Resumen
Resumen de La muerte de Arturo
Para quién es
For readers who love legends, knights, quests and the roots of fantasy, and for anyone who wants the source behind countless films and novels.
De qué trata este libro
Le Morte Darthur is the fullest English telling of the legend of King Arthur. Sir Thomas Malory, an English knight, wrote it in the late 1460s, and by his own account he finished it in the ninth year of King Edward the Fourth. He wrote it while he was in prison. William Caxton printed it in 1485, and for centuries that printed text was how most readers knew the Arthur story.
Malory did not invent the tales. He gathered them from French romances and from older English poems, cut them down, joined them, and told them in plain, strong prose. The result is a long chain of adventures. A boy pulls a sword from a stone. A fellowship of knights gathers at a round table. Knights ride out to rescue ladies, fight in tournaments, search for a holy cup, and fall in love. Under all this runs a slow question about what loyalty costs.
What do you get from it? You get the main stories behind the legend in one place, with their people and their codes of honor. You also get a book about a brotherhood, how it is built, and how it is tested. Let us begin where the legend begins, with a king's desire and a wizard's price.
En este resumen
- 1A secret birth and a sword in stoneFree
- 2Arthur wins a kingdom and makes friends
- 3Strange swords, wounded kings and bitter strokes
- 4Lancelot rises as the best knight
- 5Gareth, the kitchen boy who becomes a knight
- 6Tristram and Isode, a love that cannot be mended
- 7The Grail quest tests every knight
- 8Love, rivalry and the strain on the court
- 9What the book is really about
- 10How Malory tells it and why it endures
Idea clave 1 de 10
A secret birth and a sword in stone
The book opens in the days of King Uther Pendragon, who rules Britain. Uther falls in love with Igraine, the wife of the Duke of Cornwall, and war breaks out between the two men. Uther turns for help to Merlin, a wizard and adviser who works through enchantment and foresight. Merlin agrees to help, but he asks for a price, and the price is the child who will come from this union.
The child is Arthur. Soon after his birth, Merlin takes him away and gives him to a good knight, Sir Ector, to raise in secret. Arthur grows up believing that Ector is his father and that Sir Kay is his brother. He knows nothing of the crown that waits for him. Malory gives this early section a quiet, almost fairy-tale tone.
When Uther dies, the realm falls into confusion, with lords scheming and no clear heir. Merlin acts. At Christmas, a great stone appears in a churchyard in London with a sword fixed in an anvil upon it. Letters of gold on the stone announce who may take it.
The words on the stone are the heart of the scene. They say that whoever pulls out the sword is the rightful king of all England. Many knights try and fail. Then, at a tournament on New Year's Day, young Arthur is sent to fetch a sword for Kay, finds the one in the stone, and draws it out as easily as taking a sword from a scabbard.
The nobles do not accept this at once. They are proud, and they do not want a boy of unknown birth to rule them. Arthur must prove himself again and again, in front of the common people, who cheer him on. Malory is already showing a pattern that runs through the whole book. Right and power are not the same thing, and a king must win loyalty before he can keep it.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- King Arthur
- The young king draws the sword from the stone and gathers a fellowship of knights.
- Sir Launcelot du Lake
- Arthur's most admired knight serves his king while sharing a powerful bond with Queen Guenever.
- Queen Guenever
- Arthur's wife holds great standing at court, where her bond with Launcelot strains competing loyalties.
- Merlin
- The wizard arranges Arthur's birth and advises the young king as he establishes his rule.
- Sir Gareth of Orkney
- Arthur's nephew conceals his noble birth and works in the court kitchen before seeking knightly adventures.
- Sir Tristram
- A gifted knight and musician, he serves his uncle King Mark and loves La Beale Isode.
- Sir Galahad
- Launcelot's son is a pure young knight whose special calling concerns the Holy Grail.
- Sir Gawain
- Arthur's nephew is a prominent knight whose fierce family loyalty shapes his relationships at court.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 395,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 26 h 20 min
- Listening time43 h 55 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 14 other languages
Questions about La muerte de Arturo
What is Le Morte Darthur about?
It tells the story of King Arthur from his birth and the sword in the stone to the Round Table, the quests of its knights, the search for the Holy Grail, and the fall of the fellowship.
Who wrote Le Morte Darthur and when?
Sir Thomas Malory, an English knight, wrote it in the late 1460s while in prison. He died in 1471, and William Caxton printed the book in 1485.
What does Le Morte Darthur mean?
It is French for the death of Arthur. The title was given by Caxton to the whole book, though most of it deals with the adventures of the knights, not only with Arthur.
Is Le Morte Darthur a true story?
No. It is a work of legend, drawn from French romances and older English poems. Arthur may rest on a distant historical figure, but the tales Malory tells are literary and not recorded history.
Is Le Morte Darthur hard to read?
The sentences are short and direct, and the book is built from separate tales, so you can read it in stages.