Not at all am I bashing the story but I'm just sitting here as I'm reading, I want to know the guy's side as well. Is there not a piece of armor or anything that the guys could wear and do the same test? Am i the only one wondering if the guys were actually unfaithful? What if only one of the guys was going around sleeping with all the other knights beloveds? I am truly distraught. For all we know, Karadin could have slept with every single one of the other maidens, but his beloved was faithful to him so the mantle fit her.
Please, someone out there tell me that they thought about this and I'm not losing my mind here.
Also, Are we to believe that after this, the knights and maidens just go back to like this never happened? Were the knights that drunk that they had no recollection of any of this even happening? Okay, that very well may be, but i still can't wrap my head around the fact that we know nothing about anything after this. I can't be the only person out there who would just forget about finding out that my beloved was unfaithful.
Okay, my rant is over. I leave you with this wonderful meme of how i feel right now.
Our text tells us there were other chastity tests. In one test the knight must drink from a horn and not spill the contents. Unfortunately, it is still a test about his beloved's fidelity and not his. A man with an unfaithful wife is called "cuckolded." The OED says it comes from the habit of the cuckoo laying its eggs in another bird's nest. The cowbird, native to this area also does this parasitic nesting--or is a brood parasite (Wiki)." It dumps it's eggs in another bird's nest for some other parents to raise. I remembered hearing about this sort of bird behavior when I was young and expected to be able to identify local flora and fauna by my parents. I did a quick search on the cowbirds for confirmation. Cowbirds will push eggs out of the host nest. Some host birds will reject the cowbirds, push them out of the nest. For a man to be called cuckolded means that his nest has been violated and his children's heritage may be in question and resources improperly distributed. Apparently, it was okay for a man to plant seeds in another man's field as long as he wasn't caught.
ReplyDeleteJonathan, your post really got me thinking! I had honestly never thought of a twist like that! Great explanation, Ruth. It seems the same rules do not apply to the women.
DeleteRuth, that's a really interesting explanation. I never realized that that's where the word came from.
DeleteJon, in the case of Karadin being master slutty pants, it just makes me sad. His girlfriend is so nice, it seems to everyone, she deserves better than that.
I definitely agree. The men are not usually tested when it comes to their fidelity, however, always tested when it comes to chivalry, for example the story we're reading now, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It is a test of chivalry, will Sir Gawain be honest with the king and actually give up the belt? we all know of course that this isn't the case. But men are tested in other ways.
ReplyDeleteI've always felt like fidelity is a part of chivalry. That to me is one of the more confusing parts of all of this. The knights are tested so meticulously on all aspects of chivalry but then they can sleep around all they want! Guess that's because men have the power during this time period.
DeleteJonathan,
ReplyDeleteI had a similar view on this reading. I didn't think about only one of the knights sleeping with the other wives, that would be an interesting scenario to read about!
The fact that men aren't tested bugs me as well. I hadn't thought about what would be happening after the test. Personally I would not be going back to my lover had he treated me that way. If I was a man I would not want to go back an unfaithful beloved no matter how small that their infidelity.
ReplyDelete