Le Morte d’Arthur and Sir Gawain and The Green Knight

The Theme of Bravery as Established in Thomas Mallory’s The Three Stories of Morte D’Arthur, an Unknown Writer’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
Courage is the ability or willingness to face agony, intimidation, discomfort, risk, or confusion. Valor and courage are synonyms. It can be physical or moral in nature. Physical courage is described as bravery in the face of pain, death, or adversity. Moral courage, on the other hand, is the capacity to behave correctly in the face of resistance, discouragement, embarrassment, or scandal. Writers often use the concept of bravery in their work, as shown by the books mentioned below.

Thomas Malory tells the audience about current tales and legendaries in his book Morte d’Artur, such as King Arthur, Merlin, the knight of the round table, Lancelot, and Guinevere. The theme of courage is very evident throughout the book. According to Rich, King Arthur’s courage is physically illustrated in the start of the book, since he was able to rise and rule over the leaderless England (Rich 112). Through his military power and the Merlin counsel, King Arthur could confront and win way many battles. He was capable of demonstrating his courage morally by going against Herod’s authority of killing all male children throwing them into the sea from the boat. Though the ship crashed, Arthur had taken a very significant role in saving young boys from Herod’s killings.

Besides, King Arthur was able to confront all evils in the land. The book indicates his actions in confronting evils in his leadership to have led to his death. After realizing the immorality in two senior individuals in the kingdom Lancelot and Guinevere, he faced the issue courageously and gave their verdict. Most of the individuals had tried to cover their acts and refused to escort them to their verdict. But King Arthur went against all fear and went even as far as getting into a fight with Lancelot with courage. Hence; courage is illustrated physically and morally by King Arthur in the book.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a book, which shows the Christian culture. “It is Christmas day, and King Arthur, all the wives, and Knights have gathered to celebrate the feast” (Tolkien et al. 45). He refuses to eat until he hears a very entertaining story, suddenly a huge man bursts to the hall carrying an ax and says that he has come to test the honor of the legendary Knights, he asks them to volunteer for a very dangerous game. After everyone refuses to step up, King Arthur volunteers to take part. The act demonstrates the courage of the king despite knowing the consequences and the mock; he chooses to stand for his family against all shame. Gawain, on the other hand, stands up to cover up for the shame the king could have undergone and kills the huge man.

Gawain has in several occasions’ demonstrated courage despite his compromising in the characters book. Due to his courage, he is sent to search the green chapel, he perseveres the cold nights, fought the monsters and eventually got to an enormous and well-protected castle where is well welcomed and receipted by the king and his wives. After the stay, he is shown the green chapel and cautioned ongoing there since it might be so dangerous due to the guarding by a very dangerous individual. But with a lot of courage, he faces it and makes his mission complete with the victory. Hence, the theme of courage is well demonstrated by the King Arthur and Gawain the legend knight through their actions.

The theme of courage is as well-illustrated in the Lord of the Rings. The bearer of the ring Frodo is the principal character in the book, which has been able to show the theme evidently. Frodo was able to take the ring safely to Elrod, despite the power of the ring in seducing him, losing it several times, passing through very dangerous situations and facing some monsters on the way. The ring is to be destroyed, and he has to take it to a particular place for the same (Rüegg 46). Frodo passes through a lot of struggles to get to his destination and become a king. Though the book is very comprehensive, but the theme of courage in the fellowship and the ring destruction is very evident. From this we can conclude that the theme of courage is well demonstrated by the King Arthur, Gawain, the legendary knight and Frodo through their actions. From the above books, it is clear that the subject of courage is preferable by authors, since it is essential in achieving victory. The ability to face shame, discouragement, and danger is significant and creates a primary aesthetic value to each tale, thus, adopted by some authors.

Essay 2: The Living tradition of Old English poetry as Identified in the Lord of the Rings

The old English poetry is characterized by several factors, which have been well-illustrated in the Lord of the Rings poem. Poetry can be described as a form of language, which uses rhythmic and aesthetic value to evoke meaning. The living tradition of the old English poetry can be characterized by various factors. They comprise the genre, which is lengthy in form and used to describe cultures of the time, legends or some important events. They are also known for using devices such as assonance, alliteration, rhythms and others in making the tale colorful, have some aesthetic value and musical. The Lord of the Rings is the book, which can be used to demonstrate the similarity between the living tradition of the old English poetry and some tales.

The Lord of the Rings is almost used as a dictionary by many authors working in a similar genre. It is one of the books, which has attracted a lot of attention in reading and highly bought due to its contribution to the English language. It has been used as the analogies by various individuals due to its ability to demonstrate the historical and mythological tradition with some magic grain especially in grammar. According to Ruegg, the work is gray as well as empty without peculiarities that include the legend, history, and language (Rüegg 32). Just like epic, the book is used to describe cultures and some traditions in this particular region. Besides, just like poems, it is divided into stanzas, the Lord of the Rings have been written in three volumes, which are continuous.

The poems are what links up the Lord of the Rings with the middle-age earth and the events in the Silmarillion. One of the key traditions that the old English poetry created is the anxiety, which is also very evident in work of the Lord of the Rings, being created at every start of the context. The fate of the middle earth is created at the beginning of every sentence, which pushes one to keep reading to know more. Another common characteristic of Old English poetry was the use of dialogue between the various characters. Just as in the poetry, there is plenty of it in the written works of Lord of the Rings. The plenty of dialogues in the book, as well as the magnificent descriptions of nature, are what help understanding the characters in a more efficient manner. Descriptive language is also a common factor in both works, words are weaved in an artistic way painting a clear picture on the readers minds. Just like poems in the past, it has a lot of hidden tales which makes sense when understood in a deeper way. The use of words to depict a hidden and deepen meaning commonly found in English poetry is greatly independent in this book series. The mystical or rather magical nature of the writing is one of the unique features that makes it greatly alluring. Most of English poetry are full of mystery, often resulting in various interpretations being drawn from the same poem by several people. Although in this case, mystery in the Lord of the Rings is achieved by the use of magic, the effect and similarity on the reader is the same.

Just like poetry which has plenty of themes hidden under the key one, the lord of the rings has adopted the same culture. The book talks about philosophy, uniting for a cause, love, and the choice of evil and good, despite lacking a universal religion, which guides them. The key theme is leadership and the power of the ring but for the mission to be achieved other ideas arise. However, there is a close relationship between the epics and the Lord of the Rings, regarding the use of themes and styles. There are a lot of references that can be derived from one to describe the other; thus, they are interrelated.

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There are very minimal predictions that can be made at the start of the tale, since at the end of the story it turns out that people who are less in power are the ones who culminate the mission in the ring destruction. The styles and themes used in writing the Lord of the Rings are so closely similar to those utilized in the old English poetry, For example, the use of repetition, suspense, and foreshadowing others in both. The Lord of the Rings is essential in describing the old English tradition as well as teaching some important concepts in the language. Hence, there is a close relationship between the two as indicated in the above context. Consequently, there is a significant value of the book to literature and can be used as a reference in the living tradition of the old English poetry. At the same time, the setting of the story of the Lord of the Rings, the culture and way of life including dressing greatly makes it an epitome book full of English connotation as found in old English poetry.