Le Morte d’Arthur

by Sir Thomas Malory

Le Morte d’Arthur: Flashbacks 1 key example

Book 8
Explanation and Analysis—Tristram's Birth:

Volume 1, Book 8, Chapter 1 opens with a flashback to the time just before Tristram was born, which seems to happen before the events of Book 7:

It was a king that hight Meliodas, and he was lord and king of the country of Liones, and this Meliodas was a likely knight as any was that time living. And by fortune he wedded King Mark’s sister of Cornwall, and she was called Elizabeth, that was called both good and fair.

And at that time King Arthur reigned, and he was whole king of England, Wales, and Scotland, and of many other realms...