Fifteenth Century King Arthur: The Significance of Sir Thomas Malory's Rendition of the Life of King Arthur
Loading...
Date
2017-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
My project explores how Sir Thomas Malory (d. 1471) used real life events to shape his retelling of the popular tale of King Arthur. Malory wrote in England during a civil war known as ‘The Wars of the Roses’ (1455-1485). This conflict involved members of the royal family fighting to put different people on the throne of England. Malory’s involvement in this dynastic dispute landed him jail, which was where he penned his famous Le Morte Darthur. I began my research by simultaneously reading Le Morte Darthur in its original spelling and secondary scholarship on the Wars of the Roses and Malory himself. During my research, I noticed a pattern of footnotes mentioning how certain parts of Le Morte Darthur are not from a source that Malory claimed to be using. I also noticed how these new parts that Malory was inventing matched something that would have just occurred in contemporary society. I compiled a list of plot details Malory invented that did not match a source and the list is very substantial. As I furthered my research, I realized many of these changes reflected contemporary notions of themes such as counsel and crusading. I have concluded that the changes Malory made in his retelling of King Arthur’s life were made to specifically reflect some of the events that occurred during his lifetime, such as issues with counsel and crusading, and through these changes we can determine how Malory felt the ruling class should behave. Naturally, everyone’s life influences their writing in some way but the amount of times real life shows up in Le Morte Darthur leads me to believe that this is so much more than coincidence. This conclusion leads us to better understand this time in British history and how people interpreted and reacted to political events.
Description
Keywords
Malory, Thomas Malory, England, Medieval, Middle Ages, King Arthur