This essay began with a set of contradictory quotes, one from Barristan Selmy, and the other from Sandor Clegane. Sandor rejects chivalry and knight- hood in all its forms throughout the novels, going so far as to snap at anyone who mistakenly assumes him to be a knight and calls him ser. He tells Sansa,
“there are no true knights, no more than there are gods” (CoK 53 Sansa 4: 569),
and lectures her that “knights are for killing” (CoK 53 Sansa 4: 568) and nothing
more. Sandor sees the institution of knighthood as an exercise in hypocrisy, pointing out to Sansa that his monstrous brother is an anointed knight, and delivering the following diatribe to the Brotherhood Without Banners:
A knight’s a sword with a horse. The rest, the vows and the sacred oils and the lady’s favors, they’re silk ribbons tied round the sword. Maybe the sword’s prettier with rib- bons hanging off it, but it will kill you just as dead. Well, bugger your ribbons, and shove your swords up your arses. I’m the same as you. The only difference is, I don’t lie about what I am. So kill me, but don’t call me a murderer while you stand there telling each other that your shit don’t stink [SoS 35 Arya 6: 385–386].
Given the sorry state of chivalry in Westeros, his attitude is understandable, and there are many in our world who share his view when it comes to the knights of European history.
But does widespread failure to live up to an ideal invalidate the ideal? Look- ing at our own times, whether the topic is military ethics, business ethics, reli- gious ethics, or academic ethics, those who are truly paragons of virtue are no
less rare in our world. When Hearnshaw spoke of chivalry, he pulled no punches in describing the atrocities of the crusaders, the corruption of the Templars, and the libidinousness of the gallants, but points out that, even among such hyp- ocrites and brutes, “there were knights in whom piety and courage were mingled in the true chivalric blend” (10) whose example raised the moral tone of a society trying to emerge from post– Roman chaos:
Perhaps nowhere outside of the realm of fiction could quite so perfect a paragon as Sir Parsifal be found. But it is enough to mention Godfrey of Bouillon, Tancred of Sicily, William Marshall, Saint Louis, the Cid, Sir Walter Manny, Sir John Chandos, Bertrand du Guesclin, the Black Prince, and the Chevalier Bayard, to recall to all who are familiar with the history of the later Middle Ages the careers of a noble com- pany of illustrious men who in bravery, courtesy, integrity, devotion, piety, and chastity, will well stand comparison with the representative men of any age; men whose lives did much to redeem the reputation of the chivalry to which they owed their education and their inspiration [21].
And widespread failure to live up to the chivalric ideal was not due to moral myopia or ingroup bias on the part of knights themselves. Maurice Keen points out that “chivalry had always been aware that it was at war with a distorted image of itself. That indeed was part and parcel of its ideal” (234). There were no rose- colored glasses when it came to the difference between idealism and reality. Perhaps Ser Barristan Selmy had the right of it when he examined the lives of the knights recorded in the White Book:
Some had been heroes, some weaklings, knaves, or cowards. Most were only men— quicker and stronger than most, more skilled with sword and shield, but still prey to pride, ambition, lust, love, anger, jealousy, greed for gold, hunger for power, and all the other failings that afflicted lesser mortals. The best of them overcame their flaws,
did their duty, and died with their swords in their hands [DwD 56 The Queensguard:
735].
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