Malory’s creative process

he draws from a bunch of different sources and sews them together; switches between genres

most of these sources are from the French Vulgate cycle

huge set of King Arthur stories in French

Roman wars goes from French to English source

French source was massive; had to make significant creative decisions

begins with the story of Arthur’s conception

French source on the other hand begins with Merlin

Merlin was supposed to be a sort of antichrist

demon sleeps with holy virgin, is so god she thwarts the plan to make Merlin the anti-Christ

Merlin is a little tricky because his father was a demon but overall is good

is prophetic, magical

Merlin ‘basically Loki’

religious framing of Merlin

instead of beginning the story with Merlin, Malory begins with Arthur because that’s where his interests lie

Arthur’s conception

kind of nonconsensual

lots of people die from a war because the duke’s wife wouldn’t sleep with Uther, he becomes lovesick

lovesick=wounded heart, so all your blood in your body goes to repair your heart

paleness, sweatiness, fainting

mentions love second and anger first

So Uther, who didn’t get what he wanted, goes to war because he couldn’t have had a man’s wife

parallel to King David and Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite

David spies her bathing, has her brought to him, sleeps with her and decides he doesn’t want to give her back

David sends Uriah into battle where he is killed; he marries pregnant Bathsheba, baby dies, but they go on to raise Solomon

Merlin: sets up plan to disguise Uther as the duke

duke is killed before seeing Igraine; Uther has sex with her three hours after the duke actually dies

what Malory does

careful to create space between duke dying and Uther having sex with Igraine

this was to be careful to not make him a bastard

Merlin gets to insist Arthur is not a bastard; even though it is a moral and ethical problem, it is no longer a legal problem of who becomes heir to the throne

remember, Igraine wants to leave because Uther is after her

first thing we hear about Igraine is that she is a good and wise woman who wants to not cheat on her husband

so Arthur’s conception is pretty messed up

Malory and Arthur’s upbringing

Merlin=I want the baby

tradeoff?

Merlin was the one who allowed Uther to sleep with Igraine in the first place by disguising him

Malory focuses on the trouble caused

Ector—Arthur realizes he is not his father

this saddened Arthur tremendously

time spent on the disruption of Arthur’s family

very young Arthur all of a sudden has his family treating him as social superior

Concerns about child kings after Edward the 6th

stories much older than this but of topical interest when Malory was writing

in War of Roses, Edward 5 was killed; his infant son becomes king

prophetic Merlin probably knew Uther would die before Arthur was older; Arthur would be kept safe until he was old enough to be the king

takes away from court because people may have tried to kill or influence the infant king

War of Roses largely caused by situation of infant king

The Sword and the Stone

Kay, newly knighted, forgot his sword

good l’il Arthur went after a sword for him, no intention of being king

everybody else pretty much actually actively wanted to be the king

God-ordained faith/fate of Arthur

raised in contact with commoners

in The Sword and the Stone incident, the commoners want him as king; he pulls sword out repeatedly at different intervals until the people say enough already, we accept this guy as the king already

emphasis is more secular; emphasis on civil war is pragmatic

Arthur’s foster family had not known of his royal birthright and prowess

lot of work goes into establishing warrior set up later in setting up prowess

More about Igraine

Malory seems to try to make Igraine out in the best way possible

actually did not know what had happened to her baby

actually had thought Uther had been her husband when she slept with him

while Uther was irregular, Igraine certainly wasn’t in Malory’s telling

Then Arthur has sex with his sister

he was married

he did exactly what his father did (sleeps with ally’s wife)

accidentally begets Mordred, who, Merlin says, is going to destroy everything

‘there are things we can’t get away from… but we can frame them in different ways’

dilemma around fate

very medieval in that it gets at the problem offer will

having the babies killed—King Herod had all killed to prevent Moses from happening

all babies drowned, only Mordred lived

La Morte Darthur

written around 1470

Malory seems to have been reading English and French sources, does not read more than Arthurian legends

The guy we are pretty sure was Malory

Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel

born around 1416, elected 1433 and 1449

knighted in 1441

1451, is accused of kidnapping a duke, rape, and more

1451 onwards was in and out of prison

1460 was last recorded arrest

The War of the Roses

series of on again, off again conflicts over who should be the king

‘I pardon everybody except for Thomas Malory’ happened twice, was not a popular person

Malory dies in 1471

there were many other people who we wanted to be Malory but these days it’s generally agreed that this is ‘ourguy’

Caxton edition—1485

medieval manuscript printed on sheepskin

manuscripts were written by hand on animal skins

1880s—British aristocrats fell on hard times, Americans start buying their books and manuscripts as hobbies/collections

Caxton=first printing in England, prints not as attractive as high end manuscripts would have been

Caxton organized More and published it in twenty one chapters

Wynkyn de Worde

Caxton’s apprentice

after Caxton dies he takes over his shop and prints new version with pictures

1816 revival of Malory’s work

Walker and Edwards print two volume edition

Wilks prints three volume edition

both very small, as if they were intended to be gifts

one removed ‘obscene’ passages

language was also cleaned up

up until 1934, all there are are incomplete bits; full copy Winchester edition is reassembled by Sir Walter Oakeshott

all names in early manuscripts written in red; often these were full of abbreviations because they were handwritten

confusion over whether Malory wrote 8 separate works or one big one—huge split in literary works

Scholarly editions usually use Winchester edition

The medieval idea of nine heroes

3 classical

3 Christian (including Arthur)

3 Biblical

The purpose of literature

Historical evidence for Arthur’s existence

not strong

6th century onwards: what we’re dealing with

Romans left Britain

trouble with marauding Anglo-Saxons, Jewish people

Anglo-Saxons invaded after the Romans left

original Britons were displaced

Many went to Scotland, France, Wales

Welsh=oldest inhabitants of the British aisles

new DNA testing shows much more intermarriage happened between groups than had been previously thought

Britain=multilingual and multiethnic; connected to broader world

story of Arthur spreads across theses varied groups and eventually makes its way into the Continent and all over Europe

Gildas de Excidio et Conquesto

Britannie ~ 530-840

written by British monk in Latin, account of Saxon invasion

thought Brits were lazy, deserved invasion

Brits had been ‘overcome by sodomy,’ God sent the Saxons to punish them

Battle of Mt Baden

significant British victory but does not say who led it

might this Ambrosios guy he mentioned earlier

didn’t name the leader because everybody back then would have known who he was

Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum

~731

more like a narrative history through a Christian lens

Bede=Saxon

getting a lot of stuff from Gildas

Mt Baden=493, posits Ambrosias as leader/general

in medieval times, we did not make the same distinctions between history and literature that we would now

Earliest mention of Arthur

Nennius, Historia Britonum

probably nobody actually named Nennius existed

complied early 9th century, probably in Wales

considered an early ‘best seller’

Nennius calls Arthus ‘dux-erat bellorum’

dux=Duke

bellorum=battle

so literally leader of battles but not sure if king or general

1st mention of Arthur leading Brits in battle

most battles near rivers, defensible frontiers

frames Arthur as Christian hero fighting against heathens

Bede=Saxons Christianizing in Britain

Arthur in Nennius=carries picture of Mary on shoulder in battle

Confusion of the Welsh language could be occurring; the Welsh words meaning ‘shoulder’ and ‘shield’ are very similar, might account for the odd image of having Mary on his shoulder

‘Easter table’

determined when Easter would occur because its date changed a lot

One easter calendar mentioned Arthur carrying the cross for three days and three nights

Nennius also makes references to ‘madness of Merlin’ and a character who becomes Perseus

Batton ~516

~537 other important battle

now we think the battle might have been even earlier

The Apples

Welsh poem where mad Merlin is going around talking to apples

~12th century

prophetic figure

important Welsh tradition of political poetry

imagines times when a hero returns and leads them in battle against the Saxons

prophetic traditions interlocks with ideal of Arthur as promised hero

other references to ‘Ahmer’ (spelling unknown) might also have been a variation of Arthur

Camelot

becomes popular location in 13th century

may have historical basis

Arthur’s grave

Monks of Glastonbury Abbey allegedly dig up Arthur’s grave around ~1192, 1191

bones were said to be absolutely massive

space between eyes = size of a man’s palm

political reasons to establish Arthur was dead

Was King Arthur real?

very little historical evidence

historians generally agree between 5th and 7th centuries in England: ‘the dark ages’

43AD: Roman conquest

influence remains important until 411 (collapse; Romans leave)

one of the first ‘real’ incidents that had to be dealt with

Geoffrey of Monmouth: claims that the English, not the Romans, did a lot of the building

but the Romans did leave quite a bit behind

Roman baths, coliseums, roads, forts, etc

Britons: the people left after

original inhabitants of Britain

we assume that Arthur himself came from these people

British land included Wales and Scotland

then, immigration of Anglos, Saxons, Jews

Celtic kingdom in the North was cut off

Germanic tribes (Saxons) established themselves in the middle of England, Celts are pushed into hill country

province in France, Britany: Britons fled and settled in that part of France

Arthur might have been a figure from the Northern kingdom in the battle against the Saxons

but ‘stories migrate and tend to get attached to each other’