What is a knight? Knight literature?

Cavalier was a cavalry with formal military training in medieval Europe, which later evolved into an honorary title representing a social class. Knight's identity is often not inherited. Knights belong to the bottom of the aristocratic class, and usually only have a small fief. The situation in medieval Europe was chaotic, and kings and nobles needed some arms that had overwhelming advantages in the war, so they would carefully train some young people to become knights. Legends of medieval knights often exaggerate all kinds of romantic reverie. Most of this comes from our dissatisfaction with the status quo and our imagination: living in an antique castle and living a noble life; Defeat evil wizards and giants, protect kind but ignorant farmers, and fight bravely in the name of ladies or kings. The martial arts novels that turned Don Quixote upside down, or the improvisation of provence folk singers, fully explained the code of conduct of the ideal knight. However, even modern people cannot always follow their own conscience; Besides, in the past, when we spoke by force, knights often deviated from the limited track. 14 and 15 centuries, the military organizations of European countries are similar. Under the king are the general manager and the marshal, whose powers are sometimes independent and sometimes cross. Then the herald, herald, plays the role of adjutant, clerk and staff officer. As the name implies, he is often sent to the other side's camp to accept the gauntlet or ask for a truce, and he is also responsible for counting his casualties after the war. He is an all-powerful position. The following combat troops are divided into squadrons, led by nobles or knights. Generally speaking, knights are divided into two grades, one is called Banneret, that is, knights. The name comes from their rectangular flag, which is the main force in the battle. A trainee knight is called a bachelor, or apprentice. They formed a smaller queue and followed the main force. They need to accumulate experience and master more combat skills. The flag of the trainee knight is also rectangular, but the end is forked into a dovetail shape. After they have made considerable achievements, they can ask the commander for an upgrade. So the herald cut off the dovetail on the flag and upgraded to a knight. Therefore, the codes of conduct of many churches have become the rules of knights, and knights have become soldiers of God. At that time, the principle of knights was mainly: to be a devout Christian. 12 ~ 13 centuries later, piety became the first criterion. Believing in Christianity is not only a quality, but also a qualification, which stipulates and binds knights. Knight's equipment also represents doctrine, sword is the symbol of the cross, shield represents the duty of protecting the church, and double-edged sword represents the righteous side and kills the enemy. Believing in God, knights must also pray and repent their crimes with practical actions. We must be the guardians of the church. The secular state is God's room on earth, and the king is the representative of the room. Knights protect the king not only to protect God, but also to protect the church. ● Knight literature Knight literature is the product of European knight system, a unique literary phenomenon in medieval Europe, and embodies the main achievements of secular feudal literature. European feudal society practiced a typical hierarchical system. At that time, feudal lords were graded, and small feudal lords were given to big feudal lords, becoming "princes" or "princes". These people gradually developed into the lowest stratum or stratum of the feudal main class, called "knights", and were feudal armed forces supported by feudal landlords. Due to frequent battles and the development of the knight class, the knight system gradually formed. Knighthood is an honor of the lower feudal lords, and the children of feudal lords can only be knighted after special training and certain ceremonies. In the historical evolution, knights have gradually formed a set of moral standards and creeds including chivalry. The knight's creed is "loyalty to the monarch, protection of religion and chivalry", and his behavior requires "elegance and courtesy". While learning martial arts well, they also learn etiquette, write poems and enjoy music. Knights regard personal honor above everything else and want to gain fame in adventure and serve feudal lords and "beloved ladies" Although knights are also loyal to religion, they do not pursue asceticism. The status of the knight class was greatly improved in the eight Crusades that lasted for 200 years since the 1 1 century. Especially in the13rd century, chivalry reached its peak. Since then, with the development of social productive forces and the appearance of muskets and mercenaries, the chivalry system has gradually declined. After the emergence of chivalry, there also appeared literature reflecting the thoughts and feelings of chivalry. Because knights came from the lower feudal class, they came into contact with more epics and ballads. Due to the contact with the eastern culture in the Crusades, although knight literature is loyal to religion and does not pursue asceticism, it shows unique literary characteristics. It can be said that the blending and influence of various cultures is very obvious in knight literature. The main content of knight literature is to describe knight's adventure experience and knight's elegant love, and to show knight spirit. The main genres are knight lyrics and knight legends. Knight lyrics first appeared in Provence in southern France. Because France is a place where chivalry is developed, chivalry literature is also the most prosperous. Provence, on the other hand, "not only achieved' valuable development' in the Middle Ages, but even walked ahead of European development". Engels: Frankfurt Debate on Poland, Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 5, People's Publishing House, p. 420. Poetry in Provence was developed in the court, and most of its forms evolved with the help of folk songs. There are short songs, sentimental poems, pastoral songs, serenades and dawn songs. Especially the "Song of Dawn" is the most famous. These "songs of dawn" describe the scene and feelings of a knight and a lady who broke up before dawn after a night of tryst. They have the function of resisting the bondage of religious asceticism. Engels called Song of Dawn "the essence of lyric poetry in Provence". It's hard to find the author of knight's lyric poems. Most of the signed works are written by knights, such as Alamai and Vacrat. The appearance of a large number of knight lyric poems has become the beginning of love works in modern European humanistic literature. /kloc-At the beginning of the third century, when the northern nobles suppressed the Albi Sect in the south, Provence was destroyed and many poets fled to Italy, thus promoting the development of lyric poetry there. Legend of chivalry (transliterated as Romance or Romance) is a kind of narrative poem, which flourished in northern France. Its main content is to write that knights take risks everywhere and fight monsters or pagans in order to win honor, protect religion, or win the love of ladies, among which supernatural absurd stories have no historical basis. During the Crusades, all ethnic groups got together and told each other anecdotes and legends, which made some knight adventure stories cross national boundaries, and works with the same theme appeared in many national documents. According to the source of knight legend, it can be divided into three systems: one is the English story system, which refers to the story poems centered on King Arthur and the ancient Celtic knights of the Round Table. One of the famous works is Lancelot, or1The Knight in the Prison Car by Kreddine de Troya, a French poet in the 2nd century (1 168? ), Ivan, or the Lion Knight (1 175? ), as well as Tristram and Ethel (12nd century), which are very popular in Germany and France; The second is the Byzantine system, which refers to the Byzantine story poems with the theme of late Greek legends. Famous works include Floa and Blancsifo (1 170? ) and okasen and nicolette (13rd century); The third is the ancient system, that is, the narrative poems imitating ancient Greek and Roman literary works. The story of King Arthur and the Knight of the Round Table is the most common theme in knight legends. King Arthur was described as an effective king in feudal society. In the lobby of Camelot Castle, he has a huge round table surrounded by 100 seats, and all the knights who have made great contributions can occupy one seat, which leads to many stories of independent knights venturing into the ranks of knights. These stories had a great influence on later English literature and even European literature. Another valuable work belonging to arthurian legend is Tristram and Ethel, which eulogizes the irresistible power of love by symbolic means. It can be seen that there are many factors in knight's legendary thought, and there are also distinctive features in art. Many works in thought beautify the knight class and knight system, promote chivalry, and cover up the cruel and cruel nature of their loyalty to feudal lords. These are all negative factors. However, some works reflect feudalism and the rebellious spirit of the lower classes, praise the love that has an impact on asceticism, and praise the chivalrous actions of eliminating violence and protecting women, which has certain positive significance. The romantic sentiment, bizarre plot and love story of knight legend have great influence on the later romantic literature. The Legend of Knight takes the experience of one or two main characters as the central clue to construct works and organize stories, and vividly describes the characters and their inner activities, which provides valuable reference for later European novel creation.