63 pages • 2 hours read
Thomas Malory, Peter AckroydThe Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1485A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Golden Age of Chivalry
The code by which nearly every character in these stories is expected to abide is that of chivalry, courtesy, or conduct fitting service to a king. Behind almost every fight or dispute is an acknowledgment of the rules of chivalry applied to that situation. “We are all bound by the rules of knighthood” (230), Sir Mador says as an appeal to King Arthur during Guinevere’s trial. Tristram’s service to King Mark, Lancelot’s devotion to Queen Guinevere, and even Arthur’s lordship over England all exemplify the etiquette that so captivated medieval culture as to compound into an entire lifestyle. The extent to which these standards of conduct ever truly guided behavior is debatable, but certainly by Malory’s time there was a sense that chivalry had been lost to a bygone era. Many of the work’s stories therefore serve to illustrate through characters’ words and actions what chivalry should look like. For example, when Tristram and Sir Dinadan learn they cannot take shelter in the castle where Palomides and Gaheris are staying unless they compete in a fighting match, they could easily ride on to the next castle; however, Tristram reminds Dinadan, “You are a knight of the Round Table, are you not? You cannot refuse to fight” (142).
Many of the characters in the book, though possessing greater or lesser degrees of unique personality traits, lack depth or nuance and operate almost exclusively as representations of chivalric behavior; their deeds and statements reflect not individual spirit but adherence to the larger reality of courtly conduct. Sir Tarquin, for example, is about to make a truce with his opponent when he learns his opponent is in fact Lancelot; the battle to the death commences only because the rules of chivalry demand it (Tarquin’s vendetta against Lancelot must be settled).
Behind Arthurian chivalry is a particular brand of nobility that respects, perhaps above every other relationship, the feudal lord-vassal relationship. Aspects of the chivalric code include fealty to the king, devotion to a special lady, bravery in battle, willingness to seeking out adventures, commitment to helping the needy or oppressed, and pious service to the different modes of Christian religion. These elements combined formed the medieval conception of the fully formed man: the ideal knight (the word “chivalry” itself comes from the French word for “horse”—the distinguishing possession of an aristocratic knight as opposed to a common foot soldier) and model subject. It was believed by many of the early scribes (such as Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chrétien de Troyes) that Arthur’s reign signaled the pinnacle of the age of chivalry. Thus, Thomas Malory’s text, drawing from these sources, describes these characters and events with heavy attention to the theme of chivalry.
The Rules of Courtly Love
Frequently coupled with chivalry are the practices of courtly love—an ideal that overlaps significantly but imperfectly with romantic love and that sometimes interferes with other responsibilities within chivalric standards. Courtly love, historically, took the form of a young knight or esquire selecting a woman as the special lady of his heart and committing himself to serve her for life. This relationship was typically chaste (if permeated with longing) and sometimes even framed as analogous to humanity’s relationship with God. However, Malory’s text pushes courtly love further with the Tristram-Isolde and Lancelot-Guinevere narratives. In both of these stories, the knight’s devotion to the lady transcends adherence to the code of chivalry and manifests genuine (and reciprocated) feelings of romantic affection and care.
The story of Tristram and Isolde is presented as a tragedy. “Their fate was not a fortunate one” (167), reads the last line of their section. Although Tristram and Isolde’s relationship harbors strong emotional intensity, the overarching narrative stresses the predominance of form and custom over feelings. In many cases, chivalry is incompatible with romantic affection because of a knight’s duty to his king or because of a woman’s inability to transcend her role as wife or daughter (notably, it was a woman—Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine—who popularized the idea of courtly love, which might have provided women with a measure of agency and clout that they would not otherwise have enjoyed).
In the case of Lancelot and Guinevere, Lancelot’s love for Guinevere is more than courteous (in the medieval sense of the word), and this destabilizes the peace in Camelot because Guinevere happens also to be the queen. Lancelot is not merely devoted to Guinevere out of knightly good form; he is actually in love with her, and this catches him between the high ideals of loyalty to the king and devotion to his mistress. Here, to be chivalrous involves making a choice, but either side incurs penalties. If Lancelot pursues his relationship with Guinevere further, he will be acting treasonously against the king, but if Lancelot chooses to serve the king, he must also (by being a knight) uphold his commitment to be Guinevere’s champion—just so long as he does not push that relationship too far into inappropriate intimacy. It’s a delicate balance to uphold. Ultimately, Le Morte d’Arthur highlights this episode of conflicted love to further elaborate its theme of chivalry as a lost function of a bygone era. “I can assure you of one thing,” Malory writes; “love in those days was quite a different game” (268)—fragile and prone to these sorts of disputes, the narrative seems to be suggesting. Courtly love like the kind in Arthur’s day no longer exists because of situations like this.
Piety’s Place Among Warriors
The essential structure of Camelot mirrors the ministry format that Jesus, in Christian teaching, instituted with the disciples. Arthur has his retinue of knights, all of whom stand equally in service, just as the apostles in the early Christian church served alongside one another. In this story, the knights’ greatest quest is that of the Holy Grail, a religious relic from the crucifixion of Christ. However, the ideals of Christianity (particularly humility) sometimes clash with the chivalric code (particularly honor). The quest therefore tests each knight to his limits and especially challenges the greatest of all knights, Lancelot. Because of Lancelot’s inability to uphold the chivalric standard while remaining loyal to his chosen lady, he is unable to attain the Grail, which is devastating considering he is the greatest knight of all. His failure, by extension, marks the symbolic failure of every would-be knight.
To possess the Grail, one must first possess purity and untarnished religious zeal. The ultimate test for the knights of the Round Table is therefore the conquest of their own hearts, motives, and beliefs. Evil must be purged not only from the land but from one’s own inner spirit. Lancelot is told, “You must vanquish yourself before you will see the Holy Grail” (199). As in the incident with the white and black knights, Lancelot’s outward choice to fight for the black knights indicates an unworthiness deep inside him. It is one of the only times in the book Lancelot loses a fight, and the cause is explicit: “You looked upon a battle between sinners and good men; yet you were inclined to side with the sinners, were you not? You thought more of your pride and your standing in the world” (199). Lancelot’s choice to rush to the aid of the apparently weaker party because it would win more glory for him was a decision made from a bad motive, betraying his inner corruptness. It is not enough to fight valiantly; as the tenets of courtesy would have it, one must fight with a proper attitude that makes one’s deeds truly worthy of renown.
The commitment to Christianity is a commitment to invisible ideals—to heavenly principles and self-sacrifice. Lancelot leads the way in this later on in the story by forgoing his own chances at glory and honor and temporarily becoming a monk. To remove distraction—to become totally committed to the cause of righteousness and sincerity even if no one ever sees or hears of it—is a sign of Lancelot’s relative purity. Most knights in Arthur’s court fail, foreshadowing the ultimate demise of the Round Table and allegorically commenting on the tragic condition of the human race. Just as it is impossible for Arthur to maintain control over his own family, his queen, his knights, and his land, so every individual life falls prey to the crushing setbacks of time, mortality, and existence—all, in Christian teaching, the results of sin. “Fortune is fickle. The wheel always turns. There is no abiding city,” Lancelot says to Gawain near the end of the narrative, echoing the dying words of his son Galahad (291). Given the timeline of Malory’s publication, the lines about there being no lasting city look ahead to the approaching Renaissance; on the cusp of the renewed interest in Greco-Roman humanism, Le Morte d’Arthur’s lament that pure religious zeal is fading or corrupted is perhaps prophetic.
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