The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend

First published in 1485, Thomas Malory's Le Morte d’Arthur collected the mythological-historical legends about King Arthur from numerous source texts into a comprehensive prose narrative divided into plot sections and written in late Middle English. Although multiple men named Thomas Malory lived around that time, the most likely author was an English knight, later a prisoner in Newgate, who would have been educated in all the practices of “courtesy” (knightly conduct). The title of his book, a bad French rendering of “The Death of the Arthur,” pays tribute to the French source texts upon which Malory drew. The 1485 text was printed by William Caxton and became one of the first books after the Gutenberg Bible to achieve mass print popularity. In 1934, a librarian at Winchester College discovered a 15th-century manuscript (the “Winchester manuscript”)—probably an early, unedited version of the text before its final print release—with thousands of variations from Caxton’s edition.

The citations in this study guide reference the 2012 Penguin Books edition of The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend, translated by Peter Ackroyd; content warnings include violence and mentions of rape.

Plot Summary

The first section, titled “The Tale of King Arthur,” begins with Arthur’s birth and humble beginnings as a foster child under the dual care of a knight named Sir Hector and the wizard Merlin. After miraculously pulling a sword from a stone, Arthur is named king and must immediately defend his realm from neighboring opponents. He also consolidates under his command an army of knights whose loyalties rest with their king and an overarching code of chivalry. Together they set up headquarters in the castle at Camelot.

After a brutal battle between two brothers that illustrates the perils of knighthood, Arthur marries Guinevere (in disregard to Merlin’s warning) and receives as a wedding gift a round table, which serves as the central gathering point for the alliance of knights. These knights of the Round Table must prove their courage, fealty, righteousness, and purity in the face of various tasks, many undertaken in the wild and uncharted forest, and must battle human, animal, and supernatural enemies. Chief among those enemies is Morgan le Fay, Arthur’s vengeful half-sister.

The greatest of the knights of the Round Table is Sir Lancelot, whose adventures the next section, “Adventures of Lancelot du Lake,” describes. As a model of supreme knighthood, Lancelot challenges other knights to tests of strength, rescues helpless or needy people, alternatively bestows mercy or executes punishment depending on the circumstances, and always remains loyal to the chosen lady of his heart, Queen Guinevere (Arthur’s wife). Although Lancelot is in love with Guinevere, his relationship to her remains (for the moment) within the category of courtly service, and all of Lancelot’s other decisions, both in battle and in everyday life, exemplify excellent knighthood.

In the third section, “Tristram and Isolde,” a romantic love story plays out within the confines of courtly manners. Tristram and Isolde are deeply in love but must obey the code of chivalry that prevents them from marrying. Tristram, initially in the service of King Mark of Cornwall, subdues his passion for Isolde in order to remain faithful to his calling as a knight, yet he feels his love renewed when he drinks a magic love potion during a mission to retrieve Isolde and bring her back to marry King Mark. Banished by the king, Tristram wanders the wilderness, performing acts of strength and bravery to prove himself as a worthy man. Eventually, Tristram marries, but he is unable to consummate the marriage out of abiding love for Isolde. After a clash with Lancelot himself, the result of which earns him a seat at the Round Table, Tristram undergoes many adventures. He ultimately finds himself at Joyous Garde, Lancelot’s private fortress, where Isolde has sequestered herself after running away from King Mark.

“The Adventure of the Holy Grail” is the center of the book and the ultimate quest facing the knights of the Round Table. Arthur’s knights journey out from Camelot in search of an ancient religious relic, the Holy Grail—the chalice that in Christian lore captured the sacred blood of Jesus Christ spilled during the crucifixion. Like Christ, each of the knights must sacrifice their own comforts and worldly attachments to pursue the Grail with pious devotion and unflinching perseverance. Lancelot strives with new levels of earnestness while struggling against his shortcomings as an arrogant knight whose love for Guinevere is not entirely healthy (for Camelot or himself). Though he receives a glimpse of the Grail, Lancelot does not succeed in attaining it because of his sins.

Here the character Sir Galahad briefly appears. The son of Lancelot and a sorceress who enchanted him into sleeping with her, Galahad is the natural successor to all of Lancelot’s prowess and renown. He succeeds in finding the Holy Grail because of his purity, ending the quest. Soon thereafter his soul is transported into heaven; the Grail, along with Galahad, disappears.

In “Lancelot and Guinevere” a series of episodes tests Lancelot’s love for Guinevere. Lancelot stands against hardened enemies, alternative love interests, and even knights from his own order—all for the sake of Guinevere.

In “The Death of Arthur,” Sir Mordred, Arthur’s nephew and son by an unwitting liaison with his half-sister Morgause, plots to overthrow the kingdom by exposing Lancelot’s affair with Guinevere. This turns Arthur against the best of his own knights and sends him to war in France. While Arthur is away, Mordred takes over England and tries to marry Guinevere. When Arthur hears of it, he returns and wages war against Mordred and his forces. Arthur kills Mordred but is fatally wounded in the process and taken aboard a ship bound for the mythical land of Avalon. Lancelot and Guinevere separate and devote themselves to monasticism until each one dies, still pining after the other. The rest of the knights of the Round Table live on, fighting for England against invaders or committing themselves to Christianity until the last of them die out, ending the golden era of chivalry.