A river, a man, and an animal: an ecocritical look at two Arthurian romances

Abstrakt

The purpose of this article is to examine the motif of the river in two Middle Dutch Arthurian chivalric romances, Roman van Walewein and Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet. The rivers in both romances are presented as dangerous obstacles that need to be overcome in order to achieve a certain goal. The passages discussed indicate that the motif is often closely connected with the presence of the figure of an animal companion. The article focuses on the way horses, the fox, and the dog influence the river crossings described in the chivalric romances under discussion. The article analyses the role of the horses, who carry the knights to the other side on the river through deep waters, and the fox and the dog, who instead act as guides. By doing so, I look at the way nature is portrayed in medieval literature from a modern, ecocritical perspective. In order to do so, I reflect on the positive influence the presence of an animal exerts on the protagonists and on the process of facing the dangerous forces of nature. The article also looks at the relationship between animals and humans mirrored in the way the knights, the protagonists of medieval romances, cooperate with the animals accompanying them over the course of the adventure.