During the XIIth century the court of Henry II played a leading role in the development of the idea of courtliness and was a forge melding for the weapons of the courtiers: the word. The Plantagenet court used literature in order to translate, fight or explain in literary terms many quarrels and conflicts. Many texts were a medium for other messages that were covered under the fine courtly language. This article has as its purpose to show a different point of view about some chapters of the Walter Map’s De nugis curialium. The inquiry focuses on the chapters that have as common background the supernatural and fantastic theme of a meeting between a knight and a fair. The study proposes these chapters both as a specimen of the cultural fight between clergy and knighthood as a political attack contra some of the principal opponents to the reign of Henry II. The analysis starts by the renowned concept of the chivalric heroes’ literary adventures as a sounding board for the claims of knighthood’s social group. From the standpoint of the studies about Melusine tales held by Harf-Lancner and Le Goff it will be shown how Walter Map reverses the whole climax of such literary adventure; thus, he achieved that purpose using the same topoi that made the luck of the chivalric romance. The author describes the regretful attitude of those knights who want to rise up the social hierarchy, and indeed the regretful attitude of those who embraced and promoted both chivalric habits and ideologies, such as Richard the Lion-Heart and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Furthermore, the characters’ recognisability as famous lords leads the analysis to William FitzRobert, King’s cousin and Earl of Gloucester, involved in a cobweb of wedding alliances with some families who rebelled against king Henry II in 1173-74. The comparison between the literary construction of Walter Map and the Earl’s network of alliances will find a possible use of those stories as an attempt to denigrate a specific enemy of Henry II.
I capitoli melusiniani del De nugis curialium: ribaltamento dell’ideologia cavalleresca e uso politico.
DE FALCO, FABRIZIO
2017
Abstract
During the XIIth century the court of Henry II played a leading role in the development of the idea of courtliness and was a forge melding for the weapons of the courtiers: the word. The Plantagenet court used literature in order to translate, fight or explain in literary terms many quarrels and conflicts. Many texts were a medium for other messages that were covered under the fine courtly language. This article has as its purpose to show a different point of view about some chapters of the Walter Map’s De nugis curialium. The inquiry focuses on the chapters that have as common background the supernatural and fantastic theme of a meeting between a knight and a fair. The study proposes these chapters both as a specimen of the cultural fight between clergy and knighthood as a political attack contra some of the principal opponents to the reign of Henry II. The analysis starts by the renowned concept of the chivalric heroes’ literary adventures as a sounding board for the claims of knighthood’s social group. From the standpoint of the studies about Melusine tales held by Harf-Lancner and Le Goff it will be shown how Walter Map reverses the whole climax of such literary adventure; thus, he achieved that purpose using the same topoi that made the luck of the chivalric romance. The author describes the regretful attitude of those knights who want to rise up the social hierarchy, and indeed the regretful attitude of those who embraced and promoted both chivalric habits and ideologies, such as Richard the Lion-Heart and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Furthermore, the characters’ recognisability as famous lords leads the analysis to William FitzRobert, King’s cousin and Earl of Gloucester, involved in a cobweb of wedding alliances with some families who rebelled against king Henry II in 1173-74. The comparison between the literary construction of Walter Map and the Earl’s network of alliances will find a possible use of those stories as an attempt to denigrate a specific enemy of Henry II.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
