Castles and Space in Malory's Morte Darthur by Molly A. Martin

Abstract

Reviewed by: Castles and Space in Malory's Morte Darthur by Molly A. Martin Marisa Mills Molly A. Martin, Castles and Space in Malory's Morte Darthur (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer 2019) 305 pp., 8 ills. Centuries after its first printing, Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur continues to be a text of monumental influence, both upon Arthurian creators and scholars. T. H. White's The Once and Future King (1958) and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon (1983) both draw influence from Malory's text, as did the muchlauded film Excalibur (1981). Even contemporary Arthurian re-imaginings such as Kiersten White's The Guinevere Deception (2019) still turn to Malory specifically for influence. Malory's text also proves still popular with Arthurian scholars, and despite a significant amount of criticism, Molly A. Martin's Castles and Space in Malory's Morte Darthur finds an unexplored avenue through which to view Malory's text. Martin's Castles and Space is the first monograph to examine Malory's work through the spatial framework of the castles that populate Morte's landscape. Martin's foreword begins with a concise introduction of castle studies and how academics—such as R. Allen Brown and P. A. Faulkner—contribute to a "shift away from the earlier school of castle studies" which primarily considers castles through their "military capabilities of various architectural features" (12). The shift Martin mentions opens discussions of castles as something more than a physical edifice in which one could live and be protected during times of war. Instead, Martin argues that castles serve a variety of functions beyond the concrete, and, in Malory's text, castles embody "a physical, a symbolic, and a social space" which "inflects the behaviors and identities that [the castle] frames" (11). The following chapters in Castles and Space examine how castles play a role in identity and analyze some of the castle's inherent contradictions within Malory's text. The first chapter, "Castles as Political Centers," analyzes how castles work to cement political identity. More specifically, this chapter examines how ownership—or lack thereof—of a castle relates to one's power. The bulk of the chapter focuses on King Arthur's early reign and his establishment of Camelot as his center of power. Arthur's castle "becomes a particularly powerful manifestation of authority as he builds, cements, and expands his empire and his ideological reach" (29). Arthur's castle serves both as a physical place to build his empire from and also as a foundation for a "more community-focused identity" that exhibits the values Arthur wishes for his kingdom and his knighthood to uphold (54). While most of Martin's first chapter examines Arthur's castle, she also considers the significance of other Malorian episodes, such as Uther Pendragon's sneaking into Tyntagil Castle and what this—and his rape of Igrayne—indicate about castles and power. Martin's second chapter, "Castles and Community Identity," explores how spaces within the castle create identity for the community. She examines the Round Table, both as an object given to Arthur as a wedding present from Lodegreauns, Gwenyver's father, and as symbolic of Arthur's knights. Here, the castle's interior serves as the "conjunction of space and communal identity" (63). Camelot is here specifically a space in which community exists. Martin also explores episodes wherein characters—such as Balyn, Gareth, and Launcelot—leave the communal center and venture elsewhere and examines the significance of community existing outside of communal spaces. [End Page 286] "Castles and Ritual," the third chapter, examines the castle as an "intersection of the secular and the sacred" (116). Christian holidays, especially Pentecost, play an integral role in Arthurian literature. It is famously Arthur's custom not to feast on Pentecost until he has witnessed a marvel, and, in Malory specifically, Pentecost is the holiday upon which Arthur's knights make the somewhat obviously named Pentecostal oath, which reiterates the values Arthur's knights are sworn to uphold. A good portion of Martin's third chapter focuses on Pentecost and the events that occur around this holiday, including Arthur's final pulling of the sword from the stone and subsequent acknowledgement of...