Hm, yes, that's all very fair points... though I think more of those are what I'd think of as flaws and issues of character than skill? You're right re the future hero missing skills, but for the medieval stuff issues with skill tend to be "you've not reached your potential/the societal expectation" rather than "this other guy is good at X, you're good at Y, these are different skills and that's narratively important"
The medieval Arthuriana which I have read is very clear about two things:
- skills take time and teaching to acquire, and acquiring them is hard
- skills are specific, and knowing fencing (sword and buckler) or wrestling does not mean that you know fighting (knightly weapons) or horsemanship
In contrast, the modern novels I object to teach that if you are the Hero you can spent a few weeks or months practicing something you have never done before and start outdoing people who have done it for their job since puberty.
It does not necessarily go in to point 3:
- the qualities which make for excellence in one skill or area of life may be contrary to those which make for excellence in another (that is all over Indian thought though)
For example, in
Jehan de Saintré:
At thirteen little Jehan catches the eye of a noble young widow, who spends the next seven years training him into a suitable courtly paramour. She teaches him edifying maxims from Latin authors with a helpful translation, and gives him a reading list. She advises him how to spend largely but wisely on good clothes and horses, and on appropriate presents to gain the good will of others at court, and provides him with the funds to do it. At twenty she sends him off to win renown with deeds of arms, and advises him on the ceremonies and choice of opponents. ...
Eventually his lady transfers her affections to a worldly young abbot, large and muscular, who humiliates Jehan in a wrestling match. We learn that Jehan, although a successful warrior, has not been taught to wrestle, unlike wealthy monks like the abbot who "are adepts at the art, as at tennis, hurl-bat, pitch-bar, and every pastime of the sort. They are their only recreations when among themselves..."
Jehan later has his revenge on the abbot and his former lover with matter of fact cruelty that reminds me of Tirant lo Blanc. Like Tirant, Petit Jehan de Saintré combines chivalric and courtly ideals with frank sexuality and practical detail.
When I wrote my first journal article on aketons, pourpoints, and gambesons, I read a lot of romances from the 12th century which have scenes where a character gets into trouble because the situation calls for a skill they never learned (eg. they have to strip someone of his armour, and they don't know how to do that). I did not take notes on that and I do not own those books so I can't give chapter and verse (I do have this on
Ulrich von Zatzikhoven though).
