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Jackie Reuss
Dr. Francis
English 341Medieval Literature
October 23, 2013
Meleagant the Villain
As we have learned, Arthurian romances traditionally function as conduct manuals for
their audiences; they are meant to be examples of how to live a goodly, Christian life. The hero
in each text exemplifies chivalry and epitomizes a sort of knights code of conduct which
listeners are urged to model their lives after. With this in mind, the texts would not fulfill their
cultural function if there was not some foe, some sort of evil opposing force, which provides the
hero the opportunity to display all these moral, holy vices that provide the rhetorical purpose for
the writing or oration of the romance. This calls for an examination of how the villain is
portrayed in the romance. However, just as the story cannot exist without the presence of the
two opposing forces, the villain cannot be examined without also acknowledging the hero.
Through the examination of the virtues and vices of these opposing roles, it can be concluded
that the villains vices directly oppose the values of the hero. In Chrtiens The Knight of the
Cart, the characters that represent these opposing forces are Lancelot, as the hero, and
Meleagant, as the villain. Meleagants character is developed as a personification of the seven
deadly sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony; this is what establishes his role of
the villain.
The first of the seven deadly sins that Meleagants character symbolizes is pride, which
some believe all the other deadly sins are caused by, and is therefore rarely displayed without
being accompanied by an example of another deadly sin in his flawed character. Meleagants

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first appearance in the romance, although at this point he remains an unnamed character, serves
to establish him as egotistical and ruthless. Before he offers up the challenge to King Arthur, he
says I want to inform you that you have neither the wealth nor power enough to ensure their
release. And you know well that you will die before you are able to come to their aid (114).
Through this excerpt, we are introduced to Meleagants role as the villain by his pride, which is
here described by his excessive faith in his own power and abilities. As noted, pride never seems
to exist by itself. Meleagant then delivers a threat which is boastfulness of his abilities and also
shows that wrath is one of his characters vices as well. It is a ruthless threat, catered to by his
pride.
Later, we get a more elaborate conversation about Meleagants ego. The narrator
provides Meleagants reaction to Lancelots feat of crossing the sword bridge: Meleagants face
reddened with anger and wrathbut he was such a knight that he feared no man, no matter how
strong or mighty (143). The narrator tells us that wrath is one of his vices, and reasserts pride as
another of his vices through the display of his overconfidence in his abilities. Thereafter,
Meleagant and his own father, the king, dispute over the encounter that is sure to ensue and how
it should be handled. His father, the king, says, you will gain nothing by fighting with
[Lancelot], and are likely to suffer great hurt for itdont let anyone find you obstinate or
foolish or proud (144). The king is concerned for his son. What makes Meleagants blood boil
is the kings reference to Lancelot as being without any doubtthe best knight in the world,
(The king had unwisely overlooked Meleagant, who thought himself not a bit inferior to the
other) (144). Meleagant is envious of Lancelots prowess. Although Lancelot is yet unnamed,
the feat of crossing the sword bridge successfully proves his father the kings assertion that he is
the best knight in the world, to which he responds with hateful denial. He says May I be

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damned if there is not another as good or even better than he! (144). Meleagant ignores his
fathers advice and denounces any chance of satisfying the kings hope for peace and honor
when he says, Im not bothered by anything youve said, I dont have the cowardly heart of a
monk or do-gooder or almsgiver, nor do I care to have any honor that requires me to give him
what I most love. This task wont be so easily and quickly accomplished and will turn out quite
differently than you and he think be a gentleman as long as you please, but let me be cruel!
(144). Leading into this second bout with Meleagant, the feat of crossing the sword bridge can
be interpreted as being ordained by God when it is paralleled with feats such as stopping the
wind from blowing or the birds from singing, which, upon witnessing Lancelots successful
crossing of the Sword Bridge, Meleagant fails to recognize. His failure to recognize Lancelots
accomplishment as a sign of Gods blessing can be seen as sloth. Sloth arises again in
Meleagants character when he completely disregards his fathers advice with a display of
profound apathy and distorted view of love. The kings concern is appropriate because he knows
Meleagants pride, as well as his greed, sloth and lust, are incapacitating himMeleagants ego
prevents him from recognizing that Gods will is in favor of Lancelot, thus advancing Meleagant
toward his own death. This scene reinforces that Meleagants viceswhich he conveys to us as
pride, envy, a proclamation of lust, and his self-realized wrathare, in fact, just as incapacitating
as his father had feared.
The king then leaves Meleagant to go greet Lancelot. The king tells Lancelot that
Meleagant is not generous, and can be interpreted as a proclamation of Meleagants greed (145).
The king tells Lancelot that the queen is safe from the lusts of men, even from that of my son
(much to his chagrin), which is an assertion that Meleagant does hold lust for her (145). After
trying to persuade Lancelot to put off the fight, the king returns to Meleagant, and says: it is a

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sin to keep something to which one has no right (146). This can be interpreted as the kings
accusation that Meleagant is gluttonous when it comes to the queen; he thinks Meleagant should
let her go. All in all, Meleagants vices that are realized through the kings appropriate concern
are pride, greed, lust, sloth and gluttony. The discussion of Meleagants character through these
three voices therefore serves to reveal him as the villain by making him the epitome of evil and
wickedness.
The fact that Meleagant can be related to all seven of the seven deadly sins in just one
episode speaks volumes for itself, whereas, it takes Lancelot many more episodes to achieve
prowess, it begs the conclusion that villainy is easier to accomplish than chivalry. Chivalry, as
personified by Lancelot, the greatest of all knights, takes a certain amount of self-discipline that
as we discussed in class, is tested time and time again. Ultimately, Meleagant has something to
prove. Each of the seven deadly sins can be said to parallel the code of chivalry, so his
accomplishment of each makes him every bit as good a knight as Lancelot. The narrator
proclaims, Had he not been treasonous and disloyal, one could not have found a finer knight;
but his wooden heart was utterly devoid of kindness and compassion (143). This suggests that
his biggest fault among the deadly sins is sloth, as opposed to pride. Sloth is where his
wickedness and evil stems from, and it is the deadly sin that allows his character to be vulnerable
to the rest of the devils temptations, the other six deadly sins. An audience listening to the
telling of the story would almost have to hate Meleagant. By being portrayed as the
personification of everything that Christian society urges them not to do, it would be easy for
them to identify him as a horrible, evil tyrant.

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