Are you expecting a magical gift from the love of your life or from the love of the moment? How do present day lovers compare with those true knights in shining armor? Was the Medieval male a passionate slave to his love or did he regard the woman of his life as his slave?
According to Belle Tuten, a renown Medieval historian, love and courtly love were very important in the life of the Medieval male. He explores the subject with the following description:
“ Medieval literature is full of stylized, “courtly” language speaking of love and desire. A suitor’s flowery prose expressed his hope of winning the lady of his choice. Courtly love poetry-frequently addressed to a woman who was completely out of reach-tolerated and may have even encouraged, love outside marriage, as in the stories of Guinevere and Lancelot and of Tristan and Iseult. There were also real-life examples: Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his Book of the Duchess(1369) for Blanche, duchess of Lancaster; at whose death he mourned the “siknesse (i.e. unrequited love) that I have suffred this eight yere.”
Such devotion could be taken to extremes. Ulrich von Lichtenstein, a noble Austrian who died around 1275, wrote a poem–partly fact and partly fiction–describing the activities of the perfect courtly lover. Among Ulrich’s extravagant gifts was one of his fingers, sent to his lady-love with a book of poems. He also underwent a dangerous operation to repair his harelip, hoping to appear more handsome for her even though they had never met. After he had camped outside her house for some time, the lady finally agreed to see him. But when he begged her for more than a greeting, she replied sternly: “Nay your courage may not aspire so far as that I should lay you here by my side . . .. My lord and master shall live ever free from fear lest I should love another man than he.”
There are many other examples of courtly love as practiced in Medieval Europe. We will explore some of those courts of the past in the next few days before the great day of “love.”
Tags: Armor, courtly love, knights in shining armor, Medieval, valentines day