The Nonexistent Knight

Gradually, Sister Theodora introduces herself into a more prominent role in the novel. She is the narrator, but her voice is more strongly felt as she explains to the audience that she is writing the book as a penance while cloistered in a convent. The book is not intended to be read by a mass audience; it is Theodora’s assigned task and, by copying out an existing narrative, she can show her devotion to God. In her occasional asides, Theodora references the limited role of women in the society. Since she is a nun, she facetiously writes, she must rely on the clashing pots and pans from the kitchen to inform her descriptions of battle. How could a nun ever know about the realities of a battlefield, she sardonically and rhetorically asks her limited audience. Theodora’s book represents her desire to push back against the gendered restrictions imposed upon her by society. She does not want to be a nun; she does not want to be limited in her understanding of the world because she is a woman. She wishes to wrestle control of her own life and her own narrative; she achieves this by gradually revealing her personality through her narration. Theodora is not a typical nun and, through the atypicality of her narration, she hints at her desire to assert agency over her life in a misogynistic society which would have her cloistered away writing a book for no one to read.

Theodora’s narration also hints at the limits of language. As she states, Theodora is not a typical writer. She is re-writing the narrative of The Nonexistent Knight from other sources but, without formal training as a writer, she does not want to be confined by convention. She complains about the pacing of her narrative, as the book can contain only so many elements. Theodora resents that she must pick and choose what to include, thereby limiting the scope of her book and reducing the vivacity of her memories and experiences. The narrative simply cannot hold everything, so Theodora begins to experiment. She draws illustrations of Agilulf’s fight with a whale and maps of his journey in an effort to broaden the potential of language itself. Her narrative strives to move beyond the written word but, ironically, she must describe her maps and illustrations through writing. Her book remains a written novel and her descriptions of her innovations are rendered in prose, symbolizing the clash between her ambitions (as a writer, as a woman) and her restrictions (society, written narratives). The book is a symbol of how Theodora would like to rebel, as well as the ways in which her rebellion is denied.

At the end of the novel, Theodora reveals her secret identity. She is actually Bradamante, sent to the convent after the events she has described thus far. After fleeing from Raimbaut after he tricked her into sex while wearing Agilulf’s armor, she was furious. She entered the convent as a way to atone for the complicated feelings which she could not process. Now, she has decided that she loves Raimbaut. This revelation adds a new symbolic meaning to the book as a penitent device. She is writing as penance, not seeking to atone for any particularly religious infraction but for her betrayal of love. At the very end of the novel, she hears Raimbaut approaching the convent and she rushes out to meet him. She abandons the book and the vows which made her a nun, choosing love over something as unimportant as a convent or a book. The unfinished book becomes a metaphor for Bradamante’s desire to assert her agency. She casts everything aside to pursue the love which she believed was lost. Her obligations as a nun and as a narrator are rendered irrelevant next to her obligations to love itself. The book, as unfinished as it is, becomes a symbol of Bradamante’s abandonment of penance in pursuit of agency.