Buchara state university m. Bakoeva, E. Muratova, M. Ochilova english literature

with the Norman conquerors. Later in England such poets were 
called minstrels and their art o f composing romances and ballads 
and singing them was called the art o f minstrelsy.
A number o f romances were based on Celtic legends, especially 
those about King Arthur and the knights. The heroes o f these 
romances, unlike the characters of church literature, were human 
beings who loved, hated and suffered. Their worship of fair ladies 
motivated the plots o f the stories.
In the 15,h century Sir Thom as M alory (1395? -1471) 
collected the romances about King Arthur and arranged them in a 
series o f stories in prose, intelligible to any modern render. The 
words in Malory’s sentences have a beauty o f movement, which 
cannot escape unnoticed. The stories began with the birth of Arthur 
and how he became the king, then related all the adventures of 
King Arthur and his noble knights and ended in the death o f these 
knights and o f Arthur himself.
The work was published in 1485 by Caxton, the first English 
printer, at Westminster (London), under the title o f “Sir Thomas 
Malory’s Book o f King Arthur and o f His Noble Knights o f the 
Round Table”. The book was more widely known as “Morte 
d’Arthur” (old French for “Death o f Arthur”).
This epic in twenty-one books reflects the evolution o f feudal 
society, its ideals, beliefs and tragedies. Malory’s romance is the 
most complete English version o f stories about King Arthur.
Supplem ent 
The Medieval Romance
In the medieval period the term “romance” meant a long 
narrative in verse or prose telling o f the adventures o f a hero. 
These stories o f adventure usually include knights, ladies in distress,

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