Idylls of the King

Based primarily on Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur," Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" is an epic poem comprising twelve loosely connected episodes narrating the adventures and romances of the knights of Camelot. Even in the Victorian era King Arthur had a secure place in the popular imagination, so Tennyson's poem, published in sections over roughly a fifteen-year period, was warmly received. Because it is bookended by dedications to Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, whom Tennyson perhaps viewed as quasi-Arthurian figures just as Virgil exalted Augustus Caesar, it carries the authority of an accepted British cultural document. Tennyson recasts the individual stories of the knights in his own poetic vision, and in some instances invents his own anecdotes or contributes his own details, merging chivalric imagery with post-Romantic lyrical beauty. As an Arthurian medium, Tennyson's verse is much more readable than Malory's cumbersome prose (a forgivable style owing to Malory's time, but difficult to appreciate nowadays unless you have a taste for the archaic). As irresistibly dazzling as a hyperbole like "The wood is nigh as full of thieves as leaves" is, there is much more to the "Idylls" than linguistic elegance. Arthur is nearly a Christ-figure, and his knights are not unlike the apostles: "[F]ollow the Christ, the King,/Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King--/Else, wherefore born?" the idealistic Gareth rhetorically asks his mother just before journeying to Camelot to fulfill his dream of joining the Round Table. Knighthood is a mission in life, a devotion to the service of God and the king (or King, to use the Christian allegory). In the Arthurian milieu, knights represent the highest, most virtuous ideal of mankind, though in practice they occasionally fail, falter, and face moral dilemmas that help to build character. Such conflicts also compel the poem, for an infallible knight hardly makes for interesting reading. To be sent on a quest is not a chore but an honor of which a knight must be deemed worthy by Arthur. Prove yourself inept, and he won't even send you to the McDonald's drive-thru to pick him up a Big Mac. Whether rescuing a lady from a castle guarded by evil knights (Gareth), delivering a diamond as a prize to the winner of a joust (Gawain), searching for the Holy Grail (Galahad), or even properly disposing of the sword Excalibur upon Arthur's death (Bedivere), a knight is expected to obey and succeed. The vicissitudes of love often pose ethical challenges for the knights and provide the most memorable scenes of the poem, as adultery, jealousy, and betrayal set the stage for turbulent drama. The illicit affair of Lancelot and Guinevere, Arthur's wife, the tragic story of Elaine, the peasant girl who pledges her love to Lancelot, the punishment meted out to Tristram by his uncle Mark for the seduction of Isolt, and Pelleas's amorous pursuit of the hellion Ettarre, are the essence of legend.

For Tennyson, the Arthurian legend was an evolving love affair that lasted throughout the poet's life, and the "Idylls of the King" is the ultimate offspring of that enchanted love. Composed of a dozen individual yet interlinked story-poems, the Idylls span the whole of Malory's opus from Arthur's glorious rise to power to his fog-shrouded and mysterious death, "lest one good custom should corrupt the world." But Tennyson humanizes Malory's stories and infuses the whole with an almost Shakespearean aura of tragedy, redefining many of the legendary tales with a new level of gravitas unmatched before or since. The Idylls include:* The Coming of Arthur, introducing the Age of Camelot* Gareth and Lynette, a variation of the popular "Fair Unknown" theme and one of Arhturiana's most beloved stories as well as perhaps the one which most perfectly embodies the golden values of chivalry* The Marriage of Geraint, taken from the works of Chretien De Troyes, who called the titular knight "Erec"* Geraint and Enid, a lovely tale of marital trust* Balin and Balan, one of the grimmest and bloodiest of all Arthurian tales, about the struggle between decency and monstrousness within us all* Merlin and Vivien, the sorcerer's swan song, and the most believable portrayal of the amoral Vivien, too often given a pass by other writers, which I've seen* Lancelot and Elaine, a tale better known as "The Lady of Shalott,"in which Tennyson's love for the magnificent yet benighted Lancelot of the Lake shines through* The Holy Grail, narrated by Sir Percivale, and the most powerful depiction of the Grail Quest there is* Pelleas and Ettarre, one of my favorite Arthurian tales from Malory and elsewhere, though Tennyson's retelling is a major downer that foreshadows the coming collapse of King Arthur's utopia, and features a Sir Pelleas both nobler and darker than Malory's abused but redeemed knight* The Last Tournament, a bleak but serendipitious version of the Tristram (Tristan) saga, and which brings the Pelleas story to an ugly close* Guinevere, focuses on the discovery of her adultery with Lancelot and the ensuing breakup of Camelot, culminating in a heartrending dialogue between King Arthur and his fallen Queen* The Passing of Arthur, the climactic book of the whole saga, in which King Arthur confronts the traitor Modred, strikes with mighty Excalibur one last time, and Sir Bedivere delivers the King's sword up to the Lady of the LakeTaken as a whole, the Idylls are perhaps the greatest artistic achievement in all of Arthurian literature. They are not the whole story however, and in fact Tennyson seems to assume his reader is already intimately familiar with Malory's book, so I would recommend newcomers to the legend do their homework first. The Idylls do have a strong, pervasive Christian backbone, much to Tennyson's credit, which automatically puts his work on a far higher moral plane than Bradley's "Mists of Avalon" and some other contemporary versions of

This lengthy poem about King Arthur's court is written in grand epic style, in the spirit of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Paradise Lost, and drawing on these and other great epics. Tennyson follows many of the traditional epic conventions here--the epic similes, the epic quests, etc. But this work is not wholly an epic, it is rather more of a Romance. The book is divided into various sections, each dealing with a knight (or knights) of King Arthur's court. The adventures they encounter are various and only remotely connected, but there is a back story to each. Something is going on behind the scenes. The first part of the book deals with the rise of Arthur, and of the glory of his kingdom. The second part focuses on the gradual decline of his influence, and culminates with the King's discovery of Lancelot and Guinevere's affair. This is one of my favorite Arthurian romances. Tennyson's verse is beautiful and vivid, and his story is both compelling and easy to follow. No study of English Romanticism would be complete without Tennyson, and this is one of his finest works.

this is the one book I would bring with me. Tennyson's poetry is simple enough to be understood, but challenging enough to stretch your mind. I take a copy with me to conventions and read it when the lectures get boring. There are ten "idylls," or chapter-length poems. The meter is regular but there is no rhyme. The language is old-fashioned, but modern enough to read with only a rare glance at a dictionary. Each idyll focuses on a major event: the seduction of Merlin by Vivien, the death of Elaine the lily maid, Arthur's discovery of Guenivere's betrayal, and so forth. There is enough action in each idyll to keep the story moving.Tennyson's characters show both a nobility I wish I had and a human frailty I understand. The idyll on Guenivere is my favorite. Tennyson conveys the tragedy of a marriage broken by adultery so movingly that I feel as though I were there, and yet he leaves the reader with a profound sense of hope. When I read it, I feel stronger and wiser, ready to fight a dragon or enemy knight, or find a true and lasting love.