Knights And Merchants Music

[Carlee Members]

AKnight's Tale is a 2001 American medieval action comedy film[5][6] written, co-produced and directed by Brian Helgeland. The film stars Heath Ledger as William Thatcher, a peasant squire who poses as a knight and competes in tournaments, winning accolades and acquiring friendships with such historical figures as Edward the Black Prince (James Purefoy) and Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany). Its 14th-century story is intentionally anachronistic, with many modern pop culture references and a soundtrack featuring 1970s music.[7] The film takes its name from Chaucer's The Knight's Tale, part of The Canterbury Tales, and also draws several plot points from Chaucer's work.

At a jousting tournament in 14th-century Europe, squires William Thatcher, Roland, and Wat discover that their master, Sir Ector, has died. With one more pass, he could have won the tournament. Destitute, William wears Sir Ector's armour to impersonate him, taking the prize.

Although only nobles are allowed in tournaments, William is inspired to compete and win more prizes. Roland and Wat would rather take their winnings and leave, but William convinces them to stay and help him train. While traveling, they encounter a young Geoffrey Chaucer, who is also destitute and agrees to forge a patent of nobility so William can enter, assuming the name of "Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein" from Gelderland. But William is brought before Simon the Summoner and Peter the Pardoner: Chaucer has a gambling problem and is in their debt. William demands Chaucer be released and promises payment.

During the competition, William's armour is badly damaged; he goads Kate, a female blacksmith, into repairing it without payment. He wins the tournament's sword event, enabling him to pay Chaucer's debt. In the joust, he faces Sir Thomas Colville, who withdraws from the tournament after being injured by William, though they exchange a ceremonial pass so that Colville can retain the honour of never having failed to complete a match. The proceedings are observed by Jocelyn, a noblewoman with whom William has become infatuated, and Count Adhemar of Anjou, a rival both in the joust and for Jocelyn's heart. In the final joust, Adhemar defeats William. William vows revenge, but Adhemar taunts him, "You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting."

Kate joins William's party and forges new lightweight armour. In the following tournament, Adhemar and William are both assigned to tilt against Sir Thomas Colville, but they learn that he is actually Prince Edward, the heir apparent to the English throne. Unwilling to risk harming him, Adhemar withdraws; but William chooses to joust against Edward anyway and then addresses him by name, further earning his respect.

Adhemar is called away to the Battle of Poitiers, and William achieves several victories in his absence. William proves his love for Jocelyn by complying when she first asks him to deliberately lose (in contrast to knights who promise to win "in her name"), and then, just before he would be eliminated, to win the tournament after all.

The group travels to London for the World Championship. William recalls leaving his father to squire for Sir Ector and learn to become a knight, hoping to "change his stars". Adhemar has also arrived in London and announces that he is in negotiations with Jocelyn's father for her hand in marriage. William dominates at the tournament, but is seen visiting his now-blind father. Adhemar alerts the authorities to William's true identity.

William is arrested and placed in the pillory, but is defended from the hostile crowd by his friends. Just as the mob reaches its frenzy, Prince Edward reveals himself. He acknowledges William's honour and an ability to inspire his friends' dedication that is in the best traditions of knighthood. Edward then announces that William is in fact descended from an ancient noble family, and knights him "Sir William". He asserts that as Prince-royal, his declaration is "beyond contestation".

William returns to the tournament to face Adhemar in the final match, but Adhemar cheats with an illegally sharpened lance, seriously injuring William. Entering the final pass, William is losing by two lances and must unhorse Adhemar to win. He demands to be stripped of his armour while Chaucer buys time by performing the introduction of William that he omitted earlier. William, unable to hold the lance due to his injuries, asks Wat to strap it to his arm. Finally, he tilts against Adhemar, with his father and Jocelyn in attendance. Bellowing his true name as he charges, he knocks Adhemar to the ground with a crushing blow; Adhemar experiences a vision of William and his friends mockingly telling him that he has been "weighed, measured, and found wanting". With this final blow, William wins the world championship. In the ensuing celebration, as Jocelyn and William embrace, Chaucer remarks that he should write an account of these events.

Lances were created that would convincingly explode upon impact without injuring the stunt riders. The body of each lance was scored so it would break easily, and the tips were made of balsa wood. Each was also hollowed out, with the holes filled with balsa splinters and uncooked linguine.[9]

Director Brian Helgeland says in the DVD Special Edition's commentary that he had intended to show what Geoffrey Chaucer might have been doing that inspired him to write The Canterbury Tales during the six months in which Chaucer seems to have gone missing in 1372.[7]

Heath Ledger's principal suit of armour was made in steel by UK-based Armordillo Ltd. They also created several stunt replicas of this armour, Count Adhemar's armour, and all the jousting armours for men and horses in lightweight, flexible, and nearly unbreakable polyurethane resin.

The film, which notionally took place during the Middle Ages, is notable for its deliberate use of classic rock songs in its soundtrack. The ten that were credited in the film are listed in order of appearance:[10]

A Knight's Tale was released on DVD on September 25, 2001. The VHS release was delayed by three days to September 28 because Sony took down a Spider-Man teaser trailer that was recalled due to the September 11 attacks.[13][14]

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and argued that the anachronisms made little difference, writing that the director himself "pointed out that an orchestral score would be equally anachronistic, since orchestras hadn't been invented in the 1400s."[18][19] In an obituary for David Bowie, culture critic Anthony Lane referred to the film's use of the song "Golden Years" as "the best and most honest use of anachronism that I know of."[20]

Newsweek revealed in June 2001 that print ads contained glowing comments from a film reviewer who did not exist for at least four films released by Columbia Pictures, including A Knight's Tale and The Animal (2001).[21] The fake critic was named David Manning and was created by a Columbia employee who worked in the advertising department.[21] "Manning" was fraudulently presented as a reviewer for The Ridgefield Press, a small Connecticut weekly.[21]

The film was nominated for three awards at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards. Shannyn Sossamon was nominated for Breakthrough Female performance, losing to Mandy Moore in A Walk to Remember.[23] The film was also nominated for Best Kiss, and Best Musical Sequence, losing to American Pie 2 and Moulin Rouge!, respectively.[24]

Note: This is the second in a four-part series by Eccentric Yoruba, cross-posted with her permission. Part 1 is here. Check out the rest of her Ancient Africa & China series appearing every Friday throughout this month.

In my previous post I mentioned that I had read somewhere that two slaves given as gifts to the a Chinese Emperor by an Arab delegation were the first Africans to enter ancient China. This may have been wrong really because dark-skinned people were talked in China as early as the 4th century. They were referred to as kunlun, a term which had many previous meanings but by the 4th century was at attached to the people with dark skin.

Apparently these slaves were supplied from Sri Vijaya and Java, both Indonesian kingdoms. I had always thought that the Arabs were the first people to buy/take slaves out of Africa but traders from these kingdoms are thought to have started slaving out of Africa before the Arabs did. Through them, a few Africans were supposedly brought into China and were employed in Tang households.

The kunlun are portrayed as magical even though this magic is not always apparent. Some kunlun are excellent divers who can go deep into the rivers, lakes and wells bringing up treasure for their Chinese masters. Yet at other times the magic seems to lie, well, in their actual appearance as their black skin was regarded as unrealistic to the ancient Chinese.

In the Tang period, though the African slaves were very few in number, they were regarded as strong, mysterious, and a little frightening, and the stories show that they were regarded with a mixture of admiration and awe in Chinese minds.

During the Song dynasty, however, the number of African slaves in China had increased, leading them to becoming familiar to those Chinese who saw them on a day-to-day basis. The stories in which the kunlun servants are knights-errant, ghosts and other mysterious and amazing beings disappeared and the kunlun were instead found in factual records.

On the positive side, I guess, the tangible presence of slaves in Canton did not affect Chinese attitudes to Africans who were not slaves. For example while on one had, the kunlun slaves were talked about as wretched while being captured by Arabs, on the other stately African kingdoms were written about with relative respect and subtle fascination.

In 1071, and from 1081 to 1083, some visitors landed in the Chinese court claiming to come from a country called Zengdan (Land of the Blacks) beyond Oman and 160 days west of China. The leader of this group was Zhengjiani and its envoys (merchants) were treated with the utmost honour. You see during his first trip, Zhengjiani was accorded a Chinese title; Lord Guardian of Prosperity. Zhengjiani and his party were honoured as the first Africans to be received in China as foreign merchants. They were regarded as ambassadors of their country in the eyes of the Song court, even though they most likely were just simply merchants.

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