morte d’arthur – Arthurian Legends

And when they were at the water side, even fast by the bank hoved a little barge with many fair ladies in it, and among them all was a queen, and all they had black hoods, and all they wept and shrieked when they saw King Arthur. Now put me into the barge, said the king. And so he did softly; and there received him three queens with great mourning; and so they set them down, and in one of their laps King Arthur laid his head. And then that queen said: Ah, dear brother, why have ye tarried so long from me? alas, this wound on your head hath caught over-much cold. And so then they rowed from the land, and Sir Bedivere beheld all those ladies go from him.

Sir Thomas Malory, Le Mort d’Arthur (via night-filled-mountain)

cair–paravel:

Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (published 1485).

pendragondynasty:

my copy of le morte d’arthur

Fair knight, said Sir Palomides, you have overmuch on hand, therefore I pray you let me joust, for you had need to be reposed.

Thomas Malory (via lesavagedamsel)

Do you know of any books adapted from or inspired by Le Morte DArthur?

I fear that many (most) of the modern arthurian novels are inspired by Le Morte d’Arthur 🙂

If you are looking for something very close to Le Morte d’Arthur (like an adaptation or retelling) Steinbeck’s “The Acts of King Arthur and his noble knights”, Sutcliff’s “King Arthur trilogy” and “The Story of King Arthur and His Knights” by Pyle are excellent!

If you are looking for novels that maintain that magical Christianism you can find in Morte d’Arthur then Cherith Baldry’s “Exiled from Camelot” is also amazing, and so is Phyllis Ann Karr’s “Idylls of the Queen”. Both these novels are actually inspired by episodes that are not in Le Morte d’Arthur, but I think they are the best example of the feeling of magic mixed with chivalry and Christianism that you might find in Malory’s work.

alia-andreth:

Lady: hey how are things?

Gawain: not good.

Lady: why not? All of this is your fault after all. 🙂

katiemcgrath:

Then King Arthur let send for all the children born on May-day, begotten of lords and born of ladies; for Merlin told King Arthur that he that should destroy him should be born on May-day, wherefore he sent for them all, upon pain of death; and so there were found many lords’ sons, and all were sent unto the king, and so was Mordred sent by King Lot’s wife, and all were put in a ship to the sea, and some were four weeks old, and some less. And so by fortune the ship drave unto a castle, and was all to-riven, and destroyed the most part, save that Mordred was cast up, and a good man found him, and nourished him till he was fourteen year old, and then he brought him to the court, as it rehearseth afterward, toward the end of the Death of Arthur.

— Le Morte d’Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory
_{Aneurin Barnard as Mordred}

hrothgar:

Thomas Malory’s ‘Le Morte D’Arthur, the Winchester Manuscript, MS 59678, f.35, British Library

Source: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/englit/malory/large17446.html

There is, for Malory, a perfect symbol for the civil warfare that ensues: the fact that Arthur kills his son, Mordred, just as Mordred kills him; but to this fact, which is basic to the story in his sources, Malory also adds the gruesome but symbolically rich detail that Mordred delivers the fatal blow by thrusting his body along the spear with which Arthur has impaled him. The precision of Malory’s language is fully on display in the way in the way he makes a tiny drama out of this simple sentence by failing to call Arthur Mordred’s “father” until the moment that Mordred actually strikes the fatal blow:
“And whan sir Mordred felte that he had hys dethys wounde he threste hymselff with the myght that he had upp to the burre of kyng Arthurs speare, and ryght so he smote hys fadir, kynge Arthure, with hys swerde.”
That the most natural of human relationships should end in mutual murder is the saddest way Malory finds to describe the ills of the chivalric society he lives in and that he wrote the Morte to reflect. But all that he adds to his sources and all the ways he restructures them allow the Morte to conclude by transforming the standard mystery posed by the story of Arthur (why does such a successful society fall apart so completely?) into an even more interesting question: how did a society in which your enemy looks and behaves exactly like your friend (or your son) ever manage to hold together in the first place?

Christopher Cannon (in his afterward to Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur)

palespring:

♛ Morgan le Fay + books {5/ ∞}

le morte d’arthur (sir thomas mallory)

“

“This is the oath of a Knight of King Arthur’s Round Table and should be for all of us to take to heart. I will develop my life for the greater good. I will place character above riches, and concern for others above personal wealth, I will never boast, but cherish humility instead, I will speak the truth at all times, and forever keep my word, I will defend those who cannot defend themselves, I will honor and respect women, and refute sexism in all its guises, I will uphold justice by being fair to all, I will be faithful in love and loyal in friendship, I will abhor scandals and gossip-neither partake nor delight in them, I will be generous to the poor and to those who need help, I will forgive when asked, that my own mistakes will be forgiven, I will live my life with courtesy and honor from this day forward.”

Le Morte d’Arthur (originally spelled Le Morte Darthur, Middle French for “the death of Arthur”) is a reworking of existing tales by Sir Thomas Malory about the legendary King Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere, Morgan le Fay and the Knights of The Round Table. Malory interprets existing French and English stories about these figures and adds original material . Le Morte d’Arthur was first published in 1485 by William Caxton, and is today one of the best-known works of Arthurian literature in English. Many modern Arthurian writers have used Malory as their principal source (x).