This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

E 326K // Literature of the Middle Ages in Translation: Mysteries of the Grail Main Menu

Malory

7732

Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel, Warwickshire was an English writer who lived from 1405 to 1471. He is most famous for compiling the Morte D’Arthur, the first and best known English-language prose version of the Arthurian Legend.

Morte D’Arthur

Only two copies of the original printing are known to exist. One is in the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City, and the other is in the John Rylands Library in Manchester.
In this version of the quest, Galahad is the hero.
It retells the adventures of the knights of the Round Table in chronological order from the birth of Arthur.
According to Edward Hick’s biography of Sir Thomas Malory, Morte was completed sometime between March 1469 and March 1470, but wasn’t published until 1485 by William Caxton.
The Morte Consists of 8 romances that span 21 books with 507 chapters, and is said to be “considerably shorter than the original French sources."
It is compiled from translated Arthurian stories that already existed.

There was a great deal of speculation on the actual identity of Sir Thomas Malory, as there is a number of minor historical figures with the same name. Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel, Warwickshire was also a criminal who died in prison after being charged multiple times for rapes and violent robberies, so there is a sense of shame in associating him as the author of a work as great as the Morte D’Arthur. Edward Hicks explains that this Sir Malory was the correct one, because he is the only Sir Thomas Malory that fulfills the conditions of:

Being old enough in 9 Edward IV to make it possible that he should have written this work
Being alive in the ninth year of Edward IV (March 4, 1469 to March 3, 1470)
Being a Knight

If you want to read more, check these links out:

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4082391;view=1up;seq=10;size=150
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011293282;view=1up;seq=82
http://www.britannica.com/topic/Le-Morte-Darthur