The Death of Arthur •

The Death of Arthur

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The Idylls of the King

Or else as if the world were wholly fair,
But that these eyes of men are dense and dim,
And have not power to see it as it is:
Perchance, because we see not to the close;—
For I, being simple, thought to work His will,
And have but stricken with the sword in vain;

Inspired by the reprintings of Le Morte D’Arthur, English Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote twelve poems - each pretty much completely standalone1, but together forming a poetic cycle covering the whole Arthurian story.

Tennyson wrote and published them in several pieces, amending and adjusting the whole to tie together - but in their order in the narrative they are:

Tennyson’s canon - by which I mean specifically the plotline of events - is idiosyncratic and heavily focused on themes and vibes. It would become a pretty dominant standard canon for other authors writing about the legends during the Victorian era, but most of its unique twists have faded back into obscurity in more modern takes.

Aside from the names. As a poet with an ear for what sounds natural/beautiful, and the first really big influence on the genre past spelling standardizations, Tennyson had a major hand codifying Guinevere2, Lancelot3, Iseult4, Gawain5 etc. as the most common spellings6.

Once you get over that they’re poetry, the Idylls are a lot more digestible than earlier canons - and significantly shorter too. I’d probably suggest them as one of the starting points for digging into the canon, and thematically they play a big role in the “canon” I use for the game timeline, though I tend to side back with Malory on technical details.

The Lady of Shalott

There’s another really famous poem Tennyson wrote about Arthurian legend, though - which didn’t get into the Idylls. Arguably it’s his most famous take on the legend - maybe his most famous poem entirely: the 1832 poem The Lady of Shalott.

This tells the story of Lancelot and Elaine of Astolat - which Tennyson here calls Shalott to better fit in the poem’s meter. This is the same story as the Idyll’s Lancelot and Elaine, but The Lady of Shalott takes an even looser hold on matching the older texts7.

The poem introduces an evocative twist to the narrative. Instead of the fairly grounded drama that usually elaborates how Elaine falls in love with and dies in sorrow for Lancelot, Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott seems more out of a fairy tale. She’s stuck in a tower with what seems to be a magical curse that accentuates the terrible tragedy and probably made this rendition resonate so well8.

Footnotes

  1. Though a couple at the end rely a bit on at least thematic connections and the two about Geraint and Enid really depend on being read together (at least in my opinion - but they were even first published as one poem Enid). ↩

  2. Over Guenevere, Guenever, Gwenhwyfar, Guennuvar, Guenievre, Genievre, Gwynnever, Gwenever, Gwenivere, etc. ↩

  3. Over Malory’s more common Launcelot, among others. ↩

  4. Over Isolde, Yseult, Ysolt, Isolt, Isoude, Iseut, Isaut, Isold, and others. ↩

  5. Over Gavain, Gawaine, Gauvain, Gauvan, Gawein, Gaweyn, Gawayn, Gawan, Gauwein, Gauweyn, and many others - not even counting the old Gwalchmai or latin Galvaginus. ↩

  6. There’s still variation, but a lot less variety than before and typically ones that are close to Tennyson’s version (Guenever, Isolde, Gawaine for instance are still decently common), or are intentionally trying to pull an older name.

    I like Tennyson’s names and typically will use them with a few exceptions (I think I probably prefer Gawaine for instance). ↩

  7. And particularly in Morte D’Arthur which forms the frame of the rest of the Idylls but which this is independent of. ↩

  8. It’s also a shorter poem - especially considering it is completely standalone - which may also contribute. I know I first read it in one of those English class collections of major works, which it naturally fits in better. ↩