IV - ‘Thanked Be God There Hath Been But A Few Of Myne Auncytours That Hathe Dyed In Their Beddes’: Border Stories and Northern Arthurian Romances

Summary

This essay attempts to situate two northern Arthurian romances, the Alliterative Morte Arthure and Ywain and Gawain, within the culture from which they emerged. This surround, of course, is typically conceived – particularly by inhabitants of southern England – as over-militarized and violent. While my opening move, signalled by my title, acknowledges such perceptions, I hope to perturb this image of the ‘uncouth / violent North’ somewhat, to draw attention to a more varied set of local interests. Ultimately, I will suggest that such a cultural context may help to explain some of the differences between these poems and their immediate sources. But violence first!

My title cites James, second earl of Douglas, dying at the battle of Otterburn in 1388. Certainly, Douglas knew the rules for heroes. Blessed, as the rest of his line, with a magnificently arrogant intransigence that would befit a Roland or an Achilles, he understood that proper heroism must always be tragic. Whether it occurs willingly or wilfully, only death in extreme circumstances displays that heedless courageousness which, paradoxically, creates a hero. Indeed, James had suffered five wounds (!) in turning the course of the battle, rallying the Scots, surprised in their tents by the forces of Henry Percy (‘Hotspur’), through his wild charge into the English ranks, brandishing his battle-axe: ‘He went euer forwarde lyke a hardy Hector, wyllyng alone to conquere the felde and to dyscomfyte his enemys’.

Equally, in his final words to John Sinclair, James Douglas required of his retainer the act that would reveal why his violent recklessness and subsequent death had been worthwhile:

I praye you, rayse vp agayne my baner, whiche lyeth on the grounde and my squyer slayne. … Shewe nother to frende nor foo in what case ye se me in, for if myne enemyes knewe it, they wolde reioyse; and our frendes discomforted. (fol. 159rb)

Sinclair rescues and re-erects the standard, and he also raises up his lord's family battle-cry, ‘Douglas’. Although by this point Douglas has died, he nonetheless lives – he is simultaneously dead and the triumphant victor of the field.