Feats and Feasts: The Valorization of Sir Gareth of Orkney’s “Grete Laboure”

In the late fifteenth century, when persistent political strife had dimmed the aura of the English warrior aristocrat and when non-nobles reshaped the discourses of power, Sir Thomas Malory reaffirmed chivalric society in a bold way. In his Tale of Gareth the Arthurian synthesizer closely aligned knightly worshyp with that same manual work—burden and mark of the peasant—traditionally juxtaposed to the noble lifestyle. There the young Sir Gareth of Orkney rejects aristocratic entitlement and parasitism, and his social advance carefully pairs martial laboure with the needful, Rabelaisian replenishment served by a good appetite.