The Nonexistent Knight Quotes

“But by now every word, every gesture was foreseeable, as all else in that war which had lasted so many years, its every skirmish and duel conducted according to rules so that it was always known beforehand who would win or lose, be heroic or cowardly, be gutted or merely unhorsed and thumped.”

“Agilulf passed by, attentive, nervous and proud; people’s bodies gave him a disagreeable feeling resembling envy, but also a stab of pride, of contemptuous superiority.”

“He was a better officer than many who vaunted themselves illustrious, the best of all officers, in fact. Yet there he was, walking unhappily in the night.”

″‘Why don’t you show your face to your king?’ A voice came clearly through the gorge piece. ‘Sire, because I do not exist!‘”

“He continued to think, not the lazy meandering thoughts of one about to fall asleep, but exact and definite thoughts.”

“Here were his famous colleagues, the glorious paladins, but what were they? Here was their armor, proof of rank and name, of feats of power and worth, all reduced to a shell, to empty iron, and there lay the men themselves, snoring away, faces thrust into pillows with a thread of spittle dribbling from open lips.”

“What it was like to shut one’s eyes, lose consciousness, plunge into emptiness for a few hours and then wake up and find oneself the same as before, linked with the threads of one’s life again, Agilulf could not know...”

″‘Well, you there, looking so clean...’ said Charlemagne, who the longer the war lasted had less respect for cleanliness among his paladins.”

″‘Well, well! Who’d have thought it!’ exclaimed Charlemagne. ‘And how do you do your job, then, if you don’t exist?’ ‘By will power,’ said Agilulf, ‘and faith in our holy cause.‘”

“Agilulf Emo Bertrandin of the Guildivern and of the Others of Corbentraz and Sura, Knight of Selimpia Citeriore and Fez, was certainly a model soldier, but disliked by all.”