Le Morte Darthur

Author: Sir Thomas Malory (c 1405-1471)

Written: c 1469-1470

Translator: Helen Cooper

Publisher: Oxford University Press (2008 reissue)

Bought from: Book Depository

Introduction

This is a compilation of French verse romances and English works about the mythical King Arthur. It is not clear when Malory compiled this into this volume but we do know that it was first published by William Caxton in 1485.

In 1934, a manuscript copy of the work was discovered in Winchester College. The text of the Winchester Manuscript (now housed in the British Library) is different in some respects from the Caxton text and is considered to be closer to Malory’s original work.

Today, Le Morte Darthur is considered the definitive collection of Arthurian legends in the English language. 

What is it about?

The story is set primarily in 5th century England. It chronicles the adventures and misadventures of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. All the familiar figures are here – Merlin, Guinevere, Lancelot, Gawain (although Malory's Gawain is very different from the Gawain in the story of "Gawain and the Green Knight"), Tristan and Isolde, Galahad, Modred. All the familiar episodes are there – the sword in the stone, the founding of Camelot and the establishment of the Round Table, Excalibur, the quest for the Holy Grail, the illicit affair between Lancelot and Guinevere, Arthur’s death at Modred’s hands.

Le Morte Darthur is divided into 8 books. Lancelot gets 2 stories, including one called inevitably The Tale of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. Gareth of Orkney and Tristram each stars in one story of their own (it is believed The Tale of Gareth may be an original story by Malory). There is a set of stories about the search for the Holy Grail. Finally, there is a somewhat surreal chapter about Arthur's conquest of Rome. These stories are book-ended by a chapter on the birth and early life of Arthur and one on his death.

Two things struck me as I read this book:

1. In modern retellings of Arthurian myth, Merlin is almost always an major character. Indeed, a number of movies and tv series even have Merlin in their title. I have fond memories of the Hallmark mini-series titled Merlin in which King Arthur's story is told from the point of view of Merlin (played by Sam Neill). In Malory’s version, Merlin plays a key (but somewhat dastardly) role in the conception of Arthur and then pretty much disappears after page 59 when he was tricked by Ninive to go under a stone. Ninive then cast spells so that Merlin "came never out for all the craft he could do."

2. In many modern Arthurian stories, Arthur pulls Excalibur from an anvil or stone and is acknowledged as King. In Malory’s version, however, Excalibur is not that sword. Arthur does pull a sword from a stone/anvil and becomes King as a result. He breaks the sword in two during a fight shortly after. Merlin then arranges for the Lady of the Lake to give Arthur a new sword - this is Excalibur.

What about the book?

This is Helen Cooper’s translation (with modernized spelling and punctuation) of the Winchester Manuscript. Her translation, from the Oxford World Classics series, is slightly abridged and all omissions are identified. There is a glossary of recurrent words, definitions of selected words at the bottom of the pages, explanatory end notes and a comprehensive index of characters. The end notes are signaled in the text so that is very handy. 

Finally …

Some parts of the work drag on a little. But because I know already how things are going to turn out, there is a sense of foreboding as I read my way to the end of the story. I will try to read Chrétien de Troyes's French romances that are, to a large extent, the model for Malory's work.