The myth of the Morte D'Arthur

Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur is the most popular and influential of the various versions of the history of King Arthur, and has, especially in the twentieth century, inspired a large number of adaptations, retellings, and recastings in both the high and popular arts. One of the major reasons for the modern popularity of Malory's story of Arthur is that it is in fact myth. Myth here is defined as a story which, by the juxtaposition of arche typal figures and supernatural elements with a coherent narrative, allows the reader to recognize that the story has a universal import. This study thus traces the development not of the whole Arthurian legend, but of what became the specifically Malorian form of the myth of Arthur, from its beginnings as pseudohistory through its gradual accretions of archetype and motif until it reaches it most universal and potent form in Malory.