Joyous Gard
A castle named Joyous Gard (a.k.a. Joyeuse/Joieusei/Joiouse Garde; Gioiosa Guardia) is said, in Arthurian legend, to be the home of the knight Lancelot, and to be located in northern England. Thomas Malory, the 14th century author responsible for compiling and/or creating the Arthurian legends, claimed that Joyous Gard was the real-world Bamburgh Castle.
Arthurian legend
As told in the Vulgate Cycle and the works based on it, the Joyous Gard is given its name by the young Lancelot when he sets up his household at the castle after capturing it and ending an evil enchantment during the task to prove his knighthood to King Arthur. Following Lancelot's adulterous and treasonous affair with Queen Guinevere, Lancelot rescues Guinevere, who is under sentence of death from Arthur, and brings her to the Joyous Gard. According to the Stanzaic Morte Arthur, Arthur then unsuccessfully besieges Joyous Gard. The castle then reverts to its former name, Dolorous Gard (Dolorous Guard, Doloreuse / Dolereuse / Douleureuse Garde). Later, Lancelot abandons his castle to live in France before becoming a hermit at Glastonbury, where he spends the rest of his days. His body is then taken to the Joyous Gard for burial (in the French prose cycles, to lie there next to the body of his friend Galehaut).[1] In the prose stories of Tristan and Iseult, they live in the castle with Lancelot's permission as refugees from King Mark.
Suggested locations
The late-medieval writer, Thomas Malory, identified the Joyous Gard with Bamburgh Castle,[2] a coastal castle in Northumberland that was built on former location of a Celtic Briton fort known as Din Guarie.[3] Joyous Gard is also associated with Château de Joyeuse Garde, an early medieval castle site in Brittany.
References
- ^ Lacy, Norris J.; Ashe, Geoffrey; Mancoff, Debra N. (2014). The Arthurian Handbook: Second Edition. Routledge. p. 374. ISBN 9781317777441.
- ^ Black, Joseph (2016). "The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Concise Volume A - Third Edition". Broadview. p. 536. ISBN 978-1554813124.
- ^ "Bernaccia (Bryneich / Berneich)". The History Files. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
External links
- Doloreuse Chartre and La Joyous Garde at Nightbringer.se
- " Of Joyous Gard", a 19th-century poem
