One of my favorite things to read as a teenager was Arthurian Romance cycles. In addition to the adventure and heroism found in Greek epic poetry, Arthurian mythology holds a sort of mysterious quality in its tone. These are not simply stories of battles for honor, glory, and country. These are also stories of individuals embarking into the great unknown of life, questing for legendary objects such as the Holy Grail, which they may or may not succeed in obtaining. This is the sort of thing that fascinates me, because it is a sort of allegory for life: we often embark into the unknown of the future, and our goals may or may not be realistic.
But as it says on the tin, "Arthurian Romance" cycles also include romance. This is not so much the romance of today's Hallmark movies--though perhaps both are surreal in their idealism--but that of the French court of the time. Romance had less to do with love leading to marriage and family, and more about a man's undying devotion to a lady from afar,* often proving it by beating other knights in tournaments in her honor or going on lengthy expeditions for something she requested of him.
One of the main proponents of the French courtier definition of Romance was Chretien de Troyes. Even those who don't recognize his name will have at least a passing familiarity with a character he popularized in his retelling of Arthurian legends: Lancelot du Lac. The drama of Lancelot with King Arthur's wife Guenevere is the epitome of courtly romance, and Lancelot suddenly becoming the Greatest Knight of the Round Table in all the stories ever since would normally make me detest de Troyes...because obviously that honor belongs to none other than GAWAIN!!!!!!!!!!
But that is another rant for another post.
There are two things that redeem de Troyes' work in my opinion. First, he is actually a very good writer. I do not speak or read French fluently, much less medieval French, so of course I'm judging according to experts' translations into English. But through that lens I consider de Troyes' style of writing emotive, clear, interesting, and effortless in its bringing the magical world of Camelot to life in the reader's imagination.
Secondly, Chretien de Troyes wrote Erec et Enide. Which happens to be one of my favorite non-Gawain Arthurian tales, even if it is quite obscure to the casual reader. It's the love story of the most beautiful lady (it always is the most beautiful lady, even if there are a hundred other stories with a hundred more "most beautiful ladies") and the most valiant of knights (it always is the most valiant of knights, for the same reason), who fall in love.
But what sets Erec et Enide apart is that once Erec and Enide fall in love, they do the impossible according to French courtly love standards: THEY GET MARRIED.
Now this is awesome in its originality. Unfortunately, in-story, Enide doesn't feel that way. Now that her knight in shining armor has married her, he is no longer free to live a life dedicated to chivalry and honor. Because Enide senses this as a failure, she reacts like any self-sacrificing Arthurian lady and takes all the blame onto herself. Up until now she has been a peerless paragon of purity and beauty, not saying much at all. Her first words in the story, in fact, are that she's unhappy that her marriage to Erec has damaged his chivalric reputation. The result is Erec promptly becoming angry with her for saying this out loud, and then ordering her to not speak unless spoken to.
Now we reach the Vow of Silence. Until this point in the plot, Enide's words have not held much significance. Erec fell in love with her, in true knightly form, on first sight, because she was beautiful in appearance. Other people speak about her to him, of course, but it isn't until after they're married that Erec actually learns her name, and not until six pages after that that she actually opens her mouth.
But when Enide speaks, her words have a great impact on the story. Her first words cause Erec and herself to begin questing, which causes both of them to be flung into danger at every turn. However, if Enide's words put them into danger, they are also powerful enough to safe them. As they're riding along on their quest, Enide is always the one to spot danger (Arthurian England is wrought with highwaymen and other knaves). Every time, she chooses to break her vow of silence to warn Erec of an ambush.
As a plot device, the vow of silence functions as a way to show how much Enide loves Erec. In spite of his cold attitude toward her at this point in the story, and disregarding the chivalric rules of keeping all promises, Enide is willing to break all rules and even throw away her honor for the life of the man she loves. Maybe the point of Erec imposing such a vow on his was was to see which she prized more: the social constructs of chivalry, or his life.
*Unless of course he did die. Then I guess it would be his...dying devotion?
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