#I’d at least guess that elaine should be a virgin before marriage and faithful | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

gawayne · 2 years ago

Text

question for the group: as unmarried and/or sexually active women become more and more the target of church rhetoric from the 13th century and going onwards, why does the vulgate let elaine of corbenic off so easy?

#I’ve been thinking abt this for a while it’s hard to wrap my head around #she slept with lancelot who then didn’t marry her (yet)#makes sense that this is pretty ok because galahad is prophesized to be a Pretty Cool Guy #except it’s a weird way for a saint-like figure to be born isn’t it #not only is he contaminated by sin because unlike jesus and mary he was conceived thru sex (gross)#but by the same line of thinking isn’t he also marred because he’s born out of wedlock?#it seems pretty risqué compared to other texts at the time (that Don’t involve lancelot)#is it a sacrifice thing? she gives up her virginity and probably prospects at a marriage to anyone except lancelot for galahad to exist?#I don’t think I’ve seen virginity as a noble sacrifice in other texts but she’s p much called to do this by god so. ?#yeah idk what to make of it #I feel like if I didn’t know the story I’d expect galahad to be born to a married couple. lancelot can still be an adulterer if he likes but #I’d at least guess that elaine should be a virgin before marriage and faithful #?#so wondering if anyone has thoughts !

8 notes · View notes