Eating Up the Enemy: Teaching Richard Coer de Lyon and the Misrepresentation of Crusader Ideology in White Nationalist Agendas

Abstract

American white nationalist groups, such as the Klu Klux Klan, the American Freedom Party, and the American Nazi Party, capitalize on the fantasy of a white, heteronormative medieval Europe in their anti-Islam agendas, misrepresenting both the history of the Crusades and the “Pork-Eating Crusader” image associated with it. Now a product available for purchase at certain online retail shops, the image of a crusader eating “pork” appears in the popular medieval romance Richard Coer de Lyon (RCL) when an ailing King Richard unwittingly eats a Saracen captive instead of the pork he requested. This article examines how working with students to trace the history of this image through RCL gives needed context to the racial and religious identities represented in Crusader texts. When properly contextualized, the episodes of Richard cannibalizing his Saracen enemies demonstrate that the infamous king is a figure for modern audiences to question rather than to emulate. By teaching students that medieval racial and religious identities were in flux, they are better able to see how the modern fantasy of the medieval period is used by white nationalist activists and how to combat their agendas. Such lessons further articulate how certain positions, like race, gender, and religion are constructed over time, and, more importantly, how they continue to be constructed and changed.