The Arthurian Legend Now and Then A Comparative Thesis on Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur and BBC’s Merlin Bachelor Thesis English Language and Culture, Utrecht University Student: Saskia van Beek Student Number: 3953440 Supervisor: Dr. Marcelle Cole Second Reader: Dr. Roselinde Supheert Date of Completion: February 2016 Total Word Count: 6000 Index page Introduction 1 Adaptation Theories 4 Adaptation of Male Characters 7 Adaptation of Female Characters 13 Conclusion 21 Bibliography 23 van Beek 1 Introduction In Britain’s literary history there is one figure who looms largest: Arthur. Many different stories have been written about the quests of the legendary king of Britain and his Knights of the Round Table, and as a result many modern adaptations have been made from varying perspectives. The Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend traces the evolution of the story and begins by asking the question “whether or not there ever was an Arthur, and if so, who, what, where and when.” (Archibald and Putter, 1). The victory over the Anglo-Saxons at Mount Badon in the fifth century was attributed to Arthur by Geoffrey of Monmouth (Monmouth), but according to the sixth century monk Gildas, this victory belonged to Ambrosius Aurelianus, a fifth century Romano-British soldier, and the figure of Arthur was merely inspired by this warrior (Giles). Despite this, more events have been attributed to Arthur and he remains popular to write about to date, and because of that there is scope for analytic and comparative research on all these stories (Archibald and Putter). The legend of Arthur, king of the Britains, flourished with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain (Monmouth). Originally, he wrote the book in Latin around 1136, which is approximately 600 years after the victory over the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Mount Badon. Monmouth claims to have actually translated his story from a historic book, presumably associated with The Mabinogion (Archibald and Putter, xv), written in early Welsh (Monmouth, 11). Monmouth also wrote the Prophecies of Merlin and that story, together with The History of the Kings of Britain, builds the basis for the Arthurian legend as it is known today (Monmouth, 9). The legend as it was written down by Monmouth included Arthur, his father Uther Pendragon, and the old wizardly advisor Merlin. Later versions of the Arthurian legend include characters such as Morgan le Fay, or simply Morgana, Guinevere, Mordred, and Lancelot, together with many other Knights of the Round Table. There was no mention of the van Beek 2 mainstream artefact the Holy Grail in Monmouth’s version either, though Excalibur has always been at Arthur’s side, whether it be with or without magical prowess. The Holy Grail and Lancelot where both introduced by Chrétien de Troyes in his Arthurian Romances (de Troyes). Though not much is known about Chrétien de Troyes, it is agreed upon that he wrote in the second half of the twelfth century in French, and he is primarily known as pioneer in imposing the romance genre on the legend (Troyes). These stories became popular for both leisurely reading and teaching the moral standards of society at that time, which in the medieval time period were the norms and values of Christianity. However, nowadays the story has changed to suit a society where this religious influence has declined (del Rio). Therefore, this research will look into a modern adaptation and compare it to an older one to see how exactly the tale has been influenced by the time period it was written in and what these changes entail. To do this, it is important to look at the factors which are nearly always present, such as the characters, their actions and their relationships. The adaptation of these characters and the events they are involved in reflect the manner of thinking during the time period in which the adaptation was written. This research will use Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur as an older adaptation of the Arthurian Legend to compare to a modern adaptation (Malory). Malory’s story describes the quests and relationships of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, including the love triangle of Lancelot, Guinevere and Arthur. This makes this adaptation a more suitable option than the Arthurian Romances, as Chrétien’s work consists of poems on very specific events (de Troyes). Modern adaptations can take the form of novels, but the more popular ones are movies and series. That is why the most recent media adaptation will be compared to van Beek 3 Malory’s book. The most recent media adaptation is BBC’s series Merlin (BBC). Though these series are based on multiple different sources concerning the Arthurian legend, comparing this to Malory’s work will undoubtedly answer the question of how the approach to the Arthurian Legend has changed between medieval times and present day. This comparative research will focus on the characters, themes and adaptation theories as described by Linda Hutcheon as a basis for comparison. The first chapter will briefly go through relevant adaptation theories. The second chapter will discuss the adaptation of Arthur and Merlin as the major male characters. Then, in the third chapter, the adaptation major female characters, Morgana and Guinevere, will be analysed. The research will end with the conclusion in which the findings will be summarised and the research question will be answered. van Beek 4 Adaptation Theories There are many factors involved when a story is adapted and it is these adaptation theories that this chapter will briefly discuss in the light of the Arthurian stories by Malory and BBC. To do so, A Theory of Adaptation by Linda Hutcheon will be analysed using examples from the two stories. The ‘what’, ‘who’ and ‘why’ of adaptation will be addressed in this chapter. First off, the ‘what’ of adaptation. Linda Hutcheon describes an adaptation as the following: “[A]n adaptation is an announced and extensive transposition of a particular work or works. This ‘transcoding’ can involve a shift of medium (a poem to a film) or genre (an epic to a novel), or a change of frame and therefore context: telling the same story from a different point of view, for instance, can create a manifestly different interpretation.” (Hutcheon, 8) She elaborates on this description by saying that an adaptation is creative and interpretive, and that the adaptation has an extended intertextual engagement with the adapted work. Especially the interpretive part of the definition is important to consider when analysing comparisons. The influence of interpretation can be unveiled when looking at the shifts that Hutcheon described. The shift of point of view in the adaptations of Malory and BBC goes from Arthur to Merlin. The consequences of this are elaborated upon in the next chapter. The shift of medium in this case is from a novel to a series, or as Hutcheon describes it, from telling to showing (Hutcheon). Hutcheon explains that a book may describe gestures, tone, voice or expressions, but in a movie or series these factors are evidently present (Hutcheon, 39). As a result, whenever any of these factors are up to the imagination of the reader, an adaptation will be changed based on the personal interpretation of the adapted work. van Beek 5 A good example can be found when look at the relationship of Merlin and Nineve in Le Morte D’Arthur. Merlin falls in love with Nineve, while he knows due to his powers of prophecy that she will bury him alive (Malory). Nineve does not like him and Merlin only gets her attention when he promises her that he will teach her magic which she eventually uses against him (Malory). Two black and white interpretations of this scenario are that either Merlin is the victim or Nineve. The first interpretation means that Nineve is manipulative and Merlin naïve. The second would make Merlin stubborn and arrogant as he believed he could change Nineve’s opinion while he knew of his future, and Nineve just sought for a way to defend herself. When looking at how this relationship got adapted in BBC’s Merlin it appears a mixture of the two was used. BBC’s Merlin has Nimueh as counterpart for Nineve and in the series it becomes clear that Nimueh has actually helped Uther to get Arthur, not knowing that Igraine’s life would be lost for Arthur’s. Uther banishes magic as a result and Nimueh seeks for revenge during the first season by manipulating the young, unknowing Merlin. Merlin in this case is a victim, but Nimueh is a victim too. This difference in scenario can also be explained by another shift that occurs between the adaptations. This shift concerns who wrote the story. Hutcheon explains that when a story shifts from a solo model to a collaborative model, this will influence the story telling as well (Hutcheon, 80). She writes: “In interactive digital installations and Internet-connected work, a collective model of creation best describes the web of interlinkages that are constantly being reorganized by the various participants both before and during the interaction itself.” (Hutcheon, 80). In Malory’s version, only he writes the story and he is every character. He may be influenced by previous works, but he remains the sole author. However, the BBC series has van Beek 6 four different screenwriters; Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy (BBC). Add the personal interpretations of the producer, the actors, and even the music composer, since it is the music which sets the mood for every scene, and a mixture of different interpretation becomes unavoidable.