It seems a very long time since I stood on the peak of the castle of Tintagel.
Have you ever been there? It’s no accident that this great ruined fortress was used as a backdrop to so many tales, whatever its true provenance. At a time when buildings were small squat things,this castle topped the cliffs, riding them rampant over the wild breakers of the Cornish sea.
It’s on an island still umbilically tied to its motherland by a strip of rock. The only way up is across a thin bridge and up steep slippery slate steps which cling to the side of the natural outcrop.
The Cornish gale rips your breath out of you, up there with the kites and the buzzards, where the natural slate floor has paved the way for the legends of King Arthur.
There’s battlement walls and underground passages, and what was once a chapel on the plateau. Those old romantics of the nineteenth century must have adored it. I can just see Tennyson framing his Arthurian thoughts with such wild, anarchic architecture growing straight up out of a cliff.
These tales come from way back when men wore suits made of metal and temptresses were temptresses.
It’s hard for a bloke to find a publisher in any age, especially with a prison record. While there are four Thomas Malorys to choose from- a Welsh poet, a couple of brigand members of parliament and a Yorkshireman- it seems to be accepted that whoever the real Malory was would have cobbled it together, translating and collating, from French romances of the thirteenth century, quite possibly while behind bars.
Undeniably it is compelling stuff. What luck, then, to be discovered by the first English publisher, or rather, he who introduced the country’s first printing press: William Caxton.
Proofs and revisions have always been a painful part of dealing with your publisher. And so it was that Malory’s catchy title, The hoole booke of kyng Arthur & of his noble knyghtes of the rounde table, was unceremoniously shortened to the name of the last chapter of the book: Mort D’Arthur. The death of Arthur.
And if that’s not a sexy title, I don’t know what is.
In 1485 the stories which have since rocked a world were published, with some success. All subsequent editions were based on Caxton’s. These were what inspired the nineteenth century fascination: the Lady of Shalott came from Malory, through a glass dimly: for he used Caxton’s glass to reach the world.
But a chance find changed all that.
Imagine, then, the ancient and hallowed bookshelves of one of the most ancient libraries of the world: Winchester College’s library.
Ah, such a gorgeous collection. One of its earliest bequests: a life of Thomas Becket by William of Canterbury dating from the 1380s. Floor to ceiling priceless works, utterly irreplaceable. Many of the books have lived in one place for centuries.
In the Summer months of 1934 a great cataloging was carried out. Each book taken, recorded, ordered.
It was a prominent headmaster who found it. How must it have been for Walter Oakeshott to be sorting through volumes and stumble on one which was so familiar, and yet utterly alien?
He wrote about it in ‘The Finding of the Manuscript,”(Essays on Malory, J. A. W. Bennett, ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1963). It created a storm. T.E. Lawrence, a lover of Morte D’Arthur, is reputed to have jumped on his motorcycle in Manchester and followed Malory scholar Eugene Vinaver all the way to Winchester, the moment he read of the discovery in The Times.
The manuscript was a momentous find. Because while it as not the original by any means, it seems to have been taken from a source common to Caxton’s one, but earlier. And it shows, quite clearly, that the printer made many changes to Malory’s work.
A story goes that tiny, microscopic marks on the pages of this tome indicated it had been present in Caxton’s very print room.
It’s now known as The Winchester Manuscript. It is acknowledged as being closer to the way Malory write it: and the revisions are many. It is not divided in the same way into chapters and sections: and Vinaver has argued this was not submitted to Caxton as one book, but as a collection of freestanding stories.
It’s a cautionary tale: watch your publisher with eyes like a hawk. Many a slip can happen twixt manuscript and blockbuster.
Of course, it could be argued that Caxton did a better job: that he had a nose for what the punters liked, and could sell books to a successful formula.
Maybe we should welcome all those revisions, if what they do is shift the books from the shelves.
Manuscript source here
Kate Shrewsday 
Wow, what a find! A manuscript used as a basis for so many different versions of the legendary King Arthur and his knights of the round table. Prominent headmaster, Walter Oakeshott, who found it, must have had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming… Very interesting post, Kate.
Thanks Denise: the story of Mort D’Arthur deserves a novel. Or rather, a fresh novel – it has inspired writers for a very long time 🙂
Makes me rather sad for the Kindle age. What great works will be lost forever when we run out of electricity?
Tilly, by that time we will have invented a simple generator which uses the dog running on it for power. I cannot do without the new cyberworld I have discovered. Meanwhile, to console us both (it does not one jot solve your problem) there is always the British library collection of digitised manuscripts to browse: http://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm
So? What are you waiting for? (the novel, I mean) 🙂
Really interesting post (again!). I’ve always wanted to go to Tintagel… *sigh*
Earlybird, I must leave that novel to you. It is all I can do to fit in a post a day in among the school drop offs and the doggie walks and the tune fish bake for tea….
Wonderful! How I would love to go to Tintagel, though, can’t imagine slipping and sliding on those slate steps. The Winchester College library – oh my. I would be lost for days in all lit seems to hold. This was such and interesting post, Kate. Thank you.
You would be in heaven at the Winchester Library, Penny, I feel sure. Another place to put on the list if you make it to our shores…(Bags I come too)
I second Earlybird’s question about the novel. 🙂
I am dying to visit that whole part of England. Your blog does not help with my longings. 🙂
It pains me to admit that I read almost exclusively on my iPad now, largely because it is so convenient. (On trips, I used to make MTM pack three library books, lest I run out of reading material while away. Heavy.) Books like this one are so precious. It pains me to think we are going to lose them all someday.
The library has lasted almost 700 years: it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. And meanwhile digitised manuscripts are our to peruse without climate control and special gloves. I’m repeating the link with which I replied to Tilly: everyone should have the address of these. A delight 🙂 http://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm
Wow. Thank you. I will go back to this for days and days. It is a gold mine for a weird American who likes to read English history and greater European history.
It is interesting how some of the family trees resemble highly decorated modern flow charts.
It is 😀 We get very over-excited about genealogy….
Yes, thank you… 🙂
I think we can all cringe a bit at what “finds” are lost to inattention, but when something this marvelous is preserved, we do celebrate. I have collected signed first editions for a long time, with love, and have recently wondered who will one day care for them? Not sure I can answer that, but there may always be an elite band of fine book preservationists. I hope that is true. Once again, your informative musings give my day a welcoming beginning. Debra
One thing is for sure: there will always be book collectors who love books. I think Orwell was very close to why we love them so in 1984 when he described the notebook he bought and wrote on. It’s a seductive description which has us longing for its creamy pages. Tactile, a visual feast and eternal: books are always going to have a place in our heart, I firmly believe.
Fascinating post. I am a lover of Arthurian legend. My favorite book is: The Once and Future King, by T. H. White. Favorite play: Camelot. Favorite screen adaptation: Camelot, with Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave. Wrote an essay for my final in a class on Shakespeare comparing Henry V to Arthur. There is just something about this legend that stirs the heart and the imagination. Wonderful to find that there’s such mystery surrounding the writing of it.
I adore TH White: he was one of my teenage obsessions. Good to meet a fellow admirer 🙂
I take note of your warning.
(In fact I have had a problem with this once… a story I wrote was published with altered italics and a little punctuation change. Boy was I cross. It would have been ok if it had been corrections of my errors, but it was a foible of the publisher! Good to know this has been going on since time immemorial… well since the printing process began 🙂 )
People sometimes just think they know better when in fact they sometimes don’t….
“Of course, it could be argued that Caxton did a better job: that he had a nose for what the punters liked, and could sell books to a successful formula.”
I know there’s a lot of folk who think this a good thing… To me, it feels like selling out.
Er… this isn’t me but I have heard it argued that if publishers could write, they would. 🙂
I’m torn on this, Ruth, having come from the world of the journalist. I have had my copy subbed for as long as I can remember: that’s how they taught me to write. Even Shakespeare would have got nowhere without bums on seats. But I’m also an art for arts sake advocate. A foot in both camps: torn. But for what it’s worth I might well have listened to Caxton, judging by how long the result has endured.
Wonderful post Kate and thanks for the link 🙂 Tintagel is one of my favourite places in the world and in fact the entire Cornish coast makes my heart beat just a little bit faster!
It does that to everyone 🙂 It’s untamed. It has a dark history of pirates and legend which stretches back to prehistory. Next time you go, drop me a line, won’t you, Bandsmoke? I’d love to stand on a Cornish cliff in a sea wind and swap stories.
Does Merlin figure in the tale, Morte D’Arthur?
Merlin appealed to me far more than kyng Arthur & his noble knyghtes of the rounde table.
Yes, Merlin’s there. A colourful character…
Beware the editor’s red pen! Was Caxton really aware of the reader’s needs – or was he constrained by the number of pages or the cost of the ink?
Who knows? But these days it is sometimes these criteria that are considered. This is a really interesting post, thank you.
You’re welcome: editors come in all shapes and sizes, some great, some dodgy. If I ever publish I must make sure I find a good one…
Have been reading Jack Whyte’s Camulod Chronicles novels. Post Roman Britain era I enjoy studying.
Must check him out, Carl….
I will read this Kate, I am certain it will be a wonderful endeavor of boundless study and intrigue just from what little I did read… Just wanted to thank you for your comment on my recent post, which, apparently someone found the writer of to be an intriguer of his country… as at precisely 9 A.M. the following day, ( Yesterday morning )some program hop – scotched over my Max Security program, and shut my “Windows” , so I had no chance of reconfiguring the hard drive obliteration bug they sent me…Imagine that… seems it just doesn’t pay to chide the “Um Hum ” department…as this is my 3rd new computer this year….But, after all my frustrations…imagine my elation’s… I’m back on line…only to find that this last post… was my 2nd most popular viewed … Ever!!! Bless You
paul
Fantastic news, paul! Sorry to hear about all those technical problems….
It always amazes me that ancient manuscripts ever survive in what is basically a damp climate. How did they do it before central heating and dehumidifiers?
have absolutely no idea, Tooty! I must have a go at finding out….
I have no doubt that you’ll succeed.