Love's Wasteland

This chapter explores how Sir Thomas Malory’s prose romance The Death of Arthur (1485) reimagines the Arthurian tradition, shifting away from the intense, poetic portrayals of love found in earlier medieval works. Unlike Chrétien de Troyes or Gottfried von Straßburg, who imbued their romances with a sense of urgency and drama, Malory presents love more matter-of-factly, frequently overshadowed by jousts, battles, and issues of honour. While the liaisons of Lancelot/Guinevere and Tristram/Isolde remain central, Malory treats them with a detached, almost chronicle-like style, and ultimately subordinates earthly passion to religious devotion, largely focussed on the legendary quest for the Holy Grail. By the end of the tale, love outside marriage is marked as sinful, and the exposure of Lancelot and Guinevere’s affair catalyses the downfall of the chivalric world.