Le Morte d'Arthur
Sir Thomas Malory
1485
An
Alexandrine Couplet About THE CONTENT OF Le Morte d’Arthur
Knights, jousting, duels, wizards,
maidens and castles,
honor and betrayal—these are some great
legends.
An
Alexandrine Couplet About READING Le Morte d’Arthur
Oh My God, just get an annotated
version,
Cause this is rough to read—epic, but truly
rough.
Le Morte D’Arthur
(which means “The Death Of Arthur”) is the original collection of King
Arthur’s tales – they were around for ages before 1485, but Mallory was the
first guy who wrote them all in one place. He also added a few he made up, but
that’s neither here nor there. He must have spent a lot of time writing,
because the version hyperlinked above is 954 pages and the writing is really
tiny and really dense. And of course it’s in Middle English, so it’s not what
I’d call “light reading”. It’s the one I read, and it took a long time.
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| If only it was Archie and Jughead. |
Lit and history geeks call these stories
Arthurian Legend, but they were mostly just stories, and many are huge in
popular culture today. You’ve heard of Camelot and the Round Table, King Arthur
and Lancelot.
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And not just from Sean Connery movies.
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If you’ve watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail you’re familiar with several of the
characters, themes, and plots, though the book is less comic and more bloody. Among
other fun pastimes in Le Morte D’Arthur, there’s jousting, brawling, and
wholesale murder. Arthur and friends go to war against Roman emperors. England
and France war with each other. Plus there’re wizards, witches, and magic
chairs (really). A group of knights finds the Holy Grail.
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Indiana Jones 3 is actually based on
this.
The story the knight at the end tells is
his story in Le Morte d’Arthur.
Really.
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Also, Sean Connery again. Maybe we do
only know these stories from Sean Connery movies.
Although this book has lots of famous
and awesome stories, there’s no lack of boring in there, and it gets really
repetitive at times. I suspect Mallory talked to the people in one town and
wrote down their version of a legend, then went to the town next door, and on
and on, because what happens a lot is that a Good Knight crosses a bridge and goes
to a town, and defeats an Evil Knight who wears green and has 40 friends, then the
Good Knight crosses another bridge and goes to another town and defeats an Evil
Knight who wears blue and has 60 friends, and then he crosses another bridge and
it all keeps happening until they run out of colors. That sort of repetition is
common here, and it gets real old real fast, but probably every village in that
area told Mallory their version of the same story, like a Middle Ages version
of the telephone game. That’s just my theory. Whatever the cause, it goes on
and on.
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The point is you don’t want to drag this
thing on a subway. It’s really what Kindles were made for.
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But it’s fun seeing the way they referred
to things in the 1400s, like every time the eat they say, “Then they sat at
their meats”, and that’s weird and charming.
It’s also cool (or some word like that)
to see the original versions of all these stories, and see how these people –
like King Arthur – that you’ve heard are pretty awesome, are actually dicks ½ the
time. Let’s just say you feel bad for Guinevere by the end.
So, all told, it’s a big, heavy,
interesting read. I’m not convinced I’d recommend unless you’re considering
studying Middle English or are planning to be bed ridden for 6 months.
Otherwise, watch Monty Python and the
Holy Grail and call it a day.
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Not entirely dissimilar.
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