Le Morte d'Arthur

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the various sources on which Sir Thomas Mallory drew to create the version of the legend of King Arthur that is known today. The writer provides an overview of the historical background for the Arthurian legend and the evidence that exists for a historical Arthur. The writer explains the medieval traditions of courtly love and of chivalry that Mallory incorporated into his book and his legacy of the knightly ideal that was detailed by Chaucer in his "Canterbury Tales," and in the fourteenth-century poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."

From the Paper:

"The account that did the most to establish Arthur as a prominent historical figure was The History of the Kings of Britain written in 1135 by Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welsh monk, and the book provides a history of the earliest kings of Britain, some 99 in all, including King Coel, known to us today from the nursery rhyme as Old King Cole. About one-fifth of the book is devoted to Arthur, and Geoffrey provides the first organized version of the story. Many of the elements that would be part of the later tradition were missing, however. Arthur's court is not at Camelot but at a place called Caerlon-on-Usk, or City of Legions. Geoffrey contributed at least three new elements to the existing histories of Arthur--he supplied Arthur with a family tree, told of Arthur's association with Merlin, and described his burial at Avalon."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Ashe, Geoffrey. "The Arthurian Fact." The Quest for Arthur's Britain, Geoffrey Ashe (ed.). Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 1987.
• Beowulf. Library of the Future CD-Rom, 4th Edition. Irvine: World Library, 1996.
• Capellanus, Andreas, The Art of Courtly Love. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.
• Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. New York: Holt, 1963.
• Girouard, Mark. The Return to Camelot. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.

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