LLT 180 Lecture knightly stuff keeps getting in the paper. Not to bore you with this, but there are a couple of

Transcription

1 LLT 180 Lecture 17 1 Picking up today, working on Chrétien, it's always a little curious to me on how the knightly stuff keeps getting in the paper. Not to bore you with this, but there are a couple of recent comics that I blew up for your benefit if you don't read the newspaper. One shows a knight going into an outhouse and there's a can opener on the side of it, and it says, "Please replace when done." The other one, though -- and we're not supposed to do anything to kind of tie this course to space and time. We're not supposed to say, "Oh, it's election year" or anything like that. But this one is kind of interesting because of its cleverness with regard to Bobby Knight and his firing, and, of course, his reaction on camera. So it shows a knight just beat the hell out of somebody and it says, "Geez, all I said was 'Hey, what's up, Knight?'" I couldn't remember -- I ed a friend of mine who teaches English, a full professor in English, to kind of hunt after the title of the book I was trying to tell you about last time. And I've kind of come up with something and she said -- I wrote and said -- I e- mailed her, "Do you think that's right?" and she said, "You know, I tell you. That sounds right. I take more and more ginko everyday, but it doesn't seem to help. I seem to have diminished ability." One of the things that -- and, you know, a lot of you might not view it as a function of this course, but I think it's a function of being a college professor, especially for you all, is that, you know, you should hear about some books you might not have heard of in other ways. You know, during the summer when you're out of school, you should try to read some of this stuff.

2 LLT 180 Lecture 17 2 And I'll mention two. One, the book I was talking about was by Desmond Morris. You know, we were talking about that behavioral stuff. You've probably heard of the book, The Naked Ape. That's the book I was talking about. And actually, Morris -- it's hard when -- the Web can be really useful, but it's hard when you put on stuff. Like you put on "human behavior" or "human and animal behavior" and about the first 15 listings are quadruple-x sites. And you think "What?" But finally, if you scrounge around enough, you can get what you want. And here's a listing of things Morris has published. The Naked Ape actually came out in 1967, and he's written a lot of books since then. And I really don't remember the exact title of this subsequent book, but his training was as a zoologist and so he has books like on cat watching, dog watching. That's why -- from the list, that's what I thought. So it came out in '94, so that would've been about right. 'Cause I think I was driving someplace and I picked up talk radio that was -- actually think radio, and they were reviewing it. I think it was outside St. Louis someplace. Okay. Anyway, he's a really good guy. Another book that you've probably heard of but probably haven't read, which I did read because I was the right generation to read it, when I started thinking about books, I should mention to you is a book by Rachel Carson. Rachel Carson wrote what? She wrote The Silent Spring. What is The Silent Spring. Well, it is the book that really kind of -- you know, people give credit to for starting the environmental movement. Rachel Carson's book came out in She died in '67. She actually had a degree in biology, in marine biology, and she worked for the government until she started writing books that became

3 LLT 180 Lecture 17 3 very popular, and she said, "Bye. I'm gonna go write some more books. This is what I really like doing." But a couple of years ago a list of books came out. They got a bunch of thinkers together and said, "We want you to list the most important books that have been published in America in the last 15 years." And Silent Spring was number one. And this really -- what she really did [inaudible]. [Inaudible student response.] Why was the bald eagle population dying out? DDT -- nasty stuff, you know? And so what she did really -- you know, we had this view that science and industry was gonna solve all problems of mankind. And so, you know, go kill the mice under your house. Unbeknownst to you, you're also killing yourself. And as a result of DDT, their eggs got so thin, their shells got so thin, that they would crack when they'd try to nest on 'em. So anyway, what Rachel Carson did when this came out, she brought to light all the hidden secrets of what chemicals and things were doing. How we were dumping stuff in rivers and killing rivers. So, you know, I just mention a couple of those books. I mean, these are things -- whether it's on some show where she's being featured on TV, some think channel or something, you should avail yourselves to learn some of this stuff. Because these people -- these are titles that are mentioned and people who are mentioned, that you should at least have a brief biography and command of. That's my little piece of info for today. It's good -- all my professors when I was an undergraduate student, having gone to a

4 LLT 180 Lecture 17 4 small private -- it wasn't summer school you could teach in. And so it's kind of hard if somebody says, "You want to teach summer school?" and you say, "Oh, I can make more money." But what I still try to do is try to make a reading list for myself for summer and it's hard. We've probably talked about this before. At least it's hard for me during the semester just to start reading anything for enjoyment. Because what happens is, instead of getting ready for class, I'm sitting in my office, reading my book. "I'm reading my book." And you say, "Oh, I don't want to go teach a class. I want to read my book." And so it's good, and then you forget what you want to read. So anyway. What we're reading now -- or what you should be reading now -- is Erec. And Erec -- you know, he kind of irritates me as we get on in this. He's kind of an egomaniac -- an "ego man" I wrote in down here someplace. But we -- you know, I was so blabby last time that we couldn't even get the poor boy married. We left him over here just really lusting after Enide. And I don't know. Had we even gotten to the point where he knows her name? We were over on page 20. Isn't that where we stopped? Top of 22? Well, she has gotten the dress. You know, she was dressed before, at least that's what White -- maybe you could see her sides through the holes in the clothes or something, you know. He liked her sides so much. Anyway, they describe this dress in some detail. And again, this is to reflect on the splendor of Arthur's court. In other words, it's ermine, it's jewels and gold. You know, just -- they even tell the amount of gold that's in the different parts, in the tassels and the rubies,

5 LLT 180 Lecture 17 5 and that the lining was of white ermine. So this long description is just to add, you know, to our -- add to the reader's admiration of this fictional court. How splendid things are, how wonderful they are. She changes -- I mean, she has great hair, too. How great is her hair? They put a gold thread in it to hold it together, but her hair made the gold thread look bad. Sure. Whatever. So they say. They name all the people here. Some of these people we're familiar with, on page 23. Important for people who get into -- Reese? [Inaudible student response.] I'm sorry. Where exactly are you? [Inaudible student response.] I don't know. Now, there is a Calvart family. The Calvarts are still a well-known family in England, and so this could be relating to the Calvart family. So instead of saying the handsome Count Calvart. And so, I mean, just similarity of words. I don't know. He could just be having fun, just having fun. I mean, that's a hard -- you know, being that this is Chrétien, I assume Chrétien is taking this from some kind of oral tradition and not that he's just writing down what he's heard. But this isn't White. This isn't White. Later where you could really say, you know, he's like Alice in Wonderland, he's really referring to the mayor of London or something. One thing I did want to point out, though, if you read through this list. One of the things that struck me was, some of these names you've never heard of crop up in different places. And one of the people he mentions, about two-thirds of the way through that

6 LLT 180 Lecture 17 6 paragraph, is a guy by the name of Sagremor, S-a-g-r-e -- his name is right on the left -- m- o-r. And Mark Twain wrote a novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which was made into a movie with Bing Crosby. And actually, the guy that Bing Crosby, who plays the Connecticut Yankee, encounters when he comes to King Arthur's court is Sagremor. And Sagremor is kind of his buddy. So a lot of these people who are just kind of names thrown out, all of a sudden -- like Malagon in First Knight. People who are really kind of people but we never talk about much in these things. All of a sudden somebody will pick out of nowhere and they become an important character. Kind of an interesting movie. If you had a chance and were to watch it, I'll rent it to you. Other questions I can't answer? Pardon? [Inaudible student response.] You know, there's another -- there's a better question in here. Remember in White's book -- I think we were talking about White at the very end -- they referred to Arthur having two sons. And there was one little point and it said "Arthur's two sons." You say, "What?" In this paragraph just above Sagremor, "and a young man of great merit, Loholt, King Arthur's son." What? By who, where? Where'd he come from? And I didn't -- I should've made a note to myself. I didn't try to look him back up the other way and see if I could find his name in reference, where he came from. Maybe this is by Morgan le Fay. I don't know. You know, Arthur really getting around with his half-sisters. Trying to be fair and equal, and

7 LLT 180 Lecture 17 7 he just never got to Elaine. So anyway, now that Erec and his fair babe are there, Gwen -- and again, we said something about the role of women determining things. And again, you know, Guenevere's been kind of bossing Arthur around. She says, "You can't give the kiss." So Arthur -- "Oh, okay." And now she says, "You can give the kiss," and Arthur speaks. And we get back to what his role is, and this is kind of what we find in White, about line 1791, 92, on page 24. It says, "It's the business of a true king to uphold the law, truth, good faith and justice." Kind of what Arthur does in White's book, too. All agree that Erec's fair maiden is the most beautiful, and so she is kissed in courtly fashion -- lest you wonder, in courtly fashion, whatever that is -- by Arthur and he will love her with all his heart. That is Arthur saying this to Enide -- without baseness or impropriety. And so ends the first part. So what we get here is, we're just getting, Erec finds a wife. Now, obviously at this point everybody can live happily ever after, but obviously he'd be way short of 7,000 lines. And what does he learn? He doesn't learn anything about it except how to quest for a wife, and so there has to be something go wrong here. So the stuff is taken back to the future wife's parents as was promised by Erec, and they plan to marry and to cost everything at Arthur's court. We now have Arthur sponsoring the wedding and we have her name, and it says it's an old custom, here on page 27, line 2025: When Erec took his wife, he had to call her by her proper name; for otherwise,

8 LLT 180 Lecture 17 8 unless she is called by her true name, she is not a married woman. As yet her name was not known to anyone. So old custom of not knowing first names, and so we only learn it here for the first time -- Enide. And this is a fairly standard feature of Chrétien in general. Chrétien will not name his characters until later in the works. When we get to Percivale, Percivale doesn't even know his name because everybody had called him "beautiful son" or "fair child," or something else. And so when he's finally asked his name, he says "Percivale? I don't even know why I know that's my name." That's well into the book. So this is a stylistic characteristic also in Chrétien. So everybody has this big party, sounds like Homecoming weekend to me. And then we get to the good stuff, over here on 2069 on page 28, and a wedding night is an opportunity for observation. It says, But I pass over all the rest to let you hear of the joy and delights of the marriage chamber and bed. That night when the union was to be consummated, bishops and archbishops were in attendance. They have to be celibate so they have to watch? What's this about? What's one of the things you can do on the Catholic church if you're married? You can do it in the Episcopal church, too. I don't know if you can do it in any other churches. You can seek what? An annulment. If you're an annulment, you're -- you know, you're still in good standing with the church so you marry somebody else within the church without any dispensation, okay? Predication for an annulment is what? Well, consummation hasn't taken place. So they're

9 LLT 180 Lecture 17 9 there to make sure that the wedding, the marriage, is consummated and therefore, in the eyes of the church, is a real marriage. So that's why all these people are here. They refer, then -- and this makes no sense to you at all. They refer, in about line 8, to this Brangien, B-r-a-n-g-i-e-n. What's this referring to? I told you last time that evidently in about 1165 or a time before, whenever -- about 1165, that we don't have a copy of, that evidently Chrétien wrote something on Tristan and Ezolda and Mark. And what happens is, after Mark -- and Mark is supposed to marry Ezolda, and we're gonna read this, not to ruin the whole story for you. But he's supposed to marry Ezolda. But Ezolda and Tristan have already fallen in love and they have been being bad, bad children. And so they're gonna wonder how they're gonna fake Mark out on the wedding night that she's supposed to be a virgin. And so Brangien, her kind of lady-in-waiting -- they tell her, since she's a virgin, she's gonna have to spend the night with Mark so Mark is faked out. And, of course, men being stupid, Mark is faked out. So this is referring to Tristan and Ezolda which he assumes, I guess, people have read or heard of before they read this. So then we have the actual night, on the middle of page 28, That night they indeed made good all the time they had lost. With the chamber cleared for them, they give each part of the body its due. The eyes, which blaze the trail of love and send their messages to the heart, gaze with delight, much pleased with all they see. After the message from the eyes comes that sweetness, far better still, from the kisses inviting love. [Man, the pen is melting in my hand.] Both of them sample this sweetness, and their hearts within drink their fill of it [part of it's I can't

10 LLT 180 Lecture read anymore], hardly able to desist: kissing was their first play. [Can't read] Then the love they shared made the maiden more bold. Afraid of nothing and whatever the hurt, she suffered all. Before she rose, she had lost the name of maiden: in the morning she was a new lady. So anyway. So now they're married and to remain a good knight, Erec is gonna have to do what? He's gonna have to have balance. And so he's gonna have to still go do all his knightly stuff, you know, even though, you know, as we soon find out, he'd rather just be with Enide. So a month after Pentecost -- we're now in summer, the time where all this stuff takes place -- there's a big tournament and Erec goes. And, of course, he fights bad guys like the haughty knight of the heath. I mean, Erec is just, you know -- he's Wonderman, you know. He's definitely -- you know, whatever name you want to apply to him, he is. He's just the best. The first day and the second day he is even better. Where is he in his fame? He's at the top of his fame. The only person who is better is Gawaine. No one else is better. And so he is just this great knight. But he wants to go home, and so he takes off to go to his dad, King Lac. It takes him about four days to get there. When they're there, of course, everybody's happy. Enide is also very well received. Why? Again, not only because she's beautiful; because of her noble character. And so it's one of the things we struggle -- like, when they have this dissension. He's just such a great noble character, why would he ever be suspicious of her actions toward him? And the answer is, he's an egotistical jerk, would seem to be the

11 LLT 180 Lecture apparent rationale. We read here about how great it is -- I'm getting kind of tired of reading this. It says, about the middle of page 32, line 2404, Yet they showed even greater delight with Enide than with him because of the great beauty they saw in her and still more [so again, where are we putting beauty? Not as the foremost of her qualities but in some kind of secondary position] -- still more for her open, noble character. She seems pretty darn perfect today -- or to the writer, anyway maybe, She was so charming, honourable, sensibly spoken and welcoming, pleasant and friendly in her manner. No one was ever so alert as to detect in her any folly, vice or baseness.... Everybody loved her for her innate nobility; and whoever could do her some service derived pride and personal satisfaction from doing so. Not an ill word was spoken of her, for there was nothing anyone could say against her. But now we get the problem and, you know, this is stated -- it's right at the bottom of the page so maybe it's easy to miss. And remember, I wrote on the board last time, I'm sure, Masshaltenskoenen -- balance. "But Erec was so deeply in love with her that he no longer took any interest in arms or attended tournaments: he no longer cared to joust but spent his time playing the lover to his wife." So this is the flaw and this is what we're gonna have to fix. And so he loses repute, he loses fame, everybody starts bad-mouthing him behind his back. And, you know, she hears this and she feels badly about it. She feels it's her fault. And, you know, that Erec is

12 LLT 180 Lecture just a mess. He's a mess. And so we read here in 2473, The matter was kept from him until one morning when they lay in bed, where they had been taking great pleasure. [I kind of -- I wrote "ha, ha" over here on the side of my book.] They were lying mouth to mouth in close embrace like true lovers, he sleeping and she awake. [Well, duh. What else is new?] So what is the problem? What is the problem? We read about 2502 or something, The earth ought to swallow me up [this is Enide talking] when the very best knight, the boldest, most resolute, noblest and most courtly ever to be numbered among counts and kings, has on my account utterly given up his whole practice of chivalry. So he's no longer a chivalrous person in the sense of what those ideals are has been established by Arthur. And so Enide, you know, just kind of wonders about this and is talking to herself, just talking about his reputation. And she thinks she's muttering all this stuff to herself, but he's kind of quasi-awake or quasi-asleep so he hears this. And he's mad. He's mad. Even if it's true. I mean, I don't see if something's true why you should be mad about it. So that's when I read some of this stuff, I feel like I'm fixing dinner, watching "Oprah" or something. Or maybe these people need to be on "Oprah" and get some of this stuff straightened out by one of Oprah's feel-good guys or something. So anyway, he tells her what? He says, you know, get ready. We don't even know what's going on. He says, "Get ready." And so they're gonna end up leaving. And this all

13 LLT 180 Lecture gets back to this whole thing that silence, speaking. And I know we mentioned sometime this semester that in English we have the proverb of silence is golden. That's our whole problem. Whereas in German you say, "Silence is golden and speaking is silver." So silence is better than speaking, but speaking does have value. But, you know, again it's important that he gets back to a point of balance. We just have to wonder how he gets there, if it makes any sense. And I'm not sure it does. But this is a famous work so we'll read it anyway and it won't take us that long to get through it. Anyway, he arms himself. He summons his wife, who's not a happy camper. She says, "Oh, I like life here. I don't want to go anyplace." And nobody really seems to know what's gonna happen. But Erec tells them that they're gonna leave and go off alone, they're gonna go on a journey. And so we start having these adventures when they leave. I guess it's a quest to restore his reputation, to restore his merit. And it's more like he's questioning whether his wife thinks he has merit and she -- he has to come to the realization that she was never questioning whether he had merit. She was just repeating to him or expressing her concerns that others perceived that he might not have that. And so a little confusing. But one of the things I did when I started reading through this, these adventures, I tried to think how much this is tied with our former listing of material like we find in fairy tales or if, you know, we're thinking, too, one of the criticisms that have been made of Chrétien is it doesn't seem that he set off to write something of the right length. And so I tried to get through three adventures and I'm thinking, "Okay. Are we gonna have a

14 LLT 180 Lecture resolution?" It doesn't work out. We have three adventures until he meets the dwarf of the little, and so we're obviously way short. So it doesn't fit any formula. So we're gonna set off here. We're gonna have a series of adventures. And it's like they're following their destiny. He says, on line 2765 on page he said, "They parted in great distress." In other words, nobody wants them to go off alone. In fact, his father says - - King Lac says, "No, the son of a king really shouldn't be wandering around by himself." And so even though our expectation from reading White is that chaos is gone, that Arthur is king, little things that are said which would seem to indicate that's not true. But what does it say in 2765? "They parted in great distress. Erec rides off taking his wife he knows not where." So it's kind of like what you find in romantic material, where the hero in despair -- and it's what Percivale will do later -- just throws the horse's reins over its neck and just say -- you know, surrenders themselves to direction by God. In other words, you know, take me wherever you intend to take me. And so he says, "As chance decrees" -- again, chance, destiny, faith, whatever word you want. Now, she rides first and she's not supposed to tell him anything, because he alleges that her speaking does what? Her speaking says what? She doesn't think he can do this without her warning him. So he lacks merit, you know. He's not this super-studly guy he was before he spent all this time with her. He's lost his edge. So first we encounter -- the first encounter is with these three knights. They do give us something about custom. He fights them one at a time. It seems to me almost like Steven King or somebody, but Chrétien kind of gets into killing people. He likes to tell kind

15 LLT 180 Lecture of gruesome stuff. A little later when we read some of this stuff, he likes heads split asunder and brains, and blood's flowing -- you know, it's spreading around. And here, he likes people really, you know, run through. Line 2873, "plunging his lance a foot and a half into his body.... he had to die." Duh. One of the other guys rush in and he "thrusts a quarter of his own through his breast." He's just killing these guys. And the other guy flees. And the result of this is what? Enide has warned him, and so we use words in here like "he threatens her," you know? So he threatens her, saying, you know, "Be quiet," you know. "Don't warn me again," you know. "I told you not to warn me, dammit," you know? "Don't warn me. You're saying I couldn't -- you know, they'd kill me if you didn't warn me, and so you're questioning my merit. You're questioning my worthiness." I guess he wants her to be there and be concerned about the impending danger to him. So when he overcomes it, she can be impressed by his worthiness, his meritoriousness. Constantly in here, and certainly if somebody wanted to, it's more of a sitting flush project than really necessarily any intellectual work. But, you know, you could go through these things and pick out all the proverbial stuff in here showing that tide of folk literature. Because we say things like covetness is an evil thing. It seems almost every three or four pages we get something that is, if not a proverb, is at least proverbial in nature. The second adventure, then, starts on page 39. They encounter another five knights and the fifth knight attacks Erec first. How does he kill all those people? He kills number one. Number two, on the bottom of page 40,

16 LLT 180 Lecture With swift thrust, Erec plants the sharp, well-forged head of his lance into his throat below the chin, slicing through bones and nerves; the blade comes out at the back of his neck, and the warm, crimson blood streams from the wound on both sides. His soul departs [okay] and his heart is stilled. The third dashes out of his hidingplace on the other side of a ford and comes straight through the water. Erec goes at him and knocks him down. I think he drowns, doesn't he? Erec pursue the last guy and cuts his shoulder off from his body. This is gruesome stuff. He takes all the horses and again admonishes Enide not to warn him, not to speak. One of the strange things to me is, on the one hand, this seems to be going on in the relationship and yet, you know, she doesn't seem to take remiss that he's being such a jerk. Because then when they get through this day where he's been killing all these people until he's tired, and so they spend the night outside. And she says, you know, "Can I stand guard?" And so all of a sudden we have this fairly egalitarian kind of situation with just the two of them alone, and he says, "Okay." And so he sleeps and she stays up all night. It's just -- it seems incongruous to me with what's going on that this happens, you know. She constantly -- and I'd be told probably that I don't understand our guy. But she constantly blames herself. Like, "What did I do wrong?" Of course, Erec never thinks about, "What did I do wrong?" He just has to prove to her that he's meritorious. They resume their journey, on page 42, and they encounter a squire. Now, this becomes a fairly long adventure. These first two adventures have just kind of been, "Hi. Kill. 'Bye," and on to the next adventure. And here we get into a little more of a story. And

17 LLT 180 Lecture so Chrétien takes us from this meeting the squire, the squire offering them food, then going back to the stronghold with the squire, meeting a count. And the count later will admit he was wrong, but initially he's just kind of that base guy, kind of like Uther and Egraine, who just say, "Wow, you know. Enide is just super-fine. I think I'm gonna proposition her." And so he asks Erec if he can talk to the count's wife and Erec says, you know, "Sure." He doesn't have any suspicion. And so the count speaks to Enide, over on page 44, and he says point-blank, at 3317 maybe, If it pleased and appealed to you, I would make you my mistress: you would be my dear love and lady over all my land." So I don't think "mistress" in the sense we're taking it -- I think he means a wife. In other words, "Let's just -- we'll kill Erec off and you can marry me. And, you know, you don't want this cruddy life you've been living. I'll give you a lot better life." So first reaction is what? "No way, buster," is basically what she says. And then she says something -- and, you know, I'm sure that Kent and I would both like to know if this true because we were probably raised that this wasn't the proper way to act. But, you know, for the females in class who read this, I just -- you know, I only have to change how I behave in life. And it says in 3347, "It's true that the more one begs and flatters a woman, the more haughty she becomes; but if anyone shames and insults her, he often finds her more amenable." Is that right? You know, have I screwed up my whole life by being nice? Is the right answer "No," you know. "You're a scuz." "Oh, I love you." I mean, have I been doing

18 LLT 180 Lecture this wrong? I guess I've been reading the wrong books, you know? That'll teach me to read the advice pages in like women's magazines, you know. They just play with your mind, you know. It's enticing to read this, you know? You try to be sensitive, you know? Actually, you really read 'em why? Why do you read women's magazines? Well, no. Women you see here now, reading now, and they're say, "It's an interesting style. He's just trying to find out about how women think and stuff." Actually, you know, there are more nude pictures in those magazines than there are in Playboy and stuff. So you can -- "This guy, he's so sensitive," and you go, "Wow, look at this. Wow." Not true. Not true. Anyway, so he says, "Well, you know, if you won't agree to this, you know, I'm just gonna have your husband killed." And so then she changes her tune and, of course, we all know guys are idiots. They're easy to manipulate and she does a total manipulation job on him. She says, "Oh, you know, I'd rather be with you. And I'll tell you what to do, you know. You don't want to look treacherous or look bad, and so I suggest you wait till morning when he wakes up and then kill him." And so she says even here -- you know, she really plays with his mind on line She says, "I've led this life too long: to tell the truth, I have no liking for my husband's company. I'd certainly rather feel you laying naked beside me in bed." At that point, he's like egotistically, totally convinced. One of the things I wonder is, on top of page 46, 3417, "she knows well how to infatuate a fool." Now, Enide has grown up in this -- you know, like she has to take care of the house and do all this stuff, in kind of, you know, very limited circumstances. You have

19 LLT 180 Lecture the feeling that she really hasn't experienced life much at all. She doesn't know much. Now she goes off and marries Erec without any further experience. All of a sudden, she knows totally how to manipulate men. And so I guess the question I wrote in here, "Are women born with this knowledge?" Is this just -- there's no learning curve on this? It's something that's true at two or at 92; It's just kind of there? It's an element? Pretty scary, actually. Erec, as guys usually are, is clueless. He has no idea what's going on. Clueless in France. Clueless somewhere in England, you know. Erec is clueless about what's going on. He sleeps, but Enide is sleepless with worry. And so she finally awakens him the next morning so they can take off, and we're back to the idea of fate. If God favors us, if we can do something, then we'll escape. And so again, fate, destiny, these are the important concepts. She says, about 8 lines from the bottom of page 46, "He desires me and hates you. But if it pleases God, who is capable of all good, you'll not be killed or captured." This is important. Because by those lines, it evidently just strikes some kind of chord in him. I don't quite get it, but he says, right at the bottom of that page, "Now Erec hears sure evidence from his wife of her loyalty towards him." And so evidently in Erec's mind, somehow, you know, she's been showing herself to be disloyal by even repeating what people said. By repeating it, even worrying about it, I guess in his mind, he views it as she's giving it some kind of credence, some kind of truthfulness.

20 LLT 180 Lecture So anyway, they get ready, they go off. The count comes and he figures out -- duh -- that he's been tricked. He's mad. So he and 100 knights ride after Erec. Erec -- again, she warns him. And I think this is what I wrote in my book as I was getting tired of his ego man. He once again says, "You've little regard for me" --on the top of page "I can't teach you your lesson." I know all those people on "Oprah" say that's bad when somebody tries to teach you lessons. And so Erec sees these guys and he goes back and fights the count. And as I was writing notes on the side of this, the first time I read this, I wrote, "He kills the count. No, he doesn't." And, you know, you read this about -- what is it, line 3615, maybe: "he runs more than a yard of his lance through his belly." I'm sorry, I do believe that would kill you, one way or the other. But he's not dead. He's not dead. Erec goes on into the woods and the count is only seriously wounded, and now he's regretful. He says, on the top of 49, "I've acted despicably and regret my villainy." And so this is the story of how Erec was saved. Now, I don't think when we read that, on page 49, we're supposed to mean saved from his problem, but simply saved in this particular adventure. Like, he's writing these separate little story lines. Like, you know, "I have some time today. I'm gonna write the next part of this." And so that just kind of ends another longer adventure. We're gonna have more adventures and the next adventure is very important because this character is going to reappear later when Erec is in great need. And so this character, whose name we finally get on the bottom of page 51, Guivret the Little, after their

21 LLT 180 Lecture long battle -- and again, they've been fighting for six hours; they're all beat up, almost unto death -- and he is a powerful king. And in becoming friends after this great hostility, Erec asks one thing of him. And this is what becomes important later. He says, in the middle of page 52, I guess about line 3910, the line starts "heard you say." It says, "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." So this is the bond upon which they depart. And Guivret even asks him back to his castle -- you know, they're both really beat up -- to help him kind of heal up before he sets off again. But Erec sets off really all battered, and that's gonna be important what happens to him. On the next page we get the name of Gawaine's horse. We're also gonna get the name of Arthur's horse in here. And remember, animals are my favorite thing -- no. Always make really bizarre IDs or matches. And so if I were you, if I had to mark -- if I had to mark something like that, just because you know the bizarreness of your professor -- which is important, you know. You need to figure out how your professors are strange the first couple of weeks and deal with that strangeness. Questions? We're gonna finish this next time. Next week we'll read Yvain which we want to plan reading The Knight with the Lion. It's kind of a fun story. Enjoy the weather. It's beautiful outside. Don't forget to study sometime. The semester's kind of creeping by on us. It's kind of scary. If you sit down and look, all of a sudden you go, "Ohhhhh. Better catch up on some of my courses. I'm behind." See you next time.

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