Alliterative Morte Arthure
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The Alliterative Morte Arthure is a 4346 line Middle English poem, retelling the latter part of the legend of King Arthur. The poem is one of the most significant works in the short-lived revival of alliterative verse in the 14th century.
The author of the poem is unknown. In his history of Scotland, Andrew of Wyntoun mentions a poet called Huchown who he says made a "gret Gest of Arthure,/And þe Awntyr of Gawane,/Þe Pistil als of Suet Susane" [great history of Arthur,/And the Adventure of Gawain,/The Epistle also of Sweet Susan]. This "Gest of Arthure" is often thought to be a reference to what is now known as the Alliterative Morte Arthure but the fact that Morte Arthure seems to have been written in a Midlands dialect, the fact that Huchown may have been Scottish and the dialect of the extant Epistle of Sweet Susan[link] appears to be that of North Yorkshire. The only manuscript source for the Morte Arthure is the Lincoln or Thornton manuscript written sometime in the early 14th century by a scribe called Robert of Thornton. It may have been that Robert of Thornton adapted and "translated" Huchown's work or that both used an older common source now lost.
The story is adapted from books IX and X of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. It contains numerous episodes which are not in Geoffrey's work such as the round table and suggests either the poet using other works such as Wace's Roman de Brut or Layamon's Brut—where the table is first mentioned—or at least a familiarity with mythology. Some parts do not have a clear source and may have originated with the poet.
Compared to many of the other depictions of Arthur's story, the 'Alliterative Morte Arthure is a far more realistic version of events. There are few of the fantastical elements which often surround the legend and the story focused more on Arthur's skill as a warrior king. The stress placed on chivalric duty in the contemporary Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is in the Morte Arthure of a more practical nature and has more to do with personal loyalty. Also the Morte Arthure is less clearly part of the romance genre than Sir Gawain and other Arthurian poems and more like a chronicle of the times. It contains little of the magic and symbolism of these other works, with no mention of Merlin, although it does use the literary device of the dream vision common in courtly romance and Chaucer. Arthur is a more political and also flawed ruler, the story is not just based in a small realm but is always placed within a wider European situation and this Arthur is more clearly Christian then other versions.
An example of the differing style of the alliterative version of the story is the treatment of Mordred. He is not simply the villain of the piece as he is in other poems but is a complex character with a varying personality. One mark of the prevalence of christian morality in the poem is that even Mordred cries and seems to be repentant around line 3886.
Although the majority of Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur is closer to the style of Gawain and French versions of the legend, the second part of Malory's work, King Arthur's war against the Romans, is based mainly upon the earlier alliterative work.
External links
- [The Alliterative Morte Arthure] from Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library
- [The Stanzaic Morte Arthur and Alliterative Morte Arthure] from TEAMS Middle English Texts
- ["Turn, traitor untrew
: Altering Arthur and Mordred in the Alliterative Morte Arthure"], a discussion of the changes in character Arthur and Mordred go through
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