Book Review: Sir Thomas Malory

Sir Thomas Malory, author of the 15th century Le morte d'Arthur, didn't quite live up to the ideals of his Knights of the Round Table.

Le morte d'Arthur (The Death of Arthur), written in the 1450s and published in 1470, by Sir Thomas Malory (c.1416-1471), is a classic of Middle English and one of the earliest printed books in the West. It also has distilled most of what Hollywood and other populist sources take from the Arthurian legend, as this week's film review shows. Malory wasn't the first medieval author to take on the Arthurian cycle-not by a long shot. But he was, in terms of posterity, probably the most successful.

His life, otherwise, was rather less successful. Born around 1416, he was either English or Welsh. He served in Parliament, but also served time in prison for a variety of offences-though he did somehow evade ever actually being convicted for any of them. He was apparently a fractious neighbor and an incorrigible thief. Sometimes, he was pardoned; other times, he was not. During one of the latter periods of imprisonment, he either wrote Le morte d'Arthur or compiled it from earlier sources. He finished it around 1470 and died less than two years later.

It is one of those oddities of the late Middle Ages that the most famous medieval author writing about the ultimate fictional medieval model of chivalry was, himself, little better than a bandit. Another is that he put a French title on a work in Middle English, probably to make it sound more erudite. English was only just coming back into its own in the 15th century after four centuries of obscurity.

Le morte d'Arthur is a fictional biography of King Arthur, from his illicit conception through his rise to power, the conception of his son and bane Mordred, the adventures of his knights (including the Quest for the Holy Grail) and, ultimately, his death. Malory also discusses in some detail the legend that Arthur did not really die, but waits at Avalon to come again someday.

All of the elements that have since become famous in the Arthurian legend are present in Le morte d'Arthur, especially the legends of the Grail and of Arthur's future return. Malory did not invent most of them, but he did codify them in a popular form that came out just as the printing press was gearing up. Unfortunately, these elements have also contributed heavily to the 19th century romanticized version of the Middle Ages that is now popularly accepted as the "truth".

But that is not Malory's fault.