The portrayal of an acquisitive King Arthur whose pride fuels his conquest of most of Europe is quite different from most other versions of the legend. His once noble deeds become those of a tyrant who forgets that fortunes wheel is always turning and in the medieval view of the world; those that are at the top of the turn of the wheel and enjoy the greatest fortune must always be prepared for the downturn. Arthur's pride leads him to forget this fact and his final battle with his son Mordred leaves his kingdom in ruins and him in need of a confessor.

John Gardner’s modern translation of the alliterative Morte Arthure (aMA) works wonderfully well. He explains in a short preface his concern was to keep in tact the alliteration and metre of the poem and so some liberties have been taken with meaning and a few out of date words have been included because they fit so well. The poem reads so beautifully that I was prepared to go along with Gardner’s modus operandi. Here is an example as the Knights of the Round Table chase the fleeing Romans:

“There might men see chieftains on chalk-white steeds
Chop down on that chase the noblest of the chivalry;
The richest and most royal kings of Rome
Fell broken by hard steel, their ribs asunder,
Brains smashed in within their burnished helmets,
Overthrown by swords that flashed all the breadth of that land.
They hewed down heathen men with their hilted swords
By whole hundreds in a heap by the hem of the holtwood.
No silver could save their lives or succor them
Not sultan, Saracen, or senator of Rome.”

This poem of 4345 lines is thought to have been composed in about 1400 and was used by Sir Thomas Mallory as a source for sections of his epic Morte D’Arthure. The aMA contains only excerpts from what has become the Arthurian legends. It starts with Arthur at the height of his powers; he rules most of Europe and is celebrating New Year with the knights of the round table when emissaries of Lucius (Roman Emperor) appear before them to challenge Arthur. He sends them back to Rome with a flea in their ear and immediately sets in motion an expedition to overthrow Lucius. Over half the poem is taken up by this story and with Arthur's forces in Europe there are side tales of Sir Gawain's siege of Metz and Sir Cador’s expedition to Paris. Following the death of Lucius and with Arthur becoming increasingly more tyrannical there is a moment of pathos following the death of the “Good” Gawain before Arthur swears revenge and sets sail back to England where Mordred has married Guinevere and crowned himself king. The final section describes the battle with Mordred’s forces and the demise of the round table. This has been a very Christian telling of the legend and there is no pagan funeral to finish off the tale, instead we hear Arthurs’ last words:

“And afterward make your way to Mordred’s children,
And see them duly slain and slung to the waters,
And let no wicked weed wax mighty on earth;
I warn you for your honor do as I bid you!
And for God’s love in heaven, I give up my wrath
If Guinevere is well may peace be with her
He said on the land where he lay, ‘In manus tuas’,
And thus his spirit passed and he spoke no more.”

There is very little magic and mystery; no Merlin, no fantastic images and no Sir Lancelot, but Arthur has two dream visions that provide important reference points. The first is a battle between a dragon and a bear that is interpreted as Arthur (the dragon) defeating the tyrants in Europe. The second dream vision is Arthur’s dream about the wheel of fortune where he sees himself crushed to death beneath it. There is little need for interpretation of this, but the point is made that it is Arthur’s pride that is his undoing and he is reminded of the great men of history who have over reached themselves and have been done down in the end. The aMA has a richness that Malory’s version lacks: it’s descriptions of battles are more realistic, the story has a logical forward momentum and does not get bogged down in extraneous detail, Arthur himself moves from a heroic to a tragic figure in a way that is very convincing.

The alliterative Morte Arthur is not the only poem in Gardner’s book; he has brought to life a whole range of poems from the middle ages many of them in the alliterative tradition. None are as long or as impressive as aMA, but there is still much to delight the reader. Winner and Waster is a fine allegorical poem with some excellent lines and a fresh look into the psyche of the period. There is the gloomy “The debate of Body and Soul” and the wit and humour of “The owl and the Nightingale”. The short “Summer Sunday” with its wealth of alliteration also has its moments.

There is no doubt that the alliterative Morte Arthure is a fine poem in it’s own right and Gardner has produced a modern translation that make the lines sing. The inclusion of the other shorter poems from the late middle ages has given the book an added dimension as the reader is able to sense more of the variety of the literature that was being created at that time. Gardner has included 40 pages of commentary on the poems as well as notes on individual lines and so I think this book would also serve as a fine introduction to medieval literature and so 4.5 stars. ( )