In a 2011 visit to Warwick Castle – home to the Beauchamp earls who loomed large in Malory’s formative years and then to Richard Neville, the 16th Earl of Warwick, known by the moniker ‘Kingmaker’ because of his role in the civil wars that dominated Malory’s later life – I saw ‘The Mighty Trebuchet,’ heralded on the castle website as ‘the largest working siege machine IN THE WORLD!’The site goes on to exclaim, ‘The colossal catapult is an authentic recreation of one of the biggest and most deadly military machines of all time.’ I cannot verify the first claim, as I am no expert in medieval weapon re-enactment, though I will say it was big.The second claim seems patently false, even in the era of the ‘alternative fact.’ The massive death tolls caused by bombs in the last century tragically dwarf the abilities of the trebuchet and other siege engines. But it is not just the numbers of casualties that separate modern and medieval weaponry. Today’s high-tech weapons (such as drones, long-range missiles, airplanes) and military tactics (midnight raids and air strikes, for example) allow much more physical distance – and potentially psychological distance, too – than even the most powerful of medieval siege engines could afford. Malory’s Morte Darthur, written in a time of war and changing military tactics, examines the personal side of confrontations staged in and around castles. The proximity of combatants in the wars that close the Morte and the heightened attention to the castle invite a look at the effect of space on war and that of war on space. Wars include not just combat itself, but also communication in the form of both letters and conversations. We see allies huddle together and opponents negotiate from opposite sides of sieges. These battles thus play out as personal conflicts shaped by and trying to shape the spaces where they happen. Lynch argues that ‘[f]ights provide … the major places in Malory.’He further notes the use of combat to map the narrative. I find this especially relevant as the Morte moves back into full-scale war toward its end.