num_pages: 235
description: Recounting the final days of Arthur, this thirteenth-century French version of the Camelot legend, written by an unknown author, is set in a world of fading chivalric glory. It depicts the Round Table diminished in strength after the Quest for the Holy Grail, and with its integrity threatened by the weakness of Arthur's own knights. Whispers of Queen Guinevere's infidelity with his beloved comrade-at-arms Sir Lancelot profoundly distress the trusting King, leaving him no match for the machinations of the treacherous Sir Mordred. The human tragedy of The Death of King Arthur so impressed Malory that he built his own Arthurian legend on this view of the court - a view that profoundly influenced the English conception of the 'great' King.
language: English
title: The Death of King Arthur
titlecomplete: The Death of King Arthur
characters: Sir Mordred, Sir Lancelot, Queen Guinevere, King Arthur, Sir Gawain
genres: Mythology, France, Historical Fiction, Medieval, Poetry, Literature, Fantasy, Classics, Fiction, Arthurian
ratings_count: 1542
places: Carlisle, Cumbria, England, Logres
series: Lancelot en prose
awards: awardedAt: 1325404800000
name: T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry
publisher: Penguin Classics