Bryn Hammond
At first I thought ‘bah, humbug’ when Goodreads asked me this question, because 1) I’ve been in an anti-romantic mood for several years, and 2) it’s a question from the establishment, not from a reader. But other writers’ answers have been such fun that my hard heart went to butter, as the Mongols say.
Other writers are entirely right to quote as one of their favourites a couple of their own. We write out our idea and our ideal of love, whatever that may be. Mine is extreme, and that’s because I grew up on medieval love, when they went at it with a religious intensity. As I wondered who on earth to answer with, I contemplated Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan and Isolde, as an exemplar of the medieval European state of love. Then there’s the medieval love traditions in Persian and Arabic of which you can say the same: religious intensity, extreme ethic. I don’t believe people invented romantic love in the 12th century, that’s a nonsense, but they made a cult of it. There’s a question as to how far this was an cultural cult, just fiction – how often practiced in real life and not by poets. But we live by fiction, and you can bet people took this artistic fashion seriously.
My favourite lover is Lancelot. As Malory gives his elegy:
“A, Launcelot!” he sayd, “thou were hede of al Crysten knightes. And now I dare say,” sayd Syr Ector, “thou Sir Launcelot, there thou lyest, that thou were never matched of erthely knightes hande; and thou were the curtest knighte [this means ‘most courteous’] that ever bare shelde; and thou were the truest frende to thy lovar that ever bestrad hors; and thou were the truest lover, of a synful man, that ever loved woman; and thou were the kyndest man that ever strake with swerde; and thou were the godelyest persone that ever cam emonge press of knightes; and thou was the mekest man and the jentyllest that ever ete in hall emong ladyes; and thou were the sternest knyght to thy mortal foo that ever put spere in the reeste.”
My next favourite lover is Don Quixote, who dragged knightship into the early modern world at the cost of great ridicule. To be ridiculed for love was a martyrdom in love’s heyday from Aquitaine to Baghdad.
Other writers are entirely right to quote as one of their favourites a couple of their own. We write out our idea and our ideal of love, whatever that may be. Mine is extreme, and that’s because I grew up on medieval love, when they went at it with a religious intensity. As I wondered who on earth to answer with, I contemplated Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan and Isolde, as an exemplar of the medieval European state of love. Then there’s the medieval love traditions in Persian and Arabic of which you can say the same: religious intensity, extreme ethic. I don’t believe people invented romantic love in the 12th century, that’s a nonsense, but they made a cult of it. There’s a question as to how far this was an cultural cult, just fiction – how often practiced in real life and not by poets. But we live by fiction, and you can bet people took this artistic fashion seriously.
My favourite lover is Lancelot. As Malory gives his elegy:
“A, Launcelot!” he sayd, “thou were hede of al Crysten knightes. And now I dare say,” sayd Syr Ector, “thou Sir Launcelot, there thou lyest, that thou were never matched of erthely knightes hande; and thou were the curtest knighte [this means ‘most courteous’] that ever bare shelde; and thou were the truest frende to thy lovar that ever bestrad hors; and thou were the truest lover, of a synful man, that ever loved woman; and thou were the kyndest man that ever strake with swerde; and thou were the godelyest persone that ever cam emonge press of knightes; and thou was the mekest man and the jentyllest that ever ete in hall emong ladyes; and thou were the sternest knyght to thy mortal foo that ever put spere in the reeste.”
My next favourite lover is Don Quixote, who dragged knightship into the early modern world at the cost of great ridicule. To be ridiculed for love was a martyrdom in love’s heyday from Aquitaine to Baghdad.
More Answered Questions
James
asked
Bryn Hammond:
Bryn, i briefly remember reading a large amount of Algernon Charles Swinburne, but i can't for the life of me remember the very long poem he wrote about, i want to say a lesbian lover killing her female lover? it was written, i believe as the Anti-In Memorium, in Response to Tennyson? Do you know the work?
Nicolas
asked
Bryn Hammond:
How did you find Timothy May's The Mongol Empire? I'm looking for a history of the Mongol empire that includes Genghis, as well as the breakup of the Empire into all 4 successor states, as opposed to books that seem to focus more on Kublai and the Yuan Dynasty than the other states.
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