Arthuriana -- all things King Arthur ! discussion
Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur
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Questing Beast
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I've always seen it as a representation of the spirit of that age, of something you quest after but never catch , just as Palomides could never win the hand of La Belle Isoud, but I know nothing. I love how at the end of Tristram, Malory has everybody off doing thing...and Sir Palomides went after the Questing Beast. But really I have no idea. I've wondered that.
Clara Rosalie wrote: "I've always seen it as a representation of the spirit of that age, of something you quest after but never catch , just as Palomides could never win the hand of La Belle Isoud, but I know nothing. I..."CR, don't sell yourself short.
You might have something when you say, "something you quest after but never catch". In some ways I see the Grail as fulfilling the same function, the quest is the thing, not necessarily the attainment of the goal...the journey rather than the destination.
I'm wondering if the animals that the beast is composed of may have some 15th century heraldic significance?
Also, is Malory the only text that mentions the beast?
The animals are...what again? Lion's body, hart's feet (I don't have the book with me), something with a snake...and of course the baying of the hounds in the stomach.
BTW, somewhere in the book, I can't remember where, but there is a lion in a tower, and it escapes and comes after Guinevere...when they say 'lion' does that mean something other than what I'm thinking of? Did they have mountain lions in England? Or was this the sort that came from Africa?
BTW, somewhere in the book, I can't remember where, but there is a lion in a tower, and it escapes and comes after Guinevere...when they say 'lion' does that mean something other than what I'm thinking of? Did they have mountain lions in England? Or was this the sort that came from Africa?
I googled it and this is what it says on Wikipedia:
The Questing Beast, or the Beast Glatisant (Barking Beast), is a monster from Arthurian legend, the subject of quests by famous knights like King Pellinore, Sir Palamedes, and Sir Percival. The strange creature has the head and neck of a serpent, the body of a leopard, the haunches of a lion and the feet of a hart. Its name comes from the great noise it emits from its belly, a barking like "thirty couple hounds questing".
Perlesvaus
The first accounts of the beast are in the Perlesvaus and the Post-Vulgate Suite du Merlin. The Post-Vulgate's account, which is taken up in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, has the Questing Beast appear to King Arthur after he has had an affair with his sister Morgause and begotten Mordred (they did not know they were related). Arthur sees the beast drinking from a pool just after he wakes from a disturbing dream that foretells Mordred's destruction of the realm; he is then approached by King Pellinore who reveals it is his family quest to hunt the beast. Merlin reveals the Questing Beast had been borne of a human woman, a princess who lusted after her own brother. She slept with a devil who had promised to make the boy love her, but the devil manipulated her into accusing her brother of rape. Their father had him torn apart by dogs, but before he died he prophesied his sister would give birth to an abomination that would make the same sounds as the pack of dogs that killed him. The beast has been taken as a symbol of the incest, violence, and chaos that eventually destroys Arthur's kingdom.
[edit:] "Wondrously large"
The Perlesvaus offers an entirely different depiction of the Questing Beast. There, it is described it as pure white, smaller than a fox, and beautiful to look at. The noise from its belly is the sound of its offspring who tear the creature apart from the inside; the author takes the beast as a symbol of Christ, destroyed by the followers of the Old Law, the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Gerbert de Montreuil provides a similar vision of the Questing Beast in his Continuation of Perceval, the Story of the Grail, though he says it is "wondrously large" and interprets the noise and subsequent gruesome death by its own offspring as a symbol of impious churchgoers who disturb the sanctity of Mass by talking. Later in the Post-Vulgate, the Prose Tristan and the sections of Malory based on those works, the Saracen knight Sir Palamedes hunts the Questing Beast. It is a futile venture, much like his love for Sir Tristan's paramour Iseult, offering him nothing but hardship. In the Post-Vulgate, his conversion to Christianity allows him relief from his endless worldly pursuits, and he finally slays the creature during the Grail Quest after he, Percival and Galahad have chased it into a lake. The Questing Beast appears in many later works as well, including stories written in French, Spanish, and Italian.
The Questing Beast, or the Beast Glatisant (Barking Beast), is a monster from Arthurian legend, the subject of quests by famous knights like King Pellinore, Sir Palamedes, and Sir Percival. The strange creature has the head and neck of a serpent, the body of a leopard, the haunches of a lion and the feet of a hart. Its name comes from the great noise it emits from its belly, a barking like "thirty couple hounds questing".
Perlesvaus
The first accounts of the beast are in the Perlesvaus and the Post-Vulgate Suite du Merlin. The Post-Vulgate's account, which is taken up in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, has the Questing Beast appear to King Arthur after he has had an affair with his sister Morgause and begotten Mordred (they did not know they were related). Arthur sees the beast drinking from a pool just after he wakes from a disturbing dream that foretells Mordred's destruction of the realm; he is then approached by King Pellinore who reveals it is his family quest to hunt the beast. Merlin reveals the Questing Beast had been borne of a human woman, a princess who lusted after her own brother. She slept with a devil who had promised to make the boy love her, but the devil manipulated her into accusing her brother of rape. Their father had him torn apart by dogs, but before he died he prophesied his sister would give birth to an abomination that would make the same sounds as the pack of dogs that killed him. The beast has been taken as a symbol of the incest, violence, and chaos that eventually destroys Arthur's kingdom.
[edit:] "Wondrously large"
The Perlesvaus offers an entirely different depiction of the Questing Beast. There, it is described it as pure white, smaller than a fox, and beautiful to look at. The noise from its belly is the sound of its offspring who tear the creature apart from the inside; the author takes the beast as a symbol of Christ, destroyed by the followers of the Old Law, the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Gerbert de Montreuil provides a similar vision of the Questing Beast in his Continuation of Perceval, the Story of the Grail, though he says it is "wondrously large" and interprets the noise and subsequent gruesome death by its own offspring as a symbol of impious churchgoers who disturb the sanctity of Mass by talking. Later in the Post-Vulgate, the Prose Tristan and the sections of Malory based on those works, the Saracen knight Sir Palamedes hunts the Questing Beast. It is a futile venture, much like his love for Sir Tristan's paramour Iseult, offering him nothing but hardship. In the Post-Vulgate, his conversion to Christianity allows him relief from his endless worldly pursuits, and he finally slays the creature during the Grail Quest after he, Percival and Galahad have chased it into a lake. The Questing Beast appears in many later works as well, including stories written in French, Spanish, and Italian.
Clara Rosalie wrote: "The animals are...what again? Lion's body, hart's feet (I don't have the book with me), something with a snake...and of course the baying of the hounds in the stomach. BTW, somewhere in the book, ..."
Lions were known in Britain and were used in heraldry, Scots and English royalty adopting them as symbols. The English kings kept a few in their menagerie in the Tower. Probably gifts from European monarchs.
Clara Rosalie wrote: "I googled it and this is what it says on Wikipedia:The Questing Beast, or the Beast Glatisant (Barking Beast), is a monster from Arthurian legend, the subject of quests by famous knights like Kin..."
Thanks for that.
Sort of off topic, but I love the way the Questing Beast in T.H. White's Once and Future King starts pining when Pellinore stops chasing it. Also I can't say "fewmets" with a straight face to this day.
I love the Once and Future King...it begins lightly and it ends so tragically.
Yes...matching the carefree life in childhood and the developing cares of adulthood and kingship. The pining and recovery of the Questing Beast is the last truely lighthearted episode.
Robert wrote: "Sort of off topic, but I love the way the Questing Beast in T.H. White's Once and Future King starts pining when Pellinore stops chasing it. Also I can't say "fewmets" with a straight face to this...""Fewmets"?
Ah, it's an archaic term for droppings or keech.
Indeed - and Pellinore loves using fewmets to follow the Beast's trail....
Actually, the story of the questing beast is that a kings daughter wanted to commit incest with her brother and she did, their father caught them in the act and sent the brother to death. Not before the brother cursed the sister to give birth to the monster. 9 months later the questing beast was born! Everything about the beast is sex. In the book the knights always chase it, why? Sex.
OK, it's described as some kind of mish-mash of snake/lion thingy with a belly full of hungry dogs, but what is it?
Metaphor?
Biblical ref?
I have no idea...mind you I've just started the Grail Quest part, as I have a bit to go it may be explained before the end of the whole book.