Medieval Tradition and Modern War

Abstract

Popular versions of Arthurian romance feature lone knights, imperiled maidens, fortified castles, and ferocious dragons. Sweeping aside these lifeless cartoons, Allen J. Frantzen insists that chivalry is neither trite nor moribund. O n the contrary, he argues that its compelling codes and creeds mobilized men to enlist and, remarkably enough, to persevere in the appalling conditions of trench warfare. Bloody Good contradicts com­ monplace wisdom to maintain that the attrition battles of 1914—1918 exemplify the persistence o f medieval traditions rather than their extinc­ tion. If, as the author states, “medieval ideas [...] help to explain violence in the modern world” (9), misconceptions about chivalry may not only distort the remote past but may also obscure the culture and history of the twentieth century. This book encompasses diverse figures such as Geoffroi de Charny, who fought in the HundredYears’War (1337—1453) and celebrated self-mastery as the chief attribute o f the warrior, and Wilfred Owen, who won the Military Cross for bravery in action (1918) even as he espoused a poetics of pity in his haunting war lyrics. By juxtapos­ ing historical periods often perceived in antithetical terms, Frantzen, the author of six previous books on the Middle Ages, makes an unusual contribution to the substantial body o f research on the First World War. Unfortunately, however, his emphasis on “the moral and theological meanings” of chivalry (9) promotes the delineation of religious principles rather than historical practices in his treatment of martial cultures. In his idiosyncratic and sweeping project, he subordinates complex ethical, methodological, and social questions to Christian hermeneutics, engen­ dering a disembodied conception of bloodless good at odds with his title. Bloody Good highlights the significance of studying conflict in compara-