Uzbekistan state world languages university course work in english on the topic

2.2. ALLEGORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Tennyson, the Poet Laureate of Britain desired to kindle the national pride of fellow Englishmen and showcase the ideals that Victorians identified themselves with. He chose the Arthurian legend as his theme, since King Arthur embodied those ideals far back in his days before the Norman conquest of 1066. King Arthur was celebrated in all the medieval legends as an exemplary ruler. Tennyson transposes the past onto the present to make the ideal Arthurian monarchy illustrative of Queen Victoria’s rule. Arthur is said to be "ideal manhood closed in real man" and the "stainless gentleman." His idea of the Round Table where he sat with his Knights is an example of his democratic concept of the King as the first among equal knights. Arthur thus was a democratic monarch whose round table was itself a democratic institution. Thus King Arthur was looked upon as the prototype of a good monarch.

Through the presentation of King Arthur, Tennyson sought to project Queen Victoria as an ideal monarch. Those who know British history will understand that Queen Victoria was the matriarch of the British Empire. She epitomised the values of the era and carved out a new role for the monarchy. During her 63-year reign, a length surpassed only by the current Queen (Queen Elizabeth II), Victoria presided over the social and industrial transformation of Britain, as well as expansion of the empire. But at the end, Arthur was disappointed and betrayed by the Knights. To his dismay he realized his expectations from them were unrealistic and he could not uphold the ideals he had established for himself and the Knights.
2.3. "THE DEATH OF ARTHUR" BY THOMAS MALORY AS A RESULT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIEVAL ARTHURIANISM

Thomas Malory (c. 1417–1471) entered the history of literature as the author of one work. Over his extensive - in modern editions, he has about 60 printed sheets - the novel "The Death of Arthur" he worked for ten years (1460-1470). The book was published in 1485 by the English pioneer W. Caxton, who organized Malory's text into 507 "headings" and provided each with a heading that was a summary of its content. In 1934, a manuscript of The Death of Arthur was discovered, although not the author's, but made in the 15th century. The work was divided into eight parts. Modern editions of the novel, including those in Russian, often retain both division into parts and headings.

Each of the parts, or books, has a title that indicates the name of the protagonist of this part. So, the novel "The Tale of King Arthur" opens, followed by "The Tale of the Noble King Arthur. How he himself became emperor through the valor of his hands", then - "The Glorious Tale of Lancelot of the Lake", "The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney, nicknamed Bomain", "The Book of Sir Tristram of Lyons", "The Tale of the Holy Grail", "The Book of Lancelot of Lake and Queen Guinevere" and, finally, "The Lamentable Tale of the Death of Arthur the Disinterested". As can be seen from this list, King Arthur is the protagonist of only three books; in the rest of the novel, other knights are at the center of the story.
"The Death of Arthur" is a complex and original work, it summed up the previous development of the legend, it embodied many characteristic features of medieval literature. This is a vivid example of a chivalric novel, synthesizing the previous achievements of the genre and reflecting the mood and aspirations of the chivalric class. At the same time, Malory managed to convey in the "Death of Arthur" the atmosphere of the time in which he lived - a time full of troubles, defeats and longing for the heyday of chivalric culture that had gone into the past. There is also no doubt that the author of the novel managed to embody in it some motives and moods that are interesting for all people and at all times, which gave rise to numerous retellings, adaptations and alterations of the novel, which continue to this day.
In order to appreciate the contribution that T. Malory made to the development of the legend of King Arthur, it is necessary to recall the early stages of its development.
The origin of the legend is lost in the darkness of time. Its historical prototype probably lived in the 6th century. AD and was the leader of the Britons. This leader is mentioned for the first time
Gildas in his Latin Book of Complaints for the Ruin and Subjugation of Britain (540). The interpretation of the image of the hero, who in Gildas bears the name Ambrosius Aurelia, is due to the author's pro-meme orientation. Gildas is sure that all the troubles of Britain were caused by her exit from the power of Rome. Therefore, he portrays the prototype of King Arthur as the last scion of a noble Roman family, leading the Britons who fought against the Saxon invasion.
The History of Britain written in Latin, created in the 9th century, also belongs to the pseudo-historical stage in the development of the legend. Nennii. His hero already bears the name Arthur, Nenius emphasizes his generosity and credits him with 12 victories over the Saxons. In the History of Britain, Arthur is not yet a king, but, like Gildas, a military leader.
Arthurian legends were in wide circulation in Wales. In them, he appeared as a defender of the homeland, surrounded by loyal comrades such as Kay and Beduir. This - Welsh, Celtic - tradition was based on William of Malsbury, who created in the XII century. Latin History of the Kings of England. Being a serious historian for that time, William argued that the heroic figure of King Arthur should take its rightful place in historical works, and not just in the popular imagination.
The true "father" of the Arthurian legend, however, should be considered Geoffrey of Monmouth (XII century), who wrote the "History of the Britons" in Latin. Geoffrey created the history of 99 British kings, beginning with the legendary Brutus. About a fifth of his work is devoted to Arthur. Here he is depicted not only as a warrior, but also as a king, surrounded by loyal knights, a typical medieval monarch who conquered many nations, a descendant of Emperor Constantine. Geoffrey, whose "History" begins the "heroic-novel" stage in the development of the image of King Arthur, describes his court as the center of chivalrous culture and civilization.
Galfrid's book quickly gained popularity. 200 copies of his work have survived, which by the end of the 12th century. was already well known in France, Spain, Italy, Poland and Byzantium. It is not surprising, therefore, that in 1155 Vas translated it into French and significantly expanded it, turning it into a novel called Brutus. It was you who was first introduced into the legend of King Arthur by the image of the Round Table and a number of other miracles, as well as - under the influence of the French tradition - and many courtly motifs. In the same XII century. the first English adaptation of the legend appeared - the poetic "Brut" of Layamon, who repeated in all essential features the French version of Vasa.
In the writings of Geoffrey, Vass, and Layamon, King Arthur is shown as a great hero and a great king. At the same time, in a number of contemporary French interpretations of the legend, Arthur "degrades", recedes into the background, his story and image turn into a kind of frame for the adventures of other heroes. The most famous French poet of the XII century. Chrétien de Troyes wrote five novels in which he developed such subsequently popular motifs as Lancelot's love for Queen Guinevere, the adventures of the exemplary knight Gawain, etc. The Arthurian myth in his novels becomes the material for posing ethical problems relevant for that time, such as the knightly ideal, the ratio of knightly duty and courtly love, deeds in the name of glory or in the name of a lofty spiritual goal.
In England, the most significant Arthurian novel preceding T. Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur was the anonymous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (fourteenth century). Its author entered the history of literature as "the poet Gawain". The popularity of the Arthurian legend in the British Isles, along with "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", is evidenced by "The Adventures of Arthur" (c. 1350), as well as created in the same XIV century. anonymous novels under the same name - "The Death of Arthur". One of these novels is written in alliterative verse, while the other has a strophic form. A number of English novels of the same period tell of the adventures of King Arthur's knights. These are, for example, "Gawain and the Serf from Carlisle", "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Lady Ragnella", etc. However, T. Malory's "The Death of Arthur" was destined to play the most significant role in the history of the legend.

Creating his work, T. Malory followed the medieval principle of literary creativity and did not invent either a plot or heroes. The traditionalism characteristic of medieval culture allowed him to widely use the works of his predecessors as material. It is known that Malory revised several French prose chivalric romances of the 13th century. ("Merlin", "Tristan", "Search for the Grail", "Lancelot", "The Death of Arthur"), as well as the previously mentioned two medieval English chivalric novels, in verse and alliterative, about the death of King Arthur.

The mature and late Middle Ages sought to unite and summarize all the information known to it on various subjects. Hence, as already mentioned, the popularity of the "Summa" genre in theology, hence all sorts of didactic works of a generalizing nature (lapidaria, bestiaries), popular in urban literature. T. Malory collects under one cover many plots of medieval courtly literature, his work is rightfully considered the best set of literary monuments of the Breton cycle and the most consistent presentation of the history of King Arthur.
The magic of numbers, traditional for the Middle Ages, is also fully present in the "Death of Arthur". On almost every page of the novel, you can find numbers that have a symbolic meaning. So, telling in "The Tale of King Arthur" about a duel in which, not recognizing each other, the brothers Balin and Balan fought, Malory mentions that "seven terrible wounds" gaped on the body of each of them. Recall that the Middle Ages read this number as a designation of a person, because "seven" can be considered as 3 + 4 and therefore in it, as in man, the divine (hidden behind the number three) and earthly (hidden behind the number four) principles are combined. "Seven" was also perceived as a symbol of the seven deadly sins and seven virtues, seven days of creation, seven church sacraments, etc.
The author of "The Death of Arthur", but apparently, had a special predilection for the number "seven", as modern commentators of the novel note, he introduces it even when it is not mentioned in the source text. So, in the story about Lancelot of Lakes, the hero says that his seven (highlighted hereinafter by me. - Μ. P.) years did not feel sleepy; having killed two giants, he frees 60 (again a magic number, a multiple of three and ten!) Ladies who have been languishing in captivity for seven years; fighting with three knights, he plunges them to the ground with seven blows; the girl he met in the Dead Chapel confesses that she loved him for seven years.
The magic numbers in Le Morte d'Arthur are not limited to the number seven. Virgins, ladies and knights are always 3, 12 or 24, if there are three women, then their age is indicated as 60, 30 and 15 years old, if a maiden calls for a knight for help, then she usually does this 100 times. Malory sometimes has several magic numbers in one sentence. So, telling in the book "How King Arthur Became Emperor" about the battle between the British troops and the troops of the Roman emperor Lucius, he twice uses the numeral "three" and once - "one hundred".
Malory's novel was created at a late stage in the development of the genre, it widely uses clichés and motifs that have long been established by this time. So, the adventures of all the heroes of "The Death of Arthur" are built according to the same scheme. During the celebration (wedding, Trinity, Christmas, etc.), a messenger appears at the royal court (it can be a maiden, a lady, a dwarf or an unknown knight), who reports that justice has been violated somewhere, for the restoration of which it is necessary accomplish a feat. One of the Knights of the Round Table goes on a journey, after many adventures he accomplishes a feat and returns to Camelot.
Malory, a writer of the 15th century, when the concept of authorship and authorship was already taking shape, seeks to diversify the traditional beginnings of individual adventures. Sometimes a girl acting as a messenger appears girded with a sword and the first test of the knight is to pull this sword out of its scabbard (the story of Balin). In other cases, the girl brings with her a shield, bequeathed by the deceased knight to anyone who is ready to become his successor in accomplishing feats (the story of Lakota Mantelier). A hermit can also act as a messenger and at the same time a predictor of the future (the story of the conception of Galahad).
Sometimes the tie is increased quantitatively. So, at the wedding feast of Arthur and Guinevere, first a white deer runs into the banquet hall, followed by a white dog, and then a lady appears on a white horse, who is immediately forcibly taken away by a knight galloping after her. Accordingly, the adventure after such a plot should be triple. Indeed, Sir Gawain gets a white deer, Sir Thor a white dog, and King Pelinor saves a lady.
Malory uses in Le Morte d'Arthur the spatio-temporal organization typical of the novels of the "Breton" cycle. Knightly deeds are "tied" to various milestones on the ground, around or inside which there is a certain localized and morally colored space that has wonderful properties. Usually such milestones that organize a fabulous-fantastic space are a castle, a spring or spring, a cross, a tree decorated with shields, a river crossing.
So, at the spring, Sir Marhalt, Sir Gawain and Sir Ivain meet three girls who tell them where they can find wonderful adventures ("The Tale of King Arthur"), At the cross, Gawain observes the fight of an unknown knight with ten pursuers. Sir Ector in his wanderings approaches a tree on which knights' shields hang, and a copper basin is nailed to the roots. The hero knocks on the pelvis and immediately a mighty knight appears out of nowhere and challenges him to a duel. Bomeyi defeats two knights guarding the crossing.
Malory's novel belongs to the "Breton" cycle and, as in any example of the genre that uses the traditions of Celtic folklore, there are many miracles and magic in it, fabulous creatures take an active part in the events - fairies, dwarfs, giants. At the very beginning of his reign, Arthur proves his right to the throne thanks to the miraculous sword he pulled out of the stone - the magician Merlin plays an important role in this episode. Later, Arthur takes out his sword from the Lady of the Lake, a fairy whose image came to courtly literature from Celtic legends.
Carry a number in the "Death of Arthur" dwarfs and giants. Sometimes they play a plot-forming role, their appearance or, conversely, their disappearance becomes an occasion for knightly adventures, sometimes dwarfs and giants are included in the narrative as a kind of entourage that enhances entertaining and fabulous. So, the appearance on the day of Pentecost at the court of King Arthur of three horsemen and a dwarf becomes the beginning of wonderful adventures, the kidnapping of the dwarf Sir Baumain prompts the hero to set off in search of him. In The Tale of King Arthur, the excesses of the giant Thaulurd, who is devastating the lands of Count Fergus, prompt Sir Marhalt to fight him and win. In these cases, dwarfs and giants are needed to develop the plot. But "fifty giants born of the devils", which the emperor Lucius includes in his army before the battle with Arthur, are needed rather for the colorfulness of the story.
In "The Death of King Arthur" by Malory, based on the centuries-old tradition of the courtly novel and the even longer existence of the legend itself, a careful reading reveals traces of mythology, as well as individual stylistic features of other medieval genres, for example, the genre of the epic poem, with which the novel is genetically and from which he inherited both some plots and stylistic devices.
Researchers discover in the "Death of King Arthur" features that go back to primitive mythological consciousness. So, for example, Arthur himself is sometimes identified with the god Bran the warrior, the image of the fairy Morgana goes back to the Irish goddess of war and death Morrigan, and the prototype of Gawain is considered to be the "solar" god or hero, not without reason his strength arrives before noon, and then declines. .
As in The Song of Roland, the characters in Malory's novel are often compared to lions: Arthur fights "like a lion," "like a furious lion," "like a wild lion," Thor and Abelius are ferocious, "like two lions," Bomain and the Red the knight swoops down on each other, "like wild lions."
There are also hyperbole typical of the epic in Malory's novel, especially in the description of battles. The story of Arthur's victory over Emperor Lucius says that "thousands of bodies lay in one huge pile", in the same battle, Sir Kay, Sir Clegis and Sir Bedivere the Mighty three together kill more than 500 enemies, Lakote Mantelier, a character in "The Book of Sir Tristram" , one fights with a hundred knights.
Often there are in the "Death of Arthur" and original "catalogs" - descriptions through enumerations, dating back to the Homeric epic. Since abstract thinking among ancient people was undeveloped, they conveyed the concept, for example, of the power of an army through the enumeration of its units. By the same principle, Malory describes the army of Emperor Lucius. However, one gets the impression that this stylistic device plays another role in the author of the analyzed novel, contributing to the rhythmization of prose, which is also achieved through repetitions and parallel syntactic constructions. These stylistic features are well conveyed in the Russian translation.
Synthesizing the achievements of medieval literature, T. Malory was able, with the help of well-known literary forms, to reflect his time, which was extremely stormy and restless. 15th century for England, this is the time of the Hundred Years War, at the beginning of which victories were won over France, but the end of which for the British turned out to be inglorious. This is also a period of civil unrest, the struggle for the throne between the two branches of the royal family, which went down in history as the War of the Scarlet and White Roses due to the fact that a red rose was depicted in the coat of arms of one of the warring parties - the Dukes of Lancaster, and the coat of arms of their rivals Yorks adorned rose white. Not only in England, but in Europe as a whole in the 15th century. went down in history as a time of preparation for major changes. There are many echoes of the time of its creation in "The Death of Arthur". So, the novel speaks more than once about the danger that threatens King Arthur from the North. In Arthur's Tale, his enemies are the King of North Wales and the Kings of the North. In the 15th century, indeed, Northern England and Scotland often opposed the ruling dynasty. In some campaigns of King Arthur, one can see analogies with the military actions of the English king Henry V during the Hundred Years War. One of the heroes of Malory's work, the younger brother of Gawain Bomain (which means "Beautiful Hands"), was not known to the Arthurian tradition before Malory. It is assumed that the prototype for this original image was a real historical person - Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. There is evidence that the author of The Death of King Arthur served at the court of Warwick, took part in the hostilities on the side of the Lancasters, who joined his liege, and after their defeat shared their punishment, spending the last years of his life in prison. It is curious that Malory was charged not only with political, but also with criminal offenses, which he, quite likely, really committed - in the spirit of his troubled era.
Malory belonged to the knightly class and fully reflected in the novel both everyday details, and mores, and the spiritual state of the English chivalry of that time. Talking about clothes, food, weapons of the knights of King Arthur, the writer often admits anachronisms. Sir Gawain, for example, posing as King Arthur's servant to his adversary, tells him how he cleaned and kept his gambizons and doublets. Doublet - a short men's caftan - came into fashion just at the time of the creation of the novel.
The knightly armament of the heroes of the "Death of Arthur" also belongs not to the 6th, but to the 15th century. They wear heavy armor, helmets, armor, can only move on horseback, armed with a spear, sword and lance. In regard to military affairs, the writer was clearly a supporter of chivalric traditions. By his time, archer warriors of humble origin already played a large role in the English army; artillery has arrived. Malory mentions these innovations in the novel only once, without attaching special importance to them, which, of course, testifies to his predilection for antiquity.
Depicting the world of chivalry in "Death of Arthur", Malory was faithful to the truth of life not only in everyday details. The heroes of his novel are busy with tournaments, constant skirmishes and military operations, which corresponds to the lifestyle of real chivalry of that time. The courtly theme occupies a very insignificant place in Malory's book, service to the lady is declared, but not described in detail, not idealized and not glorified. Characteristic in this regard is the reaction of King Arthur to Lancelot's story about how he had to kill many knights to save Queen Guinevere. Arthur grieves more about the death of valiant knights than about the misfortune and trouble that befell the queen. And Bomain-Beautiful Hands, in violation of courtly ethics, directly declares to his opponent that "to love the one who does not love you is a great folly."
Malory's greatest success in embodying the spirit and essence of his era should be considered that the writer correctly conveyed the moods that were characteristic of chivalry in the 15th century, although they were not always realized and reflected by him. So, for example, Malory persistently equates nobility and nobility - an undoubted evidence that this idea had ceased to be self-evident by his time, it was necessary to remind about it and re-assert it.
Brightly represented in the "Death of Arthur" is another feature of the era. Resisting the spirit of change, chivalry in the 15th century seeks to maintain his position in society and for this purpose strengthens the corporate class consciousness, formalizing, ritualizing his way of life through all sorts of external forms, such as tournaments, adventures, serving a lady.
Malory's knights of King Arthur also constantly fight in tournaments. So, for example, in the "Book of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere" of 25 chapters, at least eight are devoted to the story of various tournaments in which the hero takes part, and the rituals associated with them. It is described how Lancelot received sleeves from the maiden Elaina (a red sleeve to wear on a helmet) and how the queen reacted to this, how the beginning of the tournament was heralded by the sounds of trumpets, how the king sat on a high platform to watch his progress, etc. Feeling that the dominant position of his estate in society was noticeably shaken, the knight Thomas Malory reflects in the "Death of Arthur" nostalgia for the glorious past, when it was strong and unshakable. The writer paints a picture of an ideal knightly world, a kind of knightly utopia, which he relegated to the past and is unlikely to ever be revived. The brotherhood of the Knights of the Round Table, as Malory shows us, is endowed with such virtues as courage, loyalty, generosity. Not observing such qualities in his contemporaries-knights (and in himself, as is clear from the facts of his biography known to us), the author of "The Death of Arthur" recognizes their importance and significance and turns his gaze to the past, when, as it seems to him, chivalry possessed them in full. Participating in the unrest of his time and not seeing the power that could stop them, in the person of Arthur and Lancelot, he glorifies the active role of leaders who are able to bring an organizing principle into the chaos of life.
In Malory's portrayal, the world of Arthurian legends appears as flourishing before sunset, greatness before inevitable death. This feature, along with the embodiment of the eternal dream of a just and noble ruler, largely determines the enduring significance of the novel.
"The Death of Arthur" occupies an important place in the history of the genre. Based on numerous sources, Malory uses and modifies almost all medieval varieties of chivalric romance in her book. First, in Le Morte d'Arthur, the writer turns to the early forms of the novel, when it was still close to epic and legend. These are "The Tale of King Arthur" and "The Tale of the Noble King Arthur, How He Became Emperor Himself". The heroes here are presented not as knights, but rather as warriors, they form not a brotherhood of knights of the Round Table similar to a knightly order, but a feudal squad loyal to their lord.
Then (“The Tale of Lancelot of Lakes”) Malory reworks one of the varieties of the novel of the Breton cycle, the hero of which was Gauvin, portrayed as an ideal knight, which he is forced to constantly prove by performing various feats during all kinds of adventures. Usually, Gowen has a rival who fails during the trials, while the main character emerges victorious from them. Malory sharpens some of the story's plot moves, Lancelot sets off on a journey without a specific goal, adventures arise in the course of the story and are not always convincingly motivated. In the absence of an opponent, the hero is forced to act in this role himself, dressing in Kay's armor. Such exposure and sharpening of the plot moves common in this genre variety of the chivalric novel weakens the internal structure of The Tale of Lancelot of Lake, gives it some chaos and ideological uncertainty.
Malory also turns to the novel about knightly initiation, which tells the story of a young hero who, due to some circumstances, is unaware of his noble origin and is brought up in conditions inappropriate for his rank. Having accomplished a number of feats and having learned his pedigree, the hero regains his worthy position in society. Novels of this type were particularly popular in England, with about 20 examples surviving, including Havelock the Dane and King Horn. In The Death of King Arthur, this kind of novel is represented by the Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney, and the stories of the Lakota Maltelier and Alexander the Orphan included in the Book of Sir Tristram of Lyons.
In the extensive Book of Tristram, Malory draws on the tradition of the cyclic variety of the novel, which included several intertwining plots. The author of Le Morte d'Arthur, striving for the entertainment characteristic of novels of this type, removes the tragic ending and omits many of the dramatic episodes known from other retellings of the legend.
All other parts of Malory's novel are based on the French Vulgate. As in all other cases, the English writer reworks his source, shortens it, excluding descriptions and reasoning, achieving dynamism and fascination.
It can be said that Le Morte d'Arthur reflects almost the entire evolution of the chivalric genre, which Malory sums up. He ignores only Chrétien's novel - obviously, due to the fact that courtly problems and Chrétien de Troy's method of resolving the conflict between the individual and the general, between love and duty, were alien and uninteresting to the English writer.
However, despite the absence of the ethical problems of the Chretienian type in Le Morte d'Arthur, Malory continues the tradition of "discovering the inner man" in the epic hero, which is characteristic of the chivalric novel. Talking about the actions of his heroes and their motives, the writer, as a rule, avoids magic and magic and gives quite convincing and psychologically reliable motives. So, for example, in The Tale of Gareth of Orkney, the hero saves a lady besieged in a castle, falls in love with her, and she reciprocates. There are no obstacles to marriage, an engagement is concluded, but the lovers do not want to wait for the wedding and agree on a nightly date. The sister of the heroine, having learned about her intention, decides to prevent her act - allegedly for reasons of family honor. However, the motive of female envy is easily visible here, because in the end it was the sister, and not the lady herself, who accompanied Gareth throughout his adventure, the first to be convinced of his courage and bravery.
The relationship between King Arthur and Merlin, who is shown not only and not so much as a wizard, but as a mentor of a young man, also looks psychologically reliable in Malory. Talking about the battle between Arthur and 11 kings, which was stopped by Merlin, the writer emphasizes that he turned to the king with a reproach for indefatigability, which is not surprising in a young ruler.
"The Death of Arthur" adequately crowned the medieval story of the development of the legend. For subsequent eras, the novel became the source of many mythologies and images, which were repeatedly referred to by many writers, from A. Tennyson and M. Twain up to T. White, who created in 1958 the bestseller The King in the Past and the King in the Future, and M Stuart with her cycle of novels about the wizard Merlin.