Merlin manuscript
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Good thing somebody in the 13th century was into reuse.
Afragile 13th century manuscript fragment, hidden in plain sight as the binding of a 16th-century archival register, has been discovered in Cambridge and revealed to contain rare medieval stories of Merlin and King Arthur.
The manuscript, first discovered at Cambridge University Library in 2019, has now been identified as part of the Suite Vulgate du Merlin, a French-language sequel to the legend of King Arthur. The story was part of the Lancelot-Grail cycle, a medieval best seller but few now remain.
There are less than 40 surviving manuscripts of the Suite Vulgate du Merlin, with each one unique since they were individually handwritten by medieval scribes. This latest discovery has been identified as having been written between 1275 and 1315.
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Everyone at NU had to take a couple of freshman English classes. One of the ones I took was titled "Arthurian Legends". The only book I remember was Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory.
One of the first books printed in England, by William Caxton in 1485, Le Morte d’Arthur is a vast prose retelling of the story of King Arthur and the Round Table.
Precisely who ‘Sir Thomas Malory’ was is unknown for sure, but the most likely candidate is the Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel, Warwickshire, who may have been a knight but didn’t exactly live up to the chivalric ideal espoused in his work: he was a career criminal who ended up in prison several times, notably during the Wars of the Roses; he’s thought to have written his classic and hugely influential work of Arthurian literature while in Newgate Prison.
Although the style is occasionally repetitive and the pacing occasionally leaves something to be desired, Malory’s achievement should be viewed as less a ‘novel’ in the modern sense and more a patchwork anthology of the different Arthurian legends and stories. And his book would go on to have a considerable influence on later writers. The recommended edition below is based on the Winchester Manchester, recovered in the twentieth century.
Well that, and the Disney movie The Sword in the Stone, ,which I saw when I was maybe 10.
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History Hit, one of my favorite youtube channels, recently did another in their "answers the most asked questions" series on King Arthur. Very interesting.
Link to video
