I was at the local mega-bookstore today, getting a present for someone and I happened to wander into the section with all the old classics. Specifically, books about King Arthur. Two that caught my eye were “The Quest for the Holy Grail” and “The Death of Arthuer” by Malory.
“Death” seems to have a lot of Authorian stories, from birth to death, at least frok skimming the table of contents. “Quest” seems to be of a different author and focused more on that particular mythology.
What I want to know is, is the story of the Holy grail as told in “Quest” essentially duplicated in “Death” or is it a bit different? They book look interesting but I’d rather not buy two books when one contains the exact contents of the other and then some. If you have one, is the other still worthwhile?
I’m curious because I have a tendency to get locked into a serious book collection and I’d rather not buy spend money on duplicates. God knows I’ve already put enough old/ancient books on my list as it is.
Oh dear, it’s been too long since I read them, but I’ll try to remember. Worse, I gave my Malory to my SIL, so I haven’t got it to consult.
I presume that what you’ve got is the Penguin edition called The quest of the Holy Grail, which is part of the huge compilation called the prose Lancelot. The author is unknown. This story is a spiritual fable or allegory, and has a lot of very interesting stuff that I don’t think appears in Malory. It’s one of my personal favorites, but then I have slightly weird taste. There is quite a lot of elaborate storytelling about various relics and so on–stuff about Adam and Eve after Eden, that sort of thing. All very religious and medieval.
A lot of the basic storyline will appear in Malory, but not all of it and not in the same way. And if this isn’t the one I’m talking about, yours will be somewhat different.
Are you sure you picked up Malory, by the way? There are earlier texts that are also called The death of King Arthur or King Arthur’s death and so on. I have three here. So make sure it says Malory on it, if that’s what you want!
Well, I haven’t picked up either yet. I didn’t have the money after buying the gift(I was about a dollar short), so I’m getting it from amazon(I have a gift certificate).
One is malory, I’m sure. I just wanted to know to buy Malory or both, and I think I’ll get both, from what you’ve told me.
The confusion exists because Malory wrote a long (700+ page) narrative in multiple parts. Thomas Caxton’s print version is divided into twenty books; the other early text, the Winchester Manuscript, is divided into eight. Whether the whole thing is a single unified story or a series of shorter ones is one of the central critical debates about Malory’s work. One section deals with the quest for the Holy Grail; another section, the last one, deals with the death of Arthur; these sections may be the ones excerpted in the modern editions you’re looking at. But to confuse matters, people also refer to the whole thing as Le Morte D’Arthur, since that’s the title Caxton gave his edition. (Eugene Vinaver’s edition, based on the Winchester MS, is simply titled Works.)
My first recommendation would be to buy the full text if you can find it (preferably in the original Middle English – Malory’s language is not difficult). But if your choices are between one excerpt and another, get The Death of Arthur. Malory’s version of this part of the story is one of the great glories of English literature, while his take on the Grail quest is less exciting.
I’d like to interject with a question: is Malory actually published in the US as The Death of Arthur? I’ve never seen it in Canada as anything other than Le Morte D’Arthur.
