“Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of all England.” This series explores the culminating masterpiece of medieval Arthurian literature: Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur (1470). Drawing together the most noteworthy and celebrated threads of earlier versions, Malory tells Arthur’s story from boyhood to death in a narrative sequence that would influence later retellings for centuries, and in striking language that, for many, defines the Arthurian tradition.

Working our way from beginning to end, the series covers all eight books or “tales” of Malory’s text in five modules. In addition to carefully reading the complete work, the series also provides context on Malory’s life and imprisonment during the Wars of the Roses, his book’s first publication in 1485 by English printer and editor William Caxton, and the remarkable twenty-first century discovery of the “Winchester Manuscript,” a now-standard but hitherto-unknown version of Malory’s text by medievalist Eugene Vinaver.