Le Morte D’Arthur by Thomas Malory. Personal Response

Response to Death Of Arthur

At the beginning of the chapter it says what this story is about. It tells of how Arthur dies. It doesn’t give the exact explanation right off as to how he dies or when he dies. It just basically says is that this is the story of King Arthur’s death. Early in the reading you read a prayer that is offered up as basically, what I took it is was that it was a prayer for Arthur. It seems fitting to start the book about the death of a loved and well known king. From there it begins to tell of Arthur’s glory days.

When Arthur came into power he started to collect land. He would conquer and gain land with each conquest. The land he divided up amongst relatives and he knighted knights under his banner, even though they were formally under another ruler’s thumb still. They all faithfully and loyally served Arthur, even though he had conquered them. He thought that everyone was finally united under his rule. He had reclaimed the land that his father once owned. Arthur ruled with an iron fist but was a very generous king, who cared about his kingdom.

After his glorious conquests Arthur grew somewhat content with his realm. He thought that there would be nothing but peace from there on out. So Arthur entered and enjoyed his glory days. His glory days consisted of traveling everywhere. He loved to visit the different kingdoms in his realm. Arthur would always host extravagant banquets, and feasts. He would go hunting and enjoy other sporting games as well. Arthur’s favorite kingdoms were Wales, Glamorgan, and Caerleon.

During the Christmas season Arthur would travel to Carlisle and host a Christmas feast that would last for 10 days and it was at the round table. While the feast and festivities were going on Arthur would tell the Dukes and Lords how it was and what they could do if they didn’t agree with him. Almost always the greater of them majority sided with Arthur on whatever he said. They knew that as quickly as they came into their new titles they could have them stripped if they dared to oppose Arthur.

So New Year’s Day comes around, and Arthur is throwing a party to celebrate it. His party gets crashed by some messenger that is escorted by sixteen knights. The messenger announced that he was from Rome and he had a message for Arthur. The message was basically a summons saying that Arthur was being sued for the lands he and his knights conquered, which the Roman Emperor claims that each of those conquered lands owes something to the emperor’s ancestors. The point of this whole message is that the emperor wants Arthur to make a payment to the Roman Empire. An he also says that if Arthur does not comply with this, then he will be hunted til the ends of the earth and will die.

Arthur is fuming by this point and is acting like he’s going kill each and every single one of the knights that are with the messenger. He is completely outraged by this and was just like getting closer to the knights and messenger. The knights then decided to beg and plead for their lives like the little cowards they are. They knew that Arthur could kill them in an instant. They were basically saying, “Don’t shoot the messengers! The emperor made us do it! We didn’t even want to come on this errand! All of us are slaves to the emperor. Arthur makes them shut up but only to be interrupted by the messenger. The messenger just wanted to egg it on just to see how much he could taunt and torment Arthur.

The whole point of this tells of how Arthur began his journey to the road that lead to his eminent demise. It’s just the beginning of it. It’s nothing more and nothing less than that. The whole book is one long epic poem.