Malory's Treatment of the Sankgreall

Eugene vinaver, in his 1947 edition of the Winchester manuscript of Malory's Morte Darthur, has this to say generally about Malory's handling of the source for his sixth section, the French Vulgate Cycle La Queste del Saint Graal: “Malory's Tale of the Sankgreall is the least original of his works. Apart from omissions and minor alterations, it is to all intents and purposes a translation of the French. … His attitude [toward the source] may be described without much risk of over-simplification as that of a man to whom the quest of the Grail was primarily an Arthurian adventure and who regarded the intrusion of the Grail upon Arthur's kingdom not as a means of contrasting earthly and divine chivalry and condemning the former, but as an opportunity offered to the Knights of the Round Table to achieve still greater glory in this world.” Thus Vinaver proceeds in his introduction and notes to this “sixth romance” of Malory's to show in detail how Malory “secularizes” the Grail. In spite of these claims, I think it possible to show 1) that Malory's Tale of the Sankgreall is not simply a redaction of the French material, 2) that Malory's changes are far from mere “omissions and minor alterations,” and 3) that Malory's attitude toward his source is not as Vinaver describes it.