The Death of King Arthur

by Simon Armitage (Translator)

The Alliterative Morte Arthure - the title given to a four-thousand line poem written sometime around 1400 - was part of a medieval Arthurian revival which produced such masterpieces as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Sir Thomas Malory's prose Morte D'Arthur. The Death of King Arthur deals in the cut-and-thrust of warfare and politics: the ever-topical matter of Britain's relationship with continental Europe, and of its military interests overseas.

Simon Armitage is already the master of this alliterative music, as his earlier version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2006) so resourcefully and exuberantly showed. His new translation restores a neglected masterpiece of story-telling, by bringing vividly to life its entirely medieval mix of ruthlessness and restraint.

Genres: Poetry, Arthurian, Classics, Medieval, Historical Fiction, Mythology, Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1380

About the author

Simon Armitage, whose The Shout was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, has published ten volumes of poetry and has received numerous honors for his work. He was appointed UK Poet Laureate in 2019

Armitage's poetry collections include Book of Matches (1993) and The Dead Sea Poems (1995). He has written two novels, Little Green Man (2001) and The White Stuff (2004), as well as All Points North (1998), a collection of essays on the north of England. He has produced a dramatised version of Homer's Odyssey and a collection of poetry entitled Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid (which was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize), both of which were published in July 2006. Many of Armitage's poems appear in the AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) GCSE syllabus for English Literature in the United Kingdom. These include "Homecoming", "November", "Kid", "Hitcher", and a selection of poems from Book of Matches, most notably of these "Mother any distance...". His writing is characterised by a dry Yorkshire wit combined with "an accessible, realist style and critical seriousness."

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't like this as much as Simon Armitage's other Middle English translation, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It's a more serious poem, I think, less playful and rich in language, but it's still pretty amazing. I can't speak for the quality of the translation right now, I haven't yet compared it with the Middle English -- I'm sure there have been liberties taken, but I think he gets across the tone of the original poem, at least. Sometimes his alliteration is a bit over the top, not quite obeying the rules; I'm not sure if the original poem is the same -- it might well be.

It's fun to read, and easy to follow -- probably less scholarly than Brian Stone's translation, and probably all the more readable for that. Interesting how much it reminds me of The Song of Roland, particularly the part where Arthur grieves over Gawain's death...

[Stephanie Fachiol · Rating 4 out of 5]

'So that lady [Fortune] led me for the length of an hour,
with all the love and delight that a lord could desire.
But at the minute of midday her mood darkened;
she amazed me with words of malice and menace,
and when I begged for fairness her brows became enflamed.
"King, your cries are in vain, by Christ,
for all you love you shall lose, and your life as well.
You have loitered in privilege and pleasure too long."
Then she whirled the wheel about, and under it I went,
so in a moment every muscle in my body was mangled
and my spine was split asunder by the seat.
Ever since this chapter I have shivered with a chill,
and awake I am wearied by the weight of the dream.'

Indeed, Fortuna is a fickle mistress; and yet, even when she takes away blessings, she gives the opportunity for honor and virtue:

'We shall exit this escapade as most excellent knights,
And find endless ectasy with heaven's bright angels.
Though unwittingly we have wasted ourselves in this way [dying in battle],
our work shall do us well in the worship of Christ.'

This book is like reading The Iliad with an Arthurian veneer. There are long passages of battle, lots of gore, a dark subplot about an ogre and dark subtext to Guinevere's forced marriage to Mordred. And yet the undercurrent of aiming for virtue regardless of circumstances, the silver lining of Arthuriana, is here. Arthur's death is tragic not only because he was a good fighter and king, but because he was Good.

As for the translation, Armitage does spectacular work, and I went in with high expectations after his translation of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Those who dislike alliteration will not enjoy this book. I, however, lament the loss of this poetic form in modern poetic works; I found many passages with slower action all the more pleasurable to read, indulging in the taste of the language. The descriptions of nature evoke the same sense of wonder that reading Tennyson did--glimpses of beauty among the ugliness of a fallen world.

The forest flourished in the flush of many flowers,
with falcons and pheasants and their colors and fantails
and the flash of all fowls that fly on the wing,
and the cuckoo sang clearly from the copses and groves;
with gladness of all kinds they glory in their gifts.
The nightingale's notes made the sweetest noise;
three hundred of them had their say with the thrushes,
so the sound of streams and the singing of the birds
might soothe him whose soul had only known sorrow.

[laura e · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot darker, gloomier and way more brutal than the Arthurian romances I have read thus far, but wonderfully translated and tragic and gripping

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This edition by Valerie Krishna is by far the best version of the Alliterative Morte Arthure on the market and the first scholarly edition to be published in English in over a hundred years. Krishna provides an excellent introduction to the text that explores questions on the date and place of composition, authorship, language, style and structure. Also includes a textual commentary, glossary and bibliography.

The text itself is far superior to the 1974 edition by Larry Benson. Even a quick glance at the opening line can illustrate, Benson gives "now gręte glorīus God through grāce of Himselven" Krishna gives the more correct "now grett and glorious Godd, thurgh grace of Hym seluen." Another plus over Benson's over modernised edition of the poem is that Krishna places the glossary in the proper place for an academic text, which is at the back and Krishna goes into much more detail than Benson on word meanings.

The story follows Geoffrey of Monmouth's account of the battles and death of Arthur given in books nine and ten of the Historia Regum Britanniae, but the author of the Alliterative Morte Arthure was probably using Layamon's Middle English adaption of Geoffrey's history due to the inclusion of the Round Table, which is not mentioned in the Historia Regum Britanniae. Compared with the Stanzaic Morte Arthure, which tells the story following the French Prose Cycle, this poem is more realistic and follows the tradition of Heroic Epic rather than French Courtly Romance fashion.

The poem dates from around 1400 and is part of the Alliterative Revival movement which saw poets from the Midland and Northern areas of England revive the tradition of composing poems in the more traditional alliterative metre rather than in the Chaucerian style of rhyming couplets. Another feature to this poem is the authors use of formulaic phrases and formulaic type scenes such as the battles and arming episodes.

While the Edmund Brock edition is nearly 150 years old and the Benson edition is ideal for the beginner, Krishna's is the version that I would spend my hard earned money on.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crossposted/edited from my blog

I’m going to start off with the disclaimer that I do not read a lot of poetry and don’t feel particularly comfortable analysing it.This makes me a bit of an uncultured idiot when it comes to trying to write a review, but I’m going to do my best. When I do read poetry – and I’m trying to do so more – my preference also lies very heavily towards old-fashioned narrative and epic poems that tell an interesting story. Since I find the King Arthur legend (or legends) one of the most interesting stories there are, buying this book when I spotted it in the shop was a complete no-brainer. I don’t know what a serious poetry fan or scholar would make of it but as a piece of Arthurian literature – especially as a piece of medieval and British Arthurian literature – I found it to be an unpolished gem of a book.

The Death of King Arthur tells the story, with no magical frills or whistles, of Arthur’s last invasion of Europe and his return home to face – and eventually die at the hand of – the treacherous Sir Mordred. It’s a familiar story to almost everyone who’s read even a single children’s ‘life of King Arthur’ type book. What makes this version different, however, is that it does not follow the French Romantic tradition of having Lancelot and Guinevere’s adultery as the cause of Arthur’s downfall – in fact there’s no mention of any affair between them and Lancelot gets only a walk on part – instead it’s pure politcs and territorial war that takes Arthur out of Britain and gives Mordred the chance to seize power. As someone who finds Lancelot a rather dull (dare I say ‘Mary-Sue’) character who gets too much exposure at the expense of other knights, I really welcomed this angle. Once the sword’s pulled out of the stone Arthur often seems to fade into a background character – here he’s no doubt the main character with both moments of incredible military skill and high emotion.

This ‘unromantic’ motivation also makes for an ‘unromantic’ poem that focusses not on the idea of courtly love and lofty ideas of ‘Albion’ but positively revels in the horror and brutality of medieval warfare. It’s gloriously unapologetically bloody and violent, to open a few pages purely at random gives me:

"Then good Sir Gawain on his grey steed
gripped a great spear and speedily spiked him;
through the guts and gore his weapon glided
till the sharpened steel sliced into his heart."

"Then eagerly Arthur opened his enemy’s visor
and buried the bright blade in his body to the handle
and he squirmed as he died, skewered on the sword."

"leaving wounded warriors writhing in his wake;
he hacked at the hardiest and hewed them at the neck,
and all ran red wherever he rode,"

There are decapitations, guts spilling out of war wounds, people being impaled through the loins…you think of a nasty way to die and I can almost promise it’s there. Little-me would have loved this poem!

Alas, I’m no longer little-me and I do demand a bit more character development and deeper storytelling to go with my macabre enjoyment of gruesome descriptions. After a promising non-Lancelot focussed start, the middle section gave way almost to a list of who was killed by who in what vividly described way. Most named only appear once or twice and with the exception of Arthur and Gawain (and perhaps Kay if I’m feeling generous) it’s very hard to feel anything for the knights on either side of the battles. I have to confess to several times being confused as to who was fighting who and why. It’s no Odyssey (or even Aeneid) that you could write an essay just on the psychology of a sidecharacter, and for a long time during the middle section I feared I was going to have to give this three stars, but it redeemed itself. Once news of Mordred’s treachery (and the implication of Guinevere’s as well in this story) reaches Arthur things get back on track. It’s still more endless guts and blood but the motivation – and the cost – is both more familiar and more relatable. Even the battles seemed to have new life breathed into them with a wonderful description of naval warfare sticking out especially. And once one of Arthur’s favourite knights is slain on the battlefield there is, in my eyes at least, a beautifully powerful depiction not just grief on Arthur’s part but guilt and shame from the murderer as well. It’s a tantalising hint of the author’s ability at portraying emotions that is, sadly, a little too set aside in favour of bloodshed for most of the poem.

There are other glimpses prior to this – particularly in the second of the two prophetic dreams Arthur has (one of the very few ‘fantastical’ elements of the story) – where Arthur sees himself rise on the wheel of fortune only to be thrown off again. But it was his grief at seeing his friend’s body and the way he openly wept, threw himself on the corpse and had to be almost dragged away before his grief turned to anger and vengeance that struck me. That’s a more human and emotionally Arthur than I’m used to and it packed a punch that I wasn’t expecting after the rather scant emotional story of the rest of the poem.

The rest of it is solid stuff, for what it is. The various wars take up the majority of the poem but there is one traditionally Arthurian type of adventure near the beginning where Arthur pauses his warplans to rescue a kidnapped damsel from a monstrous ogre-like figure who cuts off the beards of the knights he kills and turns them into what I can only imagine is the sexiest patchwork gown imaginable. Apart from that though it’s (more) blood, guts and simplistic and unsympathetic ‘he was rude to me, so I’m going to kill him’ from then on. I enjoyed it, and I’m happy to admit to loving the blood and guts, but it wasn’t until the last section that I felt emotionally invested in the story.

As for its quality as a poem… I don’t know. I found it less well crafted than Armitage’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and I found myself stumbling over the words and puzzling to make out the rhythm more often – but I also know I’ve been cursed with the worst sense of rhythm (and tone) imaginable and it’s probably perfectly simple for anyone with half an ounce of musical talent. I like this alliterative style of poetry though, it’s one I find very accessable. How much of the language and alliterative bits I liked (or didn’t) is down to the original author and how much Armitage I couldn’t say, and wouldn’t like to guess at. Another translation may well be better – I don’t know, but I did enjoy this one.

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully epic, especially those final 40 pages.

[Chris Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

We think of King Arthur as the original English hero, but the genesis of his story is a masterclass in myth making.

As Armitage notes in his introduction, it's likely that the original Arthur was a tribal Briton, but he may well have been a Celt. The first stories can be traced to Wales and tell of a brave king fighting off hundreds of invaders single handed. Ironically, these invaders are likely to have been the Angles and Saxons that conquered the Britons after the Roman evacuation and now make up the majority of the English (Anglish) genepool today.

The chivalrous, Christian knight in shining armour is a Norman confection, created through a series of texts written between Geoffrey Monmouth's biographies of the kings in 1136 and the publication by William Caxton of Thomas Mallory's Morte D'Arthur in 1485. Together they recast this patriotic local hero in the image, and the values, of the new ruling elite.

This annonymous, alliterative version of the legend is thought to date to around 1400, by which time the new Arthur had been around for over 250 years. It draws on earlier texts which introduce the now popular chivalry and heroes of The Round Table. But the poem is violent and graphic. It describes a bloody campaign that sees Arthur and his knights cut a swathe of victory across Europe to the very gates of Rome.

The brutality has some obvious contemporary parallels in the Hundred Years War, fought for possesion of France between 1337 and 1453 (from which George R R Martin more recently drew the inspiration for Games of Thrones). It also carries echos of the earlier Christian Crusades between 1095 and 1271. Many of Arthur's 'Roman' enemies fight alongside Saracens, Syrians, Turks, Tunisians and other allitertive eastern armies. So although the events described in the myth were supposed to have happened over half a milenia before, the armour, weapons and methods of war described all sound, relatively, more contemporary.

Descriptions of battle and dismemberment are incredibly vidid. As bold claims are made about the thousands of enemy slain by our brave and chivalrous heros, the body count quickly stacks up. I wish I'd kept a running tally. An element of chivalry, however, remains. Arthur on numerous occasions swears to protect the women of captured town from 'mistreatment'. Yet there is no mercy for others. It is shocking to hear of fleeing enemies being 'hunted and hacked down' to 'leave no child nor chief alive'.

While the whole story of Arthur is a fantasy, the king's dreams in this poem bring an element of magic into the bloody action. The first spectacular dream sequence sees him ride a dragon over the channel, while a later vision sees Lady Fate oversee the rise and fall of fellow kings. Then there is the fighting itself. The first enemy that Arthur encounters on arrival in France is an ogre who lives on St Michael's Mount and picks his teeth with the bones of the local children. Some of the stories of brave Knights slaying hundreds of enemies single handedly seem equally unreal.

Riding throughout all of this is the alliterative line which Armitage has translated from middle English. The mark of his success is how the pattern gets into you head. I did find myself wondering about the laziness of some of the more repetitive words, descriptions and imagery, but Armitage notes that this in fact has come from the original text, the only surviving edition of which was written into a collection now housed at Lincoln Cathedral. It may have been intended as part of the alliterative pattern. It may just be that there are only so many ways to describe charging chivalrous champions storming into battle on their stout steeds, swords shining in the sun.

So who wrote this and when? Richard II was deposed by Henry IV with an invading force from France in 1399. I think it's likely that this depiction of a heroic, conquering King who reclaims his land overseas while being betrayed at home, might have been revived to impress upon either the old or new king the expectations of the job. The fact that it is in middle English points, perhaps, towards the reign of Henry IV, the first king since the Norman invasion whose mother tongue was English, rather than French. But the narrative about reclaiming land in France makes me think of Henry V. Might he have commissioned this poem? Or been read it as a boy before embarking on his own conquests? Or is it a genuine myth of the people, comfortably blending Norman culture and English legend over 300 years after the invasion?

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fabulous poetry - both the original (quite a lot is understandable when read next to the translation) and the new verse translation. However the subject matter is not terribly interesting..... basically it is a propaganda exercise at a time when the English had been gradually losing control of the vast lands of Western France. King Arthur is repeatedly described as entitled to rule the Roman Empire as 'did all his ancestors except Uther'.
I really, really tried, got over half way through but despite the power of the verse the subject is just too dull. Lists of rich people killing or being killed in various different ways. I skipped over the rest of the book to see if there was any plot or any interest in his homecoming but it was just more of the same.

[Mark Adderley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This poem really deserves a much higher rating that this, and I love the Early English Text Society; but the edition is just so old--this is a reprint of the 1871 edition--that it's just wiser to use, for example, Larry D. Benson's edition, King Arthur's Death; The Middle English Stanzaic Morte Arthur and Alliterative Morte Arthure. One advantage this edition has is the marginal glosses, that allow you to find the passages you want very quickly.

[Sem · Rating 4 out of 5]

As good a summary as any:

Black Knight: 'Tis but a scratch.
King Arthur: A scratch? Your arm's off!
Black Knight: No, it isn't.
King Arthur: Well, what's that then?
Black Knight: I've had worse.
King Arthur: You liar!
Black Knight: Come on, you pansy!
King Arthur: Victory is mine! We thank thee, Lord, that in thy mer -
[the Black Knight kicks him]
Black Knight: Come on, then.
King Arthur: What?
Black Knight: Have at you!
King Arthur: You are indeed brave, Sir Knight, but the fight is mine.
Black Knight: Oh, had enough, eh?
King Arthur: Look, you stupid bastard, you've got no arms left!
Black Knight: Yes I have.

[Nick Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

It beggars belief that Simon Armitage considered this poem worth 'translating'. Aside from the historical point of interest that lies in seeing a version of Christianity utterly captured (and killed) by the martial values of the time, the poem has no literary merit whatsoever. Even the wit/ silliness of alliterative verse is rendered simply tedious by line after line of brutal slashing and stabbing. Dreadful.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this stunning translation by Simon Armitage. To translate an ancient poem in an alliterative form is no mean feat, but to do so without it seeming contrived is a challenge. Armitage manages, and more than that, thrills with his rendering that grasps the scale of this dramatic tale and makes it fresh, closing the gap between legend and the present. Wonderful!

[Sasha]

I really liked Simon Armitage's translation of Gawain, but I can't figure out what this is. Clearly not Morte D'Arthur; Malory's not listed as an author and it's nowhere near long enough.

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arthur as epic hero? Maybe. But the battles are brutal and the hero flawed. So, it can be read as warning against war and tyranny.

[The Smol Moth · Rating 4 out of 5]

In terms of authors that tempt me to commit necromancy so I can ask them what they were on about, the guy who wrote this is pretty high on the list. Sure, the poem seems somewhat anti-war to me, but is it, or is it just values dissonance? WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY PORTRAYING MORDRED THIS WAY, AUTHOR, YOU HAVE TO KNOW I'VE BEEN A HOPELESS MORDRED STAN EVER SINCE I WAS SIXTEEN AND YOU CAN'T JUST GIVE ME A SYMPATHETIC MORDRED LIKE THAT WITH NO EXPLANATION. I NEED TO KNOW YOUR THOUGHT PROCESSES. Also uhhhhh my toxic trait is that I've been a Mordred/Guinevere shipper ever since my sister bullied me into writing it a few years back and now I'm hopeless. Anyway! Guinevere giving Mordred Arthur's ceremonial sword Clarent is just 🥰🥰🥰

Also, Priamus my beloved <3

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Why has our Deity, through deed of his dear will,
not deemed that today I should die for you all?
I would choose that loss, than for all my life be lord
of all that Alexander once owned on this earth."

[Alex Telander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simon Armitage’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was a delight to read and well-received by many readers (it remains one of the top read reviews on BookBanter), and now Armitage is back with his new translation of The Death of King Arthur, appearing in 1400, also known as The Alliterative Morte Arthure; it is imbued with the passion and panache of Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf.

The story opens at a Christmas day feast where King Arthur is entertaining his round table of knights and the people of his court. It is rudely interrupted by an emissary of the emperor Lucius Iberius, who is demanding Arthur pay taxes and tributes owed to the emperor. Thus begins Arthur’s journey across Europe, as the reader learns of the extent of the king’s lands, as well as his power and ability as a leader and knight in these descriptive and alliterative scenes of conquest. The Knights of the Round Table will eventually reach their destination, where Arthur will confront the emperor, but also meet his inevitable end.

Armitage does a fantastic job of creating a translation of this tale that is both entertaining and addictive to read, but still maintains its alliterative originality. Published in a bilingual edition, readers can enjoy glancing over at the original Middle English text and see the original lines and stanzas, and also see how Armitage has masterfully crafted this text to be alliterative as well as encompass the modern English language. Both King Arthur fans and fans of Armitage’s work will not be disappointed.

Originally written on February 6, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

For more reviews and exclusive interviews, go to BookBanter.

[Samuel Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Armitage thoroughly understands the rhythm of this anonymous Middle English poet, and the alliterative style. This is a significant improvement upon his very good translation of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', and brings this too-obscure poetical masterpiece back into circulation. Despite another great translation, John Gardner's, and the well-circulated Penguin translation, this is the one to have. Better yet, it contains the original on opposing pages, so you can compare how well he does it (a positive trend for translations as a whole). Tolkien, who translated Middle English works so well, would be proud. Recommended to all for a good old fashioned yarn.

PS: For fans of Arthurian literature, this is of course a must, and a huge release. I'd like to point out how the poet of the original did such an excellent job at making all the Roman-y plots of the legend interesting. This is not spectacularly true of all the versions in the literature.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful translation
wonderful narration on the audio book
I was surprised to learn that this epic poem portrays King Arthur as a classic tragic hero.
So why only three stars - because there are way too many battles in this poem and they bored me. It reminded me the Lord of the Ring movies - I loved the Tolkien books but the movies were just one battle after another (yawn).
So I commend Armitage's translation and Bill Wallis' narration but I recommend their "Sir Gwain and the Green Knight". It is a much better story.

[J D Murray · Rating 1 out of 5]

An alliterative poem about King Arthur. I should love it.

I hated it. Turns out it's possible to have too much alliteration. There's a lot of violence here, and a lot of jingoistic posturing at the expense of Johnny Foreigner, and not much magic.

It's not necessarily Armitage's fault. It may be a faithful translation of an original that I would also have hated.

But I hated it.

[Stoic_quin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one didn't come across as well as Gawain. I suspect because it's pretty much the poetic equivalent of a drunken football hooligan on tour. Arthur seems a conflicted, but is fundamentally a git, and it's hard to find someone else that's admirable in it.

[Norman Wakefield · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it! Couldn't put it down!

[Cole · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't listen to this anymore. Way too much alliteration.

[Dominika]

Before I started this arthuriana reading project, my knowledge of the original sources of arthurian legend was limited to Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur. But the Alliterative Morte Arthure, written around 70 years before, is a treat. It made for a drastic change from Chrétiens de Troyes' Arthurian Romances that features a mostly off-stage and ignorantly cuckolded Arthur. Arthur in this narrative is a heroic knight-king exemplar: "The most chivalrous knight to ever come beneath Christ." The audiobook reading by Bill Wallis is exceptional. Those medieval poets were not lying about alliterative verse either. The whole poem bounces along intensely on the power of its alliteration. Very readable and enjoyable.

[su · Rating 4 out of 5]

for me the dream sequence that serve as a prophecy and the actual battle of camlann (which was interestingly not named that, i think) were what made reading this alliterative morte darthur interesting and enjoyable compared to the middle of the poem which was a tad bit too christian even for medieval literature or arthuriana.

i liked that it was much more focused on politics with an almost sympathetic mordred and no love triangle and the discussions of kingship.

[Mark Dickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really got into this by the end, but the alliterative nature of this creates some sections that are purely a slog of playful alliterative lists.

RIP Gawain you were the best of us except for that time you attacked a knight in the forest for no reason

[May Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,25⭐️

Although a late version of the legend of King Arthur, Simon Armitage's translation and prose masterfully transports us in another time.

I particularly loved the internal rhymes and alliteration used in this work.

[kels · Rating 4 out of 5]

recommended only to college students and to those who have un-ironically used the word Arthuriana in real life

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the last book I've read in Simon Armitage's series of translations of classic works of literature from the pre-modern age, and this is easily one of the best. Of course, the original source material is great to begin with (my copy features the original text on pages facing Armitage's translation), but the translator has really captured the heroically gruesome nature of the narrative, all while honoring the heavy use of alliteration in the source material. It's quite a thrilling read, and Armitage deserves a lot of credit for creating a page-turner out of a Middle English work of the early 15th-century!

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Alliterative Morte Arthure is an interesting and important poem, although perhaps not a great or particularly likeable one, with its numerous and extended (sometimes over-extended) battles, which are characterised by an extremely realistic although not always completely plausible brutality, and with a central character who may not be to everyone's taste: more King Arthur the conqueror, capable of no small measure of pride, anger, and cruelty, than King Arthur the pinnacle of chivalry, despite the poet's frequent reminders that he is "comlich", "courtais", and "noble". Indeed, this Arthur makes for an uncomfortable hero. Hard to admire after his more-petulant-than-regal treatment of the Roman envoys at the beginning, it is not until he defeats the giant at Mont St Michel that his true qualities are shown rather than told; and his later attempts to establish a kind of pan-European Pax Britannicum seem very much like after-thoughts on his Rome-bound march of conquest. "No men of mine shall mistreat you, madam," he assures the Duchess of Lorraine as he lays siege to Metz, "Peace I pledge you and your peerless maids, / and to children, chaste priests and to chivalrous knights." This is a few lines after his forces have already begun reducing the city to rubble (p. 111):

hospitals and monasteries they hammered to the earth,
and churches and chapels with their chalk-white paint,
till sturdy stone steeples lay scattered in the streets,
and houses with chimneys and many choice hostelries.
As they pummelled and pulverised the plastered walls
the agony of inhabitants was harrowing to hear.

Then off to Tuscany to make "worthy widows wail with sorrow" as his forces deal out "violence without pity" before "this true royal with his Round Table" settles down "among mirth and melody and many kinds of pleasures; nowhere on earth was humankind as happy" (pp. 115-116)! Against such a backdrop, it's hard to avoid the feeling that Arthur's fall from the top of the Wheel of Fortune comes not a moment too soon.

Simon Armitage's translation does an excellent job of making the poem accessible for a modern audience, managing not only to remain faithful to the original, but even to smooth out some of its idiosyncrasies. The result is less adventurous than his version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (surely a much more difficult poem to translate), but also less prone to jarring idioms and word choices that don't quite work. The Alliterative Morte Arthure, both here and in the original, is a much less memorable work, but there are still some impressive moments of poetry here, particularly towards the close. When, in the original, Arthur finds

... Sir Gawain the good in his gay armes,
Umbegripped the gers and on grouf fallen,
His banners braiden down, beten of gules,
His brand and his brode sheld all bloody berunnen.

Armitage gives us (pp. 143-44):

... good Sir Gawain in his glinting gear,
face down in the field, fists full of grass,
his bold red banners brought to the floor,
his sword and broad shield swimming with blood.

A few lines later, Arthur's lament:

"Alas," said Sir Arthur, "now eekes my sorrow!
I am utterly undone in mine owen landes!
A doutous, derf dede, thou dwelles too long!
Why drawes thou so on dregh? Thou drownes mine herte!"

becomes (p. 144):

"For pity," said Arthur, "such pain overpowers me;
I am utterly laid low in my own land.
O dire, dreadful death, you drag your heels.
Why dawdle and draw back? You drown my heart."

Here and throughout this very readable book, Armitage's re-phrasings - when he chooses to make them - are largely skillful, natural, and well-judged.