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"The Dent of Myne Honde": The Practice and Presentation of War in "King Horn"

Edmisten, Charles E, III
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1367879057

Abstract Details

2013, BA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English.
The late 13th century Middle English romance, "King Horn" tells about a young English prince, Horn, who is ousted from his kingdom by Muslim pirates, called Saracens. The romance charts Horn's journey to reclaim the throne forcefully taken from him, a journey which involves bloody clashes with the Saracens. In the course of his battles Horn ruthlessly slaughters Saracens retreating from battle, and in the retaking of his kingdom, Suddene, Horn butchers Saracen soldiers and noncombatants indiscriminately. This raises the question, particularly for modern readers, as to whether Horn is acting as a proper Christian knight. Christian just war principles, first fully articulated by Augustine of Hippo, pled for restraint in warfare. The chivalric code of knights forbade them from harming women and children, and from cutting down retreating foes. Yet with the inception of the crusades in 1095, bloody warfare against Muslims became widely accepted. This thesis examines how the romance features a reconciliation between just war principles, chivalry, and the crusades into a unique synthesis that was widely accepted across medieval Western Europe at this time. This synthesis resolved the tensions between these three forms of warfare for most medieval Christians.
Andrew Pfrenger, Dr. (Advisor)
105 p.
European History; Literature; Medieval History; Medieval Literature; Middle Ages; Religion; Theology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Edmisten, III, C. E. (2013). "The Dent of Myne Honde": The Practice and Presentation of War in "King Horn" [Undergraduate thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1367879057

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Edmisten, III, Charles. "The Dent of Myne Honde": The Practice and Presentation of War in "King Horn". 2013. Kent State University, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1367879057.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Edmisten, III, Charles. ""The Dent of Myne Honde": The Practice and Presentation of War in "King Horn"." Undergraduate thesis, Kent State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1367879057

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ksuhonors1367879057
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© 2013, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License "The Dent of Myne Honde": The Practice and Presentation of War in "King Horn" by Charles E Edmisten III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University Honors College and OhioLINK.