The standard edition of Malory’s Morte Darthur is The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, ed., Eugéne Vinaver in three volumes (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1947; reprinted with corrections 1948). This is not Caxton’s famous text, but another (much closer to Malory’s original) which was discovered in 1934. The spelling of names in this text, as in Caxton’s, is inconsistent; and in some cases it is doubtful that the scribe used the right name at all. It may be that the manuscript which reached the scribe was confused, incomplete, or in bad repair, and lie simply did what he could with it, or it may be that Malory himself allowed inconsistencies to creep in.
This volume of Cliffs Notes is based on Vinaver’s edition. The spelling of names used here is based, generally, on the more common spellings in Vinaver, but sometimes on what has become standard critical practice. As for the title of Malory’s book, the Notes follow the practice which has become normal in recent criticism rather than the earlier standard, Morte d’Arthur, or Vinaver’s very general title (based on his belief that the tales were not unified), The Works of Sir Thomas Malory. Titles used here for the eight main sections and for divisions within some of these sections are adapted from Vinaver but are shortened and simplified. For instance, Vinaver’s title for Section VI, “The Tale of the Sankgreal Briefly Drawn Out of French, Which Is a Tale Chronicled for One of the Truest and One of the Holiest That Is in This World” is reduced here to “The Holy Grail.”
