- Michael Smith
An epic poem of the fall of kings, vibrantly translated and stunningly illustrated with linocut prints by the author of Unbound’s Sir Gawain
King Arthur’s Death (commonly referred to as the Alliterative Morte Arthure) is a Middle English poem that was written in the north of England at the end of the fourteenth century. A source work for Malory’s later Morte d’Arthur, it is an epic tale which documents the horrors of war, the loneliness of kingship and the terrible price paid for arrogance.
This magnificent poem tells of the arrival of emissaries from Imperial Rome demanding that Arthur pays his dues as a subject. It is Arthur’s refusal to accept these demands, and the premise of foreign domination, which leads him on a quest to confront his foes and challenge them for command his lands.
Yet his venture is not without cost. His decision to leave Mordred at home to watch over his realm and guard Guinevere, his queen, proves to be a costly one. Though Arthur defeats the Romans, events in Britain draw him back where he must now face Mordred for control of his kingdom – a conflict ultimately fatal to the pair of them.
Combining heroic action, a probing insight into human frailty and a great attention to contemporary detail, King Arthur’s Death is not only a lesson in effective kingship, it is also an astonishing mirror on our own times, highlighting the folly of letting stubborn dogma drive political decisions.
Chivalry exposed by the horrors of war
The Unbound community will already be familiar with my translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (now published). Like Gawain, it tells its readers much more than appears at first glance…
Whereas Gawain focuses on themes of religion, duty and chivalric behaviour, Arthur concentrates on the frailty of kingship, the depravity of men and the marital duties of knighthood.
Combining pace, grip and passion, King Arthur’s Death has epic scale and sweeping scope. Yet, it does not dwell on the courtly love and mythical angles so typical of the French romances of the period. Instead, by contrasting courtly politesse with the brutal horrors of war, it highlights the delusional vanity of the chivalric ideal and the terrible impact of poor decisions.
Indeed, King Arthur’s Death is almost an antithesis of the Arthurian romance, boldly written and with a profound anti-war message hidden amongst its sweeping narrative. It is as if the poet himself is weary of the Hundred Years War, the backdrop to his life and times, and is calling on princes to show greater judgement and compassion for their people.Help King Arthur’s Death be told anew!
As with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, my approach to translation centres on re-casting the words of the original in such a way that if the poet came back today the language, flow, alliteration and metre would all be relevant to him. Yet it must also have flow and relevance to the modern reader.
As with Gawain, the book will not only be accessible, but will also examine why King Arthur’s Death was written and what it aimed to achieve. It is a translation, but also an interpretation, pointing the reader to new areas of learning and different thinking of what lies behind story and myth.
Again, it will be illustrated throughout; containing a wide range of linocut prints featuring scenes from the poem and also, in the introduction and notes, pen-and-ink drawings based on contemporary manuscripts. As before, all of these will draw on extensive research and have been reproduced in the style of the fourteenth century.
Readers of Gawain will know that I aim to remain true to the original form of the poem. My focus will be on capturing its pace and punch and brevity of form which, I hope, will bring alive this magnificent poem once again. A poem which many have claimed to be the poem which inspired Malory.
King Arthur’s Death can only happen with your help. Please do pledge for this brand new, illustrated translation of this epic poem and let its voice speak to us again!
In these changing times, its message demands to be heard anew.
Michael Smith comes from Cheshire and read history at the University of York, specialising in English and European mediaeval history. In later years, he studied as a printmaker at the Curwen Print Study Centre near Cambridge. His first book, a translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, publishes in July 2018 from Unbound. You can find out more about his mediaeval-themed art and printmaking at www.mythicalbritain.co.uk.
Excerpt 1: Sir Cador battles with the King of Lybia.
This scene gives a flavour of the poet’s great pace but also of his understanding of the speed of battle and the tactics of warfare in the fourteenth century:
Then Sir Cador the keen as becomes a true knight,
Cries out “A Cornwall!” and fewters his lance,
And strikes straight through the battle on a great steed;
Many strong men he struck by his strength alone.
When his spear was snapped he eagerly sprung
And swept out his sword which never failed him,
That cut swathes most wide and wounded great knights,
And he works in this way to anguish their flanks
And hews at the hardiest halving their necks asunder
Such that all blends with blood where so his horse barges!
Many nobles that lord did bludgeon to death,
He topples down tyrants and empties their saddles,
Then turns from his toils when he thought the time right!
Then the Lybian king cries full loud
At Sir Cador the keen with cruel words:
“You have won worship and wounded knights;
You act for your boldness like the world is your own -
I am right here and waiting sir, by my word;
Hold yourself fore-warned you had better beware!”
With cornet and clarion many new-made knights
Listened out for the cry, casting lance to the fewter,
Forged forth on their foe on steeds like iron
And felled as they first came full fifty at once;
Shot through the schiltrons and shattered lances,
Laid down in a pile great noble lords,
And thus nobly our new men use all their strengths!
But new nonsense is here that saddens me greatly:
That king of Lybia takes a steed that he liked
And acts most lordly with silver-lioned shield,
Surrounds the melee and piles in amongst it;
Many lords with his lance their lives he steals!
Thus he chases the child-knights of the king’s chamber
And kills in the fields those most chivalrous knights;
With a spear for the chase he chops down many!
Making good progress with King Arthur - an update from the author
Wednesday, 20 February 2019

It's been nearly a year since I began work on translating King Arthur's Death so I wanted to send you a brief update on how the book is progressing and give you an idea of what you can look forward to when it is finally published. Unlike my translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, I did not begin the crowdfunding with the manuscript ready - I started completely from scratch. No words, no…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
Making a four colour linocut print of King Arthur and Excalibur
Wednesday, 6 February 2019

It has taken me a while but I have at last managed to produce a four colour linocut print of King Arthur wielding Excalibur, which I wanted to offer as a pledge option for supporters of my translation of King Arthur's Death. This article takes you through the process, which in total took between 7 and 10 solid days of hard work...
The basis of my research.
King Arthur's Death, or the…
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The incredibly moving lament of King Arthur for his dead knights
Thursday, 17 January 2019

Towards the end of the Alliterative Morte Arthure, the fourteenth century poem I am translating and illustrating for Unbound, we finally arrive at the moment where Arthur fights with, and defeats, the odious traitor Mordred. Here, seriously wounded and on the verge of death, King Arthur makes a speech so powerful and haunting it is spine-tingling to hear it even now, 600 years after it was first written…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
Some lovely new linocut prints featuring animals and birds
Thursday, 10 January 2019

I've recently taken a short break from my printmaking work for King Arthur and have been producing a small range of prints featuring animals and birds from mediaeval bestiaries. I'm so pleased with them I thought I would offer a small selection of them as pledge options for supporters of my King Arthur translation. Let me tell you more about them and how they were made...
Bestiaries in the…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
Merlin and the Legend of Dinas Emrys - Arthurian mythology in the heart of North Wales
Wednesday, 2 January 2019

Britain is a land of myth and legend, at the centre of which the stories of King Arthur are amongst the most renowned. At Dinas Emrys in the mountains of North Wales, history and myth combine in a potent mixture to deliver one of the most important sites in the Arthurian canon.
Here, in this lonely, rain-sodden place, the British king Vortigern was told by the boy Merlin of two fighting dragons…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
King Arthur's Round Table Celebrates Christmas - but then, strangers arrive...
Wednesday, 19 December 2018

In the English literary tradition of the Middle Ages, Christmas is a time of huge significance and symbolism. With King Arthur’s Death, as with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the warmth of the holiday period is beautifully conveyed; a time when lordly households drew in on themselves in the midst of winter, and maybe hear of strange tales and magical stories…
Following an introduction to the…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
A film showing the printmaking process for my translation of King Arthur's Death
Wednesday, 28 November 2018

As well as being an historian, I am also a printmaker. The combination of both these areas comes to play in my forthcoming translation of King Arthur's Death (as indeed it did in my translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, also via Unbound, published July 2018), for which I am producing at least 32 linocut prints. In this brief update, I provide a short film showing how I print the linocut…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
Remembrance Day 2018 - a Personal Dedication for King Arthur
Wednesday, 7 November 2018

As Remembrance Day beckons on 11th November, 100 years after the end of the WW1, the war to end all wars, I am reminded of a trip I made a few years back in search of the graves of two of my great-uncles. Like all such quests, there is a sense of loss, futility and deep sorrow for those who sacrificed their lives in a manner so depraved and cruel that even now it beggars belief that leaders could…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
The stunning alliteration in King Arthur's Death
Friday, 2 November 2018

The Alliterative Morte Arthure is a masterpiece of fourteenth century regional English poetry. It has pace, it has vim, it has detail, it has message. Above all it has a poetic delivery which makes it stand high as one of the finest works of literature from those dark days of the Hundred Years War. Its delivery is exemplified by its chosen form: the steady percussion of its alliteration.
The…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
Secrets of King Arthur's Death revealed by the Battle of Agincourt
Sunday, 21 October 2018

Historians of military tactics in the Hundred Years War have long dwelled on the use of the longbow in battles such as Agincourt, Crecy and Poitiers and how archers were organised to best effect on the battlefield. The use of the term herce by the chronicler Froissart to describe the configuration of blocks of archers in relation to individual "battles" of knights in the English armies has been…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
How King Arthur's Death reveals the methods and horrors of mediaeval siege warfare
Sunday, 7 October 2018

In King Arthur's Death, when the king besieges the city of Metz, we are given a detailed insight into the ways in which sieges were fought in this period. What this reveals, as do other elements of the poem, is that its anonymous fourteenth century writer had detailed knowledge of military matters. We are left tantalised as to who the poet really was, and to whom he was connected.
The options…
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Heraldry in King Arthur's Death
Friday, 21 September 2018

One of the fascinating features in the Alliterative Morte Arthure (King Arthur's Death) is its detailed reflection of fourteenth century English politics, culture and, of course, warfare. This is particularly the case when it comes to the poem's accurate descriptions of the heraldry of Arthur's knights and his foes. But does the heraldry reveal coded secrets of its own - about the people for whom…
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King Arthur - did he let pride get the better of him?
Monday, 10 September 2018

King Arthur's Death is an alliterative poem which at once celebrates the triumphs of King Arthur while also demanding of the reader they address their views of war, ethics and morality. If the first half celebrates the former, the second half is when we are left questioning our own moral compass. At what point does Arthur the King become Arthur the flawed man?
This magnificent poem of 4000…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
King Arthur's Death - was its writer a mediaeval Quentin Tarantino?
Monday, 20 August 2018

King Arthur's Death - the Alliterative Morte Arthure (the AMA) - is a 14th Century poem unlike any other. Its contrast between the banal and the heroic, the violent and the natural, gives this anonymous poet the style of a mediaeval Quentin Tarantino. His work is truly groundbreaking and utterly astonishing...
For me, the appeal of King Arthur's Death is that it is hugely divorced from the…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
The Art of Darkness - printing the illustrations for my translation of King Arthur's Death
Thursday, 9 August 2018

As part of my journey in translating the 14th Century epic, King Arthur's Death (the Alliterative Morte Arthure), a key issue for me has been trying to convey the "gut feel" of this magnficent poem. I have been pulled in a number of directions but now I have arrived at a style which suits my own methodology and fully supports the intended message of this literary masterpiece. Let me tell you a…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
The Poet as Witness? Fourteenth Century Warfare in King Arthur's Death
Wednesday, 25 July 2018

To the untrained eye, the 14th century alliterative poem, King Arthur’s Death might be seen as a simple Arthurian romance. Nothing could be further from the truth. This vibrant, action-packed poem possesses a deep irony - possibly based on the poet’s personal exposure to the brutality of mediaeval warfare - and a detailed knowledge of other poems and sources in the Arthurian canon which he uses…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
King Arthur - what makes a translation truly authentic?
Thursday, 5 July 2018

Recently, I appeared in a discussion at the Bradford Literature Festival with Daniel Hahn discussing my new translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (also published by Unbound). In just one afternoon, I realised that the work I had been involved with for the last five years had suddenly become something - a serious translation. My next project, King Arthur's Death, has taken on a new responsibility…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
This original hand-pulled linocut print of Sir Hugh Calveley could be yours!
Sunday, 24 June 2018

As part of the crowdfunding campaign for my new translation of King Arthur's Death (the fourteenth century Alliterative Morte Arthure written during the reign of either Richard II or Henry IV), I'm pleased to announce a special prize for one lucky pledger for the book!
Once the number of backers reaches 250 (Hardback pledge level or above), everyone who has pledged at those pledge levels will…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
The Accountant as Insult in the Morte Arthure
Monday, 18 June 2018

Being written in England around 1400, King Arthur’s Death sheds a fascinating light on the tactics, techniques and sheer plain talking of the English soldiering class around the time of Agincourt. Whoever wrote this astonishing poem was well-versed in how armies were organised and paid for, and, in so being, he highlights a side of warfare which still haunts us today: financiers don’t like fighters…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
Enter the Dark Side of Chivalry - Meet the other Sir Gawain.
Thursday, 7 June 2018

Battle plays a major part in the vivid writing of the fourteenth century masterpiece which is King Arthur’s Death (the Alliterative Morte Arthure; one of the key sources for Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur). Yet its anonymous poet chooses to tell us a tale not so much of chivalric romance but of the brutal horror of war. This is particularly true when we consider Sir Gawain, a leading character in…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
King Arthur and the Giant of Mont Saint Michel – a gripping mediaeval horror story
Tuesday, 1 May 2018

Above: The Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset - the basis of, or a model for, the predatory rapine giant in King Arthur's Death?
Giants and ogres are a common feature in mediaeval literature and in King Arthur’s Death (the Alliterative Morte Arthure) we are shown one who is surely one of the most gruesome to have been created. How did the poet manage to create such a vile beast, and one who remains…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
Dragons and Dreams – the Uncertainty of Mediaeval Kings
Wednesday, 11 April 2018

When kings in the past were faced with aggression from abroad, how did they react – and why? In the Alliterative Morte Arthure (King Arthur’s Death) we are given significant insights into the diplomacy and thinking of mediaeval kings. It makes for gripping reading, far beyond what we might expect from such a poem.
Mediaeval life was dominated by religion, war and the whim of God. If calamity…
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- Posted on King Arthur's Death by Michael Smith
Sharp eyes and steady hands - Illustrating the Alliterative Morte Arthure
Saturday, 31 March 2018

My new translation of the Alliterative Morte Arthure (King Arthur’s Death) begins a new journey for me: translating a vibrant poem of the late fourteenth century (which, incidentally, has a number of hidden meanings) and illustrating it in pen-and-ink. For this post, I want to show you the process I use in my illustrative work, focusing on an illustration of King Arthur himself.
RESEARCH
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These people are helping to fund King Arthur's Death.















































Michael, would you ever consider producing a set of playing cards? I have supported both of your book projects and thoroughly enjoy your linocut prints. I think they would make a wonderful set of cards. I imagine something like this: A standard deck with Gawain, Guinevere, and Arthur as Jack, Queen, and King; maybe Mordred as Joker. Perhaps with the obverses decorated with heraldic imagery and the reverses with something grand like the bear and dragon of Arthur's dream or the red and white dragons of Merlin's prophesy.
What a great idea Eric - and thank you for your support for my work. I'm sorry it's taken a while to answer your question. I'll have a look at this idea in detail - the costings may be difficult but it's a really good suggestion. Michael