Joyous Gard
Joyous Gard (French Joyeuse Garde and other variants) is a castle featured in the
Prose Lancelot as the home and formidable fortress of the hero Lancelot after his conquest of it from the forces of evil. Le Morte d'Arthur identified it with Bamburgh Castle
.
Legend
As told in the
King Mark of Cornwall
.
Following Lancelot's adulterous and treasonous affair with Arthur's wife
Queen Guinevere, Lancelot rescues Guinevere, who is under sentence of death from Arthur, and brings her to the Joyous Gard. In the Stanzaic Morte Arthur and elsewhere, Arthur and Gawain unsuccessfully besiege the castle. Eventually, Lancelot abandons his castle and goes to an exile in today's France. After his death, Lancelot's body is taken to the Joyous Gard for burial. In the French prose cycles, he is laid to rest next to the grave of his dear friend Galehaut (in the version from the Post-Vulgate Mort Artu, their remnants are later dug up and destroyed by King Mark).[2]
Suggested locations
In his War of the Roses.[5] He also proposed the nearby Alnwick Castle. Joyous Gard is further associated with Château de Joyeuse Garde, an early medieval castle site in Brittany where the continental Arthurian tradition began.
See also
- Castle of Gioiosa Guardia, a 13th-century Sardinian castle named after the legend
References
- JSTOR 43632512.
- ISBN 9781317777441.
- ISBN 978-1554813124.
- ^ "Bernaccia (Bryneich / Berneich)". The History Files. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
- ^ Whetter, K. S. (June 15, 2004). "The Historicity of Combat in Le Morte Darthur". Arthurian Studies in Honour of P.J.C. Field.
External links
- Doloreuse Chartre and La Joyous Garde at Nightbringer.se
- " Of Joyous Gard", a 19th-century poem
