Explorations in Arthurian
Legends
A Literature Review
Part 6: Sir Thomas
Malory
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One author who definitely echoed the
signs of his times in his Arthurian writings was Sir Thomas
Malory. Arthur looks a bit like Henry V, who was king at the
time Malory was writing; and Arthur's route through France
echoes Henry's moves toward Agincourt.The action, of course,
takes place against the backdrop of King Arthur's Court,
which Malory places at Winchester.
The ideas of chivalry and courtly love are in full flower
here, as they were in other stories in England in the 15th
century.
Did he intend his tales to be one cycle,
echoing the styles of Robert
de Boron and the Vulgate authors,
or did he write tales one at a time and then decide later on
that an effort at unification was necessary? No one knows
for sure. Another raging debate among scholars is which
Thomas Malory wrote the works? Four men of that name are
possible suspects; the one from Warwickshire (despite his
prison convictions) is believed to be the author. Whoever he
was and whatever his intentions, "Malory" left us with a
large body of work, which, taken together, comprise quite
possibly one of the finest works ever written in the English
language.
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Malory was writing in the right place at the right
time. The printing press was just making its way to England, and a
man named William
Caxton was looking for books to
print.
As with the Vulgate Cycle, Arthur is the
supreme leader, reigning over all. Having kept this device,
Malory is free to make Lancelot
the central character. We first meet him in the Tale of
King Arthur and the Emperor Lucius, in which he makes
his name as a hero of the Roman Wars and cements his
reputation as first knight of the Round
Table by many chivalrous deeds
thereafter.
Lancelot gets his own tale, The Tale
of Sir Launcelot du Lake, a three-sectioned work in
which we recount the French Lancelot, meet his nephew
Lionel, and see the great knight perform all sorts of
chivalric adventures.
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With Malory's treatment of Lancelot comes a
departure from the spiritual passion seen in the Vulgate Cycle:
Malory emphasizes Lancelot's relative success, not his ultimate
failure.
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Malory treats Tristram and Iseult
not as a tragedy but as an illustration of the greatness of
the ideal of courtly life and love. Tristram
is one of the four best knights of the world, and he loves
Iseult as amatter of course, not as a matter of the
passionate heart. Mark
is, of course, a figure in the tale; but the ending is a
glimpse of the lovers at Joyous Gard, Lancelot's stronghold.
Their tragic end is remarked on only at the end of Lancelot
and Guinevere.
It is Mark who gets the rough treatment: Malory makes him
out to be so much of an unsympathetic character that the
conduct of his wife toward her lover can almost be
justified.
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In the last tale, it is a chance
slithering of a serpent that undoes the moment: Arthur and
Mordred, meeting to discuss a truce, give orders that the
drawing of any blade means war; one of the knights in
attendance at the truce conference sees an adder and draws
his sword to kill it, lest it kill him; both sides see the
glint of steel and assume the worst.
Malory goes out of his way not to
say what happened to Arthur in the end. He says
Mordred
died on the field of battle, and he says Arthur was mortally
wounded and taken away. Yet Bedivere
later meets a gravedigger and assumes that the grave is
being dug for Arthur.
Is he dead, or is he coming back? You
decide.
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In Malory, then, we see the tragedy exposed to the
raw. Yes, the knights seek the Holy
Grail. Yes, the main characters are
fallible. Yes, they do horrible things. But the overall theme is
chivalry and tragedy, not sin and repentance.
Malory used all the popular sources in writing his
tales. Here is a breakdown:
- The Tale of King Arthur: of
the birth and crowning and early rule of Arthur, from the
Prose Merlin. Malory strips the longer poem of its
initial trappings and focuses on Arthur, the gaining of
the kingdom by pulling the Sword from the Stone, his own
mysterious begetting (of Mordred), of Guinevere,
Excalibur, and the Round Table. This first tale ends with
Tristram and Lancelot arriving at Camelot.
- The Tale of the Noble King Arthur
That Was Emperor Himself through Dignity of his
Hands: of the invasion of France and Rome, from the
Alliterative Morte Arthure. Lucius demands tribute
from Arthur, who refuses; the British king then sails to
France, kills Lucius, and crowns himself emperor. This
tale ends happily, unlike its source.
- The Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot du
Lake, from the Prose Lancelot. In this tale,
Malory emphasizes not the adultery (as did the source)
but the chivalry. Malory paints a clear picture of
Lancelot as the best knight in the world, proven by his
long list of brave and mighty deeds. We see the passion
between the two erstwhile lovers as restrained and
far-off.
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- The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkeney That Was
Called Bewmaynes: of Gawain's long-lost brother from a lost
English poem. This tale is a delight in knightly discourse,
proving Gareth's worth in being a knight and a chivalric husband,
and also takes great pains to emphasize the friendship that
develops between Gareth and Lancelot.
- The Book of Sir Tristram de Lyones,
from the Prose Tristan, follows the traditional path
laid out by its source and earlier sources, following Tristram's
introduction to Isolde and their love despite the latter's
marriage to Mark, all set against the backdrop of great and small
doings at Arthur's court. The end of the tale, which portrays
Lancelot and Guinevere as almost certain adulterers, serves as a
lead-in to the next.
- The Tale of the Sankgreal ..., from the
Quest de Saint Graal, follows its source quite closely,
giving the knights a glimpse of the Grail at Camelot, after which
they set out to find it. Bors, Percival, and Galahad see it;
Lancelot, unable to free himself from his conflicting loves, sees
a partial vision and is further saddened.
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- The Book of Sir Launcelot and
Queen Guinevere, from the Mort Artu and
Stanzaic Le Morte Arthur, picks up where the Grail
tale ended, with Lancelot stumbling in a morass of
conflicting feelings. Knights return to court, the Grail
Quest realization is celebrated, and the affair of
Lancelot and Guinevere is in full bloom: In five
episodes, they profess their love for each other and just
avoid being caught, a circumstance that would change in
the last tale.
- The Most Piteous Tale of the Morte
Arthur Saunz Guerdon, from the Mort Artu and
Stanzaic Le Morte Arthur, begins with the powerful
telling of the exposing of Lancelot's and Guinevere's
romantic doings, with the subsequent condemning of the
queen to death. Predictably, Lancelot rescues her; but in
doing so, he kills Gareth and earns the lifelong enmity
of Gawain. Arthur, at the bidding of Gawain, follows
Lancelot to France and does battle with him there,
leaving Mordred behind as regent. The usurper also seizes
the queen; Arthur returns at once, and the last battle is
fought. Lancelot and Guinevere enter the monastic life
thereafter, and both die penitent deaths. Arthur, of
course, is spirited away to Avalon, as described
above.
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Malory is a giant in the field. He is the basis
for a great many modern authors, as Geoffrey of Monmouth for a great
many authors in centuries past. Taking a cue from Malory a few
hundred years later was none other than Alfred,
Lord Tennyson.
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