English 344: September 15
Malory’s creative process
he draws from a bunch of different sources and sews them together; switches between genres
most of these sources are from the French Vulgate cycle
huge set of King Arthur stories in French
Roman wars goes from French to English source
French source was massive; had to make significant creative decisions
begins with the story of Arthur’s conception
French source on the other hand begins with Merlin
Merlin was supposed to be a sort of antichrist
demon sleeps with holy virgin, is so god she thwarts the plan to make Merlin the anti-Christ
Merlin is a little tricky because his father was a demon but overall is good
is prophetic, magical
Merlin ‘basically Loki’
religious framing of Merlin
instead of beginning the story with Merlin, Malory begins with Arthur because that’s where his interests lie
Arthur’s conception
kind of nonconsensual
lots of people die from a war because the duke’s wife wouldn’t sleep with Uther, he becomes lovesick
lovesick=wounded heart, so all your blood in your body goes to repair your heart
paleness, sweatiness, fainting
mentions love second and anger first
So Uther, who didn’t get what he wanted, goes to war because he couldn’t have had a man’s wife
parallel to King David and Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite
David spies her bathing, has her brought to him, sleeps with her and decides he doesn’t want to give her back
David sends Uriah into battle where he is killed; he marries pregnant Bathsheba, baby dies, but they go on to raise Solomon
Merlin: sets up plan to disguise Uther as the duke
duke is killed before seeing Igraine; Uther has sex with her three hours after the duke actually dies
what Malory does
careful to create space between duke dying and Uther having sex with Igraine
this was to be careful to not make him a bastard
Merlin gets to insist Arthur is not a bastard; even though it is a moral and ethical problem, it is no longer a legal problem of who becomes heir to the throne
remember, Igraine wants to leave because Uther is after her
first thing we hear about Igraine is that she is a good and wise woman who wants to not cheat on her husband
so Arthur’s conception is pretty messed up
Malory and Arthur’s upbringing
Merlin=I want the baby
tradeoff?
Merlin was the one who allowed Uther to sleep with Igraine in the first place by disguising him
Malory focuses on the trouble caused
Ector—Arthur realizes he is not his father
this saddened Arthur tremendously
time spent on the disruption of Arthur’s family
very young Arthur all of a sudden has his family treating him as social superior
Concerns about child kings after Edward the 6th
stories much older than this but of topical interest when Malory was writing
in War of Roses, Edward 5 was killed; his infant son becomes king
prophetic Merlin probably knew Uther would die before Arthur was older; Arthur would be kept safe until he was old enough to be the king
takes away from court because people may have tried to kill or influence the infant king
War of Roses largely caused by situation of infant king
The Sword and the Stone
Kay, newly knighted, forgot his sword
good l’il Arthur went after a sword for him, no intention of being king
everybody else pretty much actually actively wanted to be the king
God-ordained faith/fate of Arthur
raised in contact with commoners
in The Sword and the Stone incident, the commoners want him as king; he pulls sword out repeatedly at different intervals until the people say enough already, we accept this guy as the king already
emphasis is more secular; emphasis on civil war is pragmatic
Arthur’s foster family had not known of his royal birthright and prowess
lot of work goes into establishing warrior set up later in setting up prowess
More about Igraine
Malory seems to try to make Igraine out in the best way possible
actually did not know what had happened to her baby
actually had thought Uther had been her husband when she slept with him
while Uther was irregular, Igraine certainly wasn’t in Malory’s telling
Then Arthur has sex with his sister
he was married
he did exactly what his father did (sleeps with ally’s wife)
accidentally begets Mordred, who, Merlin says, is going to destroy everything
‘there are things we can’t get away from… but we can frame them in different ways’
dilemma around fate
very medieval in that it gets at the problem offer will
having the babies killed—King Herod had all killed to prevent Moses from happening
all babies drowned, only Mordred lived
blame is put more on Merlin than on Arthur













