International Medieval Society, Paris
Société Internationale des Médiévistes, Paris

Symposium 2005 Abstracts

"The architecture of the Court and the Lord's authority"
Danielle Gurevitch, Bar-Ilan University

The typical architecture structures of the late medieval castles were a manifestation of lavish royal and noble wealth and grandeur. The gatehouses and drawbridges, chapels, fabulous towers and fortifications, as well as the unique inner space arrangement, including living quarters, dining halls and guests' chambers, all play a major role in the medieval popular imagination. While the practical justification for those walls was simple matters of protection from exterior enemies and potential invaders attacks, the romantic images were of strong, dignified nobles and brave knights who are united by the leadership of the lord-senior, seeking ways to defend there subjects (farmers and peasants) as well as protect woman of the nobility. It should be reminded that during the 12th century, courtly love romance have made fair ladies the object of the knights' desires. Yet, apart from being presented as a form of protection enable its knights to express courage, strength, unity as well as the individual's relation to community, there are other stories from which one can hear harsh voices of injustice, loneliness, suffering and imprisonment caused in many cases by the luck of tolerance (especially towards woman) or, in some cases, the suppressive, capricious, tyrant-like conduct of the castle's senior toward his inferiors.

In this paper I propose a literary reading which presents an analogy between the castle's inner structure and the senior's personality, based on 12-13 century love stories including among others: Marie de France's lays Lanval and Yonec, Chrétien de troy – Yvan ou le chevalier au lion, and Heldris de Cornouaille's beautifully written 13th Century romance Le Roman de Silance.