Disclaiming & a short analysis of 'Chivalry'

A foreword of sorts then, in order to qualify anything that may come during this process, however long it may last for.

The creation of this blog is down to a number of factors, mostly a combination of ambition tempered by imitation, the need to be a goody-two-shoes and follow advice and an enjoyment of writing. I think mostly, however, it's probably a desire to espouse my opinions in an environment where being interrupted isn't an issue (and where I can deliberate over comebacks, should comments occur)...(should readers occur).

This then is an attempt at a ponderous flow of consciousness, in order to chain down and scrutinise, as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water, ideas that swarm and multiply in my brain.

Apologising too much is a notable trait of mine, and today is no exception as I will apologise in advance for any trash or parp that may follow, but I suppose that's what the address bar at the top of the page is for, if you don't like this, utilise your w1kd typing skills and remove these words from your eyes. My guess is you'll go either to YouTube or Facebook. That's probably where I'd go.

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I thought I'd start out then with a brief, or mayhap not so brief, look at chivalry, what constitutes chivalry, then deciding whether or not it can be relevant to modern life.

According to that great source of half-cocked unreliable information, Wikipedia; 'Chivalry' consists of three elements, namely:

• Knightly Virtues
• Honour and
• Courtly Love

My investigative intuition then took me deep into analysis of these 3 components (or in real terms, into 3 tabs of Wikipedia).

Itym the First: Knightly Virtues

Knightly Virtues is a vague term at best, and any attempts by me to clarify, or shorten the list somewhat only led to more inclusions into the category. Here is a non-exhaustive list of my favourite possible virtues:

• Prudence
  
• Temperance
• Devotion
• Endurance
• Faith
• Hope and ,of course,
• Horsemanship.

Similarly to a bag of Revels then, Knightly Virtues contain some agreeable nuggets, but also some brown chunks that look suspiciously like droplets of feces, as maybe a sheep might make. At face value then, some of these values indeed seem like fairly pragmatic attitudes to value, prudence (common sense), temperance (self-restraint) and hope (hope) are positive virtues to hold.

On the other gauntlet, some are perhaps loaded terminology, faith for example is a word with many possible meanings. It is likely that during the medieval period where these 'Knightly Values' originate, 'Faith' was most likely a religious virtue, and if this is the case I would distance myself from it greatly, however I am not without faith, I just decide to place it in more logical areas.

And to be honest, I'm aware that no-one really needs a sarcastic git like myself to point out that certain virtues listed are specifically Medieval in nature. Maybe reintroducing certain Medieval values wouldn't be a bad idea however, my opinions would definitely have a lot more salience if I was in this get-up.

Itym the Second: Honour

Honour then, perhaps a more straight forward ideal, though whether or not it is relevant or even present anymore is surely a highly subjective matter. After some searching I stumbled upon the definition of honour which I plan to use. In my terms then:

Honour is the content of a person's character, an honourable person then is honest, worthy of respect, fair and someone who has integrity.

These aspect then are still relevant to inter-personal relations, and I believe that people should strive to be as honourable as possible, even if people who refer to their honour, e.g. "I swear on my honour", are usually burkes.

Itym the Third: Courtly Love

This is the aspect that makes the least sense really (I don't think she'd be anywhere near this famous if it wasn't for Kurt Cobain). My understanding of 'Courtly Love' is that a certain type of relationship became apparent in Medieval courts, and that this was in some way a counter to the then-normative Christian view of love, which enforced and enshrined marriage as an ultimate power, and considered love outside of marriage abhorrent. Wikipedia deconstructs 'Courtly Love' as a relationship where:

"The lover (idolizer) accepts the independence of his mistress and tries to make himself worthy of her by acting bravely and honorably (nobly) and by doing whatever deeds she might desire."

'Courtly Love' in this sense then is a man embarking on knightly self-improvement in order to meet the criteria of a bossy cow (this is not an attempt to typecast all women as bossy cows, only those who desire an 'idolizer' to perform 'whatever deeds she might desire'). Plainly then I am in stark disagreement with the notion of 'Courtly Love' as it is set out here, I'd much prefer to indulge in some coatly love. I am unsure, however, that I would prefer Courtney Love (please note the choice of neutral photograph).

Chivalry, then, is perhaps not wholly relevant in this day and age, and though it does contain a number of (in my opinion) good ideas, the fact that it was formed during a time where religious thought was the staple, and where your ability to poke people with sticks from the back of a horse was just as important as whether or not you were a sensible fellow, leads me to believe that chivalry probably shouldn't be applied nowadays.

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There we are for now then, hopefully if you've read through this you weren't bored out of your mind, but if you were and struggled on anyway thank you for your perseverance.

My aim with this was to clarify 'Chivalry' for myself, and maybe, just maybe, providing someone somewhere with a small amount of amusement. At the very least now you will be armed with some basic information to counter people who trot out with regret the old adage that 'Chivalry is dead'.

You will be able to assert that death is a natural part of everything, and that the law of equivalence demands that if chivalry was brought back to life through some sacrificial druidic rite, so too would something else long buried, and if bringing back Chivalry risks Zombie-Hitler, then I say let chivalry rest.