This little forest-green book, largely unadorned, followed me home from the library a couple weeks ago.

Rules For a Knight

I figured Rules For a Knight would be charming from the quick glimpse I’d given the inside, but I didn’t realize how charming until I was a quarter of the way through.

Then I wanted to keep reading, eating up the words as if they were so much candy, but made myself take my time and savor it.

Ethan Hawke is upfront from the start: These rules are based on a remarkable yet damaged letter written by a Hawke ancestor, a 15th century knight–and in Cornish, no less.

Our current Hawke has interpreted and supplemented the translation of these 20 rules with all manner of familiar and unfamiliar philosophical learnings.

One of the many awesome things: The knight equates ladyship with knighthood.

I don’t actually know if this would have been quite the thing in the 15th century or was drawn from more modern texts, but to me it makes this pocket-sized novel even more relevant.

There’s already a great review about it right here, so I will say no more!