A (crooked) mirror for knights – the case of Dinadan
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Date
2008
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
The picture of chivalry in medieval romance was primarily an idealised vision of knightly custom.
The world of King Arthur and Camelot codified moral and courtly standards which were presented
in literature as patterns for emulation. The writings of Sir Thomas Malory, the last medieval bearerup
of Camelot, was understood and received by medieval readers as a traditional praise of chivalry.
It is therefore especially intriguing to find in the Morte Darthur the irreverent figure of Dinadan, a
knight more ready for a jest rather than a joust, a clown whose words and deeds ridicule chivalric
customs. His light treatment of chivalric norm and of courtly love sets him apart from the otherwise
traditionally-minded Camelot. On the one hand, Dinadan may be viewed as Malory’s touch of comedy
and common-sense in his late medieval treatment of the old, quaint world. On the other hand,
Dinadan’s irreverence may be seen as a serious breach in the otherwise didactically idealised image
of Arthur’s Britain. The presence of Dinadan complicates the moral appeal of Malory’s Camelot and
brings a dose of ambivalence and a lack of clear didactic closure into the text.
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Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 44 (2008), pp. 458-462