Knight literature is all literature works about knights, including knight lyrics, knight legends, knight novels and later anti-knight novels. The prevalence of knight literature in western Europe reflects the life ideal of knight class. From the origin, the earliest knights came from small and medium-sized landlords and rich peasants. They fought for the big feudal lords and got land and other rewards from them. Knights own land, live in fortresses, hire serfs as small feudal lords, and ideologically support the feudal hierarchy. Later, the knight land was hereditary, thus forming a fixed knight class. The Crusades, which began in the 1990s, fought back against the Islamic forces that invaded _ _ _ _ _ _, and since then, the social status of knights has been improved and they have been exposed to the life and culture of the East.
The Development Course of Knight Literature
Chivalry gradually formed. Love plays an important role in their lives, which is manifested in their love and worship for women and their service. They often take risks for love. In their view, it is the highest honor for a knight to win the favor of a lady and win in an adventure. Because they were at the bottom of the feudal ruling class, some of them helped the weak as well as the strong. They don't object to _ _ _ _; On the contrary, they sometimes take risks for religion. However, they often demand to enjoy life and culture, regardless of the ideas of Christ and asceticism. The knights who came back from the east brought the eastern culture to the western European countries with backward culture at that time. Some poets and singers appeared among them. Their poems praise secular life and love, as well as the adventures of knights. At the same time, they also have a strong religious color, filled with mysterious religious thoughts, and often mixed with some strange stories.
12 and 13 centuries witnessed the prosperity of knight literature, and France was the most prosperous.
Characteristics of knight literature
Knight literature has always been the product of a combination of a system (knight system) and a culture (Christian culture), and the rise and fall of knight system directly determines the rise and fall of knight literature. The history of the emergence, development and decline of knight literature is the history of the emergence, development and decline of the medieval knight system.
The emergence of knight literature began with the emergence of knight system. First of all, let's review the historical form of medieval Europe. In the Middle Ages (5th to15th century), Europe was actually in a state of fragmented melee with the demise of the Western Roman Empire, and social rule existed in the form of feudal lords. Although limited by time, the Middle Ages are now in an era of "axis breakthrough", similar to China's Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period. Knights, as an armed class raised by feudal lords, were mainly used for self-defense and predatory wars. They flourished in the 12 and 13 centuries and complemented the church, becoming two major cultural traditions and spiritual pillars of medieval European society. China was a "scholar" in the Warring States Period, equivalent to a knight in medieval Europe, and his appearance date was advanced to the 3rd century BC. In contrast, the time difference between European knights and China scholars is at least eight centuries. The history of the emergence, development and decline of chivalry literature is the history of the emergence, development and decline of chivalry in the Middle Ages. Its existence form has corresponding social strata from beginning to end; Martial arts literature, on the other hand, has gone through three different processes: emergence, development and transformation. It originated from the literati in the Warring States period, but changed after its development, and has been sublimated into a pure literary aesthetic form, which has nothing to do with social politics and historical forms.
European chivalry literature flourished in France in the 12 and 13 centuries, mainly in three forms:
Knight lyrics, heroic epic, knight legend. Among them, the lyric poetry of knight is represented by Song of Dawn, the heroic epic is represented by Song of Roland, and the legend of knight is created by literati or court poets completely out of the romantic imagination of literature, with a large number and complex system, which can be said to be the main form of knight literature.
Justice armed the knight's spirit. Knights' loyalty to the monarch, religious protection and chivalry are all based on political and religious interests. In fact, they are not only the armed class supported by feudal lords, but also belong to feudal rulers themselves. Their loyalty to the monarch, protection of religion and chivalry are based on a set of feudal ethics and Christian spirit, and their ultimate goal is to maintain feudal ethics and Christian spirit. They conform to "justice" in specific social, political and historical forms, but they show evil and reactionary nature in eternal human good and evil. They served as the tools for Christ to wage war against "infidels", the backbone of feudal lords killing and plundering each other, the "crusaders" for foreign expansion and aggression, and the feudal rulers suppressed and exploited the forces of the lower classes.
Knight literature describes knights with legendary themes, namely unrealistic narrative poems and fantasy novel; Be loyal to the monarch, protect education, and be chivalrous; With the theme of hero and beauty, adventure and love; It is made up of improvisation, freedom and romance.
In a sense, the highest honor of a hero is to be awarded the title of knight, which symbolizes courage and loyalty. Knight's honor comes from the grant of feudal lords. In other words, it is the highest value or ultimate goal of being a hero to exchange all his bravery and loyalty for the recognition and commendation of the ruling class. Knight (hero) has been ideologicalized by the state, so national ideology is the greatest aesthetic feature of knight literature. Heroic beauty
Man is the usual theme of knight literature. The hero knight fell in love with this lady and had a tryst with her, among which there were many sad love stories. Knights are polite to ladies and show gentlemanliness everywhere, but once we combine chivalry with the national ideology of chivalry literature, it is not difficult to distinguish that chivalry love contains a lot of vanity. Love for ladies comes from an unconscious sense of conquest in aesthetic psychology.
Knights have always been brave and loyal, and a lady's love conquest shows the charm of knights in a complementary way. We can even assert that the knight's yearning and pursuit of love, like the yearning and pursuit of the title of knight, is full of psychological vanity and spiritual conquest.
The influence of knight literature
The significance of knight literature in the history of literary development lies in the fact that the seeds of modern novels have matured in this kind of works.
At the same time, chivalrous literature propagandizes the chivalrous spirit of "loyalty to the monarch, protection of religion and chivalry", reflecting that the "elegant love" between a large number of knights and ladies is definitely the pursuit of secular life and happiness, which is a great impact on _ _ _ _ asceticism and the afterlife.
Knight literature is the product of feudal knight system in western Europe, with the basic content of describing knight love and adventure stories, including knight lyric poems and knight narrative poems.
The appearance of a large number of knight lyric poems has become the beginning of love works in modern European humanistic literature.
The romantic artistic conception, bizarre plot and love story of knight's narrative poems are all romantic to later generations.
Doctrine literature is quite influential. In fact, narrative poems are based on the experience of one or two main characters to construct a story, which vividly describes the characters and their inner activities and provides valuable reference for later European novel creation.
Guess you are interested in:
1. 2000 words after reading Don Quixote
2. What is the origin of European knights?