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.