‘have this horse’_the role of horses and horsemanship in medieval arthurian literature

8/13/2019 ‘Have This Horse’_The Role of Horses and Horsemanship in Medieval Arthurian Literature

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/have-this-horsethe-role-of-horses-and-horsemanship-in-medieval-arthurian 1/32

‘Have This Horse’: The Role of Horses and Horsemanship in Medieval Arthurian Literature

Than Arthure as a lyon ran unto kynge Cradilment of North Walis and smote hym

thorow the lyffte syde, that horse and man felle downe. Than he toke the horse by the

reygne and led hym unto Ulphine and seyde, “Hae this horse, myne olde frende, for

grete nede hast thou of an horse.! Sir Thomas Malory, ‛The Tale of King Arthur’ 1

Sir Thomas Malory takes advantage of the horse, and horsemanship in general, to illustrate the

upheavals brought about within his ulture, and also within the individual, by violene and warfare! "n

"alory#s $ook of Arms, Andrew #ynh argues that the knights’ battles in the "orte are desribed $more

in the style of a herald’s report on a tournament!%& The ase is ompelling, for even though the knights

repeatedly partiipate in e'tremely violent and often deadly battles, the narrative voie remains alm,

almost impassive, detailing hallenges, harges, blows, weaponry, and outomes! The style is

e'emplified in the passage above, taken from one of Arthur’s battles for (ritain against the amassed

kings! The episode ontinues)

Than sir Kay om unto kynge Morganoure, senesiall with the Kynge of the *ondred Knyghtes,

and smote hym downe horse and man, and ledde the horse unto hys fadir, sir +tor!

Than sir +tor ran unto a knyght that hyght #ardans and smote horse and man downe, and lad

the horse unto sir (rastias, that grete nede had of an horse and was gretly defoyled! han

(rastias behelde #uas the (utler that lay lyke a dede man undir the horse feete-and ever sir

.ryflet dud meryfully for to reskow hym!!!! /A0nd than sir (rastias smote one of them on the

helme, that hit wente unto his tethe and he rode unto another and smote hym, !!!! And whan

.ryfflet saw resowis he smote a knyghte on the templis, that hede and helme wente of to the

erthe and .ryfflet toke that horse and lad hym unto sir #uas, and bade hym mownte uppon

that horse and revenge his hurtis-for sir (rastias had slayne a knyght tofore-and horsed sir

1



#uas! !!!Also #uas founde there on foote (loyas de la 2laundres and Sir .wynas, two hardy

knyghtes and in that woodnes that #uas was in, he slew two bahelers and horsed them

agayne! 3145&67!8

As though playing a strange game of e9uestrian musial hairs, a knight unseats, topples, or kills an

adversary, then leads the opponent’s riderless horse to an unhorsed omrade then he returns to the

fight, only to be unseated himself! Those still mounted or having been remounted in turn lead another

opponent’s riderless horse to a newly unhorsed omrade, who meanwhile has stood his ground,

disadvantaged, fighting on foot! The battle rages into a feroious melee. The lively pae at whih the

knights are suessively unhorsed and remounted rises to a humorous resendo, in part be%ause of the

detahed, $tournament5herald% narrative voie! Arthur’s knights are hardy warriors, bound together by

their ause, fighting not $eah man unto himself,% but eah man beside his brothers5in5arms! (ut the

horses also tell their part of the story within the "orte’s battles! The warriors on both sides of the

battle, Arthur’s enemies and the knights of the :ound Table, are men trained to ride warhorses, and

furthermore they are all trained to ride the same kinds of warhorses! (y the end of the battle there is, at

least on the part of the reader, no easy sorting out whih knight is mounted upon whose horse, nor is

the narrative voie interested in doing so for us! ;either is there any mention of e9uipment or animal

faltering beneath the battling knights! The knight mounts, harges, and the battle ontinues! The horse

knows his <ob, and no matter the skill or bakground of the knight on his bak, the horse performs as is

e'peted! And there is no other way to put this) suh riding only happens when the riders, horses, and

e9uipment have at some point in the past shared the field of pratie and used very similar, if not the

e'at same, methods of training, shooling, testing, and sporting!

#eaping upon another man’s horse is not usually the same thing as driving an unfamiliar

automobile!= *owever, in ases where the style of e9uitation, saddlery, e9uipment, and weaponry are

nearly idential 3and 9uite oneivably made by the same raftsmen7, and given a world where possibly

&



the horses themselves have been bred, raised, trained, and sold to both sides by the same dealers, this

would be muh more feasible! A ontrast would be the differenes in mounted warfare enountered by

knights on rusade upon meeting the Arab armies, whose style of riding and fighting were markedly

different from the +uropeans! +ven today, the Arabian horse is a distintive, identifiable $type,% easily

identified on sight by e'periened e9uestrians!

Malory’s horses undersore the small world from whih the noble ombatants arrive on the

medieval battlefield, both in the tale and in Malory’s own heartbreakingly strife5torn +ngland! (rothers,

ousins, neighbors, hildhood friends, and former allies lash in pithed violene so intimate on one

level, that a knight must even hek the olors on his own tuni against those on the horse beneath him

to assess the damages and ahievements of the day! The new horse may be one that he has ridden, or

even owned, in the past its rider, a friend, or former friend, and e9ual! The horse itself, standing ankle5

deep in blood, might be undisturbed by the hange in rider>owner <ust as he would be if led away by the

s9uire of a vitorious knight at the end of a <ousting tournament, so long as his are and feeding at the

end of the day remain a onstant!

Malory, though less interested in the details of horsemanship than, say, ?hr@tien de Troyes, still

reveals attributes of the human haraters that would have been understood by Malory’s ontemporary

audiene) #inet, ;imue, and other damsels show themselves as apable and ompetent riders, even on

harrowing ross5ountry rides through wild forests and hostile lands ellinore, to avenge his slain

horse, leaves a knight’s head in two Arthur and #anelot ride horses into the ground-literally to their

deaths-and a9uire remounts faster than most knights hange lothing! Malory’s Merlin proves his

might as a royal retainer 3and possibly as a wiBard7 by $vitualling% ten thousand warriors and horses

preparing to ampaign by land and by sea! hen they are not lying down or sitting at table, Malory’s

knights and ladies are usually on horsebak, battling elements, monsters, and other knights they are

fully armed and unleashed in the wilds like &'()*+-, held in hek sometimes only by the thread of

8



their allegiane to the iviliBed dream of ?amelot!

Chivalric Audience Addressed

Marianne Cekoven in her &664 /"0A guest olumn Dhy Animals ;owED disusses the importane of

analyBing $uses of animal representation% in literary works, arguing that authors employ animals in

their works for a variety of reasons and effets) anthropomorphism, animal advoay, animal metaphors

for human sub<ugation, shifts in perspetive, and posthuman issues, to name only a few! She reminds us

that animals are an integral and meaningful element of human e'periene, and as suh arry many

layers of meaning in the arts)

"t is important!!!to avoid a redutive, ahistorial approah that lumps all literary animals

together! All literary representations of animals no more form a unified or even meaningful

ategory than do those of women or the working lass!F

+9uines in medieval Arthurian literature serve many artisti and rhetorial purposes, the subtleties of

whih an be glossed over or misinterpreted by even the most areful of readers, for few of us find

ourselves steeped in the ulture of horses and horsemanship, muh less immersed in a working

knowledge of medieval horse husbandry and e9uipment! *owever, this attempt to resurret a working

appreiation and apprehension of the %hial in $hivalry% demonstrates vividly *omi (habha’s

observation that $/t0he sraps, pathes, and rags of daily life must be repeatedly turned into the signs of

a national ulture!%G The horse, one entral to both the atual and the symboli loi of power in

estern iviliBation, has left the enter, has beome a ultural srap, a path worn thin! Hne familiar

as toast, the horse has wandered into the liminal Bones of both disdain 3$we have replaed you with

these wonderful mahinesI%7 and wonder 3$we miss your beauty, your movement, your natural poetry

-where have you goneE%7! The audienes for romane and poetry of medieval and early modern

+urope either belonged to, or served, a well5understood, widespread $nation% unto itself) a nation of

privilege, of power, of wealth, of blood, and as this essay seeks to investigate, a nation of horses!

=



Of Horse And Man

The role of the horse in human history, and thus in literature and the arts, often stirs up

ontroversy onerning ethis! Juestions may arise onerning the ethis of ownership, sub<ugation,

and the rights of animals to individual liberties! The ontroversies of animal suffering and freedom are

often omple', as Angus Taylor has indiated)

Coes it make sense to talk of liberating animals to live the lives they hooseE !!!Though

advoates of animal liberation differ in their partiular viewpoints and in the arguments they

advane in support of those viewpoints, they agree that animals must no longer be treated

essentially as resour%es for human use! Animals have their own lives to live and to ause them

avoidable harm is morally indefensible!!!! +'ept perhaps in speial ases, their basi interests

are not to be subordinated to human interests!

2or twenty5first entury readers the 9uestion of animals used as instruments of war, agriulture,

transportation, and even of torture may be olored by posthuman in9uiry! 2or knights of +ngland,

2rane, "taly, .ermany, and Spain throughout the middle ages, the 9uestion was settled by the ?hurh)

Man was given dominion over all beasts by .od! The pratial e9uine historian might add that the

horse used in servie to mankind, while not free to hoose a life in the wild, ould also en<oy a muh

longer life e'petany in relative omfort and ease a maltreated domesti horse in the middle ages

would suffer and die no more horribly than an ailing horse in the wild! hether the 9uestion is settled

by sripturally assigned dominion, or by posthuman non5anthropoentri assertion of animal rights, the

fat of F,666 years of e9uine domestiation and what some would even refer to as the partnership of

horses and humans, of Lman and beast,’ remains as a rih and illuminating legay in the tales and

legends of King Arthur and his hivalri ourt! "n this essay " propose to first disuss areas of

knowledge of horses and horsemanship that an inform and enrih our understanding of medieval

Arthurian literature, to e'plain why some pratial as well as historial knowledge of e9uine siene is

F



appropriate to reading medieval romanes, and, finally, to demonstrate with some few e'amples from

?hr@tien de Troyes, Marie de 2rane, and Sir Thomas Malory, ways in whih our modern readings of

these tales an be enrihed by restoring us to a small level of audiene addressed 3as were the

ontemporaries of these poets7, rather than ontinuing our twenty5first entury, $unhorsed% ondition

that prevents us from being an audiene fully inoked by these tales!

Equus in Medieval Europe

*orses and horsemanship were important elements of +uropean life in the middle ages!

Hwnership of the Dgrand horseD or warhorse would be assoiated with the highest levels of soiety,

marking power, wealth, and military prowess! *owever, the role of the horse throughout medieval

+urope, Asia, and north Afria was muh more omple' than that of simply transporting people and

goods! "n addition to the speialiBed performane horses used in warfare and in tournaments, thousands

of e9uines were employed in innumerable daily tasks at all levels of soiety, among all three of the

D+states!D .eneral ategories inlude 3but are not limited to7 the following)

art horse, or %are%tarius

sumpter, or pak horse

rouny, ron%in, or run%inus, listed in the Comesday (ook as a farm horse or ine'pensive, but

not heap, work horse later ridden by troops in the thirteenth entury

ourser, or hunter, a swift and agile horse used for the hunt and for dispathes

palfrey, or palefridus, a very fine and e'tremely e'pensive riding horse

Cestrier, de1trarius, the arhorse, or *orse, a horse trained and ridden for battle

Hther horses, suh as the hobyn or DhobbyD horse, the herator 3plow horse7, and Spanish <ennet 3riding

horse7, are less familiar general ategories into whih modern footnotes lassify what was, in atuality,

a huge variety of e9uine breeds, ross5breeds, types, and DgradeD horses 3animals produed with no real

breeding plan in mind7! The work of e9uine historian Ann *yland douments the omple'ity and

G



breadth of the history of horses and horse5keeping among iviliBations in the est, the Middle +ast,

and the 2ar +ast! There is perhaps no more elo9uent argument than hers for interdisiplinarity in the

study of medieval history that inludes knowledge of e9uine siene and the e9uestrian arts)

To the historian many referenes may lak the full meaning that e'periene of horses an give!

To the horseman who laks an historian’s appreiation, many of these same referenes do not

even register as pertaining to the horse e'ept in the broadest sense! Cual appreiation shows a

more omplete piture of how an e9uestrian system has to operate in any age! Some ideas will

need rethinking, some an be better e'plained in the light of what a horse is atually apable of,

and there are many great similarities to our modern e9uestrian methods!4

The depth and range of understanding that knowledge of horses and horsemanship brings to historial

studies of medieval +urope and its ulture are demonstrated beyond 9uestion by e9uine historians suh

as Ann *yland, :!*!?! Cavis, Andrew Ayton, and Nohn ?lark! The same body of e9uine study an in

turn enrih our reading of medieval literature, inluding Arthurian tales! 2or hivalry steps to the

foreground in the Arthurian tradition, as both matier and san, matter and meaning, in a medieval

+uropean world fasinated with itself and with its ourtly odes, inluding a body of hivalri ideals

laid forth in popular literary works, as well as non5literary handbooks! Hne suh book by the thirteenth

entury knight, sholar, and ourtier5turned5leri :amon #ull is the $ook of 2nighthood and

Chialry. "n his book #ull e'plains)

"t was found that the horse was the most noble and most ovenable to serve man, and beause of

that, among all beasts, men hose the horse and gave him to this same man! 2or after the horse

whih is alled heval in 2renh ! ! ! the man /shall be0 named hevalier whih is knight in

+nglish! Thus the most noble man is given the most noble beast!16

#ull, of ourse, is merely reinforing a foundation for the elevated status of the knight, desribed in

heroi terms as the best among men, worthy of this noblest of beasts! *is mount is the warhorse, or



$great horse,% always a stallion, ridden by knights both in war and in tournaments! (ut the medieval

+uropean domesti horse was never a single type of reature, and was rarely the produt of a

onsistent or organiBed breeding program!11 There is even evidene that by the fourteenth entury, at

least in +ngland, D<ousting and warfare had beome very different forms of ativity!D

1&

Thus even the

term DwarhorseD had eventually ome to refer to a beast somewhat different from the $<ousting horse!%

?ertainly by the height of the :oman +mpire the horse had beome an integral if sometimes

problemati element of life and of warfare throughout +urope, Asia, and ;orth Afria!18 Methods of

breeding, seleting, training, riding, barding 3armoring7, and valuing of warhorses went through many

adaptations as the fae of warfare hanged, usually as a result of hanges in battle tehnologies! The

understood pratialities of horse ownership at all levels of soiety in the middle ages were omple'!

(eause our twenty5first entury ulture laks this intrinsi $horse sense,% it an be tempting in literary

analysis to ite the warhorse one5dimensionally perhaps as simply a 9uaint prop, an anti9uated ion of

power, a uriosity, a mehanisti (urkean ageny, a stati element of mise en s%ene! All of these the

horse provides in Arthurian literature, but the added dimension of even a rudimentary knowledge of

horsemanship onnets the dots of hivalry-the ulture of the %hial3 in a manner unavailable

through other terministi sreens! 2or e'ample, in the middle ages, <ust as in our post5industrial era, the

horse ould prove a great asset one day, a resoure5burning liability the ne't! The very details of grain,

enlosure of land, herd management, and other pratialities of sustaining the horse 4ua horse in

medieval ultures have largely been lost upon a tehno5urban twenty5first entury audiene! 1=

Then as now, attitudes toward the horse ranged from bonds of affetion with the Lnoble beast’ at

one end of the spetrum, to a mehanisti utilitarianism, the Lbeast of burden’ toward the other end of

the spetrum, an animal whose life often ended as meat for the stew pot in its least Lnoble’ role!1F Then

as now, audiene members of the romane whose lives were losely entwined with the horse as riders,

knights, arhers, s9uires, hunters, breeders, stud marshals, farriers, trainers, farmers, drivers, and



aretakers understood that the phrase Lto go on horsebak’ was a phrase that implied a substantial

amount of infrastruture and resoure management beyond the mere entrane on the sene of a horse

and a rider!

"n their introdution to The Culture of the Horse5 6tatus, 7is%ipline, and 8dentity in the 9arly

"odern World , Karen :aber and Treva N! Tuker make an engaging ase for the importane of

knowledge of horses and horsemanship in studies of medieval and early modern literature and the

humanities, noting the pauity of studies that fous on the influene of horses and e9uestrian arts in the

humanities!1G The same ase an easily be made for studies of medieval romanes and Arthurian tales!

?ritial fous upon interte'tual referenes to literary and ulture5based elements suh as names, olors,

trappings, literary analogues, and symbolism of horses in medieval Arthurian legends and tales

provides an important part of the piture!1 (ut we should onsider the medieval Arthurian horse 4ua

horse as well! 2or the san, matiere, sene, harater, theme, and tone an be enrihed from a base of

e9uine history and pratium! :aber and Tuker point out that studies of medieval and :enaissane

literature foreground knowledge of sub<ets suh as the visual arts, gender, violene, rae, and even

arhiteture in large part beause these are also elements of our twenty5first entury lives! *orses, one

a ommerial and utilitarian ommonplae in human soieties, have now lost that prominene!

*orses were one so ommon in everyday life that the +nglish language teems with figurative

e'pressions, metaphors, and truisms whose origins stem from e9uine e'periene of whih many

speakers are oblivious! :aber and Tuker provide a useful analogy to help us reflet upon the e'tent to

whih horses, one familiar to at all levels of soiety, have beome an esoteri sub<et, no longer

ubi9uitously aessible in estern ulture)

/"magine0 a future population to whih ar ulture is utterly defunt! *ow would one

ommuniate the ubi9uity of these mahines to a world O in whih no one knows or ares ! ! !

what the differene between a beautiful ar and an ugly one is, what onstitutes good handling

4



or why that ould possibly matterE1

Most Amerians understand instantly the automotive referenes suh as $put it in gear,% $give it some

gas,% and $hit the brake!% *owever, many e9uestrian referenes have lost their one ommonly shared

imagery!

14

2or e'ample, the phrase $to get off on the wrong foot,% an e'pression of dismay at the failed

initial interations between newly a9uainted people, omes from a rider’s re9uest that the horse

transition into anter or gallop the horse, signaled by the rider, must $move off% into anter from halt,

walk, or trot by first striking out with the proper hind foot, so as to impel forward motion into the three5

beat gait in order to aomplish this, often the rider must give the signal at the appropriate time! An

early 3fourth entury, (!?!+!7 and e'ellent e'planation of this is provided by the .reek warrior and

hroniler Penophon in his $Art of *orsemanship% 3 Hippike7)

Sine, too, the more approved method is to begin with the left /lead0, one will best begin on this

side, by giving the horse the signal to gallop while trotting, at the instant when he is treading

with the right 3fore7 foot! As he is then on the point of raising the left, he will begin with it, and,

as soon as the rider turns him to the left, will immediately begin the stride! 3Penophon, 8887&6

"f the ue is given at the wrong moment, the horse strikes out with the wrong hind foot thus his anter

will end up on the $wrong lead,% a tehniality whih has little impliation on a asual ountry hak,

but ould spell disaster in a avalry harge re9uiring orhestrated turns, halts, and half5pirouettes 3also

known as Dturn baksD or DreversesD7! Another e'ample would be the e'pression used to desribe an

obstinate person as $headstrong!% The dying 3perhaps already dead7 metaphor, alludes to horses who

9uite literally do not $give% to hand pressure on halter and bridle suh a horse is not merely

unooperative or inattentive, but literally uses the musle power of head and nek, to the point of

dragging or overthrowing its handler! Suh horses are alled headstrong in omparison to $submissive%

horses who may have e9ually inattentive or resistant moments, but nevertheless $give to pressure,%

oming muh more easily to hand when given a tug or $orretion!% "n short, even the simplest of dead

16



and dying e9uestrian metaphors in modern +nglish arry images and e'periene5driven pereptions

very muh alive in a horse5mounted ulture!

hether reading or being read to 3and often sung to7, audienes in the middle ages shared,

along with the fundamental neessity of flueny in the language of the poem, tale, or song, an

additional flueny in the language of what today we would all e9uine siene! +ven those too poor to

own or hire horses were e'posed to them regularly, if only by toiling in positions ad<unt to the e9uine

servie industries) loading and unloading arts or wagons holding and>or grooming the mounts of

visiting members of the upper rust even simply knowing basis suh as where to stand, walk, and

plae any and all items or implements in relation to a nearby horse would be useful, internaliBed

knowledge! They understood that the wide variety of siBes, onformations, bloodlines, and

temperaments of +uropean domesti horses were in real life not as easily shoehorned into simple

utilitarian ategories as dry annotations written enturies later might imply, and they understood that

tales of $knights% were by definition tales of $mounted warriors%) of horsemen and of horses!

?hr@tien’s ontemporaries knew, for e'ample, that there had to be something about the Chealier de la

Charette the $Knight of the ?art,% that inspired multiple hosts to gie him warhorses, presumably

outfitted with good 9uality saddles, bridles, and barding, the modern e9uivalent of a soldier showing up

on foot at a stranger’s villa and driving away in a brand5new, state5of5the5art armored military vehile,

along with a ahe of top59uality firearms and ammunition! Suh gifts would ome at great ost,

though auray in determining e'at modern e9uivalents of monetary value is almost impossible!&1

art of the diffiulty onsists in omparing needs with osts! Curing peaetime an overabundane of

horses might beome a drain on resoures suh as graBing land and grain! *owever, during times of

war suh horses would be valued at a premium as an important part of the neverending medieval

+uropean arms rae!&&

Arthurian! "ni#hts and $%th & $'th Centur( Audiences

11



Modern historians and arhaeologists have pieed together plausible portraits of early post5

:oman era mounted warriors in (ritain! Some evidene suggests that organiBed avalries of fifth

entury sub5:oman knights fought against Sa'on aggressors! After =66 years of :oman oupation,

military units in (ritain would be omprised of both ontinental reruits taken from various tribes 3suh

as mounted Sarmatian onsripts7, and soldiers whose parentage, ulture, identity and allegiane would

be a ombination of :oman and (riton! :oman armies were not renowned for their mounted units, and

typially drafted avalry from on9uered and oupied $barbarian% nations who were more skilled in

mounted warfare, partiularly in mounted arhery!&8 "n (ritain, avalry were developed over time, in

the wake of the importation and diffusion of tatial e9uipment suh as stirrups, saddles, and

horseshoeing tehni9ues, some probably originating in the far east, most in plae, at least in some

regions, by the end of the :oman era!&= These hybrid :omano5(riton mounted %ataphra%ti are

generally presumed to be the forerunners of the armored, mounted warriors, and may have been the

atalyst whih inspired tales of si'th entury $knights!%&F

;one of this knowledge of early post5:oman (ritish knighthood and horsemanship, however,

was of muh onern or interest to ontemporary readers of Marie de 2rane, ?hr@tien de Troyes,

.eoffrey ?hauer, or even Sir Thomas Malory! Taking up the matter of (ritain, in tale or in lai, was not

re9uired to impart $aurate% information about, nor understanding of, historial people and events of

early post5:oman (ritain! "ndeed, neither were historians nor hronilers e'peted to onern

themselves with $aurate% details! Most, inluding .ildas, ;ennius, Hrderi Qitalis, .eoffrey of

Monmouth and Nean 2roissart, were onerned with propagandisti agendas whih prioritiBed the

aggrandiBement of powerful patrons!&G Treatises and hroniles were written-or, <ust as likely, ditated

3a seemingly minor point, but in ases of lose ritial analysis of surviving manusripts, maddeningly

ruial7-by partiular lasses and groups of people! (ut muh larger and e9ually potent groups were

inlined to burn suh materials as insurgent, ounter insurgent, or heretial! Hften te'ts were burned

1&



indisriminately, any and all labors of elo9uene assigned as mere kindling in fires of on9uest,

destrution, or pillage! Tales from both the oral and written traditions were imitated, adapted, translated

3both well and poorly7, satiriBed, elevated to the highest of literary forms, and lowered to the

raunhiest! "n his detailed study The Arthurian :oman%es of Chr;tien de Troyes5 <n%e and =uture

=i%tions, Conald Maddo' provides a rational summary of the variety of voies in medieval Arthurian

literature, and at the same time suintly e'plains the impratiality of searhing for onsistent threads

and DinfluenesD from generation to generation of poets)

The likelihood of identifying a stable interte'tual portrayal of the renowned realm as we move

from ?hr@tien to later writers is thus diminished by the fat that there was no onsistently held,

anonially DmedievalD attitude toward Arthurian story and its regal protagonist! Curing the

Middle Ages, the Arthurian matter proved itself adaptable to a wide array of positive and

negative shemes! As a result of the inessant mouan%e of the myth, heirs of the rih legay of

?hr@tien and of his preursors repeatedly appropriated and reinvested the tradition in ways that

were not always in harmony with those of their forbears!&

The pratie of setting Arthurian prose and verse romanes against anahronisti bakdrops of, for

e'ample, the authors’ familiar world of post5;orman stone astles and 3in the ase of Malory7 fifteenth

entury barding was a broadly aepted onvention! And beause ontemporary audienes were not the

least bit interested in historial $auray% in Arthurian tales, we an learn more about the

ontemporary audiene and its ulture from eah tale than we an disern about the misty realities of a

muh earlier, post5:oman, $Arthurian% era!& Tales of King Arthur and the knights of the :ound Table

were the stuff of legend, e'peted to reinfore, hallenge, ompliate, even satiriBe a broad spetrum of

hivalri ultural odes and ideals! *orsemanship, however, was one onsistent element of hivalry in

all its inarnations!

2or thousands of years horsemanship held an established plae among the Assyrian, +gyptian,

18



arthian, :oman, Turkish, ;orse, Slavi, and +uropean ruling lasses!&4 The horse was more than a

symbol of means at the top of the soial sale, nor of merely a way of transporting argo at the bottom!

The horse was an ever5present, integral, e'periene5shaping, pereption5altering fat of life! ;ever a

mere agent for travel and onveyane, the horse was a tangible, understood and present element of

daily life! And more importantly for the Arthurian poet and audiene, the horse was instrumental in

arrying out one’s duties and asserting one’s rights as a member of the elite lass! The horse fought

battles, pulled plows, uprooted dead trees, side5passed menaingly between noisy mobs and nervous

prines, praned in awe5inspiring proessionals, pulled funeral5arts, patrolled the roads, and in many

areas of +ngland and mainland +urope, horses roamed wild! The horse nikered warnings of

approahing friends or foes, and failitated networks of swift ommuniation, inluding espionage! (ut

even these fats of e9uine5infused ulture rhetorially highlight what in (urkean terms might be

lassified as the tautologi%al horse, or the horse that ulturally symboliBes, even idealiBes, progress and

power in iviliBation!

The primal horse, the horse woven from birth into daily life among those of high rank or even

reasonable wealth, demanded attention from all five senses! "n omparatively densely populated areas

suh as aris, #ondon, Troyes, or any established astle or town, one’s first e'periene of the horse

would neessarily be olfatory! +ven in the most fastidiously kept stables and ourtyards the smells of

horse manure, urine, and sweat ould linger! :eords show, for e'ample, that in #ondon as ?hauer

would have known it, D1& arts bought for use by the ?ity rakers in arting away rubbish in 16 of the

?ity’s wards had two horses eah the arts and horses were purhased between 18& and 18& at a

total ost of R= Gs! d!D86 The management and labor involved in simply %leaning up after horses

enumbered a very e'pensive portion of the muniipal budget! The smell of horses, whih some people

find DearthyD and even pleasant, an 9uikly reah unpleasant levels, lingering on lothing and footwear,

1=



sometimes in spite of multiple leanings! Thus, for e'ample, we see in ?hr@tien de Troyes’ 9re% and

9nide the arrival of +re and his new bride at King #a’s astle! +re sends two knights ahead to

announe his approah, and the king and at least five hundred knights $ galoperent et %orrurent % 3gallop

and run7 out to greet the happy ouple, where father and son greet and talk) $de grant pie%e ne se

remuent > d#ilue% ou il s#antr#en%ontrerent % /for a long time they did not stir from the spot where they

met0!81 The purpose of galloping out of town for the grand meet5and5greet not only gets the whole town

of ?arnant hopping and elebrating, but the sene also shows ?hr@tien’s pratial side) one five

hundred mounted warriors have gathered for a proessional, it is best to move everyone along briskly

before too muh tumult and manure have overtaken the ourtyards! Among the <oyful preparations

upon the return and dispersal of the knightly proession, $de ?ons, de mantastre et de glais > sont totes

?on%hiees les rues% /all the streets were strewn with rushes, wild mint and grasses0!8&

The sight of the warhorse, its profile, shape and siBe, has remained ioni throughout the

enturies! *istorians and arhaeologists, in pieing together the siBe and shape of various mounts have

left us only with the onlusion that one annot make sweeping laims about the breeding and

onformation of the horse, and that for every rule there is an e'eption! That having been said, as a

rule the hunter and the war5horse were of medium build and between 1F51 hands in height 3one

hand= inhes7 !88 Many utilitarian5lass animals, however, suh as art5horses, hakneys, rouneys,

and everyday farm horses, would be reasonably small or even pony siBed in stature! "n $;orse *orses

in ?hr@tien de Troyes,% illiam Sayers speulates that the dappled palfrey given to +nide as a wedding

gift from her ousin 3the one first replaed by a mule, and then by a $parti5olored% palfrey from

.uivret7 ould be a small, gaited horse not unlike the ;orwegian 2<ord!8= And although some of these

$northern% small horses are 9uite beautiful, their short, stoky frames would be hardly awe5inspiring as

befits the new wife of a prine! "t is muh more likely that her $norrois% 3northern > ;orse7 palfrey

would be a 2riesian5ross, or some other, more stately horse with smooth gaits 3suh as a Spanish

1F



Nennet7! *istorians and literary sholars are often tempted to ite medieval illustrations suh as the

?arolingian siege depited in the ninth entury .olden salter of St! .allen and the eleventh entury

(ayeu' Tapestry as evidene that warhorses, too, were of small stature! *owever, suh illustrations are

stylisti, themed representations of famous events, devoid of perspetive, depth, and proportion!

8F

"n

suh pitures, the knights’ legs hang down past the horses’ knees, and astles and buildings are

shoulder5high! "n short, all perspetive is skewed, possibly for themati emphasis! "n many regions,

espeially those striken by famine or simply unable to support the grain rops and fened fields

neessary to sustain greater siBed animals, horses owned and ridden by those of limited means would

likely have ome from small5to5moderate siBed stoky +nglish horses! The wealthy and high born

3inluding high ranking lergy7, however, would probably not invest in the same small, +nglish or

;orse stok that an unassuming friar or merhant would ride!

Knights and ladies of high station would hardly be e'peted to hustle along the streets on

shaggy little mounts, their feet nearly dragging the ground! :ather, the %omes stabularis, or horse5

marshall of a grand estate, would be e'peted to find and bargain for the best and most regal mounts

his master ould afford! And while the most e'pensive of all horses, the warhorse or magnus e4uus,

was not neessarily in a weight lass approahing that of the massive draft or heavy horse breeds 3at

least not until the $heavy horse% <ousting of the high :enaissane7, persons important enough to be

onsidered of the noble lasses were e'peted to have a respetable seat upon an animal large enough

to intimidate those of lower birth and soial station! 2or indeed, that was the point, puntuated learly

by :amon #ull) $To a knight is given a horse, and also a ourser to signify noblesse of ourage! And

beause he is well horsed and high is why he may be seen to be free from fear!%8G 2or #ull, the $horse%

is the knight’s warhorse or destrier -most probably a sturdy, well5musled mount of appro'imately 1F5

1G hands, or the siBe and build of an average twenty5first entury Amerian Thoroughbred or Juarter

*orse!8 This was the horse trained for the head5on harge of the melee, or the staged battlefield! The

1G



$ourser% is the knight’s hunter) a lighter, more agile horse trained for ross5ountry galloping,

<umping, and negotiating rough terrain! The ourser should be both beautiful and energeti enough to

ut an impressive figure among other members of the upper rust on a royal hunt, and rough5and5

tumble enough to blast through the haos of the %heau%h;e! As onditions, tehnologies, strategies,

and onventions of medieval warfare hanged, so did the breeding and standards of warhorses!

Jualities of effetive and attrative onformation, however, held true for many breeds and purposes for

whih horses were put to use, muh as they are held today! Men entrusted with management of

veterinary are and often the overall management of royal studs, were appointed $Marshalls%)

That horses filled an important role on royal desmesnes is shown by the status of stablemen

who were among the key offiials working on these estates! They were given holdings of their

own in return for whih they owed their offiial servies, plus a rent of pigs! The stewards were

in general harge of e9uine management! They deided on stable siBe, the number of horses

oupying them, and how many grooms to alloate to their are! O resumably they deputed

underlings to do the atual work!8

2ull treatises on horse training, or $breaking% as some would all it, from the middle ages are rare and

inomplete 3primarily imitative of Penophon7! *owever, by the thirteenth entury the importane of

applying a ertain amount of siene, rather than blindly following Aristotle’s 7e Animalibus beame

lear to the likes of +mperor 2rederik "", who inspired his miles in marestala 3‛knight in the

marshaly’7, Nordanus :uffus of ?alabria, wrote an important, obseration5based treatise titled 7e

"edi%ina 94uorum! (eause Nordanus was a trained veterinarian working in the royal marshaly, his

worked opened up possibilities for others employed in the marshaly to write observationally, rather

than merely passing on onventional wisdom based in authority 3e!g!, Aristotle, Qegetius, and the fourth

entury Hippiatria7!84 As time progressed, suh veterinary marshalls as the fifteenth entury +nglish

author of The $oke of "ar%halsi find themselves moved to put down not only remedies for horse

1



ailments, but also e'planations for setting preferenes in the onformation of an aeptable noble

mount)

An hors of good entayle shal haue

a litil hed, grete, rownd iʒen, short

erin, large front, large noyes5tirles,

and large iowis, and narwe be5twene

e iowis, long nekke and wel5rising,

aparti ambrend, euyn bak, large

brest with braun hangende, gret braune

be5nee the sholdris with5owte,

large sidis, brod legis and large, and grete

senwis, short pastrown and gret,

euer e gretter e betir it is, hey orounale,

large roupe, large garet,

e hose of e pyntil wel forward,

the ballokes wel5hangginde, e lesse

at ei ben, the betir it is, e hepis

well trussid with large braune, short

har and nowt row, e shorter at it

is, e betir it is!=6

/A horse of good onformation shall have a small head, great, round eyes, short ears, large

forehead, large nostrils, and large, narrow <aws long nek set high and somewhat arhed, an

even bak a large, well5musled breast great, well5musled shoulders large sides broad, large

legs with great sinews short, very sturdy pasterns, as sturdy as possible high rown 3poll7,

1



large roup 3hind9uarters7, large withers the sheath of the penis well5forward, the testiles well5

hung but small, the smaller the better the hips well5framed and in good musle short hair and

not rough, the shorter that it is, the better it is0 !

2or these baseline 9ualities of style and soundness, aording to the author, one should try to obtain

Spanish horses, beause horses bred in $e untre of Spayne are the beste, for ei be folid in an hey eʒ

untre and in hard lond% /$the ountry of Spain are the best, for they be foaled in a high ountry, and in

hard 3roky7 land%0!=1 These Spanish horses, the forerunners of today’s flashy Andalusian, #ipiBBan,

and #usitano breeds, were for enturies onsidered the finest obtainable horses throughout +urope! "n

the opening of ?hr@tien’s 9re% and 9nide, Arthur and his ourtiers ride on a hunt for the white stag, the

high king mounted on a Spanish horse) $ 7eant aus to@ %haoit li tois sor un %ha%eor espanois%

3?hr@tien, ll ! 1&851&=, 2oerster ed!, p! F7 /DHn a spanish hunter, the king was leading them all in the

haseD 3trans! Hwen, &7!=& (eautiful, good siBed, versatile, and graeful, with high5arhing neks,

tapering heads, large, soulful eyes, small ears, high5held tails, flared nostrils, and dainty feet, these

horses resemble many of those in the illustrations and statuary depiting knights at their best of form in

sophistiated artwork from the middle ages, suh as the famous 1=8G Uello funerary monument to Sir

Nohn *awkwood! *orses like these were bred, nurtured, onditioned, pampered, and sold at e'tremely

high pries! And they were not always easy to find, even for ready gold! "n times of war, kings were

known to forbid the sale of warhorses to foreign buyers, lest they fall into enemy hands and <oin the

arsenals used against one’s own army!=8 The sight of a proession of knights, riding these magnifient

animals, draped from helmet to hoof in lavishly ornamented trappings, moving in formation, would

have had the desired effet of inspiring awe on days of festive tournaments, and fear in the hearts of

ground troops as these mounted warriors amassed before them on the field of battle!

The smells and sights of horses are aompanied by distintive sounds! 2rom birth, people of all

lasses living in towns, ities, and even small5but5busy villages throughout medieval +urope would

14



have heard the sounds of hooves, art5wheels, and arriages almost onstantly during daylight hours!

Shod hooves on slate or limestone streets would ring out muh louder than unshod feet paving

materials would be roughened to improve footing, and horse shoes ould be molded with salloped

shapes 3suh as the :oman hippo5sandals7, or with nubs on the bottoms for better tration! The

townsfolk would note the sound of shod horses, and if a troop of them lattered in through the gates,

the town smith would stoke his fire and prepare for a busy workday! Cogs would bark and be silened,

armor and metal fittings would lank and <ingle as the big horses lopped past gaping hildren and

alling vendors! Though opinions may vary, few voal noises generated by e9uine and asinine speies

ould be desribed as $dulet% or even $pleasant,% but they do onvey meaning! *orses niker, snort,

neigh, whinny and even sream, while donkeys and mules make a variety of huffing, s9ueaking, and

braying noises55all of varying volumes and fre9ueny! erhaps the most arane and surprising noise

one enounters on first meeting with the horse is the $niker%) a low, grumbling, half5snorting, half

hem5hawing noise, usually made by a horse while standing his ground or approahing! At first the

nikering horse may sound somewhat menaing, but the niker often signals a simple greeting!

#ikewise, humans have learned that modulating their own voaliBations to a lower tonal range, even

adding vibrato sounds an have a soothing effet on the lively horse! Mythology aside, though its

hearing is as keen as any prey animal, the horse has never been bred or priBed for its voal ability, nor

is the animal prone to onstant or even fre9uent voaliBation! Most of the noise generated by an

e9uestrian ulture would be that of lattering hooves, rumbling artwheels, and of ourse the shouts

and urses of the arters, vendors, rakers, tinkers, and drivers themselves!==

"t might seem odd to inlude taste in our <ourney of the senses, however it is a fat of medieval

life that horses were also used as meat! +speially in times of famine, severe winter, and of ourse,

seige, horses would be slaughtered and ooked!=F Though the horse was onsidered a noble beast, the

often unertain, plague5ravaged, war5torn, and otherwise beleaguered e'istene of a omparatively

&6



sparsely5populated +urope in the early middle ages neessitated a $no waste% approah to animal

husbandry! Still, the e'istene of odies on e9uine veterinary are that survive today in numerous

arhives and private olletions stands as proof of the high value with whih many horses were held! "n

an age when no suh are was pereived as neessary for other domesti animals, the horse was

sub<eted to tonis, poulties, surgial proedures, onotions, harms, spells, and of ourse that

standard of desperate medieval treatment 3whih nevertheless appears to have worked on oasion7)

bloodletting!=G So although the ailing or rippled horse might find its way to the stew pot, animals

valued for their servie stood a hane of being treated and oasionally ured!

#ast of the senses omes the tatile ontat, rider and horse together! 2or those of the noble

lasses, riding instrution might begin at age five or even younger, often under the tutelage of

instrutors within the ranked and titled irles of the marshaly! 2or many members of the untitled

lasses, the are and management of horses would be their primary ontat) feeding, grooming,

bathing, stabling, and ground handling would be fats of life for all but the most isolated,

impoverished, or se9uestered members of soiety! "n Arthurian tales, though, the primary haraters are

gentle5born and they ride! #ikewise, a substantial perentage of the primary audiene for rafted,

literary Arthurian tales written in verse and elo9uent prose would also see muh of their world from the

bak of a horse! A few original written treatises on riding and horsemanship survive from the middle

ages, though most are heavily influened by Penophon and Nordanus :uffus and almost none in

+nglish, save the $oke of "ar%halsi, whih provides notes on are and feeding, but no wisdom on the

sub<et of riding. (y far the most influential written treatise on horsemanship was Penophon’s Hippike

3<n Horsemanship7, dating from the lassial period! Several thirteenth and fourteenth entury opies

survive now in "taly e9uine historians note that works ontaining advie on hoosing, raising, and

training young horses losely imitated Penophon’s work!= Above all, Penophon enouraged riders and

handlers to employ patiene, gentleness, almness, and humane handling at every stage in the horse’s

&1



areer!= Hne original medieval treatise by Com Cuarte of ortugal 3184151=87 survives in a number

of odies! *is ommentaries and advie on e9uitation emphasiBe not only the need for a good rider to

e'erise both physial and mental fitness, but for a rider to study, pratie, and perfet the art of riding

on many different kinds of saddles! Speifially, he is onerned that knights be shooled in the

different purposes or styles of riding)

And those who have good horses an get very little advantage out of them if they do not really

have the appropriate riding skills, as they would not know how to do it! There are horsemen

who are very skilled on a speifi saddle whereas they are unable to maintain those skills on

other saddles! And there are those who, if seen by onnoisseurs <ust riding at a gallop wearing

normal lothes, are <udged not to be skilled horsemen! (ut when ombating duly armoured in

<ousts, against other riders, using a spear as the weapon, ould not be ritiiBed at all!=4

Though Cuarte’s advie is generally sound his initial aution that a good seat on horsebak annot be

learned from a book ehoes the voies of riding instrutors throughout the ages, down to the present! "n

order to beome a rider, one must ride! *orsemanship, then as now, entailed a number of skill sets and

several bodies of knowledge, some familiar to the knightly lass, some more speialiBed within the

support industries suh as farriery, veterinary are, breeding, grooming, driving, fustery 3saddletree

making7, horse trading, and even horse training! All were, at various times and loations, skills

governed within a range of guilds or brotherhoods whih gladly sold their servies to any who had

suffiient gold or goods for trade!

Equus Mulus: The Medieval Mule

"t is important to say a word about mules, and espeially about gaited or DamblingD mules! 2or it

is tempting for modern readers to assume that a mule would automatially be onsidered a DdowngradeD

from the palfrey or even the rouny as a riding animal! (ut this is not the ase! 2or the mule is not an

DaidentD or DmistakeD of breeding! Juite the ontrary) the mule is born of a male asinine 3donkey, or

&&



<ak7 and a female e9uine 3mare7, and the result is an intelligent, sensible, usually alm and

hardworking animal! (eause animals at stud are not usually aroused by speies other than their own,

<aks must be LsoialiBed’ with female horses, and the reverse is true of mares! As a result, the breeding

of good riding mules is and has been a ostly and labor5intensive industry in any age! After +nide’s

palfrey is left behind at the ount’s astle, for e'ample, +nide is provided with a mule to ride, and she is

very happily mounted! Mules, though notorious for Dstubbornness,D in atuality are good mounts for

riders who are not well attuned to the stamina and needs of a mount while traveling! Simply put, the

mule will make wise deisions on the road, and when it is too tired or ahy to keep on, it will simply

stop! A mule is a good hoie for riders who might otherwise overtire or even kill a horse by pushing

the animal beyond its abilities! The mule would probably not perform well as a fighting mount due to

its onformation, but a gaited 3DamblingD7 mule, suh as the one ridden by Malory’s #ynet when she

stops the fight between .awain and .areth, would be a highly priBed mount, pleasant to ride, and 9uite

valuable!F6

There is obviously neither time nor spae to analyBe ompletely the literary, historial, and

soial impliations of all medieval Arthurian horses! The presene of the horse in these tales is often

noted, but rarely e'amined losely from knowledge of horses and horsemanship, or of their history in

medieval +ngland and 2rane! "n Marie de 2rane’s 0anal , for e'ample, the shimmering moment in

whih the young knight first enounters the magial ladies and their loving mistress e'emplifies

MarieDs talent for e'pressing relationships and revealing harater through events and tangible ob<ets!F1

#anval, de<eted and worried over his eonomi troubles, rides out of town, and omes to a learing)

84#i hevaliers dunt ieo vus di,

9ui tant aveit le rei servi,

un <ur munta sur sun destrier,

si sDest aleB esbaneier!

&8



2ors de la vilV est eissuB

tuB suls est en un pre venuB!

=F Sur une ewe urant desent

mes sis hevals tremble forment)

il le desengle, si sDen vait,

enmi le pre vuiltrer le fait!

#e pan de sun mantel plia

F6 desuB sun hief, si se ulha!F&

/The knight of whom " speak, > who had served the king so long, > one day mounted his horse >

and went off to amuse himself! > *e left the ity > and ame, all alone, to a field > he dismounted

by a running stream but his horse trembled badly! > *e removed the saddle and went off, >

leaving the horse to roll around in the meadow! > *e folded his loak beneath his head > and lay

down!F8

The trembling of #anvalDs horse might be attributed to its sensing of the nearby faerie, but to the

e9uestrian this brief passage near the beginning of the poem reveals ritial information about #anval!

*orses tremble when they have been ridden hard or otherwise pushed to overe'ertion, then left to

stand! The knight removes the saddle to protet the saddle from being rolled on, and instead of ooling

out his horse 3by walking it in hand until the trembling stops7, he then flops onto the ground to rela'

and feel sorry for himself! Meanwhile the horse is in danger of tying up 3aBoturia) aute stiffness of the

musles7 or even oliking 3severe digestive blokage or $twisted gut%7, both serious and well5known

onditions! Marie de 2rane in these few lines gives the ulture of the %hial everything it needs to

know about this knight) he is young, foolish, selfish, and rekless with his best possessions! ;o

responsible horse owner would neglet his horse this way! Hne an only assume that, sine the horse

reappears in the hands of the apable handmaidens as #anval prepares to leave his new5found lady

&=



love, the damsels themselves have ared for it 3possibly rubbing it down with their bowls of fresh water

and lean loths7!

Conclusion

The horses of medieval Arthurian tales reveal muh about the haraters and about the world of the

poets’ audienes! Marie uses #anvalDs horse to provide an aurate first5impression of the young knight,

an impression onfirmed when he blunders his response to .uenevere’s advanes! #ikewise ?hr@tien in

9re% and 9nide paints with swift strokes the rash Sir Kay, who on a whim swipes .awaineDs horse

.ringalet-possibly the most famous of all Arthurian horses-and soon finds himself groveling and

begging the knight who has bested him 3+re, in disguise7 to allow him to return the horse to the kingDs

favorite nephew! "n the anient tale of /eredur from the "abinogion, the hero’s willingness to

dismount and lead his horse over raggy, treaherous ground reveals eredur’s pratial tenaity!F=

"t is not the purpose of this artile to weave a 9uilt of the ‛sraps, pathes and rags’ of e9uine

siene to redress hermeneutial inonsistenies in the prodigious anon of medieval Arthurian

sholarship! :ather, in the spirit of addressing the literary and rhetorial rihness and omple'ity

invoked by poets writing to a horsed audiene, it is perhaps time to return the %hial to our studies of

Arthurian %hialry, and inform our reading of the knight’s harge, the lady’s <ourney, the dwarf’s

ron%in, the villain’s hase, and the s9uire’s hores, with an eye toward not limiting our pereption and

analysis of $the horse% as image, symbol, or ob<et! "nstead, it should be possible to read the horses W

eah uni9ue and possibly of entelehial or teleologial interest as agen%y 3if not atual agent 7-from a

standpoint of e9uestrian knowledge and understanding of lassial and medieval horsemanship!

&F



1 Malory, Sir Thomas! ‛The Tale of King Arthur,’ in "alory5 Works! +d! +ugXne Qinaver! ;ew York)

H'ford University ress, 141! pp! 145&6! 3887& #ynh, Andrew! "aloryBs $ook of Arms. ;ew York) M.raw5*ill, 144! p! F&!

8 Malory, Sir Thomas! "alory5 Works! +d! +ugXne Qinaver! ;ew York) H'ford University ress, 141! pp! 145&6

= See, for e'ample, ;orman, Conald, The 7esign of 9eryday Things! ;ew York) Coubleday, &66&!

Mahines used in ontemporary everyday life, and espeially for military life, are speifiallydesigned for human usability! The horse, despite breeding for traits, temperament, onformation, andsoundness, still poses a daunting DusabilityD interfae! As a vehile and weapon of war it is often

ounterintuitive, buggy, and to the unfamiliar human user may seem totally laking in disernible

onstraints, feedbak, and affordanes! Com Cuarte’s 3n! =, below7 laim that it is important for anoble to learn how to ride on every kind of saddle is aompanied by his admonishment that there

are speifi ways in whih a horse an unseat its rider, ways in whih a rider’s attitude an instill

onfidene in the horse 3thus inreasing the $safety% of both7, and ways in whih a less skilled manmay inrease his ability and thus derease his embarrassment when riding on horsebak!

F Cekoven, Marianne! Dhy Animals ;owE!D /"0A5 /ubli%ations of the "odern 0anguage

Asso%iation 1&=, no! & 3&6647) 8G158G4! p! 8GF!

G (habha, *omi K! $Cissemi;ation) Time, ;arrative, and the Margins of the Modern ;ation!% in*omi K! (habha, ed! Nation and Narration. &4158&&! p! &4!

Taylor, Angus! Animals and 9thi%s5 An <eriew of the /hilosophi%al 7ebate 8rd +dition!

eterborough, Hntario, ?anada) (roadview ress, &664! pp! 4516! *ere Taylor ites Stephen :!#!?lark’s The "oral 6tatus of Animals! H'ford) ?larendon ress, 14!

Cavis, :!*!?! The "edieal Warhorse5 <rigin, 7eelopment and :edeelopment ! ;ew York)

M.raw5*ill, 144! pp! 18F518!4 *yland, Ann! The "edieal Warhorse =rom $y@antium To The Crusades! .louestershire, UK)

Sutton, 144=! p! 'i!16 #ull, :amon! The <rder of Chialry! Translated by illiam ?a'ton! 2!S! +llis, +d! (arrie, ?anada)Sovereign ress, &664! p! 1G!

11 2or historial analysis of the omple'ities of medieval breeding, development, maintenane, loss,and reestablishment of e9uine bloodlines see :!*!?! Cavis’ The "edieal Warhorse5 <rigin,

7eelopment and :edeelopment ! ;ew York) Thames and *udson, 144!1& Ayton, Andrew! 2nights and Warhorses5 "ilitary 6eri%e and the 9nglish Aristo%ra%y Under

9dward 888. ;ew York) M.raw5*ill, 144=! p! 8G!18 Cavis, :!*!?! The "edieal Warhorse5 <rigin, 7eelopment and :edeelopment ! ;ew York)

M.raw5*ill, 144! pp! 8858=!1= This e'erpt from Cent and .oodall’s The =oals of 9pona 3Cent, A! A!, and Caphne Mahin

.oodall! The =oals of 9pona5 A History of $ritish /onies from the $ron@e Age to esterday! #ondon)

.alley ress, 14G&! p! 417 illustrates the omple'ities inherent in the basi eonomy and pratialityof launhing a mounted warrior into the musters and thus onto the field of battle)

The knight and his destrier, as the basi fighting unit of the medieval army, needed aminimum of three other horses to keep them in ation day after day, even through the si'5weekampaign whih was the medieval strategist’s ideal operation! referably there should be a

seond destrier, beause the .reat *orse, despite its other virtues, was rather soft! "n any ase it

was meant to be ridden only in ation! (ut a seond destrier meant a seond s9uire, whih amee'pensive unless the knight had a seond son who must be provided for anyhow! There must be

a palfrey for the knight to ride when not in ation and a ob or rouny 3runinus in #atin7 for the



s9uire to ride while leading the destrier! Also a pak5horse to arry the knight’s armour! hen

hivalry reahed the pith of elaboration where the destrier too wore armour, then there must be

two armour5arrying pak5horses who ould be put to a small wagon when the a'is of advane

3or retreat7 lay along a arriage5road!2or additional details, see also ?hapter 8 DThe *orse "nventories) Couments and Administrative

roessesD in Ayton, Andrew 2nights and Warhorses5 "ilitary 6eri%e and the 9nglish Aristo%ra%y

Under 9dward 888 ! ;ew York) M.raw5*ill, 144=! pp! =4587!1F Salisbury, Noye +! The $east Within5 Animals in the "iddle Ages! ;ew York) :outlege, 144=! pp!

F=5FF!1G :aber, Karen, and Treva N! Tuker! D"ntrodution!D "n The Culture of the Horse5 6tatus, 7is%ipline,

and 8dentity in the 9arly "odern World , Karen :aber and Treva N! Tuker, 15=1! ;ew York)

algrave MaMillan, &66F!1 *asty, ill! DTheoriBing .erman :omane) The +'ursus on +niteDs *orse and Saddle in *artmann

von AueDs 9re%!D 6eminar =8, no! 8 3&667) &F85&G= on the trappings of +nite’s horse other

e'amples of essays foregrounding the horse in medieval Arthurian literature inlude (reeBe,

Andrew! D.ryngolet, the ;ame of Sir .awainDs *orse!D 9nglish 6tudies &666, no! & 3&6667) 1665161

Sayers, illiam! D;orse *orses in ?hr@tien de Troyes!D :omania 1&F 3&667 :owland, (eryl! DThe*orse and :ider 2igure in ?hauerDs orks!D Uniersity of Toronto Duarterly 8F, no! 8 314GG7) &=G5

&F4 .lenn, Nonathan A! DSir #aunfal and the *orse .oddess!D "edieal /erspe%ties 3144&7) G=5

! A partiularly delightful disussion of medieval literary referenes to the 3possibly aporyphal7 punishment of being drawn apart by wild horses appears in :e', :ihard! Dild *orses, Nustie, and

?harity in the rioressDs Tale!D /005 /apers on 0anguage E 0iterature &&, no! = 314G7) 88458F1!

:e' argues that the e'pression that one would Drather be torn apart by wild horsesD was merelyhyperboli rhetori, although drawing and 9uartering was, historially speaking, arried out as

punishment for treason both on the ontinent and in +ngland! Malory makes referene to drawing

twie, first in the tale <f 2ing Arthur and the 9mperor 0u%ius, when ryamus uses the phrase

rhetorially, to indiate he is relieved to have been bested by none other than the prinely .awaine)‛;ow am " bettir pleased,’ sayde sir ryamus, ‛than thou haddest gyff me the rovyne and

erysie the ryhe, for " had levir have be toryn with four wylde horse than ony yoman had suhe

a loose wonne of me, other els ony page other pryker sholde wynne of me the prye in thisfelde gotyn!’ 3Malory, p! 187

Malory’s seond referene to suh grisly ation in the tale of 0amorak de Falys is more sinister,

for it indiates that suh a killing has atually been done to Sir ;anowne le etite by L;abon le ;oyre,a grete myghty gyaunt’)

!!!And thes fysshers tolde sir #ameroke all the gyse of syr ;abon, how there om never

knyght of kynge Arthurs but he distroyed hym! And the laste batayle that ever he ded was wythsir ;anowne le etyte, and whan he had wonne hym he put hym to a shamefull deth in the

despyte of kynge Arthure) he was drawyn lym5meale! ‛That forthynkes me,’ seyde sir #amerok,

‛for that knyghtes deth, for he was my osyn, and yf " were at myne ease as well as ever " was, "

wolde revenge his deth!’ 3Malory, p! &=7:e' points out that the despiable nature of drawing was not so muh the grisly at itself, but

that only the king ould order suh punishment for the speifi rime of treason! To do so without royal

edit would be a treasonous at in itself! 2rom a point of view informed by ontemporary knowledge ofwild horses and horsemanship, to attempt suh a $drawing% with feral animals would most likely result

in in<ury and havo for vitim, aggressor, horses, and any bystanders within galloping distane of the

paniked, thrashing, entangled beasts!1 :aber, Karen, and Treva N! Tuker! D"ntrodution!D "n The Culture of the Horse5 6tatus, 7is%ipline,



and 8dentity in the 9arly "odern World , Karen :aber and Treva N! Tuker, 15=1! ;ew York) algrave

MaMillan, &66F, p! 8!14 ?onsider that even a lowly medieval slave, serf, servant, or peddler performing errands or tasks

would know not to plae goods or foodstuffs in lose pro'imity to a tethered or unsupervised horse!Unlike the parked ar, the horse will rummage in food5saks for apples, grain, or sweets he will

paw or trample items left on the ground and, when frightened, he will easily break a lead rope, or

fene5rail or other ob<et to whih he has been tied, a fre9uent enough ourrene to reinfore theknowledge that horses must be taught to stand 9uietly where tied they are not mehanially

Dseured!D *orses are often ompared in temperament and intelligene to F year5old human hildren,

and have a talent for getting into mishief! Most medieval bystanders would have at least a noddinga9uaintane with basi grooming, ground handling, taking, and overall e9uine eti9uette!

&6 Penophon! ZHn the Art of *orsemanship!Z Qol! ! Trans! +!?! Marhant! Genophon in 6een

olumes5 88 6%ripta "inora! +d! (rownson ?arleton! ?ambridge) *arvard U!!, 14&F! vols! 888!rint!

&1 Qerbruggen, iting the 0e1 :ibuaria, M.*, #eges, Q, tit! 8G 11, p! &81, provides the following hart,

illustrating the heavy ost of putting warhorses and mounted knights into the field, noting these osts

remained omparative throughout the middle ages, so that only the most well5heeled of landed nobilitywere apable of launhing full ompanies of knights into the field of battle)

"t is important to onsider the ost of e9uipping an armoured avalryman in the middle

of the eighth entury, at the time when the 2rankish heavy avalry was being developed! The:ipuarian #aw gives the prie of weapons and e9uipment as well as the value of horses, o'en,

and ows!

The helmet G solidiThe brunia or byrny 1& solidi

The sword and sabbard solidi

The sword alone, w>out sabbard 8 solidi

The leggings G solidiThe lane and shield & solidi

The horse 1& solidi

A sound o' with horns was then worth two solidi, a sound ow with horns anything between one and three solidi, a sound mare three solidi! The e9uipment of an armoured

avalryman thus ost as muh as fifteen mares or nearly twenty5three o'en, an enourmous sum

of money!Qerbruggen, N!2! The Art of Warfare in Western 9urope 7uring the "iddle Ages ! oodbridge)

(oydell ress, 144! p! &8!

2or a detailed aount of osts, provisions, aounting, and ompensation for warhorses fromthe rown in the fourteenth entury, see Ayton, Andrew! 2nights and Warhorses5 "ilitary 6eri%e andthe 9nglish Aristo%ra%y Under 9dward 888. ;ew York) M.raw5*ill, 144=! ?hapters 8 and =, pp! =45

18! Ayton disusses the appraisal of horses and the restaurum e4uorum in fourteenth entury +ngland)

The /inventories0 were working reords, drawn up as an army’s warhorses wereappraised at the start of a period of paid military servie and designed to be onsulted and

annotated during and after the ampaign! The /restaurum e4uorum aounts0, onsisting of lists

of horses lost on ative servie, were based on information ontained in the full horseinventories, but were usually ompiled long after the dust of the ampaign had settled, as part of

a formal set of aounts! 3=47

&&*yland, Ann! The "edieal Warhorse5 =rom $y@antium to the Crusades! .louestershire) Sutton



ublishing, #td!, 144=! p! G=!&8 *yland, Ann! The "edieal Warhorse5 =rom $y@antium to the Crusades! .louestershire) Sutton

ublishing, #td!, 144=! p! 8!&= (oth Ann *yland 3The Horse in the "iddle Ages! .louestershire) Sutton ublishing, #td!, 14447

and Nohn ?lark 3D*orseshoesD in The "edieal Horse And 8ts 94uipment , ed! Nohn ?lark, ;ew York)

M.raw5*ill, &66=! pp! F51&87 offer autious historial and arheologial evaluation of :oman

use of horseshoeing, and of horseshoeing in general before the ;orman ?on9uest! Some evidene ofan De9uisandal,D a forerunner of the horseshoe, appears in the arheologial reord, but full5blown

DmarshalyD inluding the farrierDs e9uipment as we understand it today probably emerged in the

eleventh entury! Saddles and saddlery, however, appear in works of art from the 2ar +ast all theway to western +urope from early anient times forward!

&F 2or a lively, urrent disussion of historial and arhaeologial Arthurian (ritain, see :eno, 2rank

C! Histori% =igures of the Arthurian 9ra5 Authenti%ating the 9nemies and Allies of $ritainBs /ostI

:oman 2ing ! Nefferson, ;?) M2arland [ ?o!, &666!&G 2or analysis of attitudes toward Arthurian tales in the middle ages see Thomas ?rofts’ work on

?a'ton’s prefae in "aloryBs Contemporary Audien%e 3;ew York) M.raw5*ill, &66G7! ?rofts

inludes disussion of the politis and eonomi power struggles that influened authorship and publiation of medieval Arthurian literature)

+speially interesting to us is that this hange /the idea of politial ause5and5effet whih

began to rowd out salvation as the ordering priniple of reality0 ourred at the same time asKing Arthur entered the #atin (ritish historial narrative, that is, with /illiam of0

Malmesbury’s Festa and the Historia regum $ritanniae of .eoffrey of Monmouth 3! 11665

11F=7! These were not the first te'ts to mention Arthur by the twelfth entury, he was a ?eltihero5king of long standing! Malmesbury and others sought to retify the historial reord by

separating the historial truth about Arthur from the e'aggeration of his e'ploits in popular

tales, tales whih had no written authority behind them! !!!The history of .eoffrey’s book

demonstrates the influene whih a genre and its aompanying e'petations may wield overte'ts themselves and, in this ase, over the historial imagination! (ut subse9uent readers and

writers did not, as many ritis presume they did, fail to reogniBe this effet! :ather, they

seemed to make room for it! ae and ?hr@tien understood what a paper5thin propositionArthur’s historiity was this understanding did not re9uire them to re<et it, however) it merely

reminded them to attribute that proposition to other te'ts! Arthur’s historiity seems always to

have been provisional) it is to be e'peted, then, that he would thrive ina historiography that hadlowered its gaBe from the horiBon of universal history and begun to answer to loal

re9uirements, and to serve seular interests! 3pp! 8G587& Maddo', Conald! The Arthurian :oman%es of Chr;tien de Troyes5 <n%e and future fi%tions!

?ambridge) ?ambridge U!!, 1441! p! 8 3emphasis in original7!& Though 2rank C! :eno 3 Histori% =igures of the Arthurian 9ra! #ondon) M2arland [ ?ompany,

&6667 makes a metiulous and ompelling ase for an almost ertain historial Ambrosian period,

e9uating with muh ross5referening of soures and harting of authorial timelines an $Arthurian%milieu with that of the fifth entury Aurelius Ambrosius, it must be said somewhere that insisting

upon the ‛auray’ of one early medieval hronile over another, all of whih post5date the events

by deades if not enturies, te'ts whih present themselves with no disernibly provable redentialsof truth other than their own laims and dislaimers, is hardly the last word in Arthurian historiism!

&4 *yland, Ann! The "edieal Warhorse5 =rom $y@antium to the Crusades! .louestershire) Sutton

ublishing, #td!, 144=! pp! 15&1!86 ?lark, Nohn! D*orseshoes!D The "edieal Horse And 8ts 94uipment , ed! Nohn ?lark, ;ew York)



M.raw5*ill, &66=! pp! F51&8! p! 16!81 ?hr@tien de Troyes, 9re% and 9nide. +d! and Trans! ?areleton ! ?arroll! ;ew York) .arland, 14!

pp! 16&516F!8& ?hr@tien de Troyes, 9re% and 9nide. +d! and Trans! ?areleton ! ?arroll! ;ew York) .arland, 14!

p 16F!88 *orses are measured from the ground to the top of the withers, whih is the protruding ridge formed

on the topline of the horse where the nek and bak meet! The measuring devie, usually alled aDstik,D is held at the top so that it hangs perpendiular to the ground ne't to the horse, then the ross5bar

slide is brought down to touh the withers! *eight is stated in four5inh units alled DhandsD 3named so

for the average width of a human hand7! A horse measuring G& inhes at the withers is said to be Dfifteenhands, two inhesD or more ommonly in abbreviated form, Dfifteen5two!D 2or e'ample, notation would

be DF!& h!D ?are should be taken that the horse is standing s9uarely with front and hind feet set evenly

beneath him, and that the stik is plaed perpendiular from the point or top of the withers, not angledtoward the front or hind feet, so that the measure is aurate! +'pert opinions differ onerning the siBe

and weight of medieval warhorses! Most agree that the hobyn, small rouny, and what we today would

all a DponyD siBed animal would measure at about 1=h and under! The warhorse we would urrently

lass as a DhargerD or DdestrierD 3ira A!C! 6651&667, depending of ourse upon weaponry, geography, preferenes of various armies, and availability of animals who will atually Ddo itD as ontemporary

<ousters would say, most likely measured 1F51Gh, and would weigh in with a siBe and shape like that of

the modern adult Juarter *orse, Thoroughbred, or Swedish armblood! #ater in the middle ages31&F651F667, the Dgreat horse,D bigger that the original harger but not yet the siBe of the Dheavy

horsesDused in :enaissane tournaments 3what we today would lass as DdraftD horses7 was introdued!

Though most of the great horse bloodlines have long sine disappeared, the 2riesian and *olsteiner breeds are still popular, often measuring between 1G51h in height! 2or full historial analysis, see

?lark, Nohn, The "edieal Horse and 8ts 94uipment , &66= Cavis, :!*!?! The "edieal Warhorse5

<rigin, 7eelopment and :edeelopment , 144 *yland, Ann, The "edieal Warhorse5 =rom

$y@antium to the Crusades, 144=! 2or an entertaining and illustrative introdution to the pratialitiesof warhorsemanship, " reommend viewing the independent film Ameri%an Jouster , dir! :ihard !

AlvareB, &66F the film douments the daily lives, routines, and performanes of ontemporary

:enaissane fair <ousting performers in the U!S!8= Sayers, illiam! D;orse *orses in ?hr@tien de Troyes!D :omania 1&F 3&667) 18&5=! pp! 1=851=F!8F Foldener /salter K/salterium aureumL on 6t. Fallen. St! .allen, Stiftsbibliothek, ?od! Sang! &&, p!

1=1 3www!e5odies!unifr!h7! All horses in the piture are learly not only small in proportion totheir riders 3whose feet hang to their mounts’ knees7, but whether due to inauray or stylisti

hoie, the figures are unrealistially disproportionate as well! The horses’ heads are too small for

the proportions of their bodies 3they are, in fat, no larger than the heads and hands of their riders7,and the knights’ bodies are oddly out of proportion, with hands larger than feet, forearms larger than

thighs, and so on! ?learly none of the the illustrations in the .olden salter employs a sophistiated

or metiulous level of perspetive, proportion, ratio, or rendering! "t is rather a stylisti, brief telling

of a tale, dashed off with strong lines, and bold, bright, unnatural olors! ointing to suhillustrations as evidene that knights in the 4th and 16th entury rode DsmallD or Dpony5siBedD horses

would be e9uivalent to arguing that astle walls were barely shoulder5high, for even the astles and

landsape are disproportionately tiny in relation to the siBe of the knights! Arhaeologial andanthropologial evidene seems to indiate that the DknightlyD lass of horses used for battle and

<ousting were in many ases, well5musled, alm mounts of a medium siBe, between 1F51G hands,

though warhorses suh as the *olsteiner, whih date to the th entury, easily topped 1G \ to 1hands 3see *yland and Cavis7! *igh 9uality images of the .olden salter of St! .allen an be



viewed on the web at the e5odies Qirtual Manusript #ibrary of SwitBerland)

http)>>www!e5odies!unifr!h>en>sg>66&&>1=1>medium8G #ull, :amon! The <rder of Chialry! Translated by illiam ?a'ton! 2!S! +llis, +d! (arrie, ?anada)

Sovereign ress, &664! p! 18 *yland, The "edieal Warhorse5 =rom $y@antium to the Crusades, pp! F5G!8 *yland, Ann! The "edieal Warhorse =rom $y@antium To The Crusades! .louestershire, UK)

Sutton, 144=, p! G& see also Cavis, :!*!?! The "edieal Warhorse5 <rigin, 7eelopment and :edeelopment ! ;ew York) M.raw5*ill, 144! pp! 85=84 Cavis, :!*!?! The "edieal Warhorse5 <rigin, 7eelopment and :edeelopment ! ;ew York)

M.raw5*ill, 144! pp! 1665168!=6 The $oke of "ar%halsi5 A Mth Century Treatise on HorseI$reeding and eterinary "edi%ine,

9dited from "6. Harley OPQR with 8ntrodu%tion, Notes, and Flossary. +dited by (engt Hdenstedt, "n

Stokholm) Stokholm Theses in +nglish, Stokholm University, 148! pp! 1F51G!=1 The $oke of "ar%halsi5 A Mth Century Treatise on HorseI$reeding and eterinary "edi%ine, 9dited from "6. Harley OPQR with 8ntrodu%tion, Notes, and Flossary. 9dited by $engt <denstedt, 8n

6to%kholm5 6to%kholm Theses in 9nglish, 6to%kholm Uniersity, MQSP, p! &6!=& ?hr@tien de Troyes, 9re% und 9nide! Qol! 8! "n Christian on Troyes5 6mtli%he Werke, endelin2oerster, p! 146! *alle) Ma' ;iemeyer, 146, p! F translation by C!C!:!Hwen, from Chretien de

Troyes5 Arthurian :oman%es, #ondon) +veryman, 1448 3first ed! 147, p! &!=8 *yland, Ann! The Warhorse5 MVIMOVV! .louestershire) Sutton ublishing, #td!, 144! pp! 1851=!== ?lark, Nohn, (rian Spener, and C! N! :akham! D"ntrodution) *orses and *orsemen in Medieval

#ondon!D "n The "edieal Horse and 8ts 94uipment %. MMVI%.MV, +d! Nohn ?lark! #ondon) (oydell

ress, 144F! pp! 158&=F Salisbury, Noye! The $east Within5 Animals in the "iddle Ages! #ondon) :outlege, 144=! pp! FF5FG

see also *yland, Ann! The Warhorse5 MVIMOVV, pp! 168516=!=G The $oke of "ar%halsi5 A Mth Century Treatise on HorseI$reeding and eterinary "edi%ine, 9dited

from "6. Harley OPQR with 8ntrodu%tion, Notes, and Flossary. 9dited by $engt <denstedt, 8n6to%kholm5 6to%kholm Theses in 9nglish, 6to%kholm Uniersity, MQSP, p! '''v! "n the introdution to

his 148 edition of the anonymous 1Fth entury $oke of "ar%halsi, Hdenstedt summariBes the detailed,

sometimes 9uite sensible, and oasionally biBarre remedies for e9uine ailments! *ere is an e'erpt)(lood5letting is of ourse a favourite remedy! The seats of bleeding vary aording to

the loation of the hief symptoms of the disease in 9uestion! 2or atarat the horse is to be bled

from a vein beneath the eye 3f! 14a=7, for anker sores in the mouth from three sublingual veins3f! &Ga=7, for vives /strangles0 and fary /glanders baterial infetion0 from the <ugular vein 3ff!

&1(, &4aF7, for lameness from the metaarpal or digital veins 3f! ==a167, et! "n some ases the

reader is reommended to stop the bleeding with a plaster of horse5dung, when a suffiient9uantity of blood 3usually a 9uart7 has been drawn!

"nantations are presribed twie! Hne, an elaborate harm against fary, is inluded in

the present edition the other is a short 2renh harm for staunhing blood!

3 $oke of "ar%halsi, p! '''v7Though the $oke identifies the reitations as DharmsD to be spoken while administering

treatment, they are atually prayers, in the form of entreaties to Nesus ?hrist to heal the horse of its

malady, and appear entirely ?hristian in nature, free of heretial invoations or pagan referenes!= Cavis, :!*!?! The "edieal Warhorse5 <rigin, 7eelopment and :edeelopment ! ;ew York)

M.raw5*ill, 144, p! 116!= Penophon! ZHn the Art of *orsemanship!Z Qol! ! Trans! +!?! Marhant! Genophon in 6een

olumes5 88 6%ripta "inora! +d! (rownson ?arleton! ?ambridge) *arvard U!!, 14&F! vols! A



harateristi e'erpt demonstrates Penophon’s artiulate voie and masterful understanding of the

e9uine speies)

The one best rule and pratie in dealing with a horse is never to approah him in anger for

anger is a rekless thing, so that it often makes a man do what he must regret! Moreover, whenthe horse is shy of anything and will not ome near it, you should teah him that there is nothing

to be afraid of, either with the help of a pluky horse-whih is the surest way-or else by

touhing the ob<et that looks alarming yourself, and gently leading the horse up to it! To forehim with blows only inreases his terror for when horses feel pain in suh a prediament, they

think that this too is aused by the thing at whih they shy! 38&F58&7=4 Cuarte, Com! The :oyal $ook of Jousting, Horsemanship and 2nightly Combat5 A Translation into

9nglish of 2ing 7om 7uarteBs MPR Tratise 0iro 7a 9nsinana 7e $em Caalgar Toda 6ela!

Translated by Antonio 2! 2rano reto! Steven Muhlberger, +d! *ighland Qillage, Te'as) ?hivalry

(ookshelf, &66F! p! G!F6 There is more to say about the mule than merely to point out that it is sterile, as though the mule

were a negative symbol of aridity and waste! The truth is that <ak mules when not gelded 3astrated7

are 9uite aggressive in their mating behaviors! +9uine astration, surprisingly, was not ommon

pratie in medieval western +urope! Nennies tend to yle as often as horses, sometimesdisruptively so! The differene is that, when traveling through foreign lands and estates, one’s mule

annot be harged with overing the loal mares 3perhaps ruining the breeding program for one or

more mares of high 9uality7! #ikewise, riding a <enny mule guarantees one’s mount annot beome pregnant if inadvertently overed by a hane enounter with a wild or unsupervised <ak donkey or

stallion! The truth is, a well5trained, soialiBed, good tempered mule was and is a priBed mount of

high 9uality! .aited mules, though unusual, are bred and muh sought5after to this day!F1 :othshild, Nudith :ie! DMarie de 2rane and the 2olktale ;arrative Cevies of the "ar%hen and her

0ais!D "n Duest of "arie de =ran%e5 A TwelfthICentury /oet , ?hantal A! Mar@hal, 1851=! #ewiston,

;!Y!) Mellen, 144&! pp! 1=&51=8! :othshild observes that Lanother distinguishing feature of the fairy

tale genre utiliBed by Marie for her own artisti purposes is the Dneed to e'press relationships andfeelings through e'ternal events and visible ob<ets!D’ :othshild ites Ma' #]thi’s <n%e Upon a Time5

<n the Nature of =airy Tales, 3;Y) 2rederik Ungar, 1467, giving a number of e'amples that illustrate

similarities between the 0ais and stylisti 9ualities of fairy tales!F& Marie de 2rane, ! D#anval!D "n 7ie 0ais der "arie de =ran%e, Karl arnke and :einhold K^hler,

*alle, .ermany) Ma' ;iemeyer, 1F! pp! 5, ll! 845F6F8 Translation from) Marie de 2rane, 0anal ! Translated by :obert *anning and Noan 2errante! "n The 0ais of "arie de =ran%e, 16F51&F! Curham, ;!?!) #abyrinth ress, 14&! p! 16G, ll! 845F6!

F= The "abinogion! Translated by Neffrey .antB! ;ew York) enguin (ooks, 14G! pp! &8G5&8! +ven

suh seemingly small elements as eredurDs dismounting from his horse while moving autiouslythrough the mountain rags and into the forest tells the reader a great deal about the hero! 2or

despite admonitions suh as those in the (oke of Marhalsi that horses should be able to navigate

uneven, stony ground, there is in fat no shame in dismounting oneDs horse when the going is

perilous! eredur in fat shows that he is a well5seasoned traveler, and knows when it is best to takee'tra preautions in dangerous, unknown territories!

‘have this horse’_the role of horses and horsemanship in medieval arthurian literature

Documents