typeracer

Before it was reshaped by Christianity, our romantic notions of chivalry were introduced to Europe by the Moors of Iberia through their tales of knightly adventure for the sake of glory and love; once 'The One Thousand and One Nights' was translated into French in the 12th Century, there was no putting the genie back in the bottle. More often idealized than practiced, Charlemagne's chevalerie ("horse soldiery") believed chivalry to include a code of conduct that elevated loyalty, honor, forbearance, hardihood and largess above all other knightly qualities (like trampling the godless). All those things that nutcase Don Quixote was raving about.