Sir Thomas Malory

Karen Elaine Smyth (University of East Anglia)

Ed. by Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.02: English Writing and Culture: High and Late Medieval, 1066-1485.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Rory Critten (Université de Lausanne), David Fuller (University of Durham), Natalie Hanna (University of Liverpool), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast), Jamie McKinstry (University of Durham), Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool), Sebastian Sobecki (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

Dates

Born c. 1420
Died 1471
Activity c. 1450-c. 1470

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Genres and Modes

Romance

Activities

Primary

Soldier
Translator
Writer / Author

Other

Priest

Resources

Intrigue, paradoxes and colourful scenarios could be terms employed to describe the compilation by Sir Thomas Malory of the great body of Arthurian legends commonly referred to as Le Morte D'Arthur; but in equal measure the terms can be applied to any attempt to write a biography of the man. Very little of any certainty is known about the author of one of the most popular prose romances of the medieval period. Internal evidence within this masterpiece of imaginative literature indicates he was a knight and a prisoner. He also describes himself as “a servant of Jesu both day and night”, leading some modern biographers to speculate he might have been a priest. The surname appears in various forms including “Mallorie” …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2216 words

Citation: Smyth, Karen Elaine. "Sir Thomas Malory". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 August 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2899, accessed 26 November 2024.]

View recommended reading for this article

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here