Audiobook · read by volunteers
Le Morte d'Arthur - Vol. 1
Sir Thomas Malory (1405–1471)
Read by Lizzie Driver, Chrystal Layton, Catherine Fitz, Tim Bulkeley (1948-2019), chris tierney, Chandra Gioiello, Mark F. Smith, Jessica AC Snyder, Lars Rolander (1942-2016), Tamara Hamilton · 46 chapters · 15 h 50
About the book
The tales of King Arthur and his knights have been told in many forms, but few versions have been as influential as Sir Thomas Malory's. In this first volume we follow the birth of Arthur, the pulling of the sword from the stone, the founding of the Round Table and the first adventures of the knights who gather around him. Malory gathers together French and English romances and shapes them into a long, flowing narrative of battles, quests, love and loyalty. His prose is plain, direct and often moving. The book also looks ahead to the downfall of a great fellowship, though its title warns of the end from the start. Forty-six sections, read by a team of volunteers, last nearly sixteen hours. It is a fine choice for anyone drawn to legend, chivalry and the great stories behind much of English fantasy.
Introduction
Sir Thomas Malory, who died in 1471, is the traditional name given to the author of Le Morte d'Arthur, completed in the later fifteenth century and printed by William Caxton in 1485. Little is certain about his life, and scholars have debated his identity, but the work itself has had an enormous afterlife.
The title, spelled Le Morte Darthur in the first printing, is Middle French for the death of Arthur. Malory compiled and reshaped a number of French and English Arthurian romances into a connected English prose narrative. He added material of his own, notably the story of Gareth, and retold the older tales in the light of his own views; Caxton's printing of 1485 is the form in which the book first reached readers in print. Later writers, from Tennyson to T. H. White and many fantasy authors of the twentieth century, drew on his book for characters, plots and atmosphere.
This is the first volume of the work, divided into forty-six sections that follow the books and chapters of the original in groups. The recording runs for about sixteen hours and is shared among a team of LibriVox volunteers. Because the stories are episodic, listeners can dip in and out, and the language, though old, has a direct clarity that suits the ear. It remains a foundation of the Arthurian tradition. The book is also a record of the English language at the end of the Middle Ages. Listeners who know Arthurian stories only from films or modern novels may be surprised by the freshness, the violence and the sudden tenderness of the original material.
Public domain
Sir Thomas Malory died in 1471: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text