Popular Culture Association in the South

Chaucer Comes to Hollywood: Changing Stars and Staying Authentic in "A Knight's Tale"
Author(s): Hannah Wilkes
Source: Studies in Popular Culture, Vol. 35, No. 1 (FALL 2012), pp. 91-107
Published by: Popular Culture Association in the South
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23416367
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Hannah Wilkes

Chaucer Comes to Hollywood:

Changing Stars and Staying Authentic in A Knight's
Tale1

Somme wikke aspect or disposicioun

Of Saturne, by som constellacioun,
Hath yeven us this . . .
[Some wicked aspect or disposition
Of Saturn, by some constellation,
Has given us this . . . ]
—Geoffrey Chaucer, The Knight's Tale, 1087-10892

"Aman can change his stars."

—William Thatcher, A Knight 's Tale

Having defeated his arch-nemesis at last, William Thatcher

embraces his lover Jocelyn, seemingly for hours, as the sun sets and the
stars come out; the camera pans upward until the audience sees only
stars. This final shot of Brian Helgeland's 2001 film A Knight's Tale
is not a mere romantic convention; it is a final reminder of the film's
theme: that it is possible to change one's stars. William has always
dreamed of being a knight, so when his master dies, he adopts the
persona of Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein. Soon, William hires Geoffrey
Chaucer3 to write him false patents of nobility and act as his herald.
Eventually William's humble background is discovered; he is arrested
but then pardoned and knighted by Edward, the Black Prince. Modern
rock music and slang help tell the story and complicate the film's 1370
setting; anachronisms aid rather than weaken the translation of parallel
themes.

A Knight's Tale is loosely inspired by Chaucer's The Knight's

Tale. In the "Stories of the People" featurette on the DVD, Helgeland
explains his inspiration:
I read a biography of Chaucer, and there's a six-month period where
they just don't know what he was doing, so part of the conceit was
that this movie happens during the six months that he was missing... .
The first tale in The Canterbury Tales is called The Knight's Tale, and,
hopefully, the idea is that he's writing about William in some way.

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Hannah Wilkes

As Chaucer scholars know, The Knight's Tale is based on Boccaccio's

Teseida Delle Nozzi di Emilia, not an undocumented six-month
adventure. But as Candace Barrington observes, Helgeland is not
producing a film for Chaucer scholars but for the general public; he
expects audiences' Chaucer-specific knowledge to include only that
someone named Geoffrey Chaucer wrote important literature (2).
Chaucer's The Knight's Tale is the story of two cousins, Palamon and
Arcite, who fall in love with a woman named Emelye while they are
imprisoned. When their love becomes known, they are ordered to fight
to the death, with the victor winning Emelye's hand. Arcite initially
wins the battle, but Saturn has him injured immediately thereafter,
making Palamon the victor. Clearly, Helgeland did not adopt the full
plot of Chaucer's tale. Nonetheless, as I will show, there are many
parallels between the two Knight's Tales.
In considering this adaptation, I draw heavily from two major
ideas Kathleen Murray proposes in her article "To Have and Have
Not: An Adaptive System." She questions the critical assumption
that adaptation is specific to narrative. In analyzing an adaptation
that strongly deviates from the source text's narrative, I, too, will
challenge this assumption. Murray notes that "[t]here is no satisfying
general theory about adaptation" but suggests the relevance of
adaptation's scientific meaning, which emphasizes transformation. By
considering adaptation in this sense, we see that "[t]he original text is
transformed by the film version. It cannot be read in quite the same
way again" (93). This transformation may violate what is essentially
an unwritten contract between adaptors and their audiences. As Colin
McCabe notes, "The cinema . . . claims that the source material is
being faithfully translated into a new medium" (5). A Knight's Tale
"faithfully translates" numerous aspects of the source text, though not
Palamon and Arcite's quest for Emelye. Helgeland's text is unique
because of the way he adapts these other elements. As Nickolas
Haydock concedes, "the anachronistic, agglutinative representation of
the past in Helgeland's A Knight's Tale may be closer to the poetics
of Chaucer's The Knight's Tale than we would comfortably admit"
(6). Helgeland makes the medievalism more accessible to a modern
audience by translating it into modern features.
These modern features have made scholars rather fretful.
David Matthews' description of the film as "largely amiable" (199) is
perhaps the closest thing to praise medievalists have offered, though
Kathleen Forni's characterization of it as a "delightfully anachronistic
fairy tale" (253) gives the same sense of back-handed compliment.

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 Chaucer Comes to Hollywood: A Knight's Tale

Forni later asserts that "the film . . . fails as a constructive form of

literary symbiosis" and "fails to engage Chaucer's tale on any thematic
or aesthetic level" (255), two failures I intend to show do not exist at
all. Matthews calls A Knight's Tale "a modern film taking a distinctly
disrespectful attitude" (121). Barrington seems to sense disrespect not
just to the Middle Ages but to Chaucer himself, saying, "The resulting
popular Chaucer bears little resemblance to the academic Chaucer;
in fact, encountering popular Chaucer can be very disorienting for
those scholars and teachers who strive to approximate 'authentic
readings'" (3-4). The scholarly concern seems to be that audiences
will come away from A Knight 's Tale believing it to be The Knight s
Tale, including an authentic picture of Geoffrey Chaucer, poet-slash
degenerate gambler.4
Further anxieties arise in the criticism that A Knight's Tale
presents a Geoffrey Chaucer who is a product of modern America, not
medieval England. Louise D'Arcens summarizes the overall critical
view of the film as "unanimous criticism of A Knight's Tale's avowedly
modern, capitalist, and meritocratic ideology" (91). Haydock, Forni,
and Helen Dell all suggest that the "capitalist master narrative" makes
the film both very much modern and very much American. Other
scholars see definite Americanism—incorrectly, I believe—in other
features of the film. Züleyha Çetiner-Ôktem argues that William, Wat,
and Roland's first interaction with Chaucer illustrates Americans'
relationship to medieval England. The three men have never heard
of Chaucer or his poetry; likewise, Chaucer "does not hold a lot of
significance for Americans outside the academia [sic]. Obviously,
Chaucer is not a part of American culture" (50). This last sentence
overstates the point a bit; as I have said, most Americans outside the
academy know who Chaucer is and that English teachers consider his
poetry to be capital-L Literature.5 His appearances in popular culture
are not ubiquitous, but neither are they nonexistent. In Barrington's
interpretation, A Knight 's Tale "uses [Chaucer] to validate a distinctly
American ethos : risk-taking for personal gain" ( 143) and that "as a good
American hero William overcomes the odds, wins the championships,
and gets the girl" (143). Yet these are not features specific to American
narratives; both appear in Chaucer's tale. Arcite and Palamon risk
death as they overcome their own odds (they are, after all, imprisoned)
in an attempt to win the joust and win Emelye.
As Martha W. Driver and Sid Ray note, "Medieval film is
certainly anachronistic, but we should not dismiss it for being so"
(9). Instead, we should examine the anachronisms. Louise D'Arcens

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Hannah Wilkes

observes that the film "both provokes and dramatizes anxieties about
the relationship between the medieval and medievalism, literature
and film" (81) and "has failed (however deliberately) to capture the
historical past" (91). She suggests that most medievalists have not
done what the film "cheekily" invites us to: resist our urge as medieval
scholars to view the film as "a degraded iteration of Chaucer's tale or
more generally of medieval romance." Yet if we do resist this urge,
we recognize the fallacy of "the implicit privileging of the medieval
over the medievalist text" and recognize that medievalisms have their
own value (81). These two recognitions are crucial for medievalist
scholarship and for my argument. I go a step farther than D'Arcens and
suggest that, not only should we treat the medievalist text as equally
important as the medieval text, we should also acknowledge that the
medievalist text might teach us something about the medieval text. As
I plan to show, the "deliberate failure" D'Arcens notes in A Knight's
Tale—that is, the deliberately modern touches—create authenticity in
the film, supporting the authenticity created by a narrative parallel. I
argue that Helgeland's William and Chaucer's Palamon make similar
choices that allow each to change his stars. Demonstrating this parallel
requires a new reading of The Knight's Tale] thus, examining the
medievalist text requires learning something new about the medieval
text.

Tom Shippey suggests the current usage of the term

"medievalism" refers to "[a]ny post-medieval attempt to recreate
the Middle Ages, for the modern world, in any of many different
media" (45). Helgeland's film is clearly one such attempt. The 1370
setting, characters fitting in the three estates, jousting, and Chaucer
the character are the most obvious medievalisms. Analysis shows
that modern-day touches, including William's changing his stars, also
recreate the Middle Ages as presented in Chaucer's The Knight's Tale.
In his article "Authenticating Realism in Medieval Film," William F.
Woods suggests that "[w]hen we connect with the world of the film .
. . vitalized by what we can accept as authentic features of medieval
reality, then our resistance fades, and the scene breaks upon us with
the force of real experience" (39). In the following analysis, I will
explore some of these "authentic features" in A Knight s Tale.
A long pop-cultural history of knights wooing ladies has
conditioned us to associate the Middle Ages with romance, so the
trope of love at first sight is one such "authentic feature." Riding
through the camp outside the jousting stadium, William catches sight
of a beautiful woman, Jocelyn, and he follows her to the cathedral to

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 Chaucer Comes to Hollywood: A Knight's Tale

ask her name. They speak briefly, William suggesting that Jocelyn is
not human but supernatural: "Or maybe angels have no names, only
beautiful faces." This idea of loving a woman for her beauty, without
knowing her name, echoes Palamon's love for Emelye. Seeing her for
the first time, he observes:
The fairnesse of that lady that I see
Yond in the gardyn romen to and fro
Is cause of al my criyng and my wo.
I noot wher she be womman or godesse,
But Venus is it soothly as I gesse
[The fairness of that lady that I see
Yonder in the garden roaming to and fro
Is cause of all my crying and my woe.
I know not whether she be woman or goddess
But Venus is it surely as I guess]. (1098-1102)
Palamon does not specifically say the word "love" until line 1143,
when he says of Emily, "whom I love and serve," but his words above
indicate that he is already in love with Emelye. Like William, he cannot
be certain whether the being he sees is mortal, guessing that Emelye
is actually the goddess Venus. William and Palamon have both fallen
in love at first sight.
The use of slang is also authentic, though the specific modern
English words are not. Viewers may not know the Middle English
word "weylaway!"6 (938), but they understand Bettany's Chaucer's
distress when he rests his head in his hand and says, "Oh, my giddy
aunt." Some of the slang is sexual, forcing awareness that bawdiness
was present in medieval writing and conversation. The sexual play
on-words in The Knight 's Tale would perhaps be lost on many modern
audiences, but viewers do understand the bawdiness when William
asks Jocelyn, "Don't you ever get tired of putting on clothes?" and
Bettany's Chaucer quickly whispers, "I think she's talking about
taking 'em off, Will," or when Roland says, "Every woman wants
proof...that her legs have not been uncrossed for nothing." Though it
seems inauthentic, modern slang gives the audience a connection to
the text. The film's viewers can appreciate the same types of humor
and equivalent slang that readers can appreciate in Chaucer's text.
Early in the film, Helgeland presents us with a glaring
anachronism. As the first jousting match commences, Queen's "We
Will Rock You" plays, and the spectators pound and clap their hands
to the beat, singing along with the refrain, "We will, we will rock
you." Although stadium anthems are not "authentic features" of the
Middle Ages, the song creates a feeling of contemporaneousness.

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Hannah Wilkes

Because "We Will Rock You" is so common before sporting events

today, modern audiences feel and understand the excitement medieval
audiences would have felt at a jousting tournament. Interestingly,
scholars are generally appreciative of the anachronistic stadium
scenes. Hay dock, who mentions shirtless spectators doing the wave
and a season culminating in championships, in addition to Queen's
stadium anthem, argues that "[a] shared devotion to public spectacles
is the only abiding similarity between Chaucer's 'The Knight's Tale'
[sic] and Helgeland's version" (25). He notes that the film presents
successful jousters as analogues for modern celebrity athletes (25)
and suggests that the film reveals "unsuspected affinities between
medieval knighthood and modern sports" (26). For Çetiner-Ôktem,
the anachronisms in the tournament scenes "not only bridge the gap
between periods, but create a deep sense of familiarity for the audience"
(52). Here I agree with these critics. Sports are a major part of modern
society, and presenting tournaments in the context of modern sports
certainly makes jousting more exciting for a modern audience. Like
William's immediate love for Jocelyn or the character's use of slang,
these stadium anachronisms do more than connect the audience to
the Middle Ages generally; they connect viewers to Chaucer's tale
specifically.
In a twenty-eight line passage of The Knight s Tale, Chaucer
recreates this feeling as he describes the atmosphere before Arcite
and Palamon fight. He describes the knights' horses "gnawynge
[gnawing]" (2507), creating the image of horses chomping at their
bits in the atmosphere of a fight about to begin. The description of the
armor comes in sets of two and then three:
So unkouth and so riche, and wroght so weel
Of goldsmythrye, of browdynge, and of steel;
The sheeldes brighte, testeres, and trappures,
Gold-hewn helmes, hauberkes, cote-armures
[So exotic and so rich, and wrought so well
Of goldsmithery, of embroidery, and of steel
The bright shields and war horses' armor
Gold-colored helmets, mail, and coats of arms]

Nailynge the speres, and helmes bokelynge;

Giggynge of sheeldes, with layneres lacynge
[Assembling the lances, and buckling helmets
Fitting the shields with straps, and fastening straps].7
(2497-2500, 2503-2505)
This repetition creates a rhythmic sound, evoking a feeling similar
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 Chaucer Comes to Hollywood: A Knight's Tale

to that modern audiences feel when they hear exciting music before
a sporting event. Further, the narration allows readers to envision
the armor and the business of knights and squires preparing for the
joust. This anticipation is furthered in the description of spectators
speculating on the match's outcome:
Somme seyden thus, somme seyde "it shal be so";
Somme helden with hym with the blake berd,
Somme with the balled, somme with the thikke herd;
Somme seyde he looked grymme, and he wold fighte
[Some said thus, some said, "It shall be so";
Some held with him with the black beard
Some with the bald, some with the thickly-haired
Some said he looked fierce, and he would fight].
(2516-2519)
This passage creates excitement, bordering on frenzy, through
anaphora and intra-sentence repetition of the word "somme. " Creators
of a film, however, can use more than words to create such feelings.
Thus, A Knight's Tale features clapping, exciting music, and close-ups
of horses shaking their heads and whinnying. The intensity of these
features creates the same sense of pre-sport anticipation as Chaucer's
poetry.
The authenticity of the film, present in these audio and visual
cues, supports the authentic theme of changing one's stars. The story
accurately follows the ideas of astrology and fortune laid out in
Chaucer's Knight's Tale. Both knights have the agency in changing
their stars; unlike Palamon, however, William intends to change his
stars. In an attempt to persuade Wat and Roland to come with him to
"be champions," he says, defiantly, "A man can change his stars. " In
the same scene, he tells them that "[w]ith thirteen silver pieces, three
men can change their stars." From the beginning, William clearly
shows that his drive to become a knight is based in his conviction
that he can change his stars in order to do so. Just before riding in his
first joust, William says, "I've waited my whole life for this moment."
When William is first knocked off his horse, a flashback indicates that
he has always planned to change his stars. As he falls, he remembers
climbing atop the stocks and speaking to the man being punished in
them:
Young William: Someday, I'll be a knight.
Man in stocks: A thatcher's son? A knight? Ha! You might as
well try to change the stars!
Young William: Can it be done, Father? Can a man change the stars?
John Thatcher: Yes, William. If he believes enough, a man can

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Hannah Wilkes

do anything.
A later flashback shows William's father telling him, "He's a real
knight, William. Watch and learn all you can. It's all I can do for you,
son. Now go. Change your stars, and live a better life than I have."
William's desire to change his stars, and his use of that phrase to
identify his desire, clearly began when he was very young. As an
adult, he perseveres because of the conviction that he can make such
a change.
Twelve years later, upon his return to London, William goes to
Cheapside to find his father. John Thatcher is now blind, and William
pretends to be a messenger, saying, "I have news, Master Thatcher, of
your son. ... He wanted you to know that he changed his stars after
all." As we soon learn, however, William's certainty that he has become
a knight is incorrect. His arch-nemesis and rival for Jocelyn, Count
Adhemar, follows William to Cheapside and reports to the authorities
that William is not actually of noble birth. William's friends want him
to run, but he refuses and is consequently arrested. Adhemar comes to
taunt William in jail, mocking his life-long mantra to change the stars:
"He that strives to touch a star oft stumbles into simple straw." This
reference to the film's theme is further reinforced when, like the man
who told him he could not change his stars, William is put in the stocks.
Here, his stars truly do change. Three of the men in the angry crowd
around the stocks reveal themselves to be the Black Prince Edward
and two guards. Edward approaches William on the stocks and tells
him, "Your men love you. If I knew nothing else about you, that would
be enough. But you also tilt when you should withdraw. And that is
knightly, too." Because of these knightly qualities, Edward knights
William so that he may be released and complete the tournament.
Although Edward orders William's release and knights
him, he is not changing William's stars for him. He knights William
because of choices William has made—to treat his men as equals, to
be a kind friend to them, and to "tilt when [he] should withdraw." In
an earlier scene, Edward is disguised so that he can joust; although he
is always permitted to joust, most knights prefer not to fight royalty
and withdraw before the match begins. William does not; he defies
his squires' and herald's advice and rides in a joust against the Prince
of Wales. William's story is not just one of a man who persevered.
Had he acquiesced to Wat's request that he "give [him] the lance!"
and withdraw from the joust against Edward, he never would have
been able to demonstrate to Edward that he is "knightly." Although
Edward says it "would be enough" to know that William's men love

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 Chaucer Comes to Hollywood: A Knights Tale

him, Edward would have had no reason to have contact with William
or to know his relationship with his men if William had not impressed
him by riding in the joust. William actively changes his stars by going
against the advice of his fellows and putting himself in the favor of a
powerful figure.
Like Helgeland's William, Chaucer's Palamon has an active
role in changing his stars. Frieda Elaine Penninger argues that
Palamon does not take the actions that bring him joy; rather, the
gods and Theseus do (2). Indeed, the gods and Theseus do perform
actions that lead to Palamon winning Emelye, which brings him joy;
however, those actions are parallel to Edward knighting William. As
Edward knights William because of William's actions, so do the gods
and Theseus act in a way that makes Palamon the victor because of
his own actions. Alan Gaylord summarizes the typical critical view
of Saturn's role in the tale: "Saturn is seen as a resistless terror and

a force of destiny whose will is absolute, arbitrary, and capricious"

(172), a view Gaylord wishes to revise. Such a revision is appropriate,
for The Knight's Tale does not support this reading. Saturn acts as
he does because Palamon has proven allegiance to that god and his
daughter Venus, not because of a simple desire to see Arcite lose.
Saturn and Venus are both gods and planets; as the latter,
they are the stars that Palamon changes. As Walter Clyde Curry
notes, Chaucer "has skillfully gone about transferring the power of
the ancient gods of his sources to the astrological planets of the same
name" (120). Planets are types of stars; the Middle English word
sterre refers to all stars but also any "one of the seven solar bodies
called planets in Ptolemaic astronomy."8 Arcite also indicates that the
planets are stars, saying,
Somme wikke aspect or disposicioun
Of Saturne, by som constellacioun,
Hath yeven us this, although we had it sworn
So stoode the hevene whan that we were bom.
[Some wicked aspect or disposition
Of Saturn, by some constellation
Has given us this, although we had it sworn
So stood the heavens when we were born]. (1087-1090)
Here, the phrase "some constellation" indicates the connection
between Saturn and non-planetary stars. Saturn does not work alone to
bring trouble to the cousins; rather, he works through a constellation,
a gathering of other stars. That his comrades are a constellation, not
gods or celestial beings, tells us that Arcite views Saturn as a star, not

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Hannah Wilkes

a god.
Palamon's response to this passage shows that he will not stand
against Saturn. In saying that "some wicked aspect or disposition of
Saturn" caused the cousins' troubles, Arcite suggests Saturn's unkind
nature. Giving this speech indicates that Arcite thinks Palamon will
be receptive to his sentiment and willing to bemoan the fate Saturn
has given them. Palamon replies by calling "this opinioun ... a veyn
imaginacioun" (1094), footnoted in the Riverside Chaucer as an "idle,
foolish conception" (n. 1094). His response that Arcite's assumption is
"veyn imaginacioun" indicates that he is not willing to complain about
a situation Saturn has caused. In so doing, he demonstrates loyalty to
Saturn, which extends to an alignment between Palamon and the god
star. We see this alliance further on the morning of the joust. When
he enters the arena to fight for Emelye, Palamon is accompanied by
"Lygurge himself, the grete kyng of Trace [Lycurgus himself, the great
king of Thrace]" (2129). Curry argues that Lycurgus is a "Saturnalian
figur[e]" (120), bearing the physical markings of a man born under
Saturn (137).
In addition to allying with Saturn, Palamon is able to change
his stars by allying himself with Venus. When Palamon and Arcite see
Emelye for the first time, Palamon surmises that "Venus is it soothly
[She is surely Venus]" (1102). Guessing that a beautiful woman
must actually be Venus is a compliment to the goddess. Furthering
the compliment with devotion, Palamon then falls to his knees and
prays to Venus for help escaping from their imprisonment (1104
1107). The morning of the joust, Palamon, Arcite, and Emelye rise
to pray. Because Palamon rises at the lark's song (2210), he is able to
pray during the hour of Venus (2217). He words his prayer carefully,
speaking with "hooly herte [holy heart]" (2013) and "humble cheere
[humble countenance]" (2219) and calling Venus "Faireste of fair, O
lady myn [Fairest of fair, O lady mine]" (2221). The alliance is not
forged by chance; Palamon's choices, rather, make it possible. The
poem does not indicate that Palamon has slept. Rather, the verb "herde
[heard]" suggest that he merely waits for the lark's song to alert him
that the hour of Venus has come: "When Palamon the larke herde
synge . . . [h]e roos to wenden on his pilgrymage [When Palamon herd
the lark sing...he rose to begin his pilgrimage]" (2210, 2214). Palamon
intends to pray at the hour of Venus and is simply waiting for that hour
to come. In making his prayer at that time, he shows his loyalty to
Venus.

Praying to Venus is itself important, but so too is the way

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 Chaucer Comes to Hollywood: A Knight's Tale

in which Palamon prays. He does not merely beseech Venus to

grant him Emelye; he words his prayer in a way that is more likely
to appeal to the goddess. The lines "Have pitee of my bittre teeris
smerte,/And taak myn humble preyere at thyn herte [Have pity on
my bitter tears' smarting,/And take my humble prayer to your heart]"
(2225-26) recognize Venus' gentle nature. As Curry notes, Venus "is
more powerful in matters pertaining to love and peace than in war"
(128). Thus, a passionate appeal to pity is an appropriate prayer to the
goddess of love. Later in his prayer, Palamon must deceive Venus to
change his stars, much as William must deceive the authorities and the
spectators in order to change his stars. Palamon prays:
I kepe noght of armes for to yelpe,
Ne I ne axe nat tomorwe to have victorie,
Ne renoun in this cas, ne veyne glorie
Of pris of armes blowen up and doun;
But I wolde have fully possessioun
Of Emelye, and dye in thy servyse
[I care not for arms to boast of,
Nor do I ask tomorrow to have victory,
Nor renown in this case, nor vain glory
Of praise for deeds of arms proclaimed9
But I wish to have full possession
Of Emelye, and die in your service]. (2238-2243)
This seems to be in direct contradiction with his blood-thirsty threat to
Arcite upon discovering him in the forest:
. . . "Arcite, false traytour wikke,
Now artow hent, that lovest my lady so,
[. . . "Arcite, false, wicked traitor
Now you are caught, that loves my lady so]

I wol be deed, or elles thou shalt dye

Thou shalt not love my lady Emelye,
But I wol love hire oonly and namo;
For I am Palamon, thy mortal foo.
And though I no wepene have in this place,
But out of prison am astert by grace,
I drede noght that outher thow shalt dye,
Or thow ne shalt nat loven Emelye.
Chees which thou wold, or thou shalt nat asterte!

[I will be dead, or else you shall die.

You shall not love my lady Emelye,
But I will love her only and no others;

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Hannah Wilkes

For I am Palamon, your mortal foe.

And though I have no weapon in this place,
But out of prison I have escaped by grace,
I doubt not that either you shall die,
Or you shall not love Emelye.
Choose which you would, or you shall not escape!]."
(1580-1595)
The use of the phrases "mortal foo" and "thow shalt dye" demonstrate
that Palamon is willing to kill Arcite in order to win Emelye; a mortal
foe does not just fight, but fights to the death. Palamon effaces these
desires, however, when he is praying to Venus, who he knows will be
more receptive to peace than violence.
Because Venus is Saturn's daughter, praying to Venus and
flattering her nature furthers Palamon's alliance with Saturn and
leads to his stars changing after the battle. Initially, Arcite wins the
battle; Theseus declares that "Arcite of Thebes shal have Emelie,/
That by his fortune hath hire faire ywonne [Arcite of Thebes shall
have Emelie,/That by his fortune has fairly won her] " (2652-2659).
Because Palamon has allied himself with Venus, however, Arcite does
not "have Emelie. " At the sight of Arcite's victory, Venus "wepeth
[weeps] " (2665), but Saturn intervenes, calling Venus his "doghter
[daughter]" and saying to her, "thow shalt been esed soon [you shall be
eased soon]" (2670). Because Theban society is pagan, we can assume
that Palamon knows Venus is Saturn's daughter and understands that
allying himself with Venus may translate to an alliance with Saturn.
Because of this alliance, as Arcite gazes at the woman he has won,
Out of the ground a furie infernal sterte,
From Pluto sent at requeste of Saturne,
For which his hors for fere gan to turne,
And leep aside, and foundred as he leep;
And er that Arcite may taken keep,
He pighte hym on the pomel of his heed,
That in the place he lay as he were deed,
His brest tobrosten with his sadel-bowe
[Out of the ground an infernal fury started,
From Pluto sent at request of Saturn,
From which his horse for fear began to turn,
And leap aside, and foundered as he leapt;
And before Arcite could take heed10
He hit his own head on the pommel,"
Then in the place he lay as if he were dead
His breast shattered12 by his saddle's pommel].13 (2684
2691)

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 Chaucer Comes to Hollywood: A Knight's Tale

In requesting that Pluto send a fury against Arcite, Saturn makes good
on his promise that Venus will be eased, an action he takes because
Venus wishes to protect Palamon and because Palamon has shown his
loyalty to Saturn. Palamon does win Emelye because the fury attacks
Arcite, but the fury did not act independently. Palamon's choices
throughout the tale lead to the attack and his victory. Like William,
Palamon has the agency in changing stars and, therefore, his future.
Caroline Jewers argues that "we 'read' medieval-themed films
not only through the filter of what we know of the past but also via what
we have seen on the screen already," so that our views of the Middle
Ages are "double-fictionalizjed] " (192-3). This "double-fictionalized"
view, however, is not the only option for critically viewing medieval
film. A Knight's Tale's attempt to recreate medievalism invites a study
of intersecting ideas, and the presence of Chaucer as a character in the
film invites a closer investigation, one framed by a re-reading of The
Knight's Tale. The parallels between the two texts are many,14 although
the plots are not the same. By examining these parallels, we see the
value of considering adaptation as transformation.
Helgeland's idea of filling a void in Chaucer's biography is
an original one and one that invites an exploration of the two texts'
parallels.15 As scholars of literature and popular culture, we should
take advantage of such invitations. Filmmakers have seen the potential
in the genre of medieval film, and some scholars are wont to despair
at this genre, seeing it as nothing but a series as anachronisms that
distort perceptions of the medieval. No doubt films like A Knight's
Tale do color impressions of the Middle Ages, but this is not part of the
"problem" Matthews discusses—the problem that "many notions of
the Middle Ages which have been rejected by scholars remain deeply
imbedded in popular understanding" (123). As I have argued, the film
presents images of the Middle Ages through "faithful translations," as
McCabe tells us adaptations promise. In creating what appears to be
a super-modern version of the Middle Ages, Helgeland has actually
helped alleviate the problem Matthews identifies. His audience comes
away with notions of the Middle Ages that we actually find in the
literature of the Middle Ages. I suggest that anachronisms, such as the
inclusion of classic rock in a film about knighthood, allow for greater
analysis and criticism. Rather than simply observing or decrying such
elements of the film, we can and should ask what they do to the film.
Such inquiry allows us to see connections to classical medieval texts
and demonstrate the presence of medieval themes in our own popular
culture. Thus, what is on the surface a radical departure from the

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Hannah Wilkes

source text is actually a new way of understanding Chaucer. Rather

than simply watching William and Jocelyn kiss in front of the stars,
we can understand that William has earned Jocelyn's companionship
in the same way that Palamon earned Emelye's in another text so long
before.
Hannah Wilkes

Shepherd University

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 Chaucer Comes to Hollywood: A Knight's Tale

Notes

'I presented an earlier version of this paper at the 2010 annual

meeting of the Popular Culture and American Culture Associations in the
South. I am grateful to Alexandra Ferretti, Elizabeth Ellis, Joshua Tucker,
L. Bellee Jones-Pierce, and Dr. Alexandra Cook for their feedback on this
paper's various drafts.
2A11 Chaucer quotations are from The Riverside Chaucer, eighth
edition, edited by Larry D. Benson. All translations into modern English are
my own, unless otherwise indicated.
3Paul Bettany portrays Geoffrey Chaucer in the film; to avoid
confusion between the poet and the character, I will call Chaucer the
character "Bettany's Chaucer. "
"The occasional viewer has made this mistake. Candace Barrington
quotes online customer reviews of an edition of The Knight 's Tale that
summarize Helgeland's film, not Chaucer's tale (American Chaucers 157
9). However, this seems to be the result of failing to read a book before
reviewing it, rather than the fault of Helgeland's film.
5Candace Barrington also recognizes Americans' awareness of
Chaucer, discussing "the astonishing number of people" who learn she is a
Chaucer scholar and respond with a recitation of the Canterbury Tales' first
eighteen lines (American Chaucers 155).
6"Weylaway, " an interjection expressing distress, does not have a
direct equivalent in modern English.
7This translation is provided in the footnotes of the Riverside
Chaucer.
8Middle English Dictionary, "sterre," definition 1 .a.
'This translation is provided in the footnotes of the Riverside
Chaucer.
10The translation of "kepe" as "heed" is provided in the footnotes
of the Riverside Chaucer.
"The translations of "pighte hym" as "struck himself' and "pomel"
as "pommel" are provided in the footnotes of the Riverside Chaucer.
12The translation of "tobrosten" as "shattered" is provided in the
footnotes of the Riverside Chaucer.
l3The translation of "sadel-bowe" as "pommel" comes from the
Middle English Dictionary, "sadel-boue," definition 1 .a.
'"One might additionally consider estates satire, chivalry, courtly
love, and the role of Fortune, all of which show themselves in both Knights
Tales.
l5Editor's note: For a comparable idea relating to another author,
see the film Agatha (1979), on Agatha Christie's mysterious disappearance
for several days.

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Hannah Wilkes

Works Cited

Barrington, Candace. American Chaucers. New York: Palgrave MacMillan,

2007. Print.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Knight 's Tale. The Riverside Chancer. Larry D.
Benson, ed. 8th ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. 37-66. Print.
Çetiner-Ôktem, Züleyha. "Dreaming the Middle Ages: American
Neomedievalism in A Knight 's Tale and Timeline. " Interactions:
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Üniversitesi îngiliz ve Amerikan Incelemeleri Dergisi 18.1 (2009):
43-56. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 6 May 2010.
Curry, Walter Clyde. "The Knight's Tale." Chaucer and the Mediaeval
Sciences. By Curry. 1926. New York: Oxford UP, 1942. 119-63.
Print.
D'Arcens, Louise. "Deconstruction and the Medieval Indefinite Article: The
Undecidable Medievalism of Brian Helgoland's A Knight's Tale."
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Web. 06 May 2010.
Dell, Helen. "Past, Present, Future Perfect: Paradigms of History in
Medievalism Studies." Parergon 25.2 (2008):58-79. Literature
Resource Center. Web. 27 July 2012.
Driver, Martha W. and Sid Ray. "Preface: Hollywood Knights." The
Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf to Buffy.
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Jewers, Caroline. "Hard Day's Knights: First Knight, A Knight's Tale, and
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Rufiis Sewell. Columbia, 2001. DVD.
Matthews, David. "What the Trumpet Solo Tells Us: A Response."
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McCabe, Colin. "Introduction—Bazinian Adaptation: The Butcher Boy as
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McCabe, Colin, Kathleen Murray, and Rick Warner, eds. True to the Spirit:
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 Chaucer Comes to Hollywood: A Knights Tale

Murray, Kathleen. "To Have and Have Not: An Adaptive System. "
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—. "sadel-boue, n. l.a. " The Middle English Dictionary. 18 Dec 2001.
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Woods, William F. "Authenticating Realism in Medieval Film." Driver and
Ray 19-22. Print.

Hannah Wilkes teaches English at Shepherd University and Northern Virginia

Community College-Manassas. She earned her M.A. at the University of
Alabama, where she focused on medieval and Victorian literatures, completing
a thesis on parallels between Chaucer's dream visions and visions in the
Harry Potter series. In addition to medievalisms, she is interested in the ways
popular culture (mis)educates its consumers about various topics, especially
the Middle Ages; the pedagogical implications of such (mis)information;
popular culture in the classroom, particularly the developmental writing class;
and political rhetoric. She is a member of the Popular Culture and American
Culture Associations in the South, currently serving on the Executive Council
as Graduate Student and New Professional Member-at-Large.

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