Amadis of Gaul
If you
thought the sort of fantasy made popular by ”The Lord of the Rings” and ”Game
of Thrones” is a new invention you are hopelessly mistaken. Long before the
printing press fantasy tales of knights and strange kingdoms and damsels in distress
abounded. If you think about it you knew that already. The King Arthur tale is
medieval high fantasy and just one of many.
My next
book on the list is such a fantasy tale. Completely invented and magnificently
imagined this is “Game of Thrones” anno 1500.
I have read
quite a bit of fantasy in my time, it is an… ahem, guilty pleasure of mine, and
the connection between the old stuff and the present day’s novels is pretty
clear. “Amadis of Gaul” is a fantasyland refuge for the readers (or more likely
listeners) who in the novel found ideals outlived. It is a place where the good
site is championed by worthy and noble knights, where honor is important and
bestowed on those who deserve it and where mundane things like money, sickness
and petty squabbles are non-existent.
As such it
is quite entertaining. The story moves forward with a rapid pace and like any
good tv-serial there are both sequential events and a connecting story to tie
it all together. I can imagine that in public readings you would want each
reading to finish a particular quest, yet keep the larger story on track. The
benefit to a modern reader is that it does not get boring.
We follow
Amadis of Gaul, the best knight in the world, from his inception and through
his exploits which are many. As a Moses child the infant boy is sent off to sea
because he was born outside of wedlock, albeit the child of a princess and a
king (children outside wedlock is a bad bad thing…), but luckily he is fished
out of the water by another king who raises him as his own child. Unaware that
he is actually the son of a king Amadis grows into a glorious knight and soon
he is on the road as a knight-errant finding adventure and opportunity for
glory around every corner. He ends up with King Lisuarte who happen to have a
daughter, Oriana, for whom Amadis have the hots. When Amadis eventually learn
of his heritage that does not hurt him one bit. In the world of knights being
the son of a king (who eventually married Amadis’ mother) is a pretty cool
thing.
Later on
Amadis finds two brothers of his who were also considered lost and together
they are busy being awesome. I have to admit that I only read book 1. Depending
on the source there are several sequels, at least four more books, and so I actually
do not know how the story ends. My guess is that eventually Amadis and Oriana
get each other, but not before an awful amount of trouble and a lot of dead
knights.
There are a
number of curious things to notice in this novel. For one, where I suspected
Tirant lo Blanc to have been written by a woman I am fairly convinced that
Amadis of Gaul is conceived by a man. The scenes of romance are plenty, but
tend to be repetitive and the women one-dimensional. They all react in the same
way and if they are not pretty little ladies, they are bitching snakes full of deceit
and venom. Every so often the knight would get a sexual reward from the damsels
they save before they ride on. Battle scenes however are super detailed and
varied and both bloody and gory. It seems to me that the writer found a
particular delight in these and the knights miss no opportunity to bash some
heads.
Considering
these knight are made blood, flesh and noble manners it is incredible how eager
they are to fight and kill. They are super easy to provoke, just call them
chicken or throw an insult and they will come charging at you. Or, well, simply
to measure their skill against each other, which is reasonable enough except
that they frequently die or are badly maimed as a result. Incidentally these
bloody activities takes a heavy toll on horses. Just in this first book I bet
Amadis alone has lost the first ten horses. Well, I guess they did not care
that much about horses back then.
Now all
this may sound as if I did not like the book, but I did. It was very entertaining
and surprisingly imaginative. But these knights in their stuffy chivalric
nobility are so easy to make fun of. I bet Monty Python watched this before
making “The Quest for the Holy Grail” and I know Cervantes did before writing “Don
Quixote”.
So, if you
are fond of modern fantasy you have to read this one. This is the real thing.
