Look With the Eyes of Faith: The Vocation of Knighthood in The Works of Sir Thomas Malory

• Author / Creator

  Farrer, Liam A

• The world presented to readers of The Complete Works of Sir Thomas Malory is, as the character of Galahad notes, “unstable.” The story begins following the death of Uther Pendragon, when Arthur attempts to bring order to his unstable kingdom through the institution of the Round Table, a fellowship of knights who are bound together by the Pentecostal oath, which requires the knights to live by a set of rules that stresses the concept of knighthood as a quasi-religious vocation. This thesis will analyze the concept of chivalry as a vocation within Malory’s text, through a reading of the Pentecostal Oath in light of chivalric manuals, Church texts, and Sacred Scripture, in order to determine whether Malory believes that it is indeed possible for one to achieve stability through a knightly vocation.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Vocation
  • Pentecostal Oath
  • Bernard of Clairvaux
  • Galahad
  • Medieval
  • Holy Grail
  • Le Morte D'Arthur
  • Chivalry
  • Knights Templar
  • King Arthur
  • Literature
  • New Knighthood
  • Lull, Ramon
  • Malory, Sir Thomas

• Graduation date

  Fall 2013

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3JM23S67

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.