The Knight (novel)
The Knight is a fantasy novel written by American author Gene Wolfe depicting the journey of an American boy transported to a magical realm and aged to adulthood who soon thereafter becomes a knight. The first of a two-part tale know collectively as The Wizard Knight is told in an epistolary style, and contains elements from Norse, Arthurian, and Christian Mythology. It received a nomination for the Nebula Award in 2005.
Plot summary
The story opens with an older narrator recounting a great adventure. He is left alone in a cabin in the wilderness by himself for a few days. He goes for a hike and ends up chasing a flying castle he sees in the sky until he is abducted by "a lot of people". He awakens to find himself at the mouth of a cave by the sea. He is greeted by a fortune teller who calls him Able of the High Heart and turns his walking stick into a bow. He soon after discovers his chivalrous destiny and embarks on a quest to travel this strange new land.
Knight (disambiguation)
Knight is a social position and honour originating in the Middle Ages.
Knight may also refer to:
Places
Organisms
People
In fiction
Other
- Tarot cards:
- Standard 56-card deck (knightly deck) card: Knight (playing card)
The Knight (The Canterbury Tales)
The Knight from the Canterbury tales was a soldier for the king who fought in many battles and jousts. He usually fought in battles to different countries to try convert the whole nation to Christianity. The main goal for these Crusades at that time were to recapture Holy Land from the Muslims. His social standing, along with his son, The Squire, was high due to their aristocracy. As explained before, The Knights duty as the kings servant was leading large crusades to defeat people from non-Christian lands. Although we seem to know that the Knight is one of the most likable characters in the story, Chaucer fails to tell us about the Knights origins or why he became a knight to begin with. Nevertheless, The Knight still has a lasting good impression on first time readers. In this day and age, The Knight would be a soldier serving his country instead of serving his king.
Prologue
The Narrator begins his in depth explanation of each character with the Knight. In lines 43-47, the narrator tells us the knight is chivalrous and valiant, and an honorable and noble servant to his king. Line 55 tells us the Knight was a great warrior. Lines 67-72 tells us he was the perfect knight and even though he was playing a "villain's part", he always did right. In lines 72-78, the Narrator tells us that the Knights attire, although having a beautiful horse, wasn't the best. He had on an old tunic and rusty coat of mail due to all his expeditions. The Narrator couldn't stress it enough that the Knight was just the perfect gentleman; he was valiant, honorable, gentle, giving, truthful and courteous. The language of English has changed a lot from the Middle Ages to now as seen from the many variations and translations of the Canterbury tales. For example, chivalry was spelled chivalrie, knight was spelled kynght, Russia was spelled Rucen, Christian was spelled Cristen and the Mediterranean Sea was known as the Grete Sea.
