ABSTRACT
Many current fantasies of the Middle Ages are built on violence – often a violence controlled by rules and elevated by values – but violence nonetheless. In that sense, current depictions have a great deal in common with their medieval antecedents; as Richard Kaeuper notes of medieval literature of war and tournament, "almost without fail these works give prominence to acts of disruptive violence and problems of control". This chapter focuses on what medieval texts have to say about wielding a sword in the Middle Ages. The word "chivalry" carries the echoes of cheval, chevalier, and chevalerie. Knighthood, as an institution, was comprised of vassals and liege lords who operated somewhere in the upper-middle of the feudal system between peasants and royalty, and often stood as a community's first line of defense against invaders and marauders. The works of chivalry are both fascinating in their own right and as an adjunct to much medieval courtly literature.
