Book I, in which Arthur is conceived, born, raised, crowned, fights a war with Team Lot & Mister 100, encounters his first continuity error, gets Excalibur, and meets that jackass King Pellinore.
Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 and 6 7 8 8 (continued) and 9 10 10 (continued) and 11 12 and 13 14 15 16 and 17 17 (continued) 18 19 and 20 20 (continued) 21 and 22 23 and 24 24 (continued) and 25 25 (continued) 26 and 27 Conclusion.
Book II opens when a mysterious damosel comes to Arthur’s court for aid, and quickly turns into the tale of Sir Balin, the Idiot Knight. Along the way Merlin prophesies left and right! The dolorous stroke! Lots of Balin being stupid!
Chapters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Conclusion.
Books I and II are available as a single ebook through Amazon here.
Book III is the story of Arthur’s wedding to Guenever, which Arthur is excited about mainly because he finally gets the Round Table. Gawaine and Tor are knighted, and after the wedding they go on their first strange adventures, along with King Pellinore again.
Chapters 1 2 3 3 (continued) and 4 5 6 7 8 8 (continued) 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 My conclusions about it: right here.
Book IV features multiple separate stories: Merlin imprisoned! Morgan le Fay’s vengeance! Gawaine and his buddies on another adventure, including my favorite story in the first five books of Le Morte D’Arthur, the tale of Gawaine & Ettard & Pellas & Nimue. 1 1 continued 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 and 18 18 continued and 19 20 21 22 22 continued 22 concluded and 23 24 25 26 27 28 Conclusions.
Book V is another one with a lot of unity of theme: it’s all about King Arthur beating up the Roman Empire! The way Malory tells the story it reads a lot like the tail end of the European Theater in World War 2, which I point out probably too many times for it to be funny. Anyway, for all that it’s a big event in the Arthurian canon, it’s not the greatest story. Malory gets bored with it and goes off on this tangent about Sir Gawaine, who’s always good for a laugh. 1 2 3 4 5 also 5 6 more 6 7 8 9 10 the rest of 10 and 11 12 Conclusions
Book VI is a long series of only partially connected anecdotes about Sir Launcelot and how awesome he is, set against the backdrop of this year-long sabbatical he took from being Guenever’s boy on the side. 1 2 3 4 and 5 6 and 7 more 7 8 9 10 11 also 11 12 13 14 15 more 15 16 17 18 and conclusions and more conclusions.
Book VII features the tale of Sir Gareth, aka Prettyboy; the Knights of Crayola; Peter the teleporting dwarf; and the Fabulous L Sisters, Linet and Lyonesse! 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 to 9 10 11 12 and 13 14 15 to 19 20 21 to 23 23 to 26 26 to 30 31 to 35 and conclusions
Book VIII covers the early life of Sir Tristram! It’s like a whole separate little incomprehensible series of events, tucked away inside the larger incomprehensible series of events describing the life and death of Arthur. 1 2 3 and 4 5 and 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 and 18 19 20 21 22 and 23 24 25 26 and 27 28 and 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 and conclusions
Book IX continues the tale of Sir Tristram, such as it is. It’s pretty all over the place. 1 2 3 4 5 6 and 7 8 and 9 10 and 11 12 13 and 14 15 16 17 18 19 and 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 through 31 32 33 through 35 36 36 continued 37 38 38 continued 39 40 40 continued 41 41 continued 42 43 conclusions
Book X? More Tristram.
Last edited 3 May 2013. Someday this page will be nicer than it is now, a real table of contents. It’s not that now, though.