
Le Morte d'Arthur
The Death of Arthur
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $62.40
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Bill Homewood
Of all the legends of Western civilization, perhaps the glorious adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are the best known. The Quest for the Holy Grail, and the undying illicit love between Sir Launcelot and Queen Guenevere, have provided inspiration for storytellers and poets down the ages, and sparked so many films and books of our own time.
Fifteenth century knight Sir Thomas Malory penned the book with relish, packing his story with tales of heroism, treachery and revenge, noble suitors, beautiful princesses, dragons, sorcerers, giants, and bloody deeds of derring-do on and off the jousting field.
Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2020 Naxos AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...




















People who viewed this also viewed...


















Bill Homewood's voice is great, as is his narrative interpretation. I chose this audiobook over the one narrated by Chris MacDonnell based on the voice samples, and though I couldn't say how well MacDonnell does over the whole audiobook, I can say that I am pleased I chose the version narrated by Homewood. In particular I'm enjoying how Homewood handles some of the more repetitive phrases: Malory often has his characters speak to each other by starting out with "'Sir,' said [character], "[proceeds to say something]"; so, for example:
"And when I saw her making such dole, I asked her who slew her lord. Sir, she said, the falsest knight of the world now living, and he is the most villain that ever man heard speak of and his name is Sir Breuse Saunce Pité."
(Malory doesn't have quotation marks.) Homewood's long "Siiiir," often particularly gravelly for "ancient knights" and older people like Merlin, is a lot of fun, as is when the "sir" gets more of an accent when Homewood is doing the voice of a peasant. And Homewood slows down and emphasizes Malory's formulaic "[something]est [knight/damosel] of the world," especially when that turns out to be true, as when someone is praising Lancelot as the best knight of the world. Then there's the part near the beginning, with the invisible knight Garlon:
"And as they were even afore King Arthur's pavilion, there came one invisible, and smote this knight that went with Balin throughout the body with a spear. Alas, said the knight, I am slain under your conduct with a knight called Garlon; therefore take my horse that is better than yours, and ride to the damosel, and follow the quest that I was in as she will lead you, and revenge my death when ye may."
Homewood makes sure you can tell something different from the norm is going on here just by the way he says "there came one invisible." His "alas" is also pretty good. And when Balin finally kills Garlon:
"And therewith Balin smote him through the body, and said openly, With that truncheon thou hast slain a good knight, and now it sticketh in thy body. And then Balin called unto him his host, saying, Now may ye fetch blood enough to heal your son withal."
Homewood makes that last line absolutely worth it. The past week I've found myself responding to situations by thinking "As for that" in Homewood's voice, since that too is one of Malory's common formulae.
This makes it unfortunate that Homewood very clearly mispronounces at least two names: First there's Beaumains, which he pronounces like "bow-manes," which is pretty grating given the French. I could see pronouncing the N, but not the S as well; both should be silent in the French. Then there's King Anguish of Ireland; somehow, and I have no idea how, Homewood pronounces his name as Agrivance. I had to pull out my copy of Malory and look up who Homewood was talking about. As this king is generally considered to correspond to King Oengus, it might make sense to pronounce Anguish as Angus; Agrivance sounds like he took part of Sir Agravaine's name and then did I don't know what. The rest of the names so far (I'm currently in the middle of the slog that is the Tristram books) he does fine with as far as I can tell, though plenty of them are obscure enough that I might not know the pronunciations myself. He does get Le Cote Male Taile right.
But again, ultimately the rest outweighs the mispronunciations. Homewood does a great job, and though I can't say MacDonnell's version is bad, you will not be disappointed listening to Homewood's.
Great voice and tone, but some mispronunciations
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Best audiobook yet!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fortunately in the case of Thomas Malory you get all that AND a nearly perfect match between Homewood's voice and the story he's narrating. I've listened to three other renditions of Malory, and with one exception I can say that this is the best I've heard, and in fact the best I can imagine hearing. The exception is the recording by Derek Jacobi. There are two problems with Jacobi's reading, though: it's severely abridged, and the audio quality has suffered in the transition from older technology. I would still recommend it if you're not ready to tackle Malory whole and in one piece; but if you want the original straight up, Bill Homewood is your man.
As is (apparently) the case with all audiobooks based on Malory, this uses the Caxton edition rather than the Winchester manuscript; I believe there are still copyright issues involved in the latter that make its superior organization of the narrative off-limits for most audiobook publishers. That's OK. Caxton has at least the advantage of being broken down into short chapters that make it easier to swallow the epic a little bit at a time.
It's a powerful, tragic story. After all its digressions, it finally boils down to a terrible war between Arthur, Gawain, and Lancelot over Guinevere; Lancelot has rescued her from the flames for adultery and has proclaimed her innocence, laying waste to the knights of the round table in the process. But he knows that he's lying. Malory makes clear that Lancelot lay with the Queen by night and by day; Arthur's kingdom is undone by the malice of Agravain and Mordred, but Agravain and Mordred are telling the truth, and it is Lancelot and Guinevere who have actually betrayed the king. It's an awful story, all the more awful because it is so simple and so human and so inevitable.
Now, having praised Homewood for doing Malory whole, I'll come down on Malory for one thing. He makes such a terrible mess of the Tristan and Isolde story (known as Tristram and Isoude in his account) that no one will blame you, and you will truly miss nothing of significance, if you skip Books 8, 9, and 10 in their entirety. Get the story of those two lovers somewhere else. Malory doesn't even show you how it ends anyway.
Malory loses control of his story at times, but boy does he bring it in for a landing at the end. Bill Homewood never loses control of HIS take on the narrative, and when the story comes to its powerful, almost unbearable conclusion, he’s right there with it — and us.
Brilliant and powerful
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Tedious
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great in every way, except too much bass in the narrator’s voice
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.