Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART I Founding Myths: Nature, Culture, and the Production of a British Kingdom
- 1 First Encounters: Gadifer in the Deserts d'Escoce
- 2 Testing Boundaries: Colonial Culture and Indigenous Nature
- 3 The King, His Law, and His Kingdom
- PART II Heteronormative Sexuality and the Mission Civilisatrice
- PART III Greeks, Trojans, and the Construction of British History
- Conclusion
- Glossary of Proper Names in Perceforest
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Testing Boundaries: Colonial Culture and Indigenous Nature
from PART I - Founding Myths: Nature, Culture, and the Production of a British Kingdom
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART I Founding Myths: Nature, Culture, and the Production of a British Kingdom
- 1 First Encounters: Gadifer in the Deserts d'Escoce
- 2 Testing Boundaries: Colonial Culture and Indigenous Nature
- 3 The King, His Law, and His Kingdom
- PART II Heteronormative Sexuality and the Mission Civilisatrice
- PART III Greeks, Trojans, and the Construction of British History
- Conclusion
- Glossary of Proper Names in Perceforest
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Shortly after the two young princes have been knighted, in Perceforest Book Two, Gadifer's son Nestor and Perceforest's son Bethidés engage in a ferocious nocturnal battle deep in the forest. Nestor, travelling incognito as the Chevalier Doré, has vowed never to tell another knight his name unless he is conquered in battle; Bethidés, similarly incognito as the Chevalier Blanc, has vowed to determine the name of the Chevalier Doré. Their struggle makes so much noise that it disturbs another knight attempting to sleep in the forest, who is later revealed to be young Gadifer, Nestor's twin brother. Gadifer, also incognito, attempts to settle the combatants with an appeal to nature:
Les arbres et les herbes qui sont croissans sur la terre, que vous gastez et deffoulez en heure qu'elles doivent croistre et alongier et prendre repos et leur nourreçon pour donner aprés en temps avenir au jour aux hommes et aux bestes et aux oiseaulx soustenance et nourreçon par l'ordonnance du Createur, se plaignent de vous, car toute creature doit avoir respit de nuyt. (II.ii, p. 416)
[The trees and plants that grow in the ground, which you're crushing and destroying at a time when they need to grow and take respite and nourishment so that in the future, they can give sustenance and nourishment to men, beasts, and birds as ordained by the Creator – these are complaining of you, for all creatures should rest at night.]
In this vision of the world, humans are included along with 'toute creature' as part of a natural order that follows a regular cycle of active days and restful nights. Even plant life is disturbed by the young knights’ unnatural behaviour.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Postcolonial Fictions in the 'Roman de Perceforest'Cultural Identities and Hybridities, pp. 44 - 72Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007