It is often the case with romances that a quest appears to be the organizing pattern of the narrative. One of the best-known medieval examples is the quest for the Sancgreal in the Arthurian Romances. It also seems a common feature that the quest-pattern should be limited to romances. As a matter of fact heroic literature is preoccupied with more down-to-earth matters. Since the main concern of the hero is to go down to posterity i.e. leave in the minds of the living people an image of courage and unfailing virtue – virtue being in this case proportional to the adherence to the heroic code of honor and not at all the Ten Commandments – the Old English. heroic poetry rather puts the emphasis on war, the duties of the Germanic comitatus, the patching up of blood feuds with impossible marriages, the problems of man in front of his lot (wyrd) and the shame of the warrior unfaithful to his lord. In this sense heroic poetry can be said to be more true-to-life than romances…
THONART : Tolkien or the Fictitious Compiler (ULiège, 1984) – 03 – The Quest
