Sir Thomas Malory's The Tale Of King Arthur

Arthurian legends are old stories about King Arthur, King Arthur’s court at Camelot,the magician Merlin, and the Knights at the Round Table. Arthurian legends incorporated fiction and history and it formed a large part of medieval romances. An important author that contributed to these legends was Sir Thomas Malory. He wrote Le Morte D’arthur. It’s one of the most significant books in all of arthurian legends.
Thomas Malory was born on 1405 in Warwickshire, United Kingdom. Malory was married to Elizabeth Walsh. He was believed to be a member of the Parliament, a knight, and a landowner. By 1441, he was knighted and had an interest in politics. He was known as an oddly quiet man and spent the first decade of his life in peace and quiet. Everything
went downhill by the time 1444 rolled by. His attitude changed completely. It is as if a switch turned in him. He raped a woman named Joan Smith twice. To add on to that, he also stole her husband's goods, stole some money, pilfered cattle, and destroyed a hunting lodge. He was imprisoned at Coleshill but he swam to his escape to the moat the night he was imprisoned. He later then raided a man named Combe Abbey and a band of outlaws. He also stole money and harassed the monks around him while he was at it. Malory was caught and thrown into jail in London where he waited 8 years for his trial day. Thomas Malory was lucky enough to be bailed out, but didn't take this opportunity for granted. He was thrown into the Colchester jail yet again for stealing horses. He fought the guards until he escaped. He was finally recaptured and was placed in the London prison, but again was freed by the Royal pardon in 1460. Malory finally settled in prison for good in Newgate where he wrote the famous “Le Morte D'arthur and got his eternal fame. He died in jail in 1471. Thomas Malory is the author of Le Morte D’arthur. He wrote endlessly without a care of grammar or a proper organization of his thoughts. When the William Caxton was publishing the book, he fixed up the grammar and divided the whole book into eight different books and then into chapters. The book itself explains what it is like to be a good knight and good person overall. What is unique about Thomas Malory's arthurian legends is that it is written in English, not in French.
The whole book of Le Morte D'arthur is almost 800 pages. There are 8 parts that make up the whole book. The books, in order from one to eight, is 1) The Tale of King Arthur, 2) Arthur and King Lucius, 3) Sir Launcelot Du Lake, 4) The Tale of Sir Gareth, 5) Sir Tristram De Lyones. 6) The Tale of the Holy Grail, 7) Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere, and finally 8) The Death of King Arthur. Each and every one of the books focuses on different specific topics.
Book number one, The Tale of King Arthur, talks about how King Arthur became the king.
All he did was remove a sword from a stone, which made him king. In book two, which is written in middle english, goes in depth about how King arthur marched into Rome without an enemy. In other words, he marched in without someone that he wants to battle. When emperor of Rome comes in and accuses King Arthur for refusing tribute, King Arthur and his army create a fight. The British conquerors of Rome demand the emperor of Rome to demand tribute first. This results in King Arthur escaping to Normandy to meet his cousin and encounter a fight with a sex driven monster that he ends up winning. In book number three, it discussed King Arthur's most reverent knight, Lancelot. This book focuses on Lancelot’s crazy adventures, including his love for Morgan Le Fey, a powerful enchantress. Book four elaborates about the tale of Sir Gareth, the youngest brother of Sir Gawain, and his time in court. A lady, in the name of Dame Lynette, asks for help in fighting the Red Knight of the Red Land, and Gareth accepts this mission to rescue Lyonesse, Lynette’s sister. Gareth ends up falling in love with her. In book five, it discusses the tale of Sir Tristram, Sir Dinadan, and a bunch of more knights in their life in chivalry. Tristam falls in love with Isolde, and his rude uncle gets jealous and falls in love with her too. He is so jealous that he asks Tristram to ask Isolde for him for her hand in
marriage. Isolde and Tristam are important lovers in arthurian legends.In book six, it elaborates about the adventures that a few knights had to achieve the Holy Grail. In book seven, it goes on about Lancelot and Guinevere's adultery. Guinevere is the wife of King Arthur. It talks about how careless they act in public and how he forgets to act upon his quest. In book eight, it explains the death of King Arthur after a fight with Mordred where he gets struck in the head.
Thomas Malory did not write all of the arthurian legends himself, he rewrote them and added an english twist to it.
He also translated it from French. One main difference would be the way that he explains different situations. It really tells you a lot about the author. One example of this is the way that Sir Bedivere throws Excalibur into the lake. He throws him in three times before he throws his sword in. He only explains the difficulty in this task. He doesn’t goes in depth about how Excalibur lies over and over again like a fellow author Tennyson. Although, when Malory was putting together his book, he rearranged the order of the romances in the arthurian legend stories. When he assembled his book, he kept a cohesive story line. He made sure to have a beginning, middle, and an end. Malory added and remove things in the novels wherever he felt that it was necessary.
A huge contributor to Le Morte D’arthur is William Caxton. William Caxton printed and finalized the whole novel. He also accidentally gave the book a french title. Caxton was England’s best printer and only printed what he thought was the best. He divided Malory’s work into separate book and then chapters, which made it very organized. Also, Caxton fixed all the grammar mistakes that the careless author wrote. Malory and Caxton didn’t personally know each other because Caxton decided to print the book in 1485, almost 10 years after Malory passed
away. Arthurian legends teaches the world a lot about fiction and history at the same time. It’s a chance for the audience to use their imagination and learn about the past at the same time. A huge contributor to this is Thomas Malory, despite his horrible life choices, he did write an amazing 800 page novel that was released to the world with the help of William Caxton.