This volume constitutes a search for the identity of Malory, author of the Morte Darthur. Field considers all arguments and gives an account of the life of the man identified, setting him in his historical context.

Malory's Morte Darthur text, history and reception -- expertly appraised by international scholars.

This study of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur centres on its main narrative interest, armed combat. The description of knightly combat, with its complex thematic affinities, is seen as Malory's chief expressive medium. In the analysis of the discourse of fighting, some repeated descriptive preoccupations - to do with name, vision, blood, emotion and gesture - are treated as 'needs of meaning' with relevance for the whole text, and related to political, religious, genealogical, sexual and medical views of Malory's period. The critical discussion thus rests more on these elements of discourse rather than on the broader concepts such as 'chivalry' or 'love' normally applied to Malory.

Studies range over the whole field of Arthurian literature, in Europe and North America, with special focus on Malory and Morte Darthur.