Further explorations in Chivalry & Medieval History
Our Resource Guide is here to help you with further explorations into chivalry and medieval history — historical, fictional, and legendary; chivalry’s extensions into modern times; and some thought-provoking discussions on ethics and social customs.
- Live Presentations – Chivalry Today provides a variety of presentations for schools, youth groups and libraries tailored to fit the unique needs, interests and learning levels of their students or members. While the descriptions here represent some of our more popular offerings, we are always willing to coordinate with teachers, homeschool parents, camp facilitators, librarians and church activity directors to create a unique offering to meet your teaching goals.
- Article Reprints – Reprint rights for Scott’s articles are available to selected magazines, newspapers and websites; you may also be interested in syndicating Scott’s column in your periodical.
- Books – If the thought of becoming a modern knight in shining armor and living by the code of chivalry today intrigues you, we suggest some titles you’ll want to look for in your local library or your favorite bookseller.
- Online – After discovering chivalry today here, you may be hungry for more information in any of several different areas — medieval history, Arthurian literature, historical re-enactment or the ethics of the code of chivalry. We suggest some other online resources you may wish to examine.
- Teaching Guide – More and more teachers today are realizing the value of bringing chivalry into the classroom as part of their units on medieval history and Arthurian literature. Images of knights in armor and tales of heroic adventure are ideal methods of getting students interested in learning and reading (especially kids who don’t respond to traditional assignments). In an this 3 part article originally published in the August, 1995 edition of The History Teacher magazine, Christopher M. Bellitto offers teachers some advice on teaching with the Code of Chivalry.
Books In Print
Our on-line Chivalry Today Bookshop offers a wide variety of classic and bestselling titles, ranging from medieval history and stories of King Arthur (for all ages), to contemporary ethics, psychology, philosophy and literary analysis that is founded on the ideals of the Code of Chivalry. Of course, many of these titles are available in your local library as well. You can browse the full selection of books, audio CDs and DVDs by visiting our store, or focus your selection on the specialty subjects below:
Ethics & Philosophy of Chivalry»
Knights & Chivalry in History»
Medieval Romance & Literature for Children & Adults Alike»
Recently Recommended by Chivalry Today Authors & Guests»
King Arthur & Knights of the Round Table for Young Readers»
Online Resources
After discovering chivalry today here, you may be hungry for more information in any of several different areas — medieval history, Arthurian literature, historical re-enactment or the ethics of the code of chivalry. We suggest some other online resources you may wish to examine.
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| Medieval History Online |
| Original Texts from the Middle Ages |
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Scott,
Entertaining and thoughtful! Thanks for letting me reprint this as a review at Troynovant.
… as dead as rotary phones, vinyl records and cars with tailfins. Chivalry evolves with the times.
I think evolving car fashions will return the tailfins at some point; doubtful about the others.
You’re doing great work in revitalizing the standards of chivalry.
Exceptional post. Perhaps there are pirates out there – like Captain (Dr.) Peter Blood – who would act with restraint when pillaging and rampaging, etc. Then again, given the behavior of the modern Somalian Pirate, these blokes are too determined and hungry to act with good manners. Not to sound self-promotional, but I am currently writing about the Virginia Military Institute’s “Code of the Gentleman”, which I think you will find interesting for obvious reasons.
http://www.edthegent.com/2009/04/etg-examines-vmis-code-of-gentleman.html
and
http://www.edthegent.com/2009/04/etg-on-virginia-military-institutes.html
Enjoy and best,
EtG
Posted for Sonny Scott:If I might add. I was at my Aunt’s house once when I was young. After
the meal, I cleared my dishes while my cousins left their dishes on the table. I really didn’t think about it, I just did it. But on the way home, my mom told me how very proud she was that I had carried my dishes to the kitchen without
prompting. 50 years later, I still remember that.
Parents; don’t forget to recognize and comment on good behavior in your child or in another. I am sometimes embarrassed when someone notices that my child did something good, and I failed to notice it because it had become accepted in our household.
Thanks Sonny S. – That is a perfect example of how young people will rise to the occasion (and even enjoy it) if we make being polite and helping others an “honor” instead of a “chore.”
This touches on something I’ve thought for a long time. Kids today are given so much, allowed so much, and disciplined so little (in general) that I think a lot of the hard life lessons necessary to produce well-rounded, responsible adults are many times missing. In our zeal to give our children what we didn’t have, are we producing new generations of lazy, spoiled citizens?
Excellant history
Scott,
A clever and thought-provoking comparison. Thanks!
Bob
hey i love this website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.
Andrew Lang, famous 19th century Scottish author and historian, described St. Joan of Arc as the Flower of Chivalry.
http://www.maidofheaven.com/joanofarc_quotes_autobiography.asp
I wholeheartedly agree.
I think a return to Chivalry is an excellent idea. Many of my friends are more inclined to be sarcastic, or even impolite in their communications. While I tend to adapt when I am with my friends, I am more comfortable treating people with respect, and following many of the rules of chivalry. Having said that, I am almost certain that mounting a horse and jousting is not something I would be willing to take on as a liesure activity, I do think it would be fun to watch…politely, that is!!!
OMG! I stumbled upon this blog doing a search for King Arthur and was so surprised to see my own Arthurian book listed! One of only three! And to be next to Bernard Cornwell and Mercedes Lackey–what an honor. Many thanks!
For anyone interested, book 2 (The Recruit) is also available. I’m hard at work on book 3 of the series, working title The Warrior.
Wonderful site.
May the new year be filled with wonderful blessings!
Debra
Brilliant piece.
Hi Scott,
Thank you for posting the article about the EarlyAct FirstKnight program. This program is actually furnished by the Knights of the Guild and the Randall Parr Organization, which is a non-profit that partners with Rotary Clubs across the country. Students use a daily chivalry & business ethics curriculum throughout the entire year, participate in service projects in the community, and receive awards through monthly knighting ceremonies where they receive accolades, medals, and the opportunity to be knighted. Before a program is launched at a school, we actually provide a live-action Tournament of Champions on the school campus with jousting armored knights, warhorses, and special effects, performed on the school campus.
This program is currently serving 30,000 students in Texas, and just launched in South Carolina as well. Our vision is to take this program nation-wide and make a lasting impact in schools everywhere. Thank you again for sharing this program with your visitors, and please let me know if I can provide any additional information.
Sincerely,
Jefferson Pike
Mid-Atlantic Regional Director
Knights of the Guild
http://www.eafk.org
http://www.chivalryconcepts.org
(704) 701-4642
Great post. I’ve been looking for this exact information for a while now. Bookmarked!
Thanks for writing this subject. I had been searching for good information about it.
What a powerful image…and it indeed gives you a sense of our alienation with what matter the most: the people, that is the pinacle of chivalry.
Luneiro´s last blog ..Beautiful World
Nice. They also had a good story. Regretfully, I too have often felt intimidated to help a woman or young girl because I am a male 40-something. It’s tough sometimes.
I agree with much of what Mr Bowman has said, but , I am courious as to what he sees as the specific events that began the downfall of the gentleman and what events completed it. What is it about WWI began the destruction and what about Vietnam completed this process?
My 2 year old holds the door for his mother. He usually says “ee ya go mama!” I demonstrated this by opening the doors for her and making him wait until she was in.
Businesses are not made of numbers only, but of personal relationships. I have found the greatest key to success is in cultivating what the arabs call “toufiq” which is the root of Fatawa or Islamic chivalry which played a big role in the development of medieval European chivalry. Through faith and good actions a person becomes blessed by God with special insight and blessings. I have done business in this way and it resonates with people at a deep level. Doing what is best for others even as bankrupsy looms takes faith to conquer fear and greed.
That is something to admire and respect.
I’m a huge Star Wars fan. I feel I’ve derived a great deal of value from the series. I also think some of David Brin’s comments are a bit off base, and I’ve had a hard time verifying his claim that George Lucas holds a benign dictatorship as a governmental ideal. Anyways, as regards some of his criticisms of the Jedi Knights and especially Yoda… I got from the full scope of the series that Yoda is, frankly, wrong on so many counts. The end of Return of the Jedi has Luke essentially rebelling from the directive his mentors gave him to kill his father. One way to interpret Darth Vader’s redemption is that it’s all about his son and saving him… and I’m not sure that’s the only message that we can take or even necessarily should take from that. Rather, I prefer to see Vader has realizing his fatal flaws in that moment and throwning the Emperor to his doom for greater reasons than just to save Luke from death, but to eliminate the single greatest threat to… well, since the introduction of the prequel trilogy, the entire universe. The very balance of the Force. The Republic fell in part to corrupt senators, and their willingness to sacrifice freedom and democracy for security, and also in part due to the incompetence and loss of value of the Jedi Knights. Their willingness to sacrifice their values to preserve an obviously corrupt Republic, while ignoring the complaints of the Seperatists simply because they knew the head of the Seperatists was a Sith Lord was a fatal flaw.
The Phantom Menace kind of gives us the Qui-Gon Jinn(Liam Neeson) character as the most ideal Jedi hero. He cares more about people than he does necessarily adhering strictly to his orders. Unfortunately he’s enamored of who he believes to be the Jedi messiah and doesn’t work to get the boy’s mother out of slavery. It all culminates in Qui-Gon being the otherworldly mentor to both Yoda and Obi-Wan in their exiles, and their eventually training of Luke Skywalker that results in both Luke’s defiance of his teachers’ own prejudices and flawed judgements as well as an improved version of what it means to be a Jedi Knight. Luke Skywalker, utlimately, is THE representation of the ideal Jedi hero at the end of the Saga. Not Yoda, and not Obi-Wan Kenobi. It’s interesting that David Brin interprets Luke as being the most ideal, and I think that’s George Lucas’ point ultimately. Anakin Skywalker is an imbalanced version of Luke, in so many ways. Luke’s desire to help the oppressed is really rather unselfish, utlimately, while Anakin had it but it ultimately was hampered by his own selfish regard for those he loved(seems he treated them rather more like possessions to me than people) and his own desire for glory in battle and heroic fame. Luke Skywalker is the new template for a Jedi Knight by the end of Return of the Jedi, and he’s been instructed to pass on what he has learned.*
I should note, in the Star Wars Expanded Universe of books and comic books, Qui-Gon Jinn is actually said to have sent a great deal of money to Anakin Skywalker’s mother before he died which she gave to Cliegg Lars(her husband in Attack of the Clones) so he could use it to buy her freedom.
This post is horrible. All statistics and nothing hearty that can be taken to the grave.
I’m looking for inspiration to be a man damnit!! Not some petty excuse to avoid being one. I would rather be proactive in action and know that I was wrong than sit back and avoid making a decision!