Le Morte D'Arthur, originally spelled Le Morte Darthur, Middle French for “the death of Arthur” was written by Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire ("Le Morte D’Arthur – Sir Thomas Malory"). This compilation was first published in 1485 and is to this day one of the best known, if not the best known, works in Arthurian literature in English. Le Morte D'Arthur is a compilation of traditional tales about the legendary King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Sir Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table. In this text, Malory interprets existing French and English stories about these figures and adds his own original material. Malory tells this tale using many themes such as betrayel, loyalty, revenge, identity, redemption, chivalry, and…show more content… The narrator of this poem seems to speak nonchalantly of adulterey even though it is one of the main causes of Camelot's demise. Queen Guinevere's betrayel along with Sir Lancelots are seen to be the worst due to the fact that Queen Guinevere is married to the king therefor their adulterey is seen not only as betrayel but also as treason to the kingdom itself.
Ashley Guffey
Page Two Loyalty was a vital virtue of knighthood and therefor is an important component of this work. In Camelot knights demonstrate their loyalty to King Arthur above all else by willingly going into battle for him and the betrayals against him. Loyalty is also shown through knights by their refusal to dispute with King Arthur or any of their fellow knights. Knights take this loyalty to the king so seriously that Lancelot refuses to engage with him even when the King invades his lands, choosing to wait until the King attacks him. Lancelot does this in an attempt to keep his honor intact and reserves praise for not allowing his role of a lover to get in the way of his loyalty to the…show more content… Chivalry is crucial to our knights as it is their code of ethics. King Arthur requests that his knights renew their knightly vows, promising to protect women and to flee from treason, yearly. While most of our main characters uphold their vows of chivalry it is also common for knights to break their vows on various occasions. This can be seen through Arthur’s slaying of the Annowre, Sir Lancelots battles and murder of other knights of the round table, and Gawain’s encouragement of Arthur’s war with Sir Lancelot. Chivalry is what all knights strive for even amongst their failure to constantly uphold the