The Holy Grail

By: Sir Thomas Malory

Narrated by: John Franklyn-Robbins

Merlin, Arthur, Galahad, Lancelot - the names conjure images of knights in armor during the age of chivalry. When Le Morte D'Arthur was first published in 1485, it was the first time the mélange of medieval tales had been given unity, form, and the English language. Sir Thomas Malory, an English knight born in the early 1400s, wrote Le Morte D'Arthur - a set of 8 romances having to do with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table - when he was in Newgate Gaol. The Holy Grail is one of the most famous.Public Domain (P)1992 Recorded Books

know what your getting into

This is a very difficult story to put together. if this is your King Arthur legend I would suggest to try another first such as Gawain and the green knight.

The performance is as good as one can ask. I am taking a class in Medieval Literature and would strongly suggest reading cliff notes or look up the context or else majority of the story will go over your head. know what you are getting yourself into.

Four hours to find the Holy Grail

This audiobook is an excerpt from the larger story cycle told by Thomas Malory and printed in 1485, the Morte d'Arthur, the Death of Arthur stories, which have inspired so many modern works, including Lord of the Rings. The reading is lovely. Much of the original language is kept and though words are different and turned around in meaning sometimes, one very quickly catches on, because the reader keeps modern pronunciation. One of my favorite discoveries from this reading was how Malory likes to make rhyming paired alternatives: we still say "whether he will or nil," but he also says "would or nood" and "wist or nist" for knowing or not knowing. All you really need to know to understand this book from (barely) pre-Tudor times is that Siege means seat, not a warfare tactic. As in the Siege Perilous, that only Galahad could safely sit in at the Round Table. Siege is simply a French word, and they used some French in those days that we have exchanged for other French these days.

The story cycle of the search for the Grail is short and makes sense from beginning to end. It follows not only the original story by Chretien de Troyes, who probably first imagined the Grail, but the amendments quickly added by other writers such as Robert de Boron to Christianize the story, making the Grail a cup and in fact, THE cup, and adding in Joseph of Arimathea. The original glimpse of the Grail that we got from Chretien was none too Christian and then the author died before he finished the story, so his bestseller book sorely needed a quick fix and got fixes from writers across Europe. Malory faithfully reports the dominant legend as it came down to him from the early 13th century, almost three centuries before he wrote his great collection of Arthur stories.

The Grail tales are lively and vivid and have, as intended, many ethical issues which were no doubt discussed in 15th century book discussions. Which should Bors rescue, a maiden being raped, or his brother being beaten to death with whips from thorn bushes? Lionel survives, but one can appreciate just how seriously annoyed he was at the choice Bors made. What about that queen whose illness could only be cured by (a lot) of blood from a maiden? Was it really an appropriate moral decision for Perceval's sister to sacrifice herself? And what about the 24 tombs of similar maidens the knights found after she died? Hmmmmmm. Needs thought.

This audiobook would be great for fans of the Holy Grail, for Malory fans, and for young people who can only profit from grounding in our basic English literature without being bored.