Equestrian Themes in Arthurian Romance

In Arthurian romantic texts, there are copious methods by which men of nobility demonstrate their affections to the ladies of their choice, and possibly an even greater number of ways they demonstrate their power and bravery. There are unending lists of symbols and signs that demonstrate these themes as well, but perhaps none so overlooked as that of the steed; a nobleman's status, favor, and sexual virility can be determined by his geographical or physical relationship with and the condition of his horse(s).

Edward I. Condren explains the history of the use of this type of symbolism and how it pertains to Lancelot in The Paradox of Chretien's Lancelot:

The tradition of using a horse to depict its rider's carnal appetite has not yet died, for we need merely note how the eighteenth-century painter Fuseli used horses to symbolize a sexual threat in his Nightmare, or how C.S. Lewis uses them for the same purpose in The Great Divorce. Chretien seems unquestionably to be calling attention to Lancelot's horses, or more specifically to the fact that he is without a horse. If on a symbolic level Lancelot without a horse is calculated to suggest the opposite of overriding passions, that is, that his manhood has severe limitations, then on a literal level there should be considerable evidence to support this.

In the following textual examples, there will be many instances in which it becomes apparent that the condition of various horses depict not only their rider's status, health, bravery, and power, but also their sexual attractiveness and capabilities.
In Chretien's Erec and Enide, the various emotional states Erec goes through are identifiable by the way his horses fare throughout the story. Upon Erec's first arrival at the vavasour's establishment, the vavasour implores his daughter, "Fair sweet daughter, take this horse and lead it into the stable with mine. Be sure it has everything it needs; take off the saddle and bridle, and give it oats and hay; rub it down and curry it so that it is well cared for (pp.42)." Enide proceeds to halter it, curry it, rub it down, and give it "fresh, wholesome oats." This mini-ritual of worship is symbolic of Enide's desire to please Erec so that he might rescue her from her poverty. To take care of Erec's horse is to salute his worthiness as a brave lord, but also honor him as a healthy prospective sexual partner. In a later scuffle, Erec is distinguished from a crowd of dueling men by the fact that he, "sat upon a white horse, he came alone to the front of the ranks to joust, if he could find an adversary (pp.64)." His white horse symbolizes purity of intent, which makes Erec far nobler than the men surrounding him who are mounted upon ordinary horses. The distinctive hue of the animal symbolizes Erec's distinctive lineage and purpose. Later, after Enide questions her husband's chivalry, he mounts a "dapple-grey palfrey (pp.69), which is a less-pure hue than white, for his status has been demoted from chivalrous hero to ordinary man, once again pursuing greatness and nobility. This grey horse suggests a slight loss of status for Erec, making him a less desirable lover.

In Steinbeck's Gawain, Ewain, and Marhalt, there is a specific instance in which mens' powers are judged solely by the relationships they have with their horses. Sir Marhalt and his lady run into a bit of trouble while searching for a night's lodging. They accidentally lodge with bitter enemies of King Arthur's, who tell them that Marhalt and his lady must fight him and his six sons at daybreak. The morning of the battle arrives, and Marhalt looks out the window at his opponents.

He noted how they sat on their horses, watched them swing their swords to loosen their sleepy muscles, saw how they practiced at the ring, how this horse faltered and that knight fumbled at the reigns, and in a few moments, he was whistling happily (Steinbeck, 1979).

Obviously, the way in which Marhalt's would-be opponents handled their horses put him at ease- men who cannot handle their horses could not possibly pose a threat in battle, because their bravery and power is reflected by that of their animals.
In Chretien's The Knight of the Cart, the changing states of various noblemen are apparent throughout the story by the condition of their horses. After Guinevere is kidnapped, Lancelot and the King are alerted to Kay's misfortune by the sight of his horse retreating from the woods: "As they were nearing the forest, they recognized Kay's horse coming out and saw that both reins were broken from the bridle. The horse was riderless, its stirrup-leathers stained with blood; the rear part of its saddle was broken and in pieces (pp.210)." This is a rather obvious example, but nevertheless, it is apparent that Kay's status as a brave nobleman has been compromised; if the state of his horse is any indication, Kay is probably no longer an intrepid, renowned knight living in celebration of his masculinity, as he was when he rode into the forest after Guinevere. Horses are also used as a symbol of triumph over one's enemies in this text. After beheading a dishonorable knight, Lancelot and his men prepare to continue the hunt for Lady Guinevere. However, Lancelot's horse was killed in battle, so he requires a new one. Their hosts supplied him with one; however, "our knight did not wish to mount upon the borrowed horse that had been presented him at the gate. Instead…he had one of the two knights who had accompanied him mount it, and he mounted that knight's horse (pp.244)." As a symbol of victory over his enemy, Lancelot wished to ride his horse as a sign that his own power had been restored, and that he was sexually charged and capable again. The horses' ability to symbolize the desire to prevail in battle and the desire to capture the hearts and bodies of women seems interchangeable, as does the double meaning of the word "mount", which may connote equestrianism or act as a sexual term pertaining to intercourse.
As a general rule in Arthurian texts, if a man has a strong, healthy horse, then he is portrayed as having a strong, healthy sexual appetite. In The Liberation of Merkanie, Garel was adventuring when his horse, of its own accord, led him to "the most splendid castle he'd ever seen (Thomas, 1992)." When he rode up, "[the inhabitants] ran at once to welcome him and hold the bridle of his steed as he dismounted." His horse alone, obviously perceptive and intelligent, was intuitive enough to lead Garel to this place of happiness after his wandering about. Furthermore, at this castle resided a "lovely maiden who possessed beauty, charm, and prudence with no trace of haughtiness" who proceeds to fall in love with Garel and beg him to marry her. Undoubtedly, there is a connection between the excellence of Garel's horse, and his good fortune with the castle mistress. In the story Eskilabon, Eskilabon is given a "well-armed Castilian steed [that] was agile, strong, and bold; no one ever bestrode a better charger than that which he now mounted (Thomas, 1992)." Immediately upon this occurrence, "a beautiful maiden led twelve other lovely maidens, all mannerly and well-dressed," to Eskilabon. Many of them kissed him and offered their blessings of protection to him. Again, there is a connection between the magnificent horse Eskilabon is given, and the sudden inundation of female adoration he receives. Because of the impressive mount he possesses, the women see his as a worthy sexual partner whose qualities mirror that of his horse: agile, strong, and bold. In Steinbeck's Torre, Torre gets into a battle with a knight and kills him, and takes his horse from him. A lady who witnessed his victory invited him into her home, where she showered him with "good food and drink and a pleasant bed (Steinbeck, 1979)." Again, Arthurian women like to see noblemen with either good horses of their own, or the ability to remove them from other knights, thereby cementing their own renown.

As one would rationally expect, if a man has a weak, tired, or unhealthy horse,

then his sexual appetite is expected to reflect those traits also. In Steinbeck's The Wedding of King Arthur, a poor man comes into Arthur's court "riding a skinny mare" and asks Arthur to knight his son Torre, who is most unlike all of his other twelve sons. He claims that they are all laborers, but that Torre is different, both physically and mentally. Later, the man finds out that his wife was half-raped by a knight, and that Torre was conceived with his sperm, and not his own. The father is consequently very upset that his sperm produced only workers, and that the knight's sperm produced a knightly son (Steinbeck, 1979). However, to the discerning reader, it is no surprise that the man did not father the extraordinary son. He could not have, which is evident solely by the sad state of his horse; no man with such a sad source of power and bravery could have fathered a son of nobility. In the same story, during one of King Arthur's feasts, a white stage comes bounding through the dining hall. The stag is pursued by a white hound, who tears a chunk of flesh from the stag's flank. Arthur's knights jump at the chance to prove their manhood by pursuing and catching the horse, and so they compete for the privilege. Sir Gawain wins it, and embarks on the journey. Instead of retrieving the white stag, he accidentally kills it, and kills an innocent woman as well. Almost immediately thereafter, Gawain is shot by an arrow and wakes up in bed with a lady grudgingly watching over his bedside. She tells him that it is his own fault that feels bad, as he is nothing but a killer (Steinbeck, 1979). It is possible that the whiteness of both the stag and the hound symbolically conveyed their purity of spirit or nature, and that they were not supposed to be harmed or interfered with by any non-natural force (like human beings). In any case, Gawain embarrassed himself by hurting the magnificent creature and caused himself a situation that would inhibit both his sexual virility and attractiveness to women. In Steinbeck's The Knight with two swords, Balin arrives at a great feast and stables his horse outside. Then he tries to enter the feast, but is declined entrance because he has no wife or mistress. The moment he left his source of power (his horse), he lost all respect, seemingly because he had no woman who wanted him sexually. One day later, his damsel is crushed under a falling castle and she dies. This could be parallel to Balin's crushed, deceased virility and lack of sexual attractiveness. Later, in the same story, Balin goes riding down a trail that says, "Let no Knight ride alone on this way." He continues without regard for the sing, and seconds later, hears a hunting horn blowing the call that announces the death of a stag. He says, "that death call is for me," and tries to find shelter. Soon, he encounters a lady of the castle and tells her that his horse is tired and needs rest or replacement. She immediately switches from obvious adoration of him to a bit of disappointment, as if his status of prospective mate just plummeted. The very next day, Balin dies in a battle at the hand of a man with a red horse (Steinbeck, 1979). The red horse may symbolize sexual virility of the knight riding it, the blood shed by the man it helped to expire, or perhaps the color associated with Satan and hell. Either way, his status as a sexual prospect diminished greatly as soon as he showed weakness in his steed. In Steinbeck's Gawain, Ewain, and Marhalt, Sir Gawain engages in a battle without his horse, and starts to suffer because of it. As a result, his damsel runs away with another knight who has a strong, large horse. "I saw her ride away behind that other knight- I thought she was his damsel. Was she yours?" said an onlooker. Because Gawain did not have any relationship with his horse at that moment, he lost his damsel's interest as a prospective sexual partner. In Arthurian legends, ladies seem to greatly prefer men who have healthy, strong steeds who can lead them safely in and out of battles to those who are either without a good steed or without one entirely.

By removing a lord's horse from his possession, one symbolically removes his manhood from his possession as well. In Chretien's The Knight with the Lion, Yvain comes upon a bit of trouble with a knight who is, "certainly a full head taller than [he] (pp.301)." Yvain relates, "the knight had a good horse…therefore I was in real trouble, because…his horse was better than mine." After defeating Yvain, the knight took away Yvain's horse, leaving defenseless and without transportation. Yvain is now weak, wounded, and without the nobility and protection of his steed; this makes him a mockery of a sexual icon, indeed. In a later battle, Yvain prevails over Kay: "My lord Yvain gave Kay such a powerful blow that he somersaulted from his saddle and struck the ground with his Helmut. My lord Yvain…dismounted and claimed his horse (ppp.323)." It is apparent that taking a defeated man's horse seems more humiliating to him than death, so Yvain's confiscation of the man's animal rendered him completely disgraced, dishonored, and unfit to return to his kingdom. By commandeering Kay's "tall and powerful horse, strong and hardy and swift (323)," Yvain took the strength, hardiness, and swiftness right out of Kay's soul. Another example in which a man's horse is taken from him to prove the his opponent's power appears in Steinbeck's Merlin, when King Arthur sees his enemy riding his defeated friend's horse:

"When Arthur saw Cradilment, whom he had already defeated once, riding Sir Ector's horse, his fury rose and he engaged again with Cradilment and gave him such a sword stroke that the blade sliced down through helmet and shield and deep into the horse's neck, so that horse and man dropped instantly to the ground (Steinbeck, 1976).

Arthur was obviously furious that his enemy had dared to use his friend's horse as his own symbol of power and might, when he had only acquired that symbol by hurting a man who truly was of good moral stature and power. In yet another instance, Arthur has a similar experience with a knight later in the story. A villain stabbed King Ban's horse in the belly, leaving him without defense. In Ban's defense, "Arthur saw a knight nearby well mounted on a good horse, and he ran at him and drove his sword through helmet and teeth and brain, and Arthur led his good horse to King Ban (Steinbeck, 1976)." Arthur gave Ban the horse as a sign of loyal friendship and protection so that his friend was not devoid of a horse, and therefore power, while fighting his battles. If one is without a horse in these texts, it makes him a target for danger, and is not an impressive or powerful position in which to be.

Similarly, it seems from the texts that being on horseback makes one far nobler than one who is on foot. Fighting on horseback is portrayed distinctly differently than is fighting on foot in the texts. Fighting on horseback is portrayed as far more proper and gentlemanlike than is fighting on foot, but men behave as though losing a battle on horseback is equivalent to losing only half of a battle, as the fight that ensues on foot as a result may be equally as dangerous. In Merlin, Arthur says to a knight, "I shall fight you on foot since I have lost to you on horseback." The knight replies mockingly, "I am still mounted (Steinbeck, 1976)." This conversation first implies Arthur's reluctance to accept the battle as finished because he was defeated on horseback; rather, he saw a second opportunity to defeat his opponent on foot. However, the conversation also implies that Arthur's opponent considered Arthur unworthy of the fight and devoid of valor because he was relieved of his horse. He no longer saw Arthur as a threat or even a worthy adversary, because he had already lost his steed to him, which is the most obvious source of a man's power. In J.W. Thomas' Kei, this point is further emphasized. Garel approaches a knight on horseback and wants to question him about his mission, kingdom, and past whereabouts. The knight responds belligerently and the two men joust. During the fight, Garel takes hold of the knight's steed and gives it to his men for safekeeping. Kei refuses to answer any of Garel's questions unless Garel will come down off of his horse. He says "I won't have any respect for you until you dismount and question me. It is shameful that you don't dare dismount. That is boorish." Garel replies, "Why should I dismount? You have no right to ask me to get down. I don't need to obey your commands. Moreover, I don't intend to fight you. I am going to ride off and let you walk home in disgrace (Thomas, 1992)." Clearly, the knight is so threatened by the prospect of Garel leaving him horseless, that he tries to shame Garel into thinking that it would be dishonorable to do so. However, Garel is very much aware that the best possible revenge he could take on the knight would be to leave him horseless to face his kingdom in disgrace. Kei does, indeed, return to Arthur the Breton's court with no steed, weapon, or helmet, all of which were confiscated by Garel (Thomas, 1992).

It is possible that the incredible regularity with which Chretien uses similar (horse and equestrian) symbolism to convey strength, weakness, and sexual virility in his writing is related to the relatively few variations in plot that he employs throughout his writing career. In his review entitled Arthurian Tradition and Chretien de Troyes, John E. Housman contributes:
The tradition which gave Chretien de Troyes the matiere of his poems consisted of a relatively restricted number of "great tales" which, varied and embellished, distorted and misunderstood, intertwined and separated, gave to Arthurian romance its mazelike quality and its characteristic feeling of certain identical patterns, disappearing and re-emerging not unlike the pattern in an Oriental rug.

Regardless of origin or reasoning, Chretien's repeated use of this type of symbolism vividly demonstrates the ever-altering emotional states of his heroes throughout their sagas.