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misreading and rereading Malory's Morte Darthur and the Alliterative and Stanzaic Mortes
Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan)
Readers encountering the Middle English Arthurian tradition are confronted by three texts with confusingly similar titles: an anonymous poem in alliterative verse called Morte Arthure, an anonymous poem in eight-line stanzas entitled Le Morte Arthur, and Sir Thomas Malory's influential prose Arthuriad, Le Morte Darthur [sic]. To add to the confusion, Malory made use of both English poems to augment his French sources in composing his Morte Darthur, so specialists often speak of two or more of these English Mortes in the same breath. Yet each Morte poem deserves to be studied on its own merits. Arthurian Intertextualities offers new readings of Malory's Morte as well as the two English poems that most influenced him. Tolhurst and Whetter situate Malory's Arthur story in the context of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century England. Combining these contexts with intertextual analysis of scenes and characters from Le Morte Darthur and both sources, the authors illustrate the full extent of Malory's debt to these two English poems while making a stronger case for Malory's artistry--and the stanzaic-poet's artistry--than previous scholarship has acknowledged. These new readings demand a reassessment of Arthurian women, kingship, and warfare and heroism, including reconsidering the alliterative-poet's attitude to war and to Arthur as conqueror. The authors also offer a spirited defense of Malory's Guenevere, who remains frequently maligned by scholars, and argue for Palomydes's acceptance by his Round Table Fellowship. Arthurian Intertextualities will appeal to readers who are interested in the book that serves as the source for most of the Arthuriana (whether novels, plays, works of art, or films) in today's world: Le Morte Darthur.
Introduction: Malory's 'Morte Darthur', its English sources, and their critics -- 1. Sir Palomydes, Knight of the Round Table: Rereading Malory's Pryamus, Palomydes, and Trystram as Arthurian insiders -- 2. Launcelot and his Elaynes: Malory's romance heroines and their roots in the stanzaic 'Morte Arthur' -- 3. Misreading and rereading Arthur: Celebrating Arthur as hero and conqueror-king in the alliterative 'Morte Arthure' and Malory's 'Morte Darthur' -- 4. Misreading and rereading Malory's Gwenyvere: The Queen and her counterparts in the three English 'Mortes' -- Epilogue: Intertextual Arthurian memories.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-299) and index.
Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2025