One thing I love to do as a huge Medieval history geek, is analyze games set in a vaguely Medieval European context and analyze them from the real world, practical, historical perspective, as I feel it gives us a lot of insight into that period. Quite frankly, it's one of the most misunderstood periods of history, and analyzing media in this way can show you how the people in that time actually lived, fought, died, what they believed, how they dressed, ate, worked, and such.
The Zelda series itself though, is very heavily inspired by Medieval iconography, themes, and stories.
In the series we see tapestries, religious iconography, traditions, and such that are heavily inspired by history.
But one question I've noticed some people have asked before is, "Can Link be considered a knight?"
Well, let's go ahead and answer that question. We'll be discussing every aspect of knighthood in the Medieval European context, how to attain knighthood, your duties, social status, etc, even down to what horses they bought, rode, and used.
Seeing as how there's entire fields of historical study just devoted to this, this was a lot of research, and may in fact turn into a series in its own right.
First, before we can answer the question of "Can Link be considered a real knight," we have to know what knights are.
WHAT WAS A MEDIEVAL KNIGHT?:
Everybody has a very romantic view of the chivalric knight in shining armor, riding a warhorse, and such. Knights could do no wrong, knights had to uphold the Code of Chivalry, and such.
In truth, the actual definition of a knight in the historical context is broad and covers a lot of areas of academic research, but to sum up what a knight was:
A knight is a man granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch, bishop or other political or religious leader for service to the monarch or a Christian church, particularly in a military capacity.
In other words, knights were warriors that were in service of a lord or monarch, or a religious body.
Particularly, knights were originally mounted warriors, and thus horsemanship together with fighting prowess was what defined a knight in the eyes of the common person in the Medieval period.
This was because, originally, knights were mounted cavalry, serving up their own brand of warfare, appropriately called, impact warfare.
So this was the original view of a knight in the Middle Ages in Europe:
This view makes even more sense if you look at the etymology of the word "knight" itself.
ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD, KNIGHT:
Knight originally comes from the Old English word of cniht, which means "boy," or "servant." That word itself comes from the German word of knecht, which means, "Servant, bondsman, or vassal." This eventually evolved to Middle High German which was guoter kneht, which meant knight, but this meaning was starting to die off by around 1200.
The meaning of cniht changed over time from its original meaning of "boy" to "household retainer". In the eyes of the Anglo-Saxons, the word cniht meant a household servant, some of whom might have served the master of the house in times of war as mounted cavalry.
However, by about 1100, a narrowing of the generic meaning "servant" to "military follower of a king or other superior" started appearing. The first use of the knight as a mounted warrior as heavy cavalry started cropping up at the start of the Hundred Years War. The verb "to knight" starts to appear around 1300; and, from the same time, the word "knighthood" shifted from "adolescence" to "rank or dignity of a knight".
The Romans also had a hand in the meaning of the knight. In the Roman Empire, an equestrian was considered the second highest social status of a Roman citizen, and if you know some Latin, equestrian means someone who rides and owns horses.
Therefore, just using etymology alone, we can determine what a knight actually is, that is, a mounted warrior who is high in social standing but ultimately in service to a liege lord, monarch, or some religious body.
By just the meaning of the word knight, and the etymology of the word, we can make a very strong, if ultimately, simplistic argument for Link being a knight. He fits the definition as it was used in Medieval Europe. He fights for the will of the gods, or because his princess commanded him to, he's a warrior, and a horseman.
He may not have the armor of the knight, but he fits the definition.
However, there are more arguments that one could make for arguing Link's status as a knight. Before we get into the other arguments, we need to know how one attains such a status.
HOW TO ATTAIN KNIGHTHOOD:
Here's the rub, you can't just grab a spear, mount a horse and then call yourself a knight, there were things you had to do to attain that rank. So here's a crash course on how you became a knight in the Middle Ages:
BE BORN IN A WEALTHY OR NOBLE FAMILY:
Essentially, knighthood was made up of people of high social status, in other words, you had to come from a rich and/or noble family in order to begin the process of attaining knighthood. A knight had to be born of nobility – typically sons of knights or lords.
In other words, if we can make an argument that Link doesn't come from a long line of knights, we can't quite say he is a knight.
However, several games make a reference to the Knights of Hyrule, a line of warriors in service to Hyrule's monarchy that descended from the legendary hero. Link is said in different games in the series to be a descendant from the legendary hero, either by blood or by spirit. In the former, it'd make a stronger case for his status as a knight, but in the latter, that would be difficult to prove, even in the superstitious and religious Middle Ages.
So if we give the benefit of the doubt and say that Link is a descendant of the legendary hero, by blood, he makes a strong case for knighthood.
But wait! There's more!
In some cases commoners could also be knighted as a reward for extraordinary military service. They are the exception to the rule, as in the case of St. J'eanne D'Arc. (Joan of Arc).
But there's other criteria to be trained as a knight.
BECOMING A PAGE:
A page was a young boy at the age of 6 or 7 and is considered a knight-in-training. Once they reached age 7, they were turned over to the castle's lord, and they were given the title of page, and given their primary education.
Their education included falconry, hunting, and academic studies with a priest. The academic studies included math, religion, logic, history, etc. This was equivalent to our modern day primary school education.
They also had duties. Their main duties were: carrying and cleaning armour, taking care of the horses, and packing the baggage.
In addition, the older pages then started receiving fighting education, which included swordsmanship, equestrianism, chivalry, warfare, and combat but using wooden swords and spears.
Since there's only a handful of games where Link receives a formal education, and because we hardly ever see him as a very young boy of the age of 6 or 7, we never see him as a page. (Hint: for all you fanfic writers that get the idea, hit me up and I can be a consultant for you).
But there's even more.
BECOMING A SQUIRE:
Achieving the status as a squire was what pages got when they turned the age of 15. It was here that their real serious education and training began. Upon the boy becoming a squire, he had to swear on a sword consecrated by a bishop or priest, and attend to his assigned duties in the lord's household.
While you took on even more duties as a squire, you also gained more freedoms. You can now own armor rather than borrow it. You also received more training in combat, horsemanship, and education.
Squires were required to master the Seven Points of Agility, which included, riding a horse, swimming and diving, shooting different types of weapons, climbing, participation in tournaments, wrestling, combat with various types of weapons, long jumping, and dancing, all of the prerequisite skills for knighthood. As a nice cherry on top of that sundae, they were expected to master all of these wearing armor.
Yes, swimming in armor as well long jumping, dancing, wrestling and vaulting on a horse were required of you to become a knight.
Upon turning the age of 21, the squire would then become a knight, or as we found out beforehand, if they performed a heroic and noble deed in a military context.
Upon knowing this, we know that Link can definitely be called a knight. He can swim and dive, shoot various missile weapons, climb, wrestle, can use various types of weaponry, and such, and because of Breath of the Wild, we know he can accomplish all of this in armor.
And since we know he's around 17.5 years old before the Calamity, and we know he was given his accolades during that time, we know he had to have accomplished a noble and heroic deed.
Which is a nice segue into....
THE ACCOLADE:
The Accolade or knighting ceremony was held during a major festival, usually Christmas or Easter, or during a wedding of a high noble or monarch. The knighting ceremony usually involved a ritual bath on the eve of the ceremony and a prayer vigil during the night. On the day of the ceremony, the would-be knight would swear an oath and the master of the ceremony would dub the new knight on the shoulders with a sword. In some versions, the noble or king would strike the knight and say, "May this be the last blow you receive unanswered."
Squires, and even mere soldiers, could also be conferred direct knighthood early if they showed valor and efficiency for their service; such acts may include deploying for an important quest or mission, or protecting a high diplomat or a royal relative in battle.
Therefore, we since we know that Link has received his Accolade, at least in Breath of the Wild, we know he was officially knighted.
I mean, it becomes quite obvious.
Compare this picture of King David I of Scotland knighting a squire:
To Princess Zelda knighting Link in Breath of the Wild:
The parallels are too similar for me to simply say this is coincidence. This is clearly the Zelda series being inspired by Medieval European history and traditions.
So, to become a knight, you first had to become a page, which involved being born in a noble or rich family, then you had to become a squire, then receive your accolades either upon reaching age 21, or performing a heroic and noble deed.
I mentioned horsemanship before. Now here's where we talk about knights, and their inextricable link with horses.
KNIGHTS AND HORSES:
Horses and knights go together like bacon and eggs, and since we know it was required of squires to ride a horse, and do it in armor, we know that at least your average knight was a skilled horseman. At least skilled enough to achieve the purpose of mounted cavalry. As such, horses were vastly important to a knight.
Thus we can actually make a strong argument for Link's ability as a skilled horseman. The 3D games go to great lengths of making Link a skilled rider, even offering riding challenges to the player.
This is quite appropriate.
During the reign of King Richard the Lionheart, he set up some horse races. The horse purse offered by Richard was worth £40; with knights for riders, the race extended over almost 5 kilometers.
Not only that, but knights also competed in jousting tournaments. However, we never see jousting in the Zelda games, hardly ever to be honest, so I can't really comment on that.
However, we know that Link is a skilled rider. That's what the main point was.
Not only were horses important for knights, but they had different grades for their war horses.
DESTRIER:
The most well known type of warhorse from the Middle Ages. This was the bold horse that carried knights into warfare. Typically, knights preferred heavily muscled, large horses for this purpose, and that means stallions.
So all of the iconography of knights on horses running soldiers through with lances on horseback? All of them are destriers.
Picture this kind of horse:
Note the heavily muscled physique, strong legs, and powerful build. This would be the horse that a knight would ride into battle, and they were typically trained to rear to bring space, move side to side, forwards, backwards, and all kinds of ways to serve a martial purpose, even kick and bite on command.
Not only that, but I find destriers to be quite striking visually.
What's funny is that destriers might actually be small compared to an average horse of today, even though they were specified as a "great horse."
What this means is that destriers were outrageously expensive. Imagine them costing several thousands of dollars (or pounds if you're across the pond). To bring it back to a Medieval perspective, a single destrier costs around 7 coursers.
Which brings us to...
THE COURSER:
These horses were preferred for hard battle because they were light, fast, and strong. They were valuable, but not as expensive as the destrier, and were frequently used for hunting.
Picture this kind of horse:
Note the lighter build compared to the destrier.
So this was a smaller, but nevertheless hardy horse compared to the robust destrier.
THE ROUNSEY:
The rounsey was the general, all-purpose horse. Since they were relatively light, they were used for swift pursuits rather than heavy mounted cavalry like the courser or the destrier.
They were also used for squires for training.
Picture this kind of horse:
There's other kinds of horses that they used in the Middle Ages, but they didn't separate them by breed, as we do now, but by purpose.
So, why have I brought up horse types?
Well, these were types of WAR horses, and since we see Link ride into battle atop a horse, most commonly Epona, a mare, we might have to classify what type of horse Epona is.
Here's Epona:
To me, Epona looks very heavily muscled for a mare. Almost like Epona's a stallion, which wouldn't make any sense whatsoever.
She's got a powerful build, thick neck, relatively short back, and powerful legs. She seems to be a destrier in terms of sight and profile. She looks much like the stallion I used as an example of a destrier.
However, mares can be heavily muscled, and it makes sense for Epona to be a mare, because mares in times of heat get very.... kicky and wild.
Since Epona is known to be somewhat wild, it befits her status as a warhorse. Also, now you know why Epona's wild. She's in heat.
(Note: fanfic writers, just stop right there).
However, I suspect she's actually a courser, because she's swift, agile, fast, and pretty hardy. Which is kinda weird because Epona to me looks like a destrier if we just look at her physique.
All of this to argue about Epona's status as a warhorse, and specifically what type of warhorse, and that Link is well established to be a skilled horseman.
So we can qualify Link's knightly status also in terms of being a good horseman.
CONCLUSION:
Link is a knight in the historical sense. He serves a military purpose for the will of the gods and Hyrule's royal class, he has received his Accolades, he's of the right age, has the proper knowledge and combat prowess, as well as physical stamina to be a knight, he's a skilled rider that rides a courser into battle, as a proper knight does.
The only thing we don't know is the status of his family. I suspect they were at least rich, or come from a long line of knights considering that Link is a knight.
What do you guys think? If there's an aspect about Link's knightly status I forgot to cover, let me know, or if there's an aspect of knighthood in the historical context I missed, I might do a post about it.
Until then, see you later guys!
The Zelda series itself though, is very heavily inspired by Medieval iconography, themes, and stories.
In the series we see tapestries, religious iconography, traditions, and such that are heavily inspired by history.
But one question I've noticed some people have asked before is, "Can Link be considered a knight?"
Well, let's go ahead and answer that question. We'll be discussing every aspect of knighthood in the Medieval European context, how to attain knighthood, your duties, social status, etc, even down to what horses they bought, rode, and used.
Seeing as how there's entire fields of historical study just devoted to this, this was a lot of research, and may in fact turn into a series in its own right.
First, before we can answer the question of "Can Link be considered a real knight," we have to know what knights are.
WHAT WAS A MEDIEVAL KNIGHT?:
Everybody has a very romantic view of the chivalric knight in shining armor, riding a warhorse, and such. Knights could do no wrong, knights had to uphold the Code of Chivalry, and such.
In truth, the actual definition of a knight in the historical context is broad and covers a lot of areas of academic research, but to sum up what a knight was:
A knight is a man granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch, bishop or other political or religious leader for service to the monarch or a Christian church, particularly in a military capacity.
In other words, knights were warriors that were in service of a lord or monarch, or a religious body.
Particularly, knights were originally mounted warriors, and thus horsemanship together with fighting prowess was what defined a knight in the eyes of the common person in the Medieval period.
This was because, originally, knights were mounted cavalry, serving up their own brand of warfare, appropriately called, impact warfare.
So this was the original view of a knight in the Middle Ages in Europe:
This view makes even more sense if you look at the etymology of the word "knight" itself.
ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD, KNIGHT:
Knight originally comes from the Old English word of cniht, which means "boy," or "servant." That word itself comes from the German word of knecht, which means, "Servant, bondsman, or vassal." This eventually evolved to Middle High German which was guoter kneht, which meant knight, but this meaning was starting to die off by around 1200.
The meaning of cniht changed over time from its original meaning of "boy" to "household retainer". In the eyes of the Anglo-Saxons, the word cniht meant a household servant, some of whom might have served the master of the house in times of war as mounted cavalry.
However, by about 1100, a narrowing of the generic meaning "servant" to "military follower of a king or other superior" started appearing. The first use of the knight as a mounted warrior as heavy cavalry started cropping up at the start of the Hundred Years War. The verb "to knight" starts to appear around 1300; and, from the same time, the word "knighthood" shifted from "adolescence" to "rank or dignity of a knight".
The Romans also had a hand in the meaning of the knight. In the Roman Empire, an equestrian was considered the second highest social status of a Roman citizen, and if you know some Latin, equestrian means someone who rides and owns horses.
Therefore, just using etymology alone, we can determine what a knight actually is, that is, a mounted warrior who is high in social standing but ultimately in service to a liege lord, monarch, or some religious body.
By just the meaning of the word knight, and the etymology of the word, we can make a very strong, if ultimately, simplistic argument for Link being a knight. He fits the definition as it was used in Medieval Europe. He fights for the will of the gods, or because his princess commanded him to, he's a warrior, and a horseman.
He may not have the armor of the knight, but he fits the definition.
However, there are more arguments that one could make for arguing Link's status as a knight. Before we get into the other arguments, we need to know how one attains such a status.
HOW TO ATTAIN KNIGHTHOOD:
Here's the rub, you can't just grab a spear, mount a horse and then call yourself a knight, there were things you had to do to attain that rank. So here's a crash course on how you became a knight in the Middle Ages:
BE BORN IN A WEALTHY OR NOBLE FAMILY:
Essentially, knighthood was made up of people of high social status, in other words, you had to come from a rich and/or noble family in order to begin the process of attaining knighthood. A knight had to be born of nobility – typically sons of knights or lords.
In other words, if we can make an argument that Link doesn't come from a long line of knights, we can't quite say he is a knight.
However, several games make a reference to the Knights of Hyrule, a line of warriors in service to Hyrule's monarchy that descended from the legendary hero. Link is said in different games in the series to be a descendant from the legendary hero, either by blood or by spirit. In the former, it'd make a stronger case for his status as a knight, but in the latter, that would be difficult to prove, even in the superstitious and religious Middle Ages.
So if we give the benefit of the doubt and say that Link is a descendant of the legendary hero, by blood, he makes a strong case for knighthood.
But wait! There's more!
In some cases commoners could also be knighted as a reward for extraordinary military service. They are the exception to the rule, as in the case of St. J'eanne D'Arc. (Joan of Arc).
But there's other criteria to be trained as a knight.
BECOMING A PAGE:
A page was a young boy at the age of 6 or 7 and is considered a knight-in-training. Once they reached age 7, they were turned over to the castle's lord, and they were given the title of page, and given their primary education.
Their education included falconry, hunting, and academic studies with a priest. The academic studies included math, religion, logic, history, etc. This was equivalent to our modern day primary school education.
They also had duties. Their main duties were: carrying and cleaning armour, taking care of the horses, and packing the baggage.
In addition, the older pages then started receiving fighting education, which included swordsmanship, equestrianism, chivalry, warfare, and combat but using wooden swords and spears.
Since there's only a handful of games where Link receives a formal education, and because we hardly ever see him as a very young boy of the age of 6 or 7, we never see him as a page. (Hint: for all you fanfic writers that get the idea, hit me up and I can be a consultant for you).
But there's even more.
BECOMING A SQUIRE:
Achieving the status as a squire was what pages got when they turned the age of 15. It was here that their real serious education and training began. Upon the boy becoming a squire, he had to swear on a sword consecrated by a bishop or priest, and attend to his assigned duties in the lord's household.
While you took on even more duties as a squire, you also gained more freedoms. You can now own armor rather than borrow it. You also received more training in combat, horsemanship, and education.
Squires were required to master the Seven Points of Agility, which included, riding a horse, swimming and diving, shooting different types of weapons, climbing, participation in tournaments, wrestling, combat with various types of weapons, long jumping, and dancing, all of the prerequisite skills for knighthood. As a nice cherry on top of that sundae, they were expected to master all of these wearing armor.
Yes, swimming in armor as well long jumping, dancing, wrestling and vaulting on a horse were required of you to become a knight.
Upon turning the age of 21, the squire would then become a knight, or as we found out beforehand, if they performed a heroic and noble deed in a military context.
Upon knowing this, we know that Link can definitely be called a knight. He can swim and dive, shoot various missile weapons, climb, wrestle, can use various types of weaponry, and such, and because of Breath of the Wild, we know he can accomplish all of this in armor.
And since we know he's around 17.5 years old before the Calamity, and we know he was given his accolades during that time, we know he had to have accomplished a noble and heroic deed.
Which is a nice segue into....
THE ACCOLADE:
The Accolade or knighting ceremony was held during a major festival, usually Christmas or Easter, or during a wedding of a high noble or monarch. The knighting ceremony usually involved a ritual bath on the eve of the ceremony and a prayer vigil during the night. On the day of the ceremony, the would-be knight would swear an oath and the master of the ceremony would dub the new knight on the shoulders with a sword. In some versions, the noble or king would strike the knight and say, "May this be the last blow you receive unanswered."
Squires, and even mere soldiers, could also be conferred direct knighthood early if they showed valor and efficiency for their service; such acts may include deploying for an important quest or mission, or protecting a high diplomat or a royal relative in battle.
Therefore, we since we know that Link has received his Accolade, at least in Breath of the Wild, we know he was officially knighted.
I mean, it becomes quite obvious.
Compare this picture of King David I of Scotland knighting a squire:
To Princess Zelda knighting Link in Breath of the Wild:
The parallels are too similar for me to simply say this is coincidence. This is clearly the Zelda series being inspired by Medieval European history and traditions.
So, to become a knight, you first had to become a page, which involved being born in a noble or rich family, then you had to become a squire, then receive your accolades either upon reaching age 21, or performing a heroic and noble deed.
I mentioned horsemanship before. Now here's where we talk about knights, and their inextricable link with horses.
KNIGHTS AND HORSES:
Horses and knights go together like bacon and eggs, and since we know it was required of squires to ride a horse, and do it in armor, we know that at least your average knight was a skilled horseman. At least skilled enough to achieve the purpose of mounted cavalry. As such, horses were vastly important to a knight.
Thus we can actually make a strong argument for Link's ability as a skilled horseman. The 3D games go to great lengths of making Link a skilled rider, even offering riding challenges to the player.
This is quite appropriate.
During the reign of King Richard the Lionheart, he set up some horse races. The horse purse offered by Richard was worth £40; with knights for riders, the race extended over almost 5 kilometers.
Not only that, but knights also competed in jousting tournaments. However, we never see jousting in the Zelda games, hardly ever to be honest, so I can't really comment on that.
However, we know that Link is a skilled rider. That's what the main point was.
Not only were horses important for knights, but they had different grades for their war horses.
DESTRIER:
The most well known type of warhorse from the Middle Ages. This was the bold horse that carried knights into warfare. Typically, knights preferred heavily muscled, large horses for this purpose, and that means stallions.
So all of the iconography of knights on horses running soldiers through with lances on horseback? All of them are destriers.
Picture this kind of horse:
Note the heavily muscled physique, strong legs, and powerful build. This would be the horse that a knight would ride into battle, and they were typically trained to rear to bring space, move side to side, forwards, backwards, and all kinds of ways to serve a martial purpose, even kick and bite on command.
Not only that, but I find destriers to be quite striking visually.
What's funny is that destriers might actually be small compared to an average horse of today, even though they were specified as a "great horse."
What this means is that destriers were outrageously expensive. Imagine them costing several thousands of dollars (or pounds if you're across the pond). To bring it back to a Medieval perspective, a single destrier costs around 7 coursers.
Which brings us to...
THE COURSER:
These horses were preferred for hard battle because they were light, fast, and strong. They were valuable, but not as expensive as the destrier, and were frequently used for hunting.
Picture this kind of horse:
Note the lighter build compared to the destrier.
So this was a smaller, but nevertheless hardy horse compared to the robust destrier.
THE ROUNSEY:
The rounsey was the general, all-purpose horse. Since they were relatively light, they were used for swift pursuits rather than heavy mounted cavalry like the courser or the destrier.
They were also used for squires for training.
Picture this kind of horse:
There's other kinds of horses that they used in the Middle Ages, but they didn't separate them by breed, as we do now, but by purpose.
So, why have I brought up horse types?
Well, these were types of WAR horses, and since we see Link ride into battle atop a horse, most commonly Epona, a mare, we might have to classify what type of horse Epona is.
Here's Epona:
To me, Epona looks very heavily muscled for a mare. Almost like Epona's a stallion, which wouldn't make any sense whatsoever.
She's got a powerful build, thick neck, relatively short back, and powerful legs. She seems to be a destrier in terms of sight and profile. She looks much like the stallion I used as an example of a destrier.
However, mares can be heavily muscled, and it makes sense for Epona to be a mare, because mares in times of heat get very.... kicky and wild.
Since Epona is known to be somewhat wild, it befits her status as a warhorse. Also, now you know why Epona's wild. She's in heat.
(Note: fanfic writers, just stop right there).
However, I suspect she's actually a courser, because she's swift, agile, fast, and pretty hardy. Which is kinda weird because Epona to me looks like a destrier if we just look at her physique.
All of this to argue about Epona's status as a warhorse, and specifically what type of warhorse, and that Link is well established to be a skilled horseman.
So we can qualify Link's knightly status also in terms of being a good horseman.
CONCLUSION:
Link is a knight in the historical sense. He serves a military purpose for the will of the gods and Hyrule's royal class, he has received his Accolades, he's of the right age, has the proper knowledge and combat prowess, as well as physical stamina to be a knight, he's a skilled rider that rides a courser into battle, as a proper knight does.
The only thing we don't know is the status of his family. I suspect they were at least rich, or come from a long line of knights considering that Link is a knight.
What do you guys think? If there's an aspect about Link's knightly status I forgot to cover, let me know, or if there's an aspect of knighthood in the historical context I missed, I might do a post about it.
Until then, see you later guys!
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