Le Morte d'Arthur

Summary

Le Morte d'Arthur is Thomas Malory's English prose gathering of the Arthurian legend, from the hero's conception to the death of the last knights of the Round Table. Uther Pendragon, with Merlin's help, begets Arthur on Igraine, and the child is raised secretly by Sir Ector. After Uther's death a sword appears in a stone in a London churchyard, and only the boy Arthur can draw it. He wins his throne against rebel kings, receives Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake, unknowingly begets Mordred on his half-sister, and marries Guenever, who brings the Round Table as her dowry. The knights swear each Pentecost to show mercy, flee treason and succour ladies. Early books follow Balin's tragic Dolorous Stroke, Merlin's entrapment by Nimue, Morgan le Fay's plot to kill Arthur with his own sword, and Arthur's war against the Roman emperor Lucius, which ends with his crowning in Rome. Then come the adventures of Sir Launcelot du Lake, greatest of the knights, and of the kitchen knight Gareth, called Beaumains, who earns his knighthood in silence while a scornful damsel mocks him. The long central section tells of Sir Tristram, his love for La Beale Isoud and his enmity with her husband King Mark of Cornwall. Launcelot is tricked into begetting Galahad on Elaine, the daughter of King Pelles, and runs mad for years after Guenever's anger, until the Holy Grail heals him. The Grail appears at Camelot at Pentecost, covered in white samite, and the knights vow to seek it. Most fail; Launcelot sees it only in part because of his sin, while Galahad, Percivale and Bors achieve the quest, and Galahad dies in ecstasy at Sarras. Back at court, Launcelot's love for the queen grows open. He defends her when she is accused of poisoning a knight, is loved unto death by Elaine of Astolat, rescues Guenever from Meliagaunt, and heals the wounded Sir Urre by prayer. Agravaine and Mordred expose the lovers; in rescuing the queen from the fire Launcelot unknowingly kills Gareth and Gaheris, and Gawaine's grief turns Arthur against his greatest friend. While Arthur besieges Launcelot in France, Mordred seizes the kingdom. At the last battle on Salisbury Plain Arthur kills Mordred and is mortally wounded; Bedivere throws Excalibur into the water, and ladies bear the king away by barge to Avilion. Guenever becomes a nun, Launcelot a priest, and both die in penitence. Malory finished the work in 1469-70; William Caxton printed it at Westminster on 31 July 1485, dividing it into twenty-one books.

Top Lessons

• An oath that measures every knight

  In Book III Arthur makes his knights swear never to commit murder or treason, to give mercy to those who ask it, to succour women, and never to fight in a wrongful quarrel for gain. The rest of the book tests every knight against that oath, and the Round Table falls when private loyalties outweigh it.

• The best knight of the world and the holiest

  Launcelot is the finest knight in courtesy and arms, but on the Grail quest he learns that worldly prowess cannot reach the holy vessel while he clings to his sin. Galahad, his son, achieves what his father cannot. Malory honors both kinds of knighthood while ranking holiness above glory.

• Divided loyalties

  Launcelot loves Arthur and loves the queen; Gawaine loves Arthur and loves his brothers; Arthur loves his queen and his fellowship. In Book XX each is forced to choose, and Arthur's lament that queens could be replaced but such a fellowship never could shows what is being lost.

• Penitence at the end

  After the last battle Guenever becomes a nun and Launcelot a priest, and both die doing penance. Malory gives the great lovers not a tragic triumph but a turning to God, and the book ends with the author himself asking his readers' prayers.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

Wounds and their treatment fill the book. Leeches and surgeons search wounds after every battle; a fragment of Tristram's sword lodged in Marhaus's head cannot be removed by any surgeon and kills him, while Tristram's own wound from an envenomed spear defies every leech until La Beale Isoud, described as a noble surgeon, finds the poison and heals him. A queen is accused of poisoning a knight with an apple in Book XVIII. The book also contains two long episodes of madness: Tristram's in Book IX and Launcelot's in Books XI-XII, where, after Guenever's anger, he runs wild in the woods for years and is restored by the Sangreal. Malory's aside on Tristram's sickness in prison, the greatest pain a prisoner may have, has often been read as drawn from his own captivity. Healing by holiness is a recurring motif, from the Grail's cures to Launcelot's prayer over Sir Urre, whose wounds were cursed never to close until searched by the best knight of the world. These episodes reflect late medieval wound surgery and belief in miraculous healing; modern readings of Launcelot's madness as a depressive or psychotic episode should be offered only as interpretations.

• Book VIII, Chs. VIII-IX

  Marhaus dies of a sword fragment no surgeon can remove; Tristram's poisoned spear wound is healed by Isoud, a noble surgeon, in Ireland.

• Book IX, Ch. XXXVI

  Malory's reflection on sickness as the greatest pain a prisoner may have, as Tristram nearly kills himself in despair.

• Book XI, Ch. X - Book XII, Ch. IV

  Launcelot, out of his mind, wanders the forest and is finally recognized by Elaine and healed by the Sangreal.

• Book XIX, Chs. X-XII

  Sir Urre's enchanted wounds are searched by a hundred and ten knights in vain and healed when Launcelot prays over them, after which Launcelot weeps like a beaten child.

• Book XXI, Ch. V

  The mortally wounded Arthur is borne away by barge, saying he goes to Avilion to heal him of his grievous wound.