When Knighthood Was in Flower

NMB, Florida November 15, 2001 A.H. Schectman

THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.

WHEN KNIGHTHOOD WAS IN FLOWER
Did you ever give some thought that not all flowers smelled nice? I know
that I like the smell of certain flowers. I had the experience of smelling
the effluvia of one particular one that looked good but smelled awful. I
suppose that not only is this the way of flowers but also of some of us
humans. I took advantage of the cool, overcast day to get out early and try
my bike out after a long dry period of sleeping in.

Despite problems with my tape player tucked into a pocket, I listened to
one of the last tapes in the series about the tales of King Arthur and "Ye
Rounde Table". The tale was coming to its end with the death of some of its
principle characters. The professor explained that the plot was as
intricate as some of the relationships we are aware of among family and
friends in the present day. Back in those mythical days, they did not have
the benefit of our knowledge of psychology and indexes of pathological
behavior. So, there were no end to the stories of lust, betrayal, stalking
by both sexes and longing for the actual model for Camelot that everyone
then as now knows was just a made up story.

Double-dealing, betrayal and unexplainable straying from true relationships
were the meat of the Arthurian "Romance". What is particularly engrossing is
the picturing in a collateral fashion the flaws in the heroes and heroines.
There are no truly unflawed persons pictured in the heyday of King Arthur
and every one of the armored Knights of the round table could not be
trusted. I like the description of the 2,000-year-old man by Mel Brooks
when he said it wasn't a round table. It was really an oval table in order
to get all the knights around it. When they weren't there they took out the
leaves and then it was round.

It seems that all the stories took place away from that table and at the
end of Arthur's tale there is a longing to go back to what the table
represented; the imagined peace, brotherhood, nobility and family. Like the
real world, our childhood seems like that kind of place and we hanker back
to it forgetting the reality, often painful, of learning that it all was
just a story and a cruel one at that. Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.