Arthuriana -- all things King Arthur ! discussion

I have a question.

I was assigned the Norton Critical Edition of Le Morte D'Arthur for a class at school, but I was alas, unable to finish it due to the archaic language. I was wondering if anyone here knew of an edition of the book that is a. unabridged, and b. is a Modern English translation.

Thank you all!

Helen Cooper's version of the Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table (aka The Winchester Manuscript) is good. It does abridge the huge and very jousty Book Of Tris, but that isn't a huge loss.
Also, if this is a class thing come here and pick our brains...there be druids here...and Valkyries, and horse nomads, and scholars, and archeologists, and historians. Come follow the fewmets and hunt the questing beast.

Actually, if this is for a class have a look at some of the threads here on Morte, steal an idea or two and throw them in the mix. Any questions post them here...join the shieldwall.

The class ended a couple of months ago with the semester, but I'm still wading through the Norton Critical Edition D: I'm one of those masochistic people who insists on completing (almost) every book she starts, but I figure I can finish Le Morte D'Arthur in a different, easier form than the Norton one. That was what I meant. Sorry for not being clearer.

Try the Cooper version of the Winchester then.
How was the class?

Think it's an Oxford World Classics edition ..

Ah! I was looking for a topic on which version of Malory to read, and saw this. I was leaning toward the Norton Critical Edition.

What makes it hard to read specifically? Is it the archaic spellings or is it more than that? It seems like there are some editions you can pick up which update only the spelling and some which modernize the prose generally.

I've gotten into Arthurian adaptations but have yet to read Malory. It's hard to find which one to take on with so many versions. What is altered in Cooper's edit? Is Book of Tris the only abridged part?

Hi Annalise. I'm one who likes the Norton Critical. True, I'm only 150 pages into it.

Aside from it's being as 'original' as possible -- which is what I want -- I don't see other difficulties that this one has, over others.

Additional. The notes (at the bottom of page) often annoy me. Either they are sheerly unnecessary or I think they're up the wrong tree. So I'm not altogether a fan.

I like the Norton Critical edition too, though the blackletter type for the names is distracting to me. I understand that this represents the way the scribe of the Winchester Manuscript has picked out the names in red ink, but I don't think there's a great deal of benefit to that.

Cooper's edition for Oxford World Classics is very readable, but I don't like her edits much. She cuts some passages I think are important, and preserves passages I think are unimportant. That's a highly personal thing, of course.

For my money, the best text of Malory for someone who's never read him before is the Penguin edition, in two volumes, of the Caxton text. The spelling of the words is modernized, but word-order and archaic words like "hight" for "named" are preserved. It's not a translation, but the modernization of the spelling doesn't offend any more than a modernization of Shakespeare's spelling in a modern play text.

Can I enter a vote for the unabridged version of Malory, edited by John Matthews. The ISBN is 0-7607-5521-3.
Not every word is given a modern equivalent, but it is still pretty readable. And it has many new illustrations.
Example of language: "Chapter IV. Of the death of King Uther Pendragon. Then within two years King Uther fell sick of a great malady. And in the meanwhile his enemies usurped upon him, and did a great battle upon his men, and slew many of his people. Sir, said Merlin, ye may not lie so as ye do, for ye must to the field though ye ride on an horse-litter; for ye shall never have the better of your enemies but if your person be there, and then shall ye have the victory." etc.
Not too bad, was it?

This one, Laura? Le Morte D' Arthur
How illustrated is it? I rather like the idea of an illustrated...

A knowledgable friend of mine, who isn't in the group, tells me the daddy of editions is due out in November. It's this:

Sir Thomas Malory: The Morte Darthur edited by P. J. C. Field.

My friend's proud to own the three-volume that is edited by Eugene Vinaver and revised by P.J.C. Field. Alas I don't, so he told me about this. How expensive is it going to be, though?

I checked with Amazon. Pre-order is $260. *sigh* Holy Cow. I have it on my wish list but... wonder whether it's worth it or not as I've got about 4 different versions of Morte now, including Norton's.

Than again, I've got 5 different Mabinogions so... it's not like it would lack company. :)

There's a modern rendition (well, from the 80s) by Keith Baines, with an introduction by the poet Robert Graves: Le Morte d'Arthur King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

Mind you, the John Matthews edition mentioned above, with illustrations by Anna-Marie Ferguson (the first female illustrator of the Morte, apparently) is just as accessible, and has those line and watercolour pictures too!

Nobody really needs a translation of Malory. The English is perfectly clear, and Malory's style is delightful. Modernization of spelling is all that's really required. That's why I would argue that Janet Cowen's two-volume Penguin edition of Caxton's text is the best version (in my not-very-humble opinion) for beginners.

Mark wrote: "Nobody really needs a translation of Malory. The English is perfectly clear, and Malory's style is delightful. Modernization of spelling is all that's really required."

As I really don't have a problem with either the original or, at a pinch, a modernised spelling edition I'd have to agree with you. But newcomers or youngsters or those with little time on their hands might do well to start with an abridged rendition. However, your recommendation certainly addresses Marci's original query.

The best editions that I've come across are Field's 3 volume 3rd edition revision of Vinaver's Malory. The next is James spisak and William Mathew's 2 volume edition of Caxton's malory. Both come with huge commentaries too, but the new PJC field edition is promising to be something special.

Field's edition is the best, of course, but it's also prohibitively expensive for an ordinary reader like me. If you want the Middle English text, I'd suggest Vinaver's one-volume edition, which is a little easier to read than Shepherd's for Norton.