This masterpiece of the ALLITERATIVE REVIVAL survives in a single manuscript, Lincoln Cathedral Library 91, compiled ca. 1440 by the scribe Robert
Thornton. Although the date of composition is
uncertain (with some scholars putting it as early as
ca. 1350), it is now thought to have been composed
in the later years of the 14th century. For this particular narrative, date of composition can be key to
how it is read: If a later date is accepted, the poem’s
unromanticized and starkly realistic presentation
of warfare and its consequences tends to support
those who see the poet’s pacifist sympathies and
seeming critique of imperialism as combining to
create what can only be called an antiwar narrative.
(Critiques of war are less common in mid-century
when England was celebrating significant victories over France in the Hundred Years’ War.) Indeed, even with an earlier dating, it is difficult to
read the poem as a conventional Arthurian tale either in its plot or in its characterization. More epic
than ROMANCE, the narrative focus is concerned
with heroism and tragedy, with battlefields and
hubris, and with King ARTHUR as uncommonly
central in his role of warrior. The COURTLY LOVE
conventions of other Arthurian works in which relations between men and women, and the conventions of idealized chivalric knighthood are thematically central, give place here to a masculinized
world, dominated by the warrior Arthur who, in
his ambivalent and ambitious characterization, is
considered by some to be the most complex Arthur
in literature.
The Arthur of the Alliterative Morte Arthure is
both grand and deeply flawed, in the manner of
epic or classical tragic heroes. There are early indications of his pride and rash behavior, and these
moments anticipate later events in which Arthur,
emboldened by military success, is transformed
from defender to aggressor, his military campaigns
becoming increasingly imperialistic and unthinkingly aggressive. Breaking from tradition, in the Alliterative Morte Arthure, Arthur’s hubris and overly
ambitious desire for conquest cause his tragic
downfall and the failure of the ideals of the Round
Table. The poet’s direct sources are not known, but
the general story line can be found in the chronicles of GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH and WACE, and in
LAYAMON’s Brut. Nonetheless, the poet embellishes
his tale from other sources, most notably in
Arthur’s character, his dream of Lady Fortune and
the inclusion of the NINE WORTHIES as exemplars.
The Alliterative Morte Arthure is both the source
for one of the central episodes in MALORY’s LE
MORTE DARTHUR and probably the most significant
English Arthurian work used by Malory for his
own complex Arthurian narrative.
There is a finely balanced symmetry to the Alliterative Morte Arthure’s plot structure, and the
rise-and-fall action is more suggestive of tragedy
than romance. In its foreshadowing, also, the narrative has more in common with epic tragedies
than with its own tradition of Arthurian romance. The action begins with Arthur refusing to
pay homage or tribute to the Roman emperor Lucius and preparing for war. Arthur leads his
knights to France, having left England in the care
of Mordrede, and en route has a prophetic dream
in which a dragon (representing Arthur) defeats
a bear (representing either the tyrants who oppress his people or single-handed combat with a
giant [823–826]). The dream is taken as an omen
of victory and proves true when Arthur, upon
arriving in Brittany, kills the giant of St.
Michael’s Mount. Arthur and his knights then
prevail over the forces of the emperor and send as
tribute the Romans slain in battle. Emboldened
by this military achievement and prompted by
his own rash pride, Arthur proceeds to besiege
the duke of Lorraine, wins this battle, and continues into Italy conquering towns along the way.
The Romans finally offer Arthur the imperial
crown and at this pinnacle of success, Arthur
dreams of Lady Fortune who, with a turn of her
wheel, dashes him down. This dream also proves
prophetic: The next morning Arthur learns that
Mordrede has taken both crown and queen, and
Arthur returns to England where Gawayn’s
knights are outnumbered and Gawayn himself is
killed in a battle scene of uncommon realism.
Bitter with sorrow, Arthur kills Mordrede in a
final battle in Cornwall but is himself mortally
wounded and buried in Glastonbury.
The Alliterative Morte Arthure is informed by elegant speeches and vows, detailed descriptions of
landscapes and characters, elegiac moments and
powerful laments for lost heroes, hubris and heroics, and an unflinching portrayal of the brutalities
of war. The characters are developed considerably
beyond the conventional superlatives usually invoked and this complexity of character and motivation underlies the whole of the narrative. Heroic
and tragic, with a fatally flawed King Arthur at its
center, the Alliterative Morte Arthure transforms
tradition as it portrays both the glory and the horrors of war. If, as some argue, the poet is ambivalent about the consequences of war, and concerned
over the sometimes subtle distinction between just
and unjust wars, there is also sufficient heroism
here to support a reading of Arthur as epic hero
engaged in epic feats of arms. As one critic notes,
perhaps we need not choose between two thematic
interpretations but need to read the poem as holding in unresolved tension conflicting points of
view.
Bibliography
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D.C.: University Press of America, 1983.
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Westover, Jeff. “Arthur’s End: The King’s Emasculation in the Alliterative Morte Arthure,” Chaucer Review 32 (1998): 310–324.
Elisa Narin van Court