From the Winchester Manuscripts of Thomas Malory and Other Sources

As the year rolls on and Summer has now turned to Fall, I’m reminded that my Siblings’ Book Club is still roaring, and I’ve only finished 4.5 of the 10 books we’ve selected! We began the year with Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides (2001) followed by Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and Martin Short’s I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend (2014). As far as I can tell, no one in the club made it through Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See (2014), and I’m still only a few chapters into The God of Garden by Andrew Peterson (2021).

As you can see, our selections for this book club are pretty eclectic, and this sixth book by John Steinbeck is no exception. When I first picked it up, I honestly thought that I’d hate it. Medieval times are not my favorite, and stories about knights and ladies had always bored me. I didn’t go into this one optimistically, but in the end, I was glad to have enjoyed its surprisingly lively tales. In fact, I especially appreciated the fact that it’s not a novel in the normal sense but more a collection of novellas.

01 Merlin

The first story, Merlin, is the one which has gained perhaps the most notoriety: the sword in the stone, King Arthur, Merlin, and the rest. The accounts were familiar enough that I could track its plot—though admittedly, there were times (like with the knight in the woods) that I pictured Monty Python’s knights walking through the pages of this story (“Tis but a flesh wound!”) and not the true King Arthur. Still, that made me enjoy it all the more. This was a pleasant 55 pages and the following are some line I particularly enjoyed:

“King Arthur…valued his manhood above his kingship.” (54)

“[King Arthur] said bitterly…’What is a knight without a sword? A nothing—even less than a nothing.’ ‘It is a child speaking,’ said Merlin, ‘not a king and not a knight, but a hurt and angry child, or you would know, my lord, that there is more to a king than a crown, and far more to a knight than a sword.'” (57)

“Somewhere in the world there is defeat for everyone. Some are destroyed by defeat, and some made small and mean by victory. Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory.” (58)

02 The Knight with Two Swords

This one faltered in places, particularly in its pacing, and was perhaps my least favorite of the lot. Trouble follows Balin wherever he goes, and it ends up a dark and miserable tale. The only line I pulled from this story was this: “Sir Balin said, ‘Fair lady, a man’s worth is not in his clothing. Manhood and honor are hidden inside. And sometimes virtues are not known to everyone.'” (67)

03 The Wedding of King Arthur

Another of my least favorite stories. Forgettable, honestly, especially since I took no notes. Again, only this one line stood out to me: “Every man who has ever lived holds tightly to the belief that for him alone the laws of probability are canceled out by love.” (Merlin, 96)

04 Gawain, Ewain, and Marhalt

But then we get to my favorite story of all, the account of three knights seeking adventure! These guys have given themselves a year to travel and knightish things, and on their way through the woods, they meet these three ladies, a mixture of beauty, age, and wisdom. Each knight selects his lady, and off they ride to learn and battle and suffer and grow as fate will lead them. Whether impetuous or patient, superficial or pursuing the long-view, each knight faces the consequences of his choice, and the story as a whole is just filled with life lessons for all. It’s worth an in-depth study itself, so my simple single read-through has nothing really deep to share. Instead, I’ll quote my most favorite lines and move on:

“I have seen too many good men go down, and I never permit myself to forget that one day, through accident or under the charge of a younger, stronger knight, I too will go down.” (Marhalt, 185)

“Do you know what ‘knight’ means? It is and old, old word. It means a servant, and that is well thought out, because who would master must learn his trade by being mastered.” (Lady Lyne, 219)

“‘What a dreadful thought,’ Sir Ewain said. ‘If lowborn men could stand up to those born to rule, religion, government, the whole world would fall to pieces.’ ‘So it would,’ [Lady Lyne] said. ‘So it will.'” (221)

“Patience is also a knightly virtue.” (Lady Lyne, 225)

05 The Noble Tale of Sir Lancelot of the Lake

And finally we come to Sir Lancelot, the most famous knight of all. With the kingdom freed from its enemies, its heroes the knights have grown dull. King Arthur and Queen Guinevere plot a way to bring courage and nobility back to the kingdom through the recalling of the knights in their gleaming armor to battle. Sir Lancelot is just the man for the job, so this story follows his own conquests and battles, rousing the kingdom out of its lethargy and back into a state of action. The ending was weird, but not all that unexpected, since once thing about King Arthurs kingdom was certain: it produced some pretty lusty ladies! Some lines that I loved from this tale:

“Nothing rusts so quickly as an unused sword or an idle soldier.” (247)

“It is one thing to make oneself great but quite another to try to be not small. I think that every man wants to be larger than himself and that he can be only if he is part of something immeasurably larger than himself.” (Guinevere, 250)

“Admiration?—a whole world aches to kiss its backside with slobbering lips.” (Queen Morgan, 284)

“A warlike husband must be always in two places at the same time. In bed he is at war, at war in bed, and thus split he is half a man in either field.” (Sir Lancelot, 314)

“It is a marvel and a mystery how words grow wings and range the countryside, and no one understands the limitless penetration of a whisper.” (329)

This collection of Medieval tales is a hallmark of literature and a classic that truly every man should read. I’m not going to get into the quagmire of translations and interpretations and whether it’s better to read it in ye olde Inglysh or not but suffice it to say that John Steinbeck does a fine job of interpreting and fancying-up the language of this book. It’s an incredibly fine read, and I’m so very glad I stuck with it. My favorite fiction read in the Siblings’ Book Club thus far this year!

©2022 E.T.

Read More from John Steinbeck:

• The Long Valley (1938)
• The Moon is Down (1942)
• The Pearl (1947)
• Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)
• America and Americans (1966)
• The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976)