These are the words with which David Robson praises the ʹbluntnessʹ and ʹhumilityʹ of Peter Ackroydʹs 2010 adaptation of MaloryʹsMorte Darthur.² Highlighting the fact that he has made ʹno effort to give the narrative a postmodern twistʹ, Robson admires how Ackroyd ʹhas simply condensed Maloryʹs book, stripping out the rambling and repetitive elements that would have little appeal to a modern readershipʹ, and turning Maloryʹs prose into a ʹcontemporary idiomʹ.

Ackroydʹs adaptation of a single prose source in English into a new English prose work may seem tame when compared with the more ambitious adaptations being produced in fourteenth-...

This chapter examines some of the core structural features of the five chronographies in this study with the aim of highlighting common strategies of adaptation and identifying the organisational choices open to late medieval compilers and adaptors of Arthurian material. As discussed in the Introduction, the term ʹcycleʹ may be too prescriptive to provide a helpful basis for discussing structure and genre. In contrast, the word ʹadaptationʹ appositely describes a process that, in the case of these medieval authors, we can assume to have included selecting, sometimes translating, always ordering, usually pruning and frequently re-phrasing earlier Arthurian material. It is...

Apart from the sheer length of Arthurian chronographies, one of the most striking aspects of the works in this study is the diversity of styles and narrative strategies the authors and adaptors deploy. These strategies are to some degree a reflection of the process of adapting sources outlined in Chapter 1. Nonetheless, far from simply being predictable solutions to the wide-ranging stylistic demands of their assorted sources and plotlines, the adaptorsʹ choices of narrative technique and self-presentation clearly reflect a wide range of literary aims and abilities. This chapter will examine the five adaptations in turn and use comparable passages...

One of the things the writers of late Arthurian collections have in common is that they all base their work on an already rich tradition that had blossomed centuries earlier.¹ These writers therefore needed to combine a wide range of source materials from different traditions and in different languages, most notably French and other vernaculars. Given the popularity of Arthurian stories in the thirteenth century, the tales would have been familiar to a large proportion of their audience, making it necessary for later adaptors to remain close to their source material.² As Jane Taylor puts it:

Writer and reader […]...

As established in the previous chapter, the organic ʹrise, prime and declineʹ structure of the core Arthurian narrative invites compilers and re-writers to insert material into the central sections of the established plotline. In doing so, they succeed in incorporating varied material whilst keeping the indispensable narrative elements surrounding the rise and fall of the Arthurian world in place. As a result, it is these central sections that depart most noticeably from the narrative style and structure of earlier sources such as theLancelot–Grailcycle. This is mainly because the introduction of ʹtimelessʹ new adventures into the central parts...

One of the striking differences between the very earliest Arthurian works and their fifteenth-century counterparts is the number and variety of characters that populate Arthurʹs court. Where eleventh-century depictions of the king portray him with a retinue of two or three knights, later descriptions of Camelot contain whole clans of knights, with a wide range of backgrounds and allegiances. Clearly, the introduction of new characters, as well as the interpolation, combination or integration of heroes and storylines from different traditions, is a key method by which Arthurian chronographies were created and expanded. Thus theMortecombines the Vulgate Cycle with...

This study has covered several aspects of late Arthurian chronographies as a group. The central conclusions emerging from the chapters above are:

1. that one of the defining features the chronographies in question share is that of lengthened central sections created by adaptors adding new characters and adventures into the phase of Arthur’s prime.

2. that these central sections are characterised by a ʹtimelessnessʹ resulting from the adaptorsʹ condensation of sources and removal of chronological context and that this timelessness is expressed in different ways by the various adaptors.

3. that Arthurʹs lengthened prime gradually reshapes the plot development of chronographies, reducing the...