This poem I wrote in a sheltered bower of a medieval castle garden in a slight rain, on one of the last days before I left England. The castle and surrounding walls in which I wrote had been taken on as a project, by a Victorian couple of some wealth. Over many years, they converted the dilapidated structure into a livable home. The saying “A man’s home is his castle” is inverted in the poem to ask, but can a man’s castle really be a home?
I had heard somewhere and now I don’t remember where, that the author Sir Arthur Canon Doyle, who is famous, especially for his works of fiction romanticizing the era of King Arthur and Camelot, influenced the European culture greatly in the nineteeth and early twentieth centuries. So much so, that it has been postulated that without his tales, the World Wars that followed might never have occurred.
I find this claim dubious, but you see evidence of Scott’s influence in many homes we toured, including Standen which is decorated with William Morris finery, and Osborne House where Victoria and Albert lived for a time. Wagner’s music seems to take up the same mantle, romantizing Germanic/Scandinavian lore in the same way, with an emphasis on valor and bravery and shining knights, saving helpless maidens. And it is hard to imagine Hitler without Wagner. This poem proposes this questionable but intriguing theory of the Wars’ origins, in verse.
Coffee, on a wind-proof bench,
Under ruined battlements.
Chapel, graced with Latin script,
Mid-medieval carving. It’s
Nothing, for the faint of heart–
Drizzly weather, steep ramparts–
To make a home a castle is
Something few would hassle with.
But Walter Scott and of his tribe
Exalted knights and regicide
And all things honor-bound and old,
Enticing those who had been told,
To build and rebuild on the ruin.
Warm the hearth. Find things to do in
Chambers, cold and wet and dank.
With ghosts, Nostalgia ate and drank.
My question is: Without this myth,
Without these tomes, would it exist?
(The shrapnel of the last World Wars,
For which Herr Wagner wrote the scores.)
Copyright 2023 Andrea LeDew
For other poems exalting knights of recent and more distant history, read The Wardrobe of Kings about James Comey in Trump’s FBI, and Enlightenment (An Ode to Sir Thomas Browne) about a natural philosopher living at the beginning of the Enlightenment Age, who was committed to clarifying the vulgar errors of the common man, but was himself, steeped in medieval hogwash.
Silver Spoon
I’m afraid I’m a fan of unnecessary detail. 😊
I’ve toured pseudo-castles in the US, and while interesting, they seemed too dark and dank to serve as a comfortable home.
That’s true Liz. Especially if theres any significant period of winteri, I would think stone would not be a warm and fuzzy material to cozy up to.
Its funny that our own nostalgia hearkens back to early industrialization ( if downton abbey and steam punk etc are anything to go by)so we are nostalgic for a nostalgic people. Very meta. 😊.
I have spent a lot of time looking at stuff that came out of the William Morris shop (late 1800s-1920s or so–it still exists as a brand but a bit out of reach for me. ) The Craftsman style of house is common in our area. The movement called for more homemade things, and for art in everyday objects I think. The medieval, king Arthur-inspired theme is prevalent even to the extent of bringing back tapestries (which had the early purpose of covering those dank and dark castle walls.)
We always long for a seemingly simpler time in times of change. But fixing up an old castle ruin to live in it is anything but simple and was probably outrageously expensive. It would be significantly more to deal with, than trying to keep an early twentieth century house in livable condition today.
For aesthetics and livability, Craftsman is my favorite style of architecture. Medieval themes have never appealed to me.
I love craftsman too. But i have always been suspicious of the “form follows function” crowd of some later modern styles. Don’t tell my husband, the engineer. That is his profession’s mantra, I think.
For me, form follows function applies to means of creative expression.
Your poem inspired me to read up on Sir Walter Scott again—most interesting—had forgotten so much.
I had to spend some time on Wikipedia reviewing Scott’s career before I could reply even somewhat intelligently to this comment.
I may have overstated his influence in the realm of medieval stories specifically–his poem Lady of the Lake is about King Arthur but I don’t see that much else specifically medieval. Ivanhoe is probably his best known work today.
At one time his works were assigned in many schools and i remember seeing illustrated classics editions as a child.
He wrote a lot and was wildly popular in his life and beyond, though he got stuck with a bad investment in a publishing company that left him in debt at his death. It was paid off soon after with continued royalties from his books.
He had a huge library and knew Scottish history very well. He is credited with more or less singlehandedly inventing the historical novel.
I think he did write frequently about honor and chivalry in other contexts though (i recently watched Rob Roy with Liam Neelson I believe, about honor in the fractured clan system of the Scottish highlands under brutal rule. )You can see how series like Outlander may have been influenced by him.
When you say “again”–was Scott a point of interest in your own studies once?
Yes, many decades ago he was mentioned in my nun school literature class. But the Wikipedia article probably contained more facts than the nuns ever told us (or knew)😀
I think maybe Thomas Mallory and his Morte d’Arthur may also be complicit. 😊