Alliterative Morte Arthure K.S. WHETTER Acadia University, Canada THOMAS H. CROFTS East Tennessee State, USA he 4346-line Morte Arthure is usually styled “alliterative Morte Arthure” to avoid confu- sion with two other similarly titled English texts, the anonymous stanzaic Morte Arthur, and homas Malory’s prose Morte Darthur. he alliterative Morte Arthure is recognized as one of the inest poetic achievements of the fourteenth-century alliterative revival. he anonymous poet was a gited storyteller learned in his subject-matter, and remarkably well versed in fourteenth-century law, diplo- macy, and martial technique. In addition to its own considerable merits, the poem survives uniquely in the tremendously sig- niicant Lincoln hornton manuscript (c. 1430–40), Lincoln Cathedral Library, MS 91, copied by Robert hornton and called the Lincoln hornton manuscript to diferentiate it from its counterpart, the London hornton manuscript. he poem’s date of composition is usually placed anywhere from 1375 to 1402, though perhaps with much authorial revision over time. he alliterative Morte considerably inluenced homas Malory, and evidence from Malory’s use of the poem in his Morte Darthur reveals that the surviving text is itself a redaction of an even longer work. Although the unknown poet knew the French tradition of Arthurian romance and the French valorization of Lancelot, his pri- mary sources relect a careful selection from the chronicle tradition of Geofrey, Wace, and La amon, augmented with various other he Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain, Edited by Siân Echard and Robert Rouse. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781118396957.wbemlb322 materials deinitively outlined by John Fin- layson (1967) and Mary Hamel (1984). Morte Arthure accordingly opens by highlighting Arthur’s current greatness and recent con- quest of most of western Europe before introducing the Roman challenge to Arthur’s sovereignty, a challenge that is vigorously rebufed. he ensuing foreign wars of Arthur and his warriors, notably Cador, Arthur himself, and Gawayne, are interspersed with adventures more typical of romance, partic- ularly Arthur’s encounter with the cannibal and rapist Giant of St. Michael’s Mount, and Gawayne’s encounter with the pagan knight Pryamus. Defeating Lucius and the Roman army, Arthur embarks on further conquest, dreams of Fortune’s Wheel (a dream whose precise symbolism is unique to this poem; see Matthews 1960, Göller 1981), and is then recalled to England by news of Mordred and Gaynour’s rebellion. he ensuing civil war sees the deaths of Gawayne, of Mordred, and of Arthur, as well as the Arthurian ideal. Launcelot has only a minor role, and not as the queen’s lover; instead, it is Mordred, let in England as regent whilst Arthur and Gawayne lead the warrior-knights to the Continent and Rome, who becomes Gaynour’s traitorous lover. Going against type, however, it is Mor- dred who, moments ater killing Gawayne in battle, delivers one of the most memorable speeches in the poem: a heroic eulogy spoken over Gawayne’s body, a speech that is almost a keening, which the poet has placed appropri- ately near the collapse of the kingdom itself. In broad terms, scholarship of the allitera- tive Morte consistently focuses on four issues: the manuscript context; the poem’s relation to the chronicle tradition; the poem’s relation to Malory; and the poet’s attitude to Arthur. A corollary of the Arthur question is the issue