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The process of condensation operates on the myth of the emotional experience in the same manner as a set of chessmen stand in symbolic relation to Gawain and the Green Knight, Morte d' Arthur etc. In the mythic stage of recording an emotional experience, as in many discursive dreams, the meaning is still open to many interpretations. But as the condensation proceeds, and finally results in a highly condensed symbol, say the Queen in chess, the meaning is now “contained”, no longer open to multiple interpretation. It must now be “read” or understood, grasped. Thus a symbol may be said to be “close to the bone” of mental pain, for it pinpoints the zone of conflict.
Milton said it was not necessary to have spurs on the feet and a sword laid on the shoulders to become a knight in the service of truth; and he exchanged his long-cherished intention to write an Arthurian epic for the subject of Paradise Lost.2 Once upon a time, however, the sword and spurs were obligatory equipment in any romance about soulmaking. Chivalric quests and rambling dream-poems are the standard genres of medieval literature.