[.ca] Le Morte D Arthur (ISBN 0451625676)

The once and future king, reissued...:
The earlier rendition by Keith Baines of Mallory's classic work, 'Le Morte d'Arthur', went out of print, but the demand was such that there was bound to be a press that would pick it up. All hail to Signet for doing so here! They have taken the old text and reprinted it, practically as a photo-stat. Even the pagination has remained the same, but the print face is a bit cleaner than the older copy in a side-by-side comparison (I purchased the Signet edition, thinking it was a revision, when I already had the older Baines edition -- they are the same). Sir Thomas Mallory was a great one to write the adventures of King Arthur and his knights - a knight himself, he led a life of intrigue and adventure, albeit not one that always lived up to the ideas of chivalry he penned at the heart of the Arthurian legends. Mallory did not invent Arthur; he is one of the principle medieval chroniclers, having time (he was in prison with nothing else to do, after all) to set down in prose stories he'd heard throughout his life. These were popular tales, not always told in the same way with the same details, as is true of most oral legends and transmitted stories, much to the later frustration of scholars and readers. The earliest printing of Mallory's stories had his authorship suppressed by Caxton, one of the better-known publishers of the time. The earliest Arthurian legends date back as far as the late Roman times in Britain. Controversies abound, but many have settled on a late Roman or Romano-British general named Arturius - however, given the linguistic nature of the name (it is derivative of ruler or leader), it is impossible to know if this was in fact a name or a title, and the legends may be compilations of the acts of many leaders bearing the name. There was also a Welsh leader with the name/title Arddu, 'Dark One', who is sometimes conflated into Arthurian legend. Arthur was celebrated in the pre-Norman times for the order and stability he represented; Arthur was celebrated in post-Norman times for his campaigns against Saxons. Arthur continues to be an intriguing character, today reminiscent of ancient mysteries as well as pagan and new age ideas as well. In any event, Mallory doesn't attach specific dates to his tales. The book actually consists of many tales. The first is entitled 'The Tale of King Arthur', which introduces the figures of Merlin, Gawain, Uwayne, Pellinore, Morgan le Fay (the Celtic war goddess Morgana, dressed up as Arthur's sister) and others, and includes the sword-in-the-stone event. While this text has been modernised by Keith Baines, there are certain crucial lines left in Mallory's English, including this most famous one: Whoso pulleth oute this swerd of this stone and anvyld is rightwys kynge borne of all Brytaygne Following this tale, Mallory includes many of the famous tales in Arthurian legend as stories more or less complete in themselves, but still linking to the other tales. 'The Tale of Sir Lancelot du Lake' is a knight's tale indeed, with no fewer than twenty horseback duels back-to-back. 'The Tale of Sir Gareth' is a similar spirited tale, less well known. 'The Book of Sir Tristram of Lyoness' makes Tristram and Iseult, famous by other writers as well, into lovers, this time with a more happy ending than usual. The lesser known 'Tale of Arthur and Lucius' describes battles and skirmishes with the emperor, but never really captured popular imagination. Mallory saves the best for last, with three major tales - 'The Tale of the Sangreal', the Holy Grail; 'The Book of Sir Launcelot and Queen Gwynevere'; and finally, 'Le Morte D'Arthur'. The tale of the Holy Grail continues into the present day in various fashions; here is contains strange glosses of the Old and New Testaments, as well as a good number of miracles, as one would expect from the Grail. The last tale, the death of Arthur, is probably the most famous, and the best written. Even though an English knight, the courtly fashion was after a French design for many centuries after the Norman conquest, and this French influence in notable in the stories, from their titles to their plots and characterisations, including the places Mallory uses. Keith Baines eliminates a lot of needless dialogue from his rendering here, but keeps the plot lines and sequence of action with integrity from earlier manuscripts and recited tales. His translation compares favourably with others, becoming a fairly standard text for good reason. Robert Graves (of 'I Claudius' fame) provides an appreciative introduction to the text. Baines himself was a poet; however, this text, accepted somewhat reluctantly, is probably his best known work. Arthur lives on into the modern world and beyond. Baines' edition gives it life to carry on, and Signet makes it available.

Steinbeck's Favorite Books:
This was John Steinbeck's favorite book his whole life and is one of the best books ever in my opinion. It contains romance, action, humor, and suspense, it is a perfect book, too bad we don't have any modern day Malorys around.

Overbrief Translation:
In his preface, the translator Keith Baines asserts that he attempted to "provide a concise and lucid rendering of Le Morte d'Arthur" and to clarify "those episodes which, for the purpose in hand, seemed obscure, and condensing those which seemed prolix." As an example of this condensation in progress, Baines version of The Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake is 19 pages long. Steinbeck's translation of the same story (which had the goal of accurately preserving the story as told in the Winchester Ms.) runs over 100 pages. Throughout, Baines' edition is horribly abridged. He leaves most of the basic facts from the story intact (though some parts of his translation, especially concerning the obscurer genealogies, are plain wrong when compared to most other editions). However, he cuts all elements that make reading the legend enjoyable.

Le Morte d'Arthur:
This was a very intriguing book. I felt it had very little description used throughout the book, the plot lines were so complexed that they got to point where it was impossible to follow them. Then characters just seemed to come and go throughout the book, sometimes their name was not mentioned for three or four chapters and the bam all the sudden it is like they were there the whole time, but yet it was still so interesting. Mallory did an excellent job just describing the scenery and the daily activities that occurred around the castle. When he tried to describe the feelings or justify the acts of the characters is when the book got too confusing. The way he wrote this book really makes it seem like a legend; the castle is so grand, the people are so happy, the villains are so evil, and the knights are so incredibly strong. My favorite part of the book was at the very beginning when Arthur went to get Excalaber. Mallory described the scenery and the actions with such vivid description it was so easy to get the gist of what was going on. He even throws in some supernatural elements to make this excerpt even more interesting. There was the mystical lady of the lake that could not be seen; all Arthur saw of her was her hand holding Excalaber above the water, and then the fact that Excalaber was just a normal sword and that the scabbard is what was truly magical. Woah this guy threw so many twists and turns in there.

Guinevere and Lancelot vs. Arthur:
In the quest, thus far, to discover the truth about King Arthur, I have encountered many aspects of several authors and how each one perceived the legend. One particular author that struck my favor was Sir Thomas Malory, especially in his book, Le Morte D'Arthur. Although, as a class assignment, I only read one particular section of the novel, which was the love affair between Guinevere and Lancelot, I can honestly say I have a strong favor and opinion towards Malory's depiction of that portion of the legend. The relationship between Guinevere and Lancelot is inevitably one that leads to adultery, which affects Arthur in a way that one can discover his true feelings about his Round Table, oddly enough. Since Lancelot was one of Arthur's strongest and most reliable knights in the hood, Arthur feels more betrayed by Lancelot's decision to act on his feelings towards Guinevere than he does by Guinevere who had more control over the situation in my opinion. In his own words, Arthur states his bond with the knighthood and how Lancelot's affair with Guinevere affects the Round Table by saying, "And much more am I sorrier for my good knights' loss than for the loss of my faire queen; for queens I might have enough, but such a fellowship of good knights shall never be together in no company (Malory, 482)." Arthur's hardship over this love affair really brings to life his emotional level and how most of his emotion lies in the sorrows he has for his Round Table. It seems as if he is astonished that a noble knight with such great power could ever go against his own king the way Lancelot did to him. It was as if Arthur gave him all the goodness and glory a shining knight could ask for, and betrayal was his reward. Malory depicts this part of the sequence with such an astounding viewpoint, in a sense that the audience can almost feel Arthur's emotions within the story. He not only makes the story easy to relate to, but he also writes at a comfortable level in which the audience can comprehend the emotions that Geoffrey of Monmouth certainly did not portray. Not to say that Geoffrey wasn't a great writer, but I just didn't feel the emotion as much as I did in Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur. Overall, I recommend this book to anyone interested in the joys and hardships of King Arthur in order to better understand the emotional aspect of the legend.