Hi friends and happy Friday! I hope you’re all doing well. I’m back with another classic read! Today I’m posting my reading update thoughts on Le Morte D’Arthur by: Sir Thomas Malory.

The legend of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table is one of the most enduring and influential stories in world literature. Its themes – love, war, religion, treachery and family loyalty – are timeless, as are the reputations of its major characters, Arthur, Merlin, Guenever and Launcelot.
Malory’s Le Morte Darthur is a story of noble knights, colourful tournaments and fateful love, set in a courtly society which is outwardly secure and successful, but in reality torn by dissent and, ultimately, treachery. Originally published in 1485, Malory’s Le Morte Darthur is here presented in modern spelling and is accompanied by an Introduction and helpful Glossary.


Goodreads synopsis

My next classic read is all about King Arthur and the different tales and stories of his adventures. We first learn about his beginnings and how he became King Arthur, which was a nice refresher for me; I’ve never read this, but I’ve seen other various forms of film adaptions of King Arthur. We also see a lot of stories pertaining to the Knights of the Round Table and mostly just the 12 that are constantly mentioned. It’s been a good read so far, although it’s not as engaging as I thought it’d be. We’ll see how it progresses as I’ve only read the first four books out of 21!

I’m a few more books in and it’s really focused on Lancelot and another knight named Beaumains. I’ve been enjoying the stories, but I’m not 100% captivated by them. I don’t really know how to describe it because I know I’m not hating or disliking this, I guess I just expected more from it. The stories, which are chaptered, are really short within each book and so it always feels like things are moving at such a fast pace. It’s what you want in an action/medieval/knight story, but it’s just not sucking me in like I’d want it to. I’m going to keep going because I do plan on finishing it, I just hope I begin to like it more!

The stories have definitely picked up a bit. This last one I just read had me thinking that Sir Tristram was dead and that made me realize how invested I was in this particular character. When you start to see the same characters over and over again, you start to get attached. The last few books have really focused on Sir Tristram, Sir Bleoberis, Sir Lamorak and Sir Palomides just to name a few, and we’re following them on their adventures as save damsels and join Arthur’s round table. Again, not all the stories are the best, but there’s something about this that has me wanting to read more!

There is a lot happening now; I’m definitely in the thick of things… what I’m not exactly loving is all the characters we’re being thrown. It feels like with every new chapter there’s a new knight or king and I’m having such a hard time keeping up with them all. They’re fighting each other for power, glory and women and new men just show up and I’m like wait where did you come from?! It’s been an interesting read; like previous weeks, I’m still not completely sold on this, but I’m also not bored or done with it either. I feel very neutral, but am I liking the reading pace. We’ll see what continues to unfold. 

The storytelling is getting better and I’m enjoying this a lot more. We learn of Sir Lancelot’s son, Galahad, which I had no idea about, so that was a lot of fun to read. Now we’re getting adventures with his son and it’s a fun reading experience. I also liked the introduction of Galahad’s mother Damn Elaine, there’s something about her character that I just really like. It feels like she keeps popping up everywhere and just making her presence known. There have randomly been dragons, too, that I wasn’t prepared for, but liked a lot. I wish we had gotten more; I mean, I still have 9 books to go, so they could make a comeback. I’m excited to keep going and see what’s in store for me next! 

This has gotten more dramatic than it’s ever been. We had a death of a character, won’t spoil who, and that just kinda set off a lot of anger, betrayal and of course jousting and fighting. It’s been very fast-paced because I’ve had to go back and reread things because I’m like wait, what happened?! Still no more dragons though. There’s still time, but I’m kinda becoming doubtful. I have 4 more books, each varying in chapter length from 10 – 30, but I know that I’ll be finishing this up next week. I’ll be sad to let it go, but it’s been a fun ride!

Well, what a way to go out. I assumed it would end in death… but damn! So we got some betrayal and a good fight scene with a very tragic death. And then after that happens, well the book kinda goes out in a whimper. I didn’t hate it, but I also wasn’t expecting it. Like what happens to Lancelot actually really surprised me; I could not have predicted it. And what I also found really interesting, as this book is about King Arthur and his knights at the Round Table, but it also felt like it was also about Sir Lancelot, too. The amount of story we got about him was just as much, if at times more so than Arthur, and I liked that. It gave a bigger picture to this world and let us explore more. In the end, this was definitely an exciting read and one that I enjoyed; some chapters/books more than others, but it was an overall, well worth read.

 Have you read the Le Morte D’Arthur? Let me know in the comments!