King Arthur's Death: The Alliterative Morte Arthure

King Arthur's Death, commonly referred to as the Alliterative Morte Arthure, is a Middle English poem written in Lincolnshire at the end of the 14th 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.

The poem tells of the arrival of emissaries from Imperial Rome demanding that Arthur pay his dues as a subject. Arthur's refusal leads him on a quest to confront hi...