Thomas Malorye
Thomas Malorye (Thomas Malory) is attested in *Le Morte d'Arthur* as the knight who reduced the Arthurian legends into English.
Thomas Malorye (Thomas Malory) is attested in Le Morte d'Arthur as the knight who reduced the Arthurian legends into English. The final passage of the work identifies him directly: "Which book was reduced into English by Sir Thomas Malory, knight," and notes that it was "divided into twenty-one books, chaptered and emprinted, and finished in the abbey, Westminster, the last day of July the year of our Lord MCCCCLXXXV" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI, Chapter XIII). William Caxton's Preface further describes the project of imprinting "a book of the noble histories of the said King Arthur" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Preface of William Caxton).
Both attestations come from the paratextual framing of Le Morte d'Arthur rather than from the narrative itself. The colophon at the work's conclusion provides the clearest identification of Malory as author and knight, while Caxton's Preface establishes the editorial context in which the work was printed. Together they document the transition of the Arthurian material from manuscript to print in 1485.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition