Aknight-errant[1] (orknight errant[2]) is a figure of medievalchivalric romance literature. The adjectiveerrant (meaning "wandering, roving") indicates how the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove hischivalric virtues, either inknightly duels (pas d'armes) or in some other pursuit ofcourtly love.
The knight-errant is a character who has broken away from the world of his origin, in order to go off on his own to right wrongs or to test and assert his own chivalric ideals. Inmedieval Europe, knight-errantry existed in literature, though fictional works from this time often were presented asnon-fiction.[3][4]
The template of the knight-errant were the heroes of theRound Table of theArthurian cycle such asGawain,Lancelot, andPercival. Thequestpar excellence in pursuit of which these knights wandered the lands is that of theHoly Grail, such as inPerceval, the Story of the Grail written byChrétien de Troyes in the 1180s.
The character of the wandering knight existed in romantic literature as it developed during the late 12th century. However, the term "knight-errant" was to come later; its first extant usage occurs in the 14th-century poemSir Gawain and the Green Knight.[5] Knight-errantry tales remained popular withcourtly audiences throughout theLate Middle Ages. They were written inMiddle French,Middle English, andMiddle German.
In the 16th century, the genre became highly popular in theIberian Peninsula;Amadis de Gaula was one of the most successful knight-errantry tales of this period. InDon Quixote (1605),Miguel de Cervantesburlesqued the romances and their popularity. Tales of knight-errantry then fell out of fashion for two centuries, until they re-emerged in the form of thehistorical novel inRomanticism.
A knight-errant typically performed all his deeds in the name of a lady, and invoked her name before performing an exploit.[citation needed] In more sublimated forms of knight-errantry, pure moralist idealism rather than romantic inspiration motivated the knight-errant (as in the case of SirGalahad). Such a knight might well be outside the structure offeudalism, wandering solely to perform noble exploits (and perhaps to find a lord to give his service to), but might also be in service to a king or lord, traveling either in pursuit of a specific duty that his overlord charged him with, or to put down evildoers in general. Thisquest sends a knight on adventures much like the ones of a knight in search of them, as he happens on the same marvels. InThe Faerie Queene, St. George is sent to rescue Una's parents' kingdom from a dragon, and Guyon has no such quest, but both knights encounter perils and adventures.
In the romances, his adventures frequently included greater foes than other knights, includinggiants,enchantresses, ordragons. They may also gain help that is out of ordinary. SirYwain assisted a lion against a serpent, and was thereafter accompanied by it, becoming theKnight of the Lion. Other knights-errant have been assisted bywild men of the woods, as inValentine and Orson, or, likeGuillaume de Palerme, by wolves that were, in fact, enchanted princes.
The protagonist ofCormac McCarthy's novelAll the Pretty Horses, John Grady Cole, is said to be based specifically on Sir Gawain, ofSir Gawain and the Green Knight. Both characters share a number of aspects and traits; both are rooted in the myths of a past that no longer exists, and both live by codes of conduct from a previous era.[6]
Don Quixote is an early 17th-century parody of the genre, in reaction to the extreme popularity which late medieval romances such asAmadis de Gaula came to enjoy in the Iberian Peninsula in the 16th century.
InJean Giraudoux's playOndine, which starredAudrey Hepburn on Broadway in 1954, a knight-errant appears, during a storm, at the humble home of a fisherman and his wife.[7]
A depiction of knight-errantry in the modernhistorical novel is found inSir Nigel byArthur Conan Doyle (1906).
The knight-errant stock character became the trope of the "knight in shining armour" indepiction of the Middle Ages in popular culture, and the term came to be used also outside of medieval drama, as inThe Dark Knight as a title ofBatman.
In the epic fantasy seriesA Song of Ice and Fire, there is a class of knights referred to ashedge knights. A hedge knight is a wandering knight without a master, similar to the concept of theRonin—Samurai who serve no specific master— and many are quite poor. Hedge knights travel the length and breadth of the fictional continent ofWesteros looking for gainful employment, and their name comes from the propensity to sleep out in the open air or in forests when they cannot afford lodging. The life of a hedge knight is depicted in theTales of Dunk and Egg.
The protagonist ofLee Child'sJack Reacher novels, Jack Reacher, is intended by the author as a modern-day reflection of classic lone heroes.[8]
Russianbyliny (epic poems) featurebogatyrs, knights-errant who served as protectors of their homeland, and occasionally as adventurers.[9] Some of them are presumed to be historical figures, while others are fictional and possibly descend fromSlavic mythology. Most tales about bogatyrs revolve around the court ofVladimir I of Kiev. Three popular bogatyrs—Ilya Muromets,Dobrynya Nikitich andAlyosha Popovich (famously painted byVictor Vasnetsov)—are said to have served him.
Youxia,Chinese knights-errant, traveled solo while protecting common folk from oppressive regimes. Unlike their European counterpart, they did not come from any particularsocial caste and were anything from soldiers to poets. There is even a popular literary tradition that arose during theTang dynasty which centered on slaves who used supernatural physical abilities to save kidnappeddamsels in distress and to swim to the bottom of raging rivers to retrieve treasures for their feudal lords (seeKunlun Nu).[10][11] A youxia who excels or is renowned for martial prowess or skills is usually calledwuxia.
In Japan, the expressionmusha shugyō described the traveling of asamurai who, wanting to test his abilities in real life conditions, would travel the land and engage in duels along the way.