Sir Thomas Malory :: Essays Papers

Sir Thomas Malory Sir Thomas Malory was an "English translator and compiler" (Encarta) who wrote "the first great English prose epic, Le morte d'Arthur (Encarta). However, little is truly known about Maloryà ­s personal life. We do know that the title of his most famous work, "Le Morte D'Arthur", was first seen on William Caxton's illustrated edition in 1485. In the first chapters, Malory "refers to himself as a knight-prisoner" (Paula Barker) which has led many historians, according to Paula Barker, to believe that at least some of Le morte d'Arthur was written while his incarceration. The work is a collection from French sources, The Vulgate-the Arthurian Prose Cycle (1225-1230), which Malory so delicately "reduced", in addition to Maloryà ­s own writings, additions, and compilations to produce Le morte d'Arthur. Today Maloryà ­s collection has become "the basis of most modern tellings of the Arthurian story. " Because it occurs just past the age of chivalry, the 15th century, Maloryà ­s work has the opportunity to evaluate the "elegance and leisure of the antecedents in chivalric literature." (Tara Knapp) It was written in English and consists of eight intertwining tales of King Arthur and his different knights, and is packed with "compassion for human faults and nostalgia for the bygone days of chivalry." (Encarta) Each tale flows from one to the other which allows better understanding for the reader. However some of that understanding is lost because it seems to be a tale told in a series of flashbacks which would allow for Maloryà ­s memory loss at times. Despite this loss, the story has cohesion because of its compilation from many different fragments of different stories. It is speculated by Tara Knapp, J. S. Brown, and numerous others that Malory was born in the year 1400. Although it is possible, his birth date could range from 1400 to as late as 1405. Little true facts are known of his personal life, although there has been some speculation concerning a Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire. According to Knapp, this knight served with a Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who "had some difficulties with a local priory" resulting in a period of imprisonment for Malory as well as Beauchamp. More specifically this violent and vagrant individual committed several crimes such as robbery, murder, and extortion.