Chivalry (2022) is a graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Colleen Doran. If you have already read my article on The Sandman then you already know what I think about Gaiman’s brilliance as an author. As far as the artwork goes, I read up on Colleen Doran’s endnote and it’s safe to say that her craft shows in Chivalry; given the story and the setting she reproduced the style of the late medieval illuminated scripts (or miniature), a style that fits perfectly with the narrative.
The story itself features a ‘sweet little old lady’ who happens to buy a goblet in a thriftshop and places it on her mantelpiece. One day she is visited by Galaad, a knight in shining armour, the very one found in the Arthurian cycle. The knight of the round table is in fact on a quest to find the Holy Grail, and surely enough it is exactly the one that is on that same mantelpiece.
Bear in mind that the story is set in our days; the knight however is not a product of imagination. It is a case where two realities merge within a single story and there is never a moment that the characters react or doubt such a dynamic.
The plot is fairly simplistic: the knight tries to offer countless riches for the Grail, keeps the old woman company and talks with her while she does not want to part with the goblet as it is a pretty decoration. Eventually he brings her three magical gifts; if she will not accept them in exchange for the object of his quest then he will simply go away. In the end, the old woman takes two of them in exchange for the Grail because they would fit well on the mantelpiece and because two for one is a more than fair deal, but refuses the third one. And here is where things get interesting: the object she refuses is the Apple of the Hesperides, one that is capable of giving her back her youth. In a moment where she thinks about the long life that she lived and about her deceased husband she tells the knight to put the apple away and that it is not proper to offer ‘old ladies’ similar things. Galaad then takes the Grail and returns to his realm, one of magic, romance, adventure and literature.
As I said, the story is simplistic, but the theme is an immortal one: the contrast between young and old age, tradition and modernity, transience and eternity. As the old woman thinks about her youth, about her past, she understands that there must be an ending, for without it eternal life would simply be a meaningless existence. It is exactly the brevity of life, the passions and adventures lived in one’s youth that also give meaning to getting old and eventually dying. There is a certain sense of sadness for something so beautiful as life to eventually come to an end, but it is nevertheless the natural order of things. As the two characters part ways, so they return to their respective realities, one mortal and the other eternal.
Neil Gaimain as usual is a very good writer, one that I personally appreciate and that I recommend wholeheartedly.