Plot
Le Morte d’Arthur (originally spelled Le Morte Darthur, ungrammatical Middle French for “The Death of Arthur”) is a 15th-century Middle English prose reworking by Sir Thomas Malory of tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table—along with their respective folklore. In order to tell a “complete” story of Arthur from his conception to his death, Malory compiled, rearranged, interpreted and modified material from various French and English sources. Today, this is one of the best-known works of Arthurian literature. Many authors since the 19th-century revival of the legend have used Malory as their principal source. (Source: Wikipedia)
There is a lot I didn’t know about good King Arthur.
- His conception was the rape of Igraine by his father Uther Pendragon.
- He slept with his sister (unknowingly is the excuse of everyone in this book)
- Merlin is the most obvious deus ex machina every written
- Excalibur was not much more than a sword. The real kicker is the Scabbard of Ultimate Healing which when worn means Arthur will not be damaged
- A knight cannot go more than a mile without another knight challenging them. Lots of smoting ensues making shield-maker the most lucrative profession of the era
Written in Middle English the book is surprisingly easy to read. I did add a Middle English dictionary to my Kobo1 for some less obvious words. Overall the depth of vocabularly is shallow so once a few words are learned most later chapters are covered. I like there each piece is only a few pages long.
My favourite paragraph comes from Book I, Chapter XVI, Yet more of the same battle.
But King Lot, and King of the Hundred Knights, and King Morganore gathered the people together passing knightly, and did great prowess of arms, and held the battle all that day, like hard.
2026-03-31, putting this aside at the start of Book VII. Each chapter is much the same as each other chapter. Knight puts on armour, rides off, finds other knights who then smite each other, and the move on. Damosel in distress optional.