The clash of oral-heroic and literate-Ricardian ideals in the alliterative Morte Arthure

Although the conclusions of scholars regarding the poem\u27s meaning in general and the nature of Arthur\u27s character in particular are inconsistent and often contradictory, all research intuitively recognizes within the poem a basic tension between one value system that encourages expansion, concrete action, and externalization and another that encourages contraction, passivity, and internal reflection. I suggest that these opposing forces reflect the fundamentally different structures of consciousness generated by oral and literate conditions, respectively, which were competing for ascendancy in the poet\u27s transitional craft-literate environment. After comparing and contrasting the psychodynamics of orality and literacy and illustrating how they determine the form and content of works of verbal art, I suggest that what John Burrow has called Ricardian norms are evidence of the gradual internalization of literacy. I then demonstrate how the old oral-heroic values, and the more recent literate-Ricardian values interact to shape Arthur\u27s character. I conclude that, despite the intense pressure exerted by literate-Ricardian values, the poetc chose (probably unconsciously) to depict Arthur more as an oral epic hero than as a typical Ricardian protagonist