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Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe$
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Richard Kaeuper

Print publication date: 2001

Print ISBN-13: 9780199244584

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244584.001.0001

The Privileged Practice of Violence: Worship of the Demi-god Prowess

Chapter:
(p. 129 ) 7 The Privileged Practice of Violence: Worship of the Demi-god Prowess
Source:
Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe
Author(s):

Richard W. Kaeuper

Publisher:
Oxford University Press
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244584.003.0008

This chapter explains why knights worshipped at the shrine of the demi-god prowess and that they were the ones practising violence. Knights considered the practice of violence to be a privilege. The primary constituent in chivalry is prowess which wins honour. Prowess and honour are closely linked in the minds of knights, for the practice of the one produces the other, a theme expounded in all chivalric literature.

Keywords:   prowess, honour, violence, worship, demi-god prowess, knights, chivalric literature

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