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| Walter Map taking down a story of the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table on the quest of the Holy Grail at the dictation of King Arthur, from the Manchester Arthurian Romance, c.1300 |
The elements of the Vulgate Cycle, comprising The History of the Holy Grail, The Story of Merlin, Lancelot, The Quest of the Holy Grail and The
Death of King Arthur, are cleverly interlaced in a number of ways. The last
two are linked, or better, locked together, by the introduction of a putative
author, Walter Map. Here are the passages which outline this linking; first
from the end of The Quest of the Holy
Grail,
When they had dined King Arthur
summoned his clerks who were keeping a record of all the adventures undergone
by the knights of his household. When Bors had related to them the adventures
of the Holy Grail as witnessed by himself, they were written down and the
record kept in the library at Salisbury,
whence Master Walter Map extracted them in order to make his book of the Holy
Grail for love of his lord King Henry, who had the story translated from Latin
into French. And with that the tale falls silent and has no more to say about
the Adventures of the Holy Grail.
Next, from the beginning of The Death of King Arthur:
After Master Walter Map had put
down in writing as much as he thought sufficient about the Adventures of the Holy Grail, his lord King Henry II felt that what
he had done would not be satisfactory unless he told about the rest of the
lives of those he had previously mentioned and the deaths of those whose
prowess he had related in his book. So he began this last part; and when he had
put it together he called it The Death of
King Arthur, because the end of it relates how King Arthur was wounded at
the battle of Salisbury and left Girflet who had long been his companion, and
how no one ever again saw him alive. So Master Walter begins this last part
accordingly.
And finally from the end of The Death of King Arthur:
At this point Master Walter Map
will end the Story of Lancelot,
because he has brought everything to a proper conclusion according to the way
it happened; and he finishes his book here so completely that no one can
afterwards add anything to the story that is not complete falsehood.
This seems very convincing evidence that the author of these
two last works and perhaps of the cycle as a whole was Master Walter Map.
Unfortunately “Map died before the works attributed to him were written”.
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| The body of Elaine, the Maid of Astolat, arrives at Camelot |
BLOG QUESTION: Why would the group of anonymous Cistercian
monks responsible for constructing the Vulgate Cycle want to see the work
attributed to Walter Map?
As a well known personage in the court of Henry II (a King well-connected with the Arthurian tradition, attributed with the discovery at Glastonbury of the tombs of Arthur and Guinevere) assigning Walter Map's name to the Vulgate Cycle would have lent the work a degree of legitimacy and helped further the Cistercian's social agenda. Map, as Archdeacon of Oxford and a well-known Latin chronicler who supposedly drew on eye-witness events and whose works continue the historiographical tradition begun by Geoffrey of Monmouth, was already imbued with what Denis Hollier describes as "author-hero" status. Lending his name to the Cycle would have established the appearance of an infallible historicity, which would have in turn been of use to the Cistercians in concretising the veracity of the Vulgate Cycle, which championed a social and religious message particular to their cause.
ReplyDeleteThe anonymous Cistercian monks who attributed the Vulgate Cycle to Walter Map possibly had several motives. Firstly, it has been argued that this merely added to the long array of fictitious references used to give credence and authority to the work. The inclusion of Walter Map, a clerk in Henry II’s royal court, certainly adds prestige to the Vulgate Cycle. Secondly, if historians such as Jean Frappier are correct and there was “a controlling hand…an architect” who formulated the separate works under a single plan with links between them, could it not be possible that Walter Map had originated the ideas for the Vulgate Cycle before his death? The earliest assumed date for the works (c.1215) is only five years after Map’s death. Since Henry II’s court was mostly based in France and the Vulgate Cycle was originally in French, it seems possible that a clerk such as Map could have had interaction with a French monastery early on in his career. However this idea becomes increasingly implausible as the Vulgate Cycle was written long after the end of Henry II’s court, during a period of unrest between France and England, making an elderly English clerk’s influence unlikely. It must be concluded therefore that Walter Map’s name was used solely to add false authority.
ReplyDeleteMy initial thoughts were that the attribution of the Vulgate Cycle to Walter Map was a case of fictional authority, much the same as Geoffrey of Monmouth's fictional source given to him Walter archdeacon of Oxford. While it may seem that an attribution to Walter Map, who was a clerk in the court of Henry II, might grant more credibility, I believe this claim is not sufficient. The Cistercian worlds were also centres of learning and the Cistercians themselves were scholars in their own right.
ReplyDeleteWhat connection is there, between the Cistercians and Walter Map? I found a few interesting articles that reveal Walter Map's criticisms of the Cistercian Order and Bernard of Clairvaux who was their founder within his work De nugis curialium. Some of Walter’s criticisms are :
‘They proceed to raze villages, they overthrow churches , and turn out parishioners, not scrupling to cast down the altars… Every other invader has some pity, and spares something… These take every precaution that there should be no return’.
It has been argued that Walter’s criticisms of the Cistercian Order are highly unbalanced and loaded with exaggerations. Furthermore, the De nugis curialium is a jumble of anecdotes, stories and court gossip, nothing that would lead Walter to be considered an accurate and precise historian.
Moreover, I do not believe that authors of the Vulgate cycle were aiming for historical truth. As mentioned in a previous lecture the Vulgate cycle was part of a body of literature known as exemplary literature, a genre that was pioneered by the Cistercians. Therefore, it would be unnecessary to seek historical credibility when it was not needed and especially from an individual who could not really be considered the most erudite historian.
I wasn’t really able to come up with any conclusions. Could it just be that the attribution to Walter Map was some sort of ‘inside’ joke made by the Cistercians?
The group of anonymous Cistercian monks would have wanted the Vulgate Cycle to be attributed to Walter Map to make it seem more legitimate in the eyes of the reader. This way they could get their message across and have it taken seriously by people, as Walter Map was well known (as Melanie said). Romances were important at the time as they combined moral teaching with stories, so the monks may have believed this was the best option for them to "teach" people.
ReplyDeleteAs has been stated by the above comments, the attribution of the Vulgate Cycle to Walter Map by the Cistercian monks may have been in order to legitimise the story. There is also the possibility that the work was credited to Map as a work by him would be more visible and held in higher esteem by a courtly audiences. By putting Walter Map's name on the work the Cistercian monks have elevated what might have been a 'lowly' monastic work to a tale of high prominence which has informed British fiction and romance writing to this day.
ReplyDeleteFrom the readings of this week it seems evident that the reason that the Cistercian monks would attribute this the Vulgate Cycle to Walter Map is due to give the work authority. Charmaine makes some valid points concerning the relationship between Walter and the Cistercian monks, which indeed clouds the plausibility of the idea that Walter Map is named to give the Vulgagt Cycle authority. However, it is possible that, although at odds these two parties seem to be according to the research found by Charmaine, the Cistercians may have really believed the auperior authority of Walter Map, in so far as that his name being involved in the Cycle would not only give it credibility but also popularity. Regardless of personal feelings one might have for the other it is always possible to place one's feelings aside and acknowledge the skill or at least reputation the other has in their field, and this, if we are to believe that Map and the monks did not get along, is what the monks may just have done.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to the question, the anonymous Cistercian monks would have wanted to see the works attributed to the Walter Maps in order to give them the illusion of importance, significance and legitimacy (as stated in the above responses). Although , their anonymity in todays history may lead to questions of how this could be true, that is, how could those who hold no individual significance influence something so significantly? I argue then that it was the Cistercians in general that influenced the possible legitimacy of the Walter Maps. Furthermore, it could also be a question of the chicken and the egg dichotomy - did the Cistercian monks want to see the Walter Maps in order to give them significance and legitimacy or did the Walter Maps offer possible importance and significance to the Cistercian monks? Though I am unsure of the answer, it is an interesting question to ponder.
ReplyDeleteAs all the previous comments have alluded to, the reason the Cistercian monks would have put Walter Maps name to the Vulgate Cycle was to give the work a high level of authority and prestige, which they believed wouldn't be granted otherwise. The fact that they were monks meant that there was the high possibility it would not be viewed as a legitimate work, whereas with Walter Maps credible name on the work, it would be read by men of high courtly status and thus taken more seriously than if it had been cited as their own work.
ReplyDeleteThe civil war between Stephan and Henry in the first half of the 12th century saw the decline of the Cluniac with the rise of the Cistercians. By the reign of John, the Cistercians themselves were not much different from the Cluniac, participating courts and politics. Although Henry's policies had been pro-Cistercian and Map, the supposed author, worked in Henry's court, the Vulgate Cycle paid no interest in depicting Arthur as a good English King. The main task in the beginning of the 13th century, though, was to promote the Fourth and the Albigensian Crusades, which were clearly reflected in the Vulgate Cycle as the Holy Grail Quest. It was also rendered into the cultures of chivalry and court love, which was more motivating at that time than mere religious service.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the reason for attributing the work of the Vulgate Cycle to that of Walter Map was due to the fact that his name added an air of legitimacy to its presence. Map was an archdeacon of Oxford and a Latin chronicler with a well-known name in society; the claim of his name would have added authority and prestige as well as encouraged a popular response in most aspects of society, rather than just among Monks, as perhaps would have happened if the Cistercian Monks had stated the work as their own. His name gives the story a more historical basis, while also encouraging a religious interpretation of the work.
ReplyDeleteE. Jane Burns, cited in Lupack, asserts that the romances of the Lancelot-Grail Cycle were linked to Walter Map as a "fiction of authority". By attributing the tales to Map, who was a clerk in King Henry II's court and archdeacon of Oxford (in 1196), the Cisterian monks presumably sought to add to them an air of legitimacy and prestige. However, as has been stated above, the Vulgate Cycle was a part of the tradition of exemplary literature, which sought not to claim historical accuracy but to espouse moral truths. It is undoubtable, though, that literature concerned with morality would have greater weight coming from the quill of an archdeacon then from a common monk. This is likely even more true than if the work actually DID seek to claim historical accuracy, as matters of morality were Walter's domain. Therefore, despite bringing little originality to the discussion above, I also cannot help but agree that the monks attributed the romances to Map in order to lend them greater credibility.
ReplyDeleteThe works of the Vulgate Cycle are attributed to Walter Map, but there is contradicting evidence to prove this. There are several apparent reasons why the Cistercian monks desired another author for their work; firstly, Walter Map was a learned and worldly man, as he had studied in university in France, and was a member of King Henry II's court but travelled frequently to the court of King Louis VII. Secondly, by writing that Map was commissioned by King Henry, these works are immediately more credible and officious. As an individual of the court, rather than a religious order, Map's work may have been seen as more reliable and credible, therefore attributing the Vulgate Cycle to his name endowed these stories with legitimacy.
ReplyDelete