Difference between revisions of "2007-08 AM Le Morte Darthur (1485)"

Revision as of 12:08, 6 August 2007

• Time: Fridays 4-6 pm

The legendary King Arthur, the mysteries around his sword Excalibur, the stories of his quasi democratic Round Table, Arthur's tragic struggle between love, treason and an all too powerful enemy invading the British Isles have inspired the European audience at least since the early 12th century. The wave of Provencal, Middle High German and Middle English versified Arthurian romances composed around 1200 merged into the production of the first modern European prose romances in the 15th century which culminated - another century later - in the Amadis, the "arch romance" devoured by Don Quixote. The 17th and 18th centuries distanced themselves both from the erroneous histories related here and from the genre of romances they had inspired. A new interest arose at the beginning of the 19th century with the new nationalism of the age, its self proclaimed "romanticism", its quest for lost identities one could hope to find in the "dark ages". A rediscovery of "medieval" texts followed in which the Arthurian world offered the most interesting mythical images; it is today omnipresent as a cultural phenomenon with a mass production of fantasy novels, video games and movies.

The course will focus on William Caxton's edition of Sir Thomas Malroy's Le Morte Darthur first published in 1485 - most certainly not the elegant, witty and beautiful reading earlier versified romances provided, yet the text which most effectively compiled the plots of the preceding romantic production.

Why was there an audience for this book at the "beginning" of the "Modern Period"? How did it relate to the preceding production of romances and histories? How does it compare to the fashionable Amadis the next century was to love so much? How does it read within the context of the 19th and 20th century renaissance of the Arthurian world? The course will offer a cultural history of the text and its fictional world.

Topics

Those who are planning to join the seminar may contribute thoughts on what they'd like to do in the following list:

• Sources in Europe's mythology and history
• The renaissance of chivalry at the beginning of the modern era
• Love and gender relations in Malory's Morte Darthur
• The text which shaped our view of the medieval world: Malory's King Arthur and Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court (1889).
• From Fantasy to video game Arthur's table round in modern culture. See en.wikipedia.org for modern adaptations of the sujet.

Texts

Malory's original manuscript is lost. For more than 400 years the edition Caxton had published in 1485 was the authoritative source. In 1934 the Winchester manuscript was discovered - a text between Malory's and Caxton's text. Traces of Caxton's ink have been found on the manuscript's leafs, Caxton knew the Winchester volume, he did, however, base his own edition on another, lost manuscript.

Modern scholarship has focused on the Winchester manuscript as the better text. The Norton Critical edition - it cost me 16 Euro a couple of months ago - is based on the manuscript it adds, however, Caxton wherever his version is more detailed. The aim is an edition which reconstructs what might have been Malory's text. The Norton edition is commented and equipped with an extensive dictionary as well as a choice of critical articles. It does finally offer the most important sources Malory exploited. The Norton edition is my recommendation for all of you who like to work with a fully commented scientific edition.

I am myself more interested in Caxton's fist edition as published in 1485 and offered by EEBO - the text is, however, difficult to read:

• Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur (London: William Caxton, 1485)

To facilitate things I offer an html-edition of the same text (scroll down to get beyond the reproduction of the first page):

• Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur (1485) html-text of Caxton's edition

My impression is that it is the easier text to read. Caxton focused on the plot, he lost some of the descriptions and he structured his text. My edition is a simple transcript to be read with an additional list of difficult words to be found at Le Morte Darthur (1485):Dictionary - expand this list, wherever you miss words. I have contacted the Druckzentrum and they promised to provide a print-version of the Caxton html-edition by September. Contact me if you want to start your reading earlier and if you want to read the Caxton text. I will try to provide provisional copies of the text. We should also open Wiki-space at Le Morte Darthur (1485): Protagonists - for a who is who?

Reading Session

To all who wonder how to read Caxton's English properly I will offer a private reading session at Tannenkampstr. 12, 26131 Oldenburg, on Aug. 31, - that is a Friday evening, around 6 pm. --Olaf Simons 12:08, 6 August 2007 (CEST)

Links

• en.wikipedia.org: Thomas Malory
• en.wikipedia.org: Le Morte d'Arthur
• en.wikipedia.org: King Arthur
• en.wikipedia.org: King Arthur in various media
• King Arthur: Films