[SCA-AE] My responses for the Chivalric virtues question

[Rob Baldassano]

I posted the question to Endless Hills and the Aethelmearc list last week, 
  "What are the knightly virtues, and which do you think is the least important, and which is the most important". 
   
   
  As promised here is my viewpoint on this question. .
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  Chivalric Virtues
  My list of virtues come from multiple sources. 
The primary source being "The Book of the Order of Chivalry" 
There is no ISBN number for this book. 
It was reprinted in 1991 by "The START Group"
Printed at the Sam Houston Press Sam Houston State University
  The second resource for my list of the virtues comes from 
http://www.chronique.com/Library/Chivalry/garick1.htm
  In the old English
thus as al these thynges afore said appertyne to a knygt as touching his body / in lyke wise justice / wysedom / charite (/) loyalte / verite / humylite / strength / hope swiftness & al other vertues se(m)blable appertyne to a knygt as touchyng his soule / & therfor the knygt that vseth the thynges (th)t apperteyne to thordre of chyualry as touchyng his body  / & hath none of these vertues that apperteyne to chyualry touchyng his soule is not the frende of thordre of knygthode.”
  
Sir Garick further quotes another resource listing the virtues as:
[a Knight must] display (Christian) faith, courtesy, honesty, simpleness rather than pride, purity,  “right”, and loyalty. 
   
  As for what I feel is the most important virtue for a Knight...
After giving this much deliberation, and having changed my mind time and time again over the years, it suddenly struck me that there is no right or wrong answer here. 
The question is not in reality a fair question, for what is important to one person is not as important to another. 

  What was important to the Order of Chivalry in period was in fact a balance of all of these virtues. 

  Knights were given tasks to help bolster their balance between the virtues by concentrating their learning on one or another. 

  Therefore Parcival may have been a good knight, and be full of faith, but he was lacking in courtesy and honesty (Honor & Honesty), and thus he needed to work on these virtues in order to attain the level of chivalry that he wished to reach. 
   
  Knights in the SCA, and their students (Squires, Men at Arms, and general pupils) are doubly under an onus to attain a balance of these virtues. 
Why? Because not only do they need to meet the balance of the virtues in our Society, but also in mundane society. 
   
  I for one, while not a Knight, or a Squire, live my life in the hope to attain the balance of body and soul that is required of one of such stature, regardless of if others take note.  (as with the virtue of Humility)
   
  To delve further.
One can not be Chivalric if they ar not honest with themselves nor others. One can not be honest unless they have honor, and keep the faith of their compatriots as to their true nature. Similar relationships between the other virtues exist, and I leave it to each of you to discover on your own.
   
  --Eirik


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Eirik Goransson / Rob Baldassano
Member, Barony of Endless Hills; 
House Odlahorde; 
Viking & All around Good Egg ; 
VROC #5029 (Tigger)
come visit http://www.dracowolf.com 
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