Judicial Duels and Moral Inadequacy in La Mort le Roi Artu

Abstract

At the beginning of the thirteenth-century French Mort Artu , the author presents his story as a conclusion to the Queste del Saint Graal , a distinctly pious romance, yet much of this final installment in the Lancelot-Grail cycle betrays little in the way of religious feeling. However from the first folios, this romancer suggests that he will depart not so much from his predecessor’s message as from his method of delivery. Here he reminds the reader of the losses the Round Table has sustained. Galahad and Perceval, the two most virtuous knights, have passed into the next world. All the other heroes who return from the quest, whatever their earthly glories, are lesser servants of the divine. Because adventure has disappeared, the remaining knights find themselves adrift. The author underscores this lack of purpose through the judicial duels that Lancelot fights against Mador, and later against Gawain. Whereas combatants and bystanders alike profess the belief that the Almighty favors the righteous party in these trials, they also either cast doubt on this notion or express indifference to the role God might play. Camelot comes to an end, the author suggests, because its noblemen continue the behavior that brought them failure in the Grail quest. Elsewhere in the romance, the narrative highlights decisions confronting the heroes. With this emphasis on choice, the narrative intimates that characters are responsible for their own fate. Their kingdom disintegrates, not as a result of divine retribution or Fortune’s intervention, but from their own moral inadequacy.