in need and you get to hear that I could do with your help, you would not then forget me." And they become friends. The point is made repeatedly here that Erec is really beat up, really beat up. He's been doing all these knightly things to somehow -- they try to clarify, and I'm not even sure when I get to the end that I'm quite sure what the whole point of this was. One, I guess, to bring him back into good knightly standing, to improve his power rating. Secondly, somehow to certain his own mind that Enide really loves him and under no circumstances should she speak poorly of him. Certainly not the way the world functions today. On page 53, if you really want to get trivial in here -- which I like to do sometimes -- they give you the name of Gawain's horse and then they also give you the name of Arthur's horse. And remember, on trivial stuff on tests, anything is not too trivial. So you might want to pick those up. Gringalet for Gawain and what is it -- Aubagu or something? Some weird name, Arthur's horse, wherever it is -- it's right in here, too, over on page 55. Kay -- and they made the point in the notes. We have no way of historically knowing

2 LLT 180 Lecture 18 2 this. But in tradition, evidently, they're saying Kay wasn't such an idiot. He wasn't such a poorly respected character. But at this point in the tradition as Chrétien is writing it down, he starts depicting Kay more and more progressively as not being a particularly admirable character. And so we see that here. First he confronts Erec. And when we saw that one tape on armored knights, the part I didn't have you watch the very end of, and they were talking about the importance of heraldry or the painting of signs, the painting of symbols, your family tree on your shield and stuff. Obviously, if you're gonna be praised, people ought to know who you are. And the point here is that nobody recognizes Erec because he's been in so many battles that all the paint has been beaten off his shield. He has this confrontation, Kay and Erec do, and, of course, Erec being the better hero has the best of him, sends him back. Now Gawain comes, they finally recognize each other. And one of the things that changes: we get told there's a change in Erec when? From the moment after he hears Enide bad-mouthing him -- his view of things -- he always wants to go alone. He always wants to go alone. And later in the story, all of a sudden when he starts letting people go with him again, we have to think, well, he must've come to some level of satisfaction, some point of harmony, because he doesn't feel the need to be on this solitary quest where he's partially punishing his wife for just being concerned. At this point he still wants to be alone. And so Gawain -- and they are friends; they were friends -- tricks him into staying with him so Arthur can move his camp. This is kind of silliness.

3 LLT 180 Lecture 18 3 This, I guess, is necessary so that Erec can remove his armor. You know, some of these things -- like how you spell medieval and armor and stuff, if you read a lot of British material, when you write in English it doesn't look right to you anymore because you want to write it in English English. That just doesn't look right to me. I just always want to write it with a "u" and I usually do on my materials. So I use Spellcheck and my computer always says "Wrong," and I say, "Ignore." I gotta find somebody permanently overriding my computer's brain, getting into it and saying, "No. Spell armor a-r-m-o-u-r." And so we're gonna get this point about his need for healing repeatedly -- and, of course, he's not gonna finally be healed until Guivret's gay sisters get a chance to heal him a little bit later. Erec proceeds on, and so he's on this quest toward something and that's what -- the main thing we need to find out again. They're back into the forest and again, of course, a maiden is calling for aid. And this time the two giants -- and again, we have all these -- whether they're unicorns, giants. There's always in a lot of this material -- again, this is romantic material and so the idea that there's magic, there are quests, there's adventure -- all these go with the overriding aspect of these are romances that deal with romantic notion of things. And so whether -- you know, we kind of, as we read this, just kind of accept this stuff. You really don't challenge it. So again there's a maiden. The problem is, he goes to help her, leaves Enide behind. And you think, "Now, what kind of husband is he?" He's like concerned about his wife and he leaves her here in the woods by herself to go help somebody else, and says,

4 LLT 180 Lecture 18 4 "I'll be back." And so he goes and helps her. The complaint here we read on the bottom of page 57, "crying aloud for her lover [the maiden is], whom two giants had seized and were leading away, cruelly maltreating him." She asks for his help. We repeatedly notice how much God is called on in here and she says she will pray for Erec if she will help him or as he goes to help her to try to get the knight back. He goes after -- and we come back again to the word "scourge." He catches up with the giants who only have clubs and scourge, and they're beating this guy who they strip naked -- this sounds like some kind of fraternity initiation or something -- on page 58. I know. It's the old days. 4379, Erec spurs after them. Three lines later, "he saw the knight, stripped stark naked, on a nag, his hands and feet bound as though he had been caught stealing." They're beating him with a scourge so that they cut through the skin on his back all the way to the bone. Erec and these people -- you know, they talk about blood everywhere. How come these people aren't dead, is one question. But these giants, I think, he does a pretty good job on. He catches up with them, challenges them. And one of the things we're gonna find, if you read all of Chrétien, Chrétien really likes, I think I mentioned before, spurting blood, spurting brains -- you know, this is kind of his modus for killing people. And here maybe we see it for the first time, in 4441 on page 59: He strikes the first [these are the giants] in the eye and right through the middle of the brain [that'd tend to hurt], so that the blood and brains spurt out of the back of his neck [good stuff]; and this one falls dead.

5 LLT 180 Lecture 18 5 The other giant is kind of mad, comes at Erec and so how does he kill him? He kind of -- down at 4470:... striking him so hard on the nape of the neck that he splits him down to the saddle-bow. [That's a pretty neat trick.] He spreads his entrails on the ground, and the body, cleft in two, falls full length. Okay. The knight, of course, who is naked and bleeding to death, is very happy. And one of the things we start seeing here is, we see here and we see in the magic garden. And I need to move a little faster so we have time to talk about the magic garden 'cause that's important. But he's reuniting people. And so here we see a couple of instances, here and again in the magic garden, where he's bringing harmony to relationships. Here he first reunites them -- they are both real appreciative, I daresay -- and so he sends them to Arthur's court. As we've seen in other adventures, you go to Arthur's court and record -- you know, you have other people go to Arthur's court, report the great deeds you've done, and this increases your fame at court. Because, of course, everybody's at court when these things are reported. He remembers Enide's in the woods alone, on page 61, so he tries to hurry back to her. And he -- remember, he's been all bandaged up at Arthur's camp and he's hurried so fast, he's so concerned, that he bursts all his bandages and starts bleeding again. And when he gets there, he falls and appears to be dead. You know, I -- Enide is all the time -- most of the book, it seems, she's grieving or

6 LLT 180 Lecture 18 6 blaming herself, you know. She definitely needs some help. And she blames herself here. And again, if you read the notes -- I read it and then I read the notes, and so I don't know if I was influenced by the fact that I'd read the notes before. But this whole thing about silence and that silence is good. When we get to Perceval, you know, Perceval gets in trouble because he doesn't ask questions. Perceval, when he's questing after the grail, gurnemant of gohort who was one of his teachers, has told him not to ask unnecessary questions -- you know, that that's rude. Well, Perceval kind of takes that to the extreme, so basically Perceval doesn't ask questions. And so the first time he sees the grail and he's at the fisher king's castle and he sees all this stuff, he thinks it'd be rude to ask about it. My wife's always kind of teasing me because I talked to one of my daughters and she said -- she'll ask me four or five questions and I say, "I don't know. I don't know. I don't know." And she said, "You don't ask any questions." And I say, "Well, the way I grew up and the way, I guess, I interact with my children is that I don't ask questions." I figure if they want to tell me something, they'll tell it to me. Maybe that's for fear if you ask questions you'll get answers you don't want. But, you know, Perceval doesn't ask questions. And so the next day, when he gets around to asking questions, everybody ignores him because they're mad because he didn't ask questions the previous day. So he doesn't even see anybody. And so in that book, in Perceval, silence is a problem. And yet here they keep holding silence up as a good. They even say again proverbially, on line 4630, "Silence never harmed anyone, but speech

7 LLT 180 Lecture 18 7 often does damage: that's something I've put to the test and proved in many ways." She thinks about committing suicide and they imply she would have except a count - - and there seems to be a lot of counts running around, a lot of different people. But remember, you know, in medieval times there were a lot of small places. When you read the Grimm fairy tales that they collected and you read about all these princesses and kings and stuff, if you think about at the time Napoleon -- so in the early 1800s -- when Napoleon invaded the area that we would call Germany today, there were over 365 self-governing entities in that area we call Germany today. And they were all like counts or dukes or nobles. So, you know, you go out to Albertson's and there's a queen in front of you in line and a princess behind you, and a count in the next line. They're just all over the place. And so here again, they would be all over the place in the feudal structure. The count does his best to comfort her because he thinks she looks pretty fine and he has other things in mind. He even says -- you know, "Gosh, you know. Somebody sees her, it's like everybody wants to marry her. So I'll marry you." He says, about two-thirds of the way down, line 4695, "I shall take you as my wife and make you a countess and lady of rank. And so shut up, you know. Enough of this grief stuff. You should be happy. Look at me, you know. I'm great." He wants to marry her right away, right away, doesn't want to waste any time. And so he does, even though what? She adamantly -- not just objects; she adamantly objects. Next page, page 63, line 4773 or something. "Nevertheless, the count married her according" -- oh, I'm sorry. Right before there: "... for she adamantly refused

8 LLT 180 Lecture 18 8 him. Nevertheless, the count married her according to his wishes." She's in great despair, so again she's grieving or in despair, all kinds of words that - - later they're gonna tell you that she gets better looking again, that all this -- this whole painful situation has taken the color from her face and stuff. And so when they are reconciled, all of a sudden her great beauty truly blossomed. But, according to the count, she looks pretty good here. He says, what I was referring to on the bottom of page 63, "Now I've married you, you should be very glad." You know, "I understand that you're sad because your husband's dead, but he's dead and grieving isn't gonna bring him back, so shut up. You should be happy I married you, you lucky thing." A typical guy view. The count then what? She says, "I'm not gonna eat," so he hits her, you know. And everybody says, "Hey. Whoa," you know. So at least you wonder if this is acceptable in the general eyes of the court, and the answer is no. Because after he hits her, everybody -- they say, "Stop, lord!" -- on line They say to him, "You should be quite ashamed of yourself to have struck this lady because she doesn't eat. You've done a very base thing. If this lady is unhappy because she sees her husband dead, no one should say she's wrong." And so -- you know, it gives you little social insights when you read this material on what was considered acceptable behavior. But then she also swears, a couple of lines later, that she will never be his. And so he strikes her again. During this dispute, or whatever you want to call it, Erec, who we thought was dead,

9 LLT 180 Lecture 18 9 is just in repose. He's just passed out from loss of blood and stress, and everything. And so he awakens. And he awakens and he's like with it, you know. He awakens there, on 4851, "In the middle of these arguments and disputes, Erec recovered consciousness like a man waking from sleep." He draws his sword, he goes over and does what? Sends some blood and brains flying. So a lot of stuff in this chapter like that. He runs over to see her and strikes the count on his head, beating out his brains and knocking in his forehead [geez!] without any word or challenge, so that his blood and brains go flying. Everybody else flees. They think, "My God. The dead man's come to life. This is some kind of spook spectacular. We're outta here, we're scared to death." So they all run away. Erec goes grabs Enide, and happens to luck into his horse being in the courtyard, and they ride away. It seems we're coming to a clarification, a better clarification, of the purpose of the journey, on the middle of page 65. And so what has been the purpose? What has been the point of this journey of two? He says here, in the paragraph starting 4914, three lines into it: "Sweet sister, I've put you completely to the proof! [that is, Enide] Don't be at all fearful, for now I love you more than ever, and I'm again wholly certain that you love me perfectly." And so that's at least part of the thing: that he is not convinced because she criticized him; that she loved him perfectly. However much we buy into that.

10 LLT 180 Lecture The second thing that obviously has to be established is, is that his fame, his position as one of the great knights, has to be reestablished because obviously his flaw, or what's become his flaw, is that he's abandoned chivalry, he's abandoned actively being a knight in a physical kind of way. In the meantime, Guivret, our little guy over here, has heard that some bad stuff is going on and he thinks, "Gosh, this sounds like Erec and Enide. I better go check things out." So he comes with 1,000 men in arms, knights, to rescue him. Erec seems them coming, doesn't realize who it is -- I don't get this because everybody else is tall and Guivret's little. But be that as it may. But they do not recognize each other. They joust. Erec is obviously losing because he's weak. They do recognize each other. And again, we're gonna have to heal, physically heal. We have to physically heal Erec at some point so he can do this last great quest, and that is the joy of court, and that's gonna become kind of a symbolic concept. That's obviously where Erec returns and Erec becomes a better person. He does things for other people, not just for himself. And so we're gonna have to heal him. Guivret is very happy to see him and he happens -- you know, he's a great king, too. And so he has a fortress nearby where his two gay sisters live, and he will heal them -- or they will heal Erec. So we read on the bottom of page 67, "I have two charming, gay sisters who are very good at healing wounds." Finally -- finally, on page 68, Enide is not grieving. Not grieving, at least for a page. Things seem to be going better. Reese? [Inaudible student response.]

11 LLT 180 Lecture No, no, no, no, no. That guy was just like a stooge for that knight who was trying to get the hawk. And that shows a more typical view of a dwarf. I think there was a footnote to that effect, that usually dwarfs are bad people or -- yeah, and this is just some guy who happens to be small of stature, but he's a great king. And he's gonna end up staying young. No relationship. And it's kind of interesting, though, when you bring it up. I hadn't really thought about the fact that we really get two different views of a dwarf in the same book. We get the traditional view at the beginning with this little scuz hud who beats him up in kind of a disrespectful, unchivalric kind of manner, and then we have this other character who we see a lot and is held up as a really great dude, you know. [Inaudible student response.] Well, you know, I think that's just traditionally in our society, you know. I mean, anybody who, you know, doesn't fit a norm somehow is to be viewed with suspicion. And I don't know. Doesn't our society still view things that way? You know, anybody who -- I think a lot of you have been, you know, encultured in a way better manner on a lot of these things than my generation. I don't know simply if there are a lot more handicapped people around and kids growing up because of the advances in medicine, that more people survive who have handicaps. But, you know, where those kids are in the schools. Both my daughters went to Kickapoo here in town. At the time they went to Kickapoo, I think Kickapoo had all the handicapped kids for Springfield. All of 'em went to Kickapoo because it was the only school that was accessible at that time. And just to see the kids interact with those people,

12 LLT 180 Lecture you know, it made me wonder, you know, where were these people when I was growing up? Where were they? I mean, you never saw 'em. You flat out never saw 'em. And I think for my generation -- you know, you kind of have somewhere in your body, like you're afraid you're gonna catch it? I'm not trying to be funny; I'm being totally serious, I mean. And so I don't know. But anybody who's different. And little people -- I think part of it is, where do dwarfs usually live? Where do little people usually live? In dwarf houses. No. No, seriously, you know. Don't they live underground or something? So this whole idea that there's something magical, they know stuff we don't know, which maybe makes us frightened of 'em as much as anything. And so somehow there's magic, whether it's white or a little gray. Anyway. Different guy, anyway. So anyway, she's feeling better, things are better, and my question was at this point -- I don't know if you thought the same thing. I think this was about 4:15 this morning. My thought is, "Hey, wait. The book's over. Why do I have to read 24 more pages? I mean, is this so he can get to his 7,000 lines? It seems there's some reconciliation, we're gonna heal them, and yet he hasn't gotten to his magic 7,000 lines so obviously we're gonna have to have some more adventures." It's like why? I guess it's the point where we can make him a better person so he's suitable to become the king which he's destined to become. So even though we read here -- where is it -- line 5137: "Now Erec has nothing to reproach her for, since, having thoroughly put her to the proof, he has come to feel great love for her." So at least we have this love thing straightened out. They set out again, anyway, the next morning and they slept the night outside. They come to Guivret's castle

13 LLT 180 Lecture where his two sisters are. They give him the nine time over, get him all wrapped up, cut off all the dead tissue and stuff. It's kinda weird. And in a fortnight -- so he spends a fortnight there. So the boy's calming down, all right? He wouldn't even spend a second day anyplace. So obviously, we see we're making progress. We've at least made a step, you know. And now Guivret is gonna travel with him, too, with all his knights, so there's obviously a significant change here. And he is strong, fit, healed and recovered. So now we get back to what? We have a cycle in here and so we get back to a repetition of the wedding night. You know, I wrote in my book, reading it upside-down, "Hot, hot, hot." You know, you read here at 5241, "Now to her great delight they lie naked together in one bed." They've done their penance. So we get back to this word "penance." What's interesting to me there is how that's worded: "they have done their penance," which would imply what? They both had done things wrong, you know. And so they both had penance to do. I will not on a test ask you to expand on that because I'm not quite sure what they've each done wrong. But that's neither here nor there. But they proceed on their way again. They're gonna come to the big adventure which is very important over on page 71. They set off for Arthur's court. And on the way, they come to this great fortress. And as we read about this fortress, it sounds kind of like the ideal fortress. It's so big; it just happened to be built this way. It wasn't built by the king with the intent of withstanding any siege. But there's like a garden, there's a river running through it -- I mean, it's just everything. It's beautiful. And the king's name is Evrain, E-v-r-a-

14 LLT 180 Lecture i-n, and he is the owner. He is the owner of the magic garden. And so there's supposed to be the ultimate test of knighthood and Erec now wants another adventure. And so the point of this adventure, the way I see it, is to restore him to the top echelon of Arthur's knights. In other words, nobody's been able to do this. All of these people have perished, trying to do this great adventure for seven years, you know. I wasn't quite sure of what it was saying here. Maybe reading it again in class will help me. About 6 lines down on page 72 it says: "... the adventure, which is so perilous and grim, you'd wish to go there. I've often heard tell of it; and seven years or more have passed since anyone returned from the castle." Which would seem to say that maybe this particular task has only been possible to try to accomplish for seven years. Seven's a good number so maybe it's a good luck sign that he happened to come in the seventh year. But no one has been able to accomplish it. And the turn is "Joy of the Court." And, of course, this could tie in with the idea that when you -- the word in French, when you reach that ideal stage and everything's in harmony, it's joy. It's the same word. And so here, the point of the adventure is if you accomplish the adventure, joy is returned to the court. And that's why it's called "Joy of the Court." The king is kind of the ultimate good guy and Erec is resolved to undertake this adventure, even though all try to dissuade him. All think it's a bad idea because all these people have perished. But Erec is adamant, on the bottom of page 74. He says he needs a great adventure. And so he gets up early and he sets off to try to accomplish it with the

15 LLT 180 Lecture king. So over on page 76, he takes him into the garden. We have a very specific description of the garden. Kind of interesting when you think this is being written in the 1160s, early 1170s. He says, 5739, Round the garden there was no wall or fence except of air; yet by magic the garden was enclosed on every side by air so that nothing could enter it, any more than if it were ringed about by iron, unless it flew in over the top. And then it's kind of -- it is the magic garden. Everything grows, all birds live there, it's kind of a paradise type location where a knight and a maiden are residing. Erec, we read here in 5768, "... since for him they denoted his Joy, the thing he most longed for." So Erec longed for joy. And I was trying to think of other words, you know, that if I was writing the source for this particular book I would tie in with joy. What is Erec really longing for? Maybe better words than "joy"? [Inaudible student response.] Respect. Balance. Well, you know, another word kind of came in my mind with regard to balance: harmony. Somehow, you know, that harmony in his life, balance in his life, harmony, joy. Peace, you know. It seems there's been a lot of conflict in his life. I just try to pick apart the word "joy." I mean, what are the components of "joy"? What're we really talking about? Peace, harmony, happiness -- you know, what's all involved in that? They're trying to use "joy" as the alternate word that all these things are true. What is it, "Joyful, joyful, we proclaim thee" -- do you know that hymn? That kind of thing.

16 LLT 180 Lecture Almost like in Excaliber when Perceval is looking for the grail, and he comes upon Mordred, and we have all the knights hanging in the tree. One of the great scenes when the crow pulls out the guy's eye. Chrétien would've liked that. Here we have this grim thing as they come into the garden, with all these stakes, with the helmets and heads, we read in , "in front of them on sharpened stakes there were bright, shining helmets, each with a man's head beneath its rim. But at the end of the stakes was one which carried nothing as yet except only a horn." So if you sound the horn, that's a signal that you've overcome, that you have won, and that liberates -- we're gonna find out that that sets everyone free and so joy is established. So we're told, then, the feat to be accomplished, on page 77, is sounding the horn. That is the feat. It says, about 5 lines down on 77, "I shall tell you no more of the horn but that no one has ever been able to sound it. Yet if any man can sound it, his reputation and honour will thereby increase" -- why he wants this last big adventure -- "and surpass that of all those in the land, and he will have gained such respect [like Chrissy was saying] that everyone will come to honour him and regard him as the best of them all." And so it's gonna put him back to where he was but yet he's gonna have that and he's gonna have his mutual outstanding love for the E people -- you know, Enide and Erec. Evrain leaves and a challenge presents itself. As he enters the garden, he sees a maiden on a silver bed, something everyone should have. Never sag, never give way; you buy one and you never need to buy another. I don't know why it can't be gold except maybe it's too heavy. I don't know. Erec, anyway, impressed by this maiden on the silver bed,

17 LLT 180 Lecture tries to get to see her more closely. And we have a knight appear in crimson armor. Bid dude, you know -- a very big dude. A foot taller than everybody else. Like Guivret -- everybody's a foot taller than Guivret. But he's a foot taller than a normal person. The knight challenges Erec. We have this fierce battle going on for pages and pages. They destroy their weapons. They bring swords, for some reason. And then they're in -- I guess instead of hand-to-hand combat, I guess they'd be in gauntlet-togauntlet combat. Until finally Erec, who's been healed, wears the guy out. Wears the guy out. And the knight finally surrenders on line He says, "You've vanquished me." And so now Erec wants to know all about the garden and start identifying themselves. And we get the story of the garden, starting middle of page 80, and who this guy is. He's the son of King Evrain, the owner of the garden; how he's always been in love with this girl. And so we're not quite -- we're not really seeing a parallel. We're not seeing a parallel to Enide and Erec's story. Because obviously, Erec didn't know Enide all his life. But we are finding -- almost, to me, it's the reverse. Because in this particular story, what does the maiden do? What does the maiden make him promise? Stay in the garden until when? He's defeated. And so she's making him stay, all right? She's tricked him into staying with her and doing nothing else. Wants to stay with Erec and Enide. She doesn't trick him into staying, you know -- unless you want to use their feminine wiles or tricks. That's another course. But, you know, he's the one, all right? And so he wants to stay.

18 LLT 180 Lecture He's not made to stay; he wants to stay. But again, he's going to try to bring people back in harmony. I guess as I read this, this word "harmony" kept kind of coming up in my brain. Because part of establishing joy, you know, is he has to bring all these people into harmony with one another. First he has to free the knight. And then when Enide talks to the maiden and it turns out they're cousins, and everybody, you know, kind of gets happy, is resolved to be happy with their lot and how things are. And so we have this kind of sickeningly harmonious hole. And so since everyone's in harmony, everybody agrees the way things are, everyone can be joyful and happy. He identifies himself, another trivial name which really isn't necessary to remember. I don't think even I would be that picky. I just like animal names. They're more interesting. The ladies -- everybody's so happy that there's even a ray of joy. And I don't think I'll discuss that. But the girl on the silver bed isn't happy, isn't happy 'cause she wanted the knight all to herself. So, as I said, Enide has to talk to her and work things out. Enide again tells her the whole story and they pass over that. And so all -- as they return to the castle from the garden, all are joyful, all are happy, and there's a big party for three days. Hey, how appropriate this is for Homecoming weekend, you know? For those of you who started last night -- and obviously some did and are still partying. Three days and then Erec says, "I gotta go." And so curious to me, at the bottom of page and I'm not putting any big emphasis on this, but I just wondered why. Line 6410, it says, "Now they have gone [that is

19 LLT 180 Lecture Erec, Guivret and Enide, and all the rest of those people] and the Joy is at an end." And so whether this is something transitory -- to go in what ways, though? Where are they? They're nine days distance from Arthur's court. Nine days. So when I read that I thought, "Gosh, you know. He's been wandering a long time." They return to Arthur's court and what's all of a sudden the buzzword for the book? Joy. And so when they return to Arthur's court, Arthur is joyful that they've made it back. I don't know if I just started honing in on those words because it was in my mind or whether the author was using them all the time. It just became kind of obvious at the -- he says, "showing his great joy." Then what I did was, to remind myself when I got to this point, I put a paperclip on pages 85 through 92 'cause nothing goes on. It's like we were talking about, at the beginning, all the rest of this is just about the splendor and the parties, how Erec's father dies, and how he then becomes king, and how great Arthur is -- over on page 88. This is like when you have to write a 10-page paper and you have nothing to say for the last two pages. And it's like -- let's see. "My professor's a great guy. You know, I need a new car." You just start writing in stuff. I actually had a -- I shouldn't say disciplines, I guess, because then it'll have to be cut. I had a professor in undergraduate school who was notorious for grading based on the length of what you wrote in class. And he also was a notorious groover. And so if you got a B on the first test, you were a B student, no matter what. If you got an A, you were an A student. And so -- this is not a lie because I saw people's Blue Books who had done this. What people would do, especially if he grooved you as an A and so you -- you know, you

20 LLT 180 Lecture just wanted to stay where you were. Unless you wrote like 30 pages on an hour test, he wouldn't even consider it A work. So what they do is, they start writing, and then they'd like write a letter to their girlfriend and write some other stuff just to fill up pages. And then they'd finish the essay so in case he jumped from the beginning to the end it'd make sense at the end, and they'd turn it in. Because he never read the things. He was notorious. Don't try that on me. I know the tricks. I've been there. Anyway, they compare him positively with whom? On page 88. With Alexander, Alexander the Great from Macedonia. Where is Macedonia? [Inaudible student response;] No, it's near Greece. It was part of what? [Inaudible student response.] Well, more recently. See, it's the corner of Europe most of us don't know very well. It's down in the Balkans. It's part of Yugoslavia, okay? So when Yugoslavia broke up -- look down in there. It was one of the things broken off. I had two students from Macedonia in class a couple of semesters ago. And so one day in class I said something about Alexander the Great and he was from Macedonia, and they go, "Yeah, yeah." Anyway, so positive with Alexander and Caesar. They didn't talk about Erec's rope -- this is all just silliness. And then, remember Hugh the son of Nut? Remember he's there -- he was sent there a long time ago. And so there's a huge number of kings and queens and coronation, and you go to church, and the story ends. Thank goodness.

21 LLT 180 Lecture And so we see here one rendition of things that go wrong. Erec lost his balance because he loved his wife too much, only wanted to stay with her, and so he has to reestablish balance, harmony, if you will, in his life by doing adventures and other things to reestablish himself as a knight of worth, okay? But love is part of that equation. As we read Yvain, the knight with the lion, we're gonna have the secondary story here of the lion. And we get this lion who -- you know, it's good to have a lion to help you when you get in trouble. It comes up and tears people apart, and stuff. Always a handy thing to have around. But his problem is gonna be the opposite, okay? He's gonna get married and then he's gonna diss his wife and say, "Oh, I'll be back. Oh, forgot. Never came back." And so he's gonna have to figure out a way to reconcile himself with his none too happy wife. We won't deal with this long and then we'll deal with something -- we'll probably have a test then and go on to Tristan. Have a nice day. Be safe out there. A lot of idiots. I promise not to be one of 'em this afternoon.