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2 - Imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2013

Zrinka Stahuljak
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Virginie Greene
Affiliation:
Harvard
Sarah Kay
Affiliation:
New York University
Sharon Kinoshita
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Peggy McCracken
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Summary

Being the best knight in the world, Lancelot does not need magic to defeat his adversaries, cross dangerous bridges, or resist the assaults of assertive damsels. He simply uses his physical strength, courage, military skills, endurance, and exceptional ability to focus on one and only one object of desire. In the Charrete, there is an exception to this rule, a magic ring that Lancelot received from his fairy foster mother. The stone of this ring “had such a power that no spell could bind him once he had looked at the stone” (tel force avoit / Qu'anchantemanz ne le pooit / Tenir, puis qu'il l'avoit veüe; ll. 2337–9). The first time Lancelot makes use of the fairy's gift, he and his two companions are trapped in a castle after two doors fall down behind their heels and in front of their noses. Looking at his ring, he can see that “there is no spell here” (il n'i a point d'anchantemant; l. 2353). The doors do not magically open since they had not been magically closed. Or, alternatively, the illusion that closed doors bar their way out does not vanish since real doors are really closed, a de facto bar to their way out. Lancelot and his companions will escape by breaking the wooden beam blocking a small postern with their swords (ll. 2356–60). It remains unclear why they came to believe they were under a spell and not between closed doors.

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Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2011

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