Bravely bold Sire Thopas priked forth from Flaunders

[rymenhild]

Sire Thopas drow abak ful faste;
This geant at him stones caste,
...Out of a fel staf-slinge.
But faire escapeth Child Thopas,
And al it was thurgh Goddes gras,
...And thurgh his fair beringe.

[Sir Thopas drew back quickly;
The giant cast stones at him,
from a fell sling-staff.
But Child Thopas escaped fairly,
and it was all because of God's grace,
and because of his fair bearing.]

-Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas, lines 827-832

Thopas is totally a literary ancestor of Sir Robin, the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir Launcelot. I love Thopas dearly. I want to take him home and feed him well and sing to him: "He was not afraid to die, oh brave sir Thopas!"

I do not think that expressing my deep and passionate love for Sir Thopas, The Slightly-Braver-Than-Sir-Robin, is necessarily the best way to impress my orals examiners, though.

ETA: Has anyone ever noticed that Tolkien's poem "Errantry" seems to be related to Sir Thopas?

Hise jambeux were of quirboily,
His swerdes shethe of ivory,
...His helm of latoun bright;
His sadel was of rewel-bon,
His bridel as the sonne shon,
...Or as the moone-light. - Sir Thopas, lines 875-880

Of crystal was his habergeon,
his scabbard of chalcedony,
with silver tipped and plenilune,
his spear was hewn of ebony.
His javelins were of malachite
and stalactite - he brandished them,
and went and fought the dragon flies,
of Paradise, and vanquished them. - Tolkien, "Errantry" (no, I am not going to count the line numbers, sorry)

Am I just hallucinating a tonal similarity there?

Comments

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

I don't know the Chaucer poem (although I still have the complete Chaucer I bought in college), but I can certainly see the resemblance in what you've posted. Tolkien, of course, could probably recite Chaucer in his sleep.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Nah, they'll quite possibly love it if you mention the similarity. It depends on the examiners, of course, but my tutors used to quote Monty Python in class. Mind you, I went a bit mad and ended up quoting the bit about all friars living in "the develes ers" in my Chaucer exam, for which I blame my Shakespeare tutor's influence entirely.

[ex-greythist387.livejournal.com]

If it is not the only thing you say about Sir Thopas, it'll be fine. (You could turn it towards reception, e.g., depending on how the question's skewed.) Don't forget that two out of three likely Middle English examiners--your likely ones, I mean--may well have thought of the similarity themselves.... It's that argument-versus-shiny-things thing.

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

And then Tolkien went and copied himself in Bilbo's poem about Eärendil, who does end up shining with the light of the Sun and Moon, albeit not at that point in the poem.

I love "the dragon flies of Paradise". Hmm. "Vanquishing the dragon flies of Paradise" would make a good cryptic away message, though heaven knows (so to speak) what people would read into it.

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

Well, "dragon flies of Paradise" would make me comment on Coleridge.

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

What does Coleridge say about the dragon flies of Paradise?

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

That was pretty much the limit of my invention on the subject. It just made me think of Kubla Khan, and the milk of Paradise.

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

So if Sir Thopas is the Slightly Braver Than Sir Robin, and Sir Robin is the Not Quite So Brave as Sir Lancelot, by the property of substitution, Sir Thopas is the Slightly Braver Than Not Quite So Brave As Sir Lancelot.

*bows and exits*

*returns, pursued by bear, to comment on Chaucer/Tolkien*

It seems to be a similar style. I lack the background to comment further, of course.

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm afraid Sir Thopas would mistake your meaning. He might well think he had stumbled onto Sir Galahad's adventure.