ENGL 406 Lecture Notes - Maleagant

• School: University of Calgary
• Department: English
• Course: ENGL 406
• Professor: Jacqueline Jenkins

Document Summary

1947 different version of winchester manuscript was published. Before cagstons manuscript was where all info was derived from: consisted of 21 books. Winchester manuscript the whole book of arthur and his round table. Malory reworked earlier texts by making lancelot central figure: more important than arthur even, arthur provides moral center for the knights. Death of arthur shifts attention back onto arthur. Lancelot strives for perfection: more courtly, more adventure seeking, champions more women, serves king abroad and locally than other of the knights, seeks spiritual advancement, is a good lover. Arthur is the center but lancelot is the ideal to which other knights are compared to: lancelot is not always shown to be perfect. Because all of desires put demands onto him. By being true lover to guinevere he fails in the grail quest: causes him to betray arthur.