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| Walter Map taking down a story of the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table on the quest of the Holy Grail at the dictation of King Arthur, from the Manchester Arthurian Romance, c.1300 |
The elements of the Vulgate Cycle, comprising The History of the Holy Grail, The Story of Merlin, Lancelot, The Quest of the Holy Grail and The
Death of King Arthur, are cleverly interlaced in a number of ways. The last
two are linked, or better, locked together, by the introduction of a putative
author, Walter Map. Here are the passages which outline this linking; first
from the end of The Quest of the Holy
Grail,
When they had dined King Arthur
summoned his clerks who were keeping a record of all the adventures undergone
by the knights of his household. When Bors had related to them the adventures
of the Holy Grail as witnessed by himself, they were written down and the
record kept in the library at Salisbury,
whence Master Walter Map extracted them in order to make his book of the Holy
Grail for love of his lord King Henry, who had the story translated from Latin
into French. And with that the tale falls silent and has no more to say about
the Adventures of the Holy Grail.
Next, from the beginning of The Death of King Arthur:
After Master Walter Map had put
down in writing as much as he thought sufficient about the Adventures of the Holy Grail, his lord King Henry II felt that what
he had done would not be satisfactory unless he told about the rest of the
lives of those he had previously mentioned and the deaths of those whose
prowess he had related in his book. So he began this last part; and when he had
put it together he called it The Death of
King Arthur, because the end of it relates how King Arthur was wounded at
the battle of Salisbury and left Girflet who had long been his companion, and
how no one ever again saw him alive. So Master Walter begins this last part
accordingly.
And finally from the end of The Death of King Arthur:
At this point Master Walter Map
will end the Story of Lancelot,
because he has brought everything to a proper conclusion according to the way
it happened; and he finishes his book here so completely that no one can
afterwards add anything to the story that is not complete falsehood.
This seems very convincing evidence that the author of these
two last works and perhaps of the cycle as a whole was Master Walter Map.
Unfortunately “Map died before the works attributed to him were written”.
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| The body of Elaine, the Maid of Astolat, arrives at Camelot |
BLOG QUESTION: Why would the group of anonymous Cistercian
monks responsible for constructing the Vulgate Cycle want to see the work
attributed to Walter Map?
We can make assumptions regarding the rhetorical ambitions of the Cistercians in any such enterprise. An Arthurian cycle that exhorts proper knightly conduct and Christian values, and is a chance to supplant the secular narrative of those exploits, would be of great value and importance in advancing the Cistercian’s socio-cultural, religious and political endeavours.
ReplyDeleteWalter Map is useful because he resides at an intersection of important elements in the creation of the Arthur myths, as a contemporary of Giraldus Cambrensis, and as an insider of the court of Henry II. Elements relevant to this position include that Henry and his wife Eleanor were widely believed (at the time) to be the subject of many of the ‘Prophecies of Merlin’, and that the courts of Eleanor and her associates were the seed and proving ground of much of the secular literature that preceeded the Vulgate Cycle. Many scholars have postulated that the Arthurian tales are concious reflections of the values and ideals of such twelfth-century courts, if not the events that occurred there. I think it is reasonable to concur. I think it is also reasonable to conceive that people of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were well aware of the relevance of the Arthur cycle to contemporary court life.
As a scathing critic of the scandal and licentiousness that pervaded the court of Henry and Eleanor, and as a chief (historical) gossip-monger of the charges against Eleanor, Walter Map is thereby both an historical authority and nominal cultural ally of the Cistercians. ‘His narrative’ may then be insinuated into the popular contemporary narrative that surrounded the cycle, and achieve the ends for which it was conceived.
I think it’s extremely coincidental that Walter Map was the archdeacon of Oxford supposedly transposing from Latin to French at Henry II’s behest and that Geoff of Monmouth in the HRB has his initial patron Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford present him with the very ancient book in the British tongue that he then codifies in Latin. (Sian Echard highlights in “The Arthurian Narrative in the Latin Tradition” that although Walter is now disproved as author he was nevertheless Archdeacon and his Angevin lord is widely believed to have commissioned the vernacular cycle). Furthermore, Walter Map like Geoff befits the “mixed blood” parentage Constant mentioned last week. Because he’s half Welsh (or a Welshman residing on the English border as C.N.L. Brooke suggests in his Introduction to “De nugis curialiam”) Walt has authentic romantic Celtish heritage thus the ancient “Civilisation” the contemporary British inhabitants so craved moreover subsumed in their courtly literature during the twelfth-century Renaissance. Given all this it seems the Cistercians wanted to establish a credible continuity not just within the Vulgate Cycle itself but from the original source – Geoffrey progenitor of the Arthurian Romance tradition. Hence the Cistercians’ motivations for attributing Walter as author of the Vulgate Cycle may be due to Master Map’s symbolic sway.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Of course I could have just said "right time, right place." Urgh.
ReplyDeleteAlso: nice comment Yilei. Again, making me wish I'd done more thorough research...
Haha, thanks Joey! I discovered the first book by chance/accident but actually came back to add I completely muddled the bit about Henry II being the likely patron, I re-read the passage and I don't think that's what Echard is suggesting though it's probably too late.
DeleteAlso Carol if you happen to read this sorry I'll be missing today's tute.
A group of anonymous Cistercian monks attributing the Vulgate Cycle to Walter Map is rather ambiguous but speculations can be drawn. Firstly, Walter Map was a clerk for Henry II, which provides a connection to the royal court and like E. Jane Burns mentions, gives ‘authority’ to the tales. Additionally, by linking the stories to one author, the tales also seem more credible than various authors contributing to them. After all, if all these authors from various backgrounds know what occurs in the stories, why doesn’t the rest of the population?
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, this action by the Cistercian monks also suggests that there is a close association between them and Walter Map. Therefore, the beliefs of these monks are likely to be channeled through Walter Map, and by giving authority to the Vulgate Cycle by using Map’s name, the Cistercian monks can indirectly appeal to their audience.
The Cistercian monks tactfully and intentionally contributed the 'Vulgate Cycle' to Walter Map. The monks wanted to remain anonymous to ensure a wide secular audience and to create an influential and acceptable religious message. If the monks had attributed the work to themselves they would have limited their audience, especially if it was written in Latin, to a small elite interested in religious writings and able to read Latin. However the monks wanted to spread their saving religious message, believing the end of the world was near, to as many people as they could. They used the technique of attributing the 'Vulgate Cycle' to a popular figure to appeal to a wide audience in secular society. The reason the anonymous monks chose Walter Map was because he was a respectable figure in society, being a member of Henry II's court, therefore the message of the text would be taken seriously. Also, because Walter had influence at court, the 'Vulgate Cycle' being attributed to him helped bring a religious moral into courtly society. The court would then be able to influence others easily and help achieve social reform, of being a more religious society, that was the aim of the 'Vulgate Cycle'. The Cistercian monks cared more about their message being portrayed than becoming famous authors. Therefore, the 'Vulgate Cycle' was attributed to Walter Map tactfully to appeal to a wide secular audience and create an influential and acceptable religious message.
ReplyDeleteA possible reason why the Cistercian monks would have attributed the authorship of the Cycle to Walter Map would be as Burns has suggested, to establish a “fiction of authority” for the work. Because the Vulgate Cycle is composed from a lot of material dealing with British myth, it would seem strange i. Since the Vulgate Cycle was written in Champagne, in France, it would make sense to attribute the work to a “British/English” author to add greater authenticity to the work.
ReplyDeleteAnother less likely reason may be that Walter actually did have some part, however small, in the Vulgate Cycle. Walter Map visited the court of Henry I of Champagne in 1179. So it is just possible that he may have interacted with the Cistercian monks who wrote the Vulgate cycle, or at least visited their monastery. He may have contributed something that was later used in the work, or at least been fresh in the monks’ memory as someone whom they could claim as their authority.
Since the monks did attribute the writings in the Vulgate to Walter Map, it must, therefore, also be assumed that they had some sort of association with Map himself. The writings were composed not long after his death, and to simply namedrop without any foundation to their claim would open them up to ridicule if anyone decided to critique their claim. Though it does seem a little far-fetched to claim that these French writings were originally composed by a British clerk, it does lend the work a kind of authenticity and prestige to name a Britain as author since the writings are about events in Britain. But in the end who is to say that Map did not compose some of these writings himself and then left his work to the monks to do with as they willed? Just because the original drafts are lost, it does not mean that they never existed at all.
ReplyDeleteAs already discussed, one speculation for the Cistercian monks to claim Walter Map as author of the Vulgate Cycle could have arisen from Map’s religious and court notoriety. As Archdeacon of Oxford and held in favour within Henry II’s court, Map would have legitimated and popularised the Cycle, and thus moved the works from purely religious messages to a secular [court] audience. This in turn would foster greater religious morality and practice within the court society. I found Melanie’s argument to be quite interesting; it may have been that Map did indeed write some sections of the Cycle, and it was a fitting bequest to dedicate the authorship to him.
ReplyDeleteIt’s possible that they attributed the work to Walter Map because they did not want others to know that they were the ones who actually wrote it. It can be viewed as Cistercian propaganda, giving their opinions on sex and spirituality, and so would have been essential that no one realised who were the real authors in order for the message to be spread further.
ReplyDeleteThey chose Walter Map, because he gave the most credibility to the stories as he was already known as a storyteller. He was part of King Henry II’s court, who also had a historical connection to Arthur, King Henry II being the one responsible for finding Arthur and Guinevere’s graves in Glastonbury.
To ensure that their version of the search for the holy grail to the death of King Arthur were accepted, it was necessary that they mislead their audience on who was the true author, and Walter Map provided the perfect cover.
As my classmates have discussed above, there are a number of reasons that the Cistercian monks may have chosen to claim the author of the Vulgate cycle was Walter Map. I will attempt to add some less likely theories to give some variance to the discussion and to avoid repeating other peoples work (even though they are more likely to be correct). Perhaps by attributing the story to someone within the court, whoever wrote the story may have sought to have gained attention from the court. As Lupack discusses, the Vulgate cycle did become immensely popular, perhaps the Monks understood that writings about courtly love by someone from the court may seem more authentic than from monks who live in seclusion and vow towards chastity. The writing may have been seen as contrary to the church's teachings and thus, they wanted to separate it from the church. Perhaps, if I may compare to pop-culture, Walter Map did complete some of the cycle, the monks were creating a form of fanfiction or imitative writing in order to finish a story in which they desperately wanted a conclusions to.
ReplyDeleteBy attributing the Vulgate Cycle to Walter Map, the Cistercians may have been trying to increase the dissemination of the story and thus their religious views. As Burns suggests it may have been a way to give the tale a degree of authority, particularly to the English/British people, as Walter was from Britain. Though I think it unlikely that he actually wrote the stories, as others have suggested he may still have had a hand in their construction in some shape or form, given the connection he had to the court of Henry.
ReplyDeleteI would also really like to think that Walter Map at wrote at least parts of the Vulgate Cycle, (probably because the idea of a group of monks attributing their work to their dead friend and co-author is much nicer than them plotting to spread their religious ideals through lies). If this wasn't the case, though, the claim of Map's authorship would most probably have been in order to spread their beliefs to courtly society which Walter Map was a part of and respected in. By not admitting that the Vulgate Cycle was the work of Cistercian monks their readers would not have immediately seen it as religious propaganda or something of the sort, claiming it was written by Walter Map means that the religious connotations are not immediately obvious and the stories told would be viewed as having a degree of importance, respectability and truthfulness associated, at that point, with Walter Map.
ReplyDeleteAs already mentioned, it is quite possible the anonymous monks were attempting to add credibility to their work by attributing it to Walter Map. However, it seems to me a strange choice to make in many ways. One article I found mentions how scathing Map is of the Cistercian order in his De Nugis Curialium (The Courtiers' Trifles). It is possible that the monks were executing some form of revenge on Map by attributing the Vulgate Cycle to him. As Map was dead by the time the manuscript was available to a wider audience, there was nothing he could do to refute the attribution. The monks essentially turned the story of King Arthur, with all its courtly love and adventures, into one of Christian propaganda by subtly changing the focus to the Grail quest and the importance placed on chastity and purity- of the knights as well as the maidens. The destruction of the kingdom at the end of the cycle adds to the message that courtly love (or lust and adultery in their version) is at the centre of the destruction. It is not through the treachery of Mordred, as we have seen in other versions.
ReplyDeleteA group of anonymous Cistercian monks responsible for constructing the Vulgate Cycle might want to see the work attributed to Walter Map, due to the fact it brought the work credibility. As a courtier of Henry the second Walter could be associated with the commission of other works relating to the Arthurian legend. These would include the matter of Britain that is speculated to have been written and given to Eleanor of Aquitaine who was in fact married to Henry the second. This would have given credibility and prestige to the work that it wouldn’t have gained from the Cistercian monks.
ReplyDeleteThe anonymous monks responsible for constructing the Vulgate Cycle might want this work attributed to Walter Map as it would create a sense of credibility to the work. Being apart of Henry II court and known as a story teller also provided a strong sense of credibility toward the work should we see it from Walter MAp.
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