Reference
- King ArthurKing Arthur was the legendary king of Britain who became the central figure in a literary tradition that spanned centuries and included hundreds of texts in the later Middle Ages and beyond, even into the 21st century. Over the course of the medieval period, the literary figure of Arthur developed from a Romanized Celtic “leader of battles” to a refined king presiding over the world's most glamorous court, and surrounded by the greatest, most chivalric of knights...
- Le Morte d’ArthurBeside Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Le Morte Darthur is perhaps the most enduringly popular of all English texts written in the Middle Ages, and it is certainly the most famous of all English treatments of Arthurian legend. Only one manuscript of the text survives (the “Winchester Manuscript”), copied sometime before 1483, after Malory's death in 1471, but the first printer in England, William Caxton, produced an edition in 1485, which formed the basis of nearly all subsequent editions that were to appear through the first half of the 20th century...
- Malory, Sir ThomasThomas Malory is the supposed author of Le Morte Darthur, the last medieval English version of the Arthurian chivalric romances, which was published by William Caxton in 1485. What we know of Malory's life has been gleaned from his book and from scanty court records. For many years, it was believed that the only accurate biographical statement was found at the end of Le Morte Darthur, which states that the book was finished in prison in the ninth year of the reign of Edward IV (March 1469–March 1470), a statement that provides little direction. Critical controversy over the exact identity of Malory continues to plague scholars; however, in 1934, another version of the Morte besides Caxton's was discovered. It contained not the seamless 21 books presented by Caxton, but rather eight separate romances to which were appended personal remarks. At the end of the first of these, the author identifies himself as “knight presoner Sir Thomas Malleore,” thus lending credence to the identification discussed below...
- Malory, [Sir] ThomasThe legend of King Arthur remains alive in English literature today largely because of the work of Malory, who shaped it into what is sometimes seen as the first novel in English, published by William CAXTON in 1485 as Le Morte d’Arthur (wr. ca. 1470). Before then, ironically, this MATTER OF BRITAIN—the huge conglomeration of tales more or less revolving around Arthur, had developed mostly in French, after the departure of Britons fleeing England for France when Rome withdrew its troops from Britain. With the enormous influx into England of all things French in the centuries following the Norman Conquest came the return and gradual repatriation of Arthur. In the 15th c., Malory took the whole mishmash of French tales, poems, overlapping themes, undeveloped ideas, characters, mythical lessons, and mystical quests, together with some similar material in English, and composed the story as we have it today. In a nutshell, he Anglicized Arthur...
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Malory's Le Morte Darthur: Anatomy of a Legend
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The richly embroidered story of King Arthur as set down by Sir Thomas Malory during the Middle Ages has unfailingly intrigued generations of readers. P. J. C. Field, one of the world’s top authorities on Malory and president of the British branch of the International Arthurian Society; Helen Cooper, editor of the Oxford World’s Classics edition of Le Morte Darthur; and medievalist Kevin J. Harty, of La Salle University, begin this survey by assessing the historical and apocryphal underpinnings of the Arthurian legend. Then, supported by reenactments, location footage, and works of art, the program examines each section of Malory’s archetypal Le Morte Darthur. A Films for the Humanities & Sciences Production. (26 minutes)
Online Resources
- Le Morte Darthur: BritannicaLe Morte Darthur, the first English-language prose version of the Arthurian legend, completed by Sir Thomas Malory about 1470 and printed by William Caxton in 1485...
- Thomas Malory's 'Le Morte Darthur': British LibraryThis sole surviving manuscript copy (known as the Winchester manuscript) of Thomas Malory’s version of the legends of King Arthur and his knights was made within a decade of the author’s death in 1471. Malory wrote ‘The Death of Arthur’ during 1469 while imprisoned for a series of violent crimes. The chivalry of Arthur’s world was a far cry from Malory’s own, which was torn by war between the noble dynasties of York and Lancaster...
- Thomas Malory: BritannicaThomas Malory, in full Sir Thomas Malory, (flourished c. 1470), English writer whose identity remains uncertain but whose name is famous as that of the author of Le Morte Darthur, the first prose account in English of the rise and fall of the legendary king Arthur and the fellowship of the Round Table...
Perspectives
Le Morte d'Arthur
The legends of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table have inspired some of the greatest works of literature--from Cervantes's Don Quixote to Tennyson's Idylls of the King. Although many versions exist, Malory's stands as the classic rendition. Malory wrote the book while in Newgate Prison during the last three years of his life; it was published some fourteen years later, in 1485, by William Caxton. The tales, steeped in the magic of Merlin, the powerful cords of the chivalric code, and the age-old dramas of love and death, resound across the centuries. The stories of King Arthur, Lancelot, Queen Guenever, and Tristram and Isolde seem astonishingly moving and modern. Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur endures and inspires because it embodies mankind's deepest yearnings for brotherhood and community, a love worth dying for, and valor, honor, and chivalry. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Malory's Book of Arms
An examination of the importance of knightly combat in Malory's Morte Darthur. This study of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur centres on its main narrative interest and expressive medium, armed combat. In the analysis of the discourse of fighting, some repeated descriptive preoccupations -to do with name, vision, blood, emotion and gesture - are examined as "needs of meaning" with relevance for the whole text, and related to political, religious, genealogical, sexual and medical views of Malory's period. Andrew Lynch's exploration of the power of "name" as public reputation in the Morte challenges the usual reading of Malory's adventures, and he goes on to survey Malory reception and the attempts of earlier critics to moralise the fights in terms he sees as inappropriate. His discussion of the narrative vision and thematics of combat covers the whole text, but places special emphasis on the stories of knight-errantry, and particularly the often neglected Book of Sir Tristram. ANDREW LYNCH is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Western Australia.
Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur
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Thomas Malory’s massive retelling of the Arthurian saga became a benchmark for all writers who came after him. Learn how Malory’s text introduced the Pentecostal Oath, a sacred code of ethics sworn to by the knights, which Malory “tests” throughout the narrative as a model for noble thought and action.