The Significance Of The Motifs In The Carl Of Carlisle

Several motifs appear throughout the narratives of traditional medieval romantic texts and The Carl of Carlisle is no exception to this. As established the giant character of these texts acts as the foundation on which the rest of the narrative forms around; The Carl of Carlisle reads as a series of tests given to prove the courtesy of the knights in a place where courtesy is stripped from them, truly testing their commitment to the chivalric code. At the first test both the Bishop and Key fail as they fail to regard a foal with the courtesy which they claim to practice: ‘Thow schalt not be be fellow wytt my palfray / Whyll I am beschope in londe’. However, the Carl uses the Bishop’s title and postion against him claiming that despite him
Giants among other monsters in medieval texts, are continually encountered in adversarial situations but within this trope a significant motif that reoccurs throughout texts is the concept of the ‘beheading
Not only are giants within medieval literature depicted as monstrous and violent but they are also portrayed as especially sexual beings. In opposition to the Carl, The Works of Thomas Malory contain narratives with giants who have no control over their conduct, behaviour or sexual desires thus live as monsters that teetered on the realm of civilisation. The Works by Malory encounter giants that differ from the Carl and represent the base character stereotype that sits at the other end of the spectrum to he. These giants are oafish brutes who do not have the intelligence to exercise concept of self control and rather act exclusively to gratify their base instincts. They are ‘wily’ and barbaric gigantic men who sit surrounded by iron clubs and ‘grisarmes’ (Book IV, Chapter XXV), who have an appetite for confrontation, violence and sexual pleasure. Their characters are examples of the primal man in excess, man before he knew better and it is these sins written that are ‘along the flesh (of the giant) that make the monster all too human’. It is the code of chivalry that enforces man control his desires and appetites to exercise courtesy and honour, and the giant is merely man acting without restraint. In chapter V of Book V readers encounter a ‘great giant which had