by Chanin Desiree

Created on: April 16, 2010

The True Meaning of Pride As Found In Medieval Literature

The concept of pride has many meanings and has changed over the decades and centuries.  Pride in Greek originally meant an “unreasonable and inordinate self-esteem” and was considered one of the “seven deadly sins” (superbia).   Even the pride of the 16th century meant “unreasonable and inordinate self-esteem,” but a second meaning began to take precedent, “a feeling of self-respect and personal worth (pride).  This second definition is what one in today’s world considers as pride, however, the originally meaning, the meaning of the deadly sin, is seen in many of the 16th Century literature, drama, and poetry.  How the world has changed the meaning so much, is hard to say, but the history of the word shows through even today in the literature of yesterday.          

Beginning with Beowulf, the concept of courage is used to explain a hero’s actions instead of pride.   “but Beowulf was mindful of his mighty strength,/ the wondrous gifts God had showered on him:/ he relied for help on the Lord of All,/ on His care and favor. So he overcame the foe,/ brought down the hell-brute (Beowulf 1270-1274).  This is the courage and actions brought to the hero from the Lord.  However, the courage turns from a gift of God to Beowulf himself, and thus the old definition of pride is shown.   “Beowulf spoke, made a formal boast/ for the last time: ‘I risk my life/ often when I was young. Now I am old,/ but as king of the people I shall pursue this fight/ for the glory of winning,” (Beowulf 2510-2514).

Even into the 14th and 15th Centuries honor is shown as a gift worthy of a knight, and that pride has no place in these courtly proceedings.  In “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” honor is explained and shown when Sir Gawain finds the Green Knight at the end of the year.  Pride is not shown at all, but the honor and courage of the court abounds into almost overkill and fanatical rather than honorable. (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 170 – 213).

By the time the 16th and early 17th Centuries arrive the concept of pride is shown as a source of a downfall for angels and man.  In Christopher Marlowe’s version of “Doctor Faustus” pride is shown to be a deadly sin over and over again.  The first place

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