Sometimes we find ourselves looking back at time remembering all the ups and downs we've been through and, in the end, just admiring the simple life that has been produced in the past. Chivalry does the same thing by taking us back in time but adding some fantasy elements. The short story “Chivalry” is the book everyone should read, the second story in the short story collection “Smoke and Mirrors” by Neil Gaiman. It was released in 1998 in the United States and a year later in the United Kingdom. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'?Get the original essayChivalry is about an elderly woman, Mrs. Whitaker, who bought the Holy Grail from the Oxfam store (a second-hand shop ). She is visited three times by one of the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Gilead, who seeks to recover the Holy Grail. The author, Gaiman, goes to great lengths to describe Mrs. Whitaker's life in great detail. She has a routine for the whole week and approaches everything carefully. In his world, even visits from Gilead the Knight become commonplace. It's clear that small details, like the fact that his nephew's wife only likes modern things, make up the whole story. History focuses on details, not because they are essential, but because they help create the environment in which we find ourselves. Gilead is an interesting character. He is filled with the stereotypical nobility of a knight. He has principles; this we can see in different parts of the story. When he first arrives, he first and foremost informs Mrs. Whitaker of the quest he is on, instead of simply taking the Grail by force, which he could have done easily. After being denied the Grail, he seeks other great things to replace it. It's quite funny how he goes for these extravagant things, while Mrs. Whitaker just wants something that looks pretty on her mantelpiece, between her husband's photo and a porcelain basset hound. Maybe he wants to impress her with all these beautiful things and find something that has the ability to replace the Grail, because we see how much she loves the Grail on the mantelpiece. Throughout the story, we witness the evolving relationship between Mrs. Whitaker and Gilead. in a non-romantic way, but more in a mother-son relationship. Gilead is a faithful man and helps her with the choir which she entrusts him with and does not complain once. We can also see this relationship forming in the way Mrs. Whitaker treats Gilead; on page 38 she prepares him a cup of tea, on page 40 she offers him a drink, which is a completely normal thing in England, but she does not forget Grizzle, the horse of Gilead, to whom she fills a basin with water to. When they take off, she makes Gilead sandwiches, again demonstrating this caring mother-son relationship. But after all this hospitality, she remains strict, perhaps because she cares about him and wants him to learn; this is noticed on page 46, where Mrs. Whitaker tells him to put away the Hesperides apple which would restore his youth and tells him not to give such things to old ladies. The language is very descriptive and the narrator is a third person narrator, also called omniscient. In Chivalry, the fantasy world and the real world overlap in a blurred coexistence, almost like in Snow White. Instead of witches, wands or supernatural powers, we are introduced to different elements from different mythologies and religions which are: the Holy Grail, the Balmung Sword, the Philosopher's Stone, the Phoenix Egg and the Apples of the Hesperides . We can also.