This part of my journey brought me to revisit two legends from the medieval time period: King Arthur of Camelot and Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest. Naturally there are many tellings and adaptations of these two men throughout the ages some of which including tellings where King Arthur was actually a woman and Robin Hood was mentored by a Moorish man. This is not a post where I will be criticizing such interpretations, but rather I want to understand, as I do in my faith, understand what these stories represented to the people who originally told their stories and to decipher why their legends have stood the test of time.
I first started with the Le Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory and read by Chris MacDonald. The first maybe 1/3 is actually about Arthur’s rise to the throne while the rest actually centers around the exploits of the revolving cast of the Knights of the Round Table. Or should I say “Knights of the Table Round”. Followed up by the fallout in consequences of the affair between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. Adulatory aside, throughout the Le Morte D’Arthur, I noticed the trends around the ideas of what we vaguely know as chivalry. Early in his reign, Arthur essentially summed these ideas as an oath for all of his knights: Never act in rage, nor murder. Flee treason. Give mercy to those who ask, do not be cruel. Or forfeit their servitude to King Arthur.
Do the request of ladies. Do not take up arms for any unlawful cause or gain of goods. They were sworn at Pentecost.
Although Arthur had his knights only swear this oath, it seems that the Knights of the Round Table also held this standard for other knights not of their order. Knights such as Gawain and Lancelot would often refute a man refusing mercy, attacking ladies, or oppressing subjects in their castles as a “false knight”. They would also follow this up with saying how they betray their knighthood. But why? According to Dr. Ryan Reeves, Associate Professor of Historical Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, many of the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were written to curb the violence of the early middle ages. Despite popular belief, in the early middle ages, the church did not have as much power as it will a few centuries later. Too often times the innocent and defenseless were harassed and/or killed by men of arms. The church wrote edicts about proper use of arms in the Peace of God (989) and Truce of God (1027), which effectively did nothing. No one wants to be preached at. Rather, instead of telling people what is right, the stories of Arthur and the Knights Round Table showed how to properly use power and influence, and they were composed of the best knights of the world. The Round Table is round because it represents the world; the world of Christendom. The fact that the Quest for the Holy Grail (San Grail) is by far the most well known of the Arthurian legends is no coincidence. Obtaining the sacrament as the highest, most difficult and admirable quest for knights is the message of the Peace and Truce of God in verse.
In the end when Arthur succumbed to his injuries fighting a civil war with his son Sir Mordred, his famous sword Excalibur was given back to the Lady of the Lake and Arthur was buried as the once and future king:
“YET some men say in many parts of England that King Arthur is not dead, but had by the will of our Lord Jesu (sic) into another place; and men say that he shall come again, and he shall win the holy cross”.
One can read this as making King Arthur one of the saints to be risen upon the return of Jesus Christ according to the Book of Revelation. Rather, I read this as Arthur’s ideals embodied in the chivalric code will be revived. Mercy, bravery, and the love of justice are high virtues, therefore they are the ways of God. This is why we as from the larger Western tradition owe a great deal of our heroic virtues to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table from the gun-slinging Westerns, to the Avengers and Justice League in superhero comics.
For my understanding of the Robin Hood legends, I listened to Howard Pyle’s telling read by Christopher Cazenove. Where the Arthurian legends were tales written by and for the upper class, stories of Robin Hood were recited primarily by the lower class. There is a scene where Robin Hood sings a mutually known Arthurian legend with a traveler which told me that those tales took place a long time ago. In Robin’s time both the high clergymen and nobility are corrupted by greed and lust for power and fame. Yet, Robin Hood is technically one of the said class of people, but surrendered his status for committing one of the only two murderers he would ever commit as an outlaw (the other being the murderer Guy of Gisborne). Everyone knows the story: Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor. But he and his Merry Men were more than that. They helped star-crossed lovers unite having been separated by class and sacrificed themselves to help boys escape a wrongful execution. Robin Hood is a hero of the people; the poor man’s knight who is true to the chivalric code unlike those in name. But unlike knights in service to the state, Robin and his band of Merry Men were free. The forest is untamed, free growing, and protects its inhabitants. The wearers of the Lincoln green lived free of taxes, hunted whatever they needed to feed themselves, danced with glee, held their own parties, and freely went on their own adventures. Robin Hood and his men embodied the dreams of the people.
Eventually, Robin Hood broke up his band to join the king’s service to fight in the Crusades. After his service, Robin returned to Sherwood Forest as an older man despite having lands, wealth, and power. Why? You can give a man everything in the world, but without purpose, he will make it himself. But this time Pyle tells us this Robin Hood was different from the one we had come to know previously. This war-hardened Robin killed without hesitation and used more merciless tactics in trying to replicate his former campaign against the corrupt upper class. Eventually Robin Hood was betrayed by his aunt who had promised to heal his battle wounds. His right hand man Little John promised revenge upon the women who poisoned him, but Robin forbade him from harming a lady. “Do not take up arms for any unlawful cause or gain of goods.“ In the end, Robin was buried in Sherwood Forest as the once and future king, like King Arthur. How curious. Two men from different ears both given the same headstone. This is my conclusion as to why: The powerful are to hold the ideals of the chivalric code of King Arthur. When they do not, the spirit of Robin Hood will be brought back to life. The spirit that will stand for true virtue outside of the law when the powerful do not. In the 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood, the filmmakers made the return of King Richard especially regal. Even Robin Hood bowed his head in humility and gave up his campaign against the tyrannical powers when the rightful monarch had returned. This is a metaphor for the true king Jesus Christ on the day of Armageddon. The spirits of both King Arthur and Robin Hood will stay with us as long as there will be people to tell their tales and we will resurrect them whenever they are needed until our True King returns.