Idylls of the King

by Alfred Tennyson

  631. branch’d: adorned with a figured pattern in embroidery.

  ftower’d: embellished with figures of flowers.

  647. bethought: recollected.

  661. turkis: turquoise.

  672. mixen: dung-hill.

  684. trow: believe.

  724. ragged-robin: popular name for a well-known English flower.

  730–31. like those of old/That lighted on Queen Esther: see Esther ii 1–4.

  742 – 3. And call ‘d her like that maiden in the tale,/ Whom Gwydion made by glamour out of flowers: Tennyson quotes from Mabinogion, ‘The Tale of Math, son of Mathonwy’: ‘So they took the blossoms of the oak, and the blossoms of the broom, and the blossoms of the meadow-sweet, and produced from them a maiden, the fairest and most graceful that man ever saw. And they baptized her and gave her the name of Blodeuwedd’ (flower-vision).

  744–6. And sweeter than the bride of Cassivelaun/Flur, for whose love the Roman Casar first/Invaded Britain: Hallam Tennyson comments: ‘The love of a British maiden named Flur, who was betrothed to Cassivelaunus, according to the Welsh legend, led Caesar to invade Britain’, from Mabinogion, ‘Manawyddan the Son of Llyr’.

  764. flawy. Hallam Tennyson compares Hamlet V i 210: ‘the winter’s flaw’ -gusts of wind.

  774. As careful robins eye the deloer’s toil: cf. ‘Early Spring’ (1833) 11–12: ‘Earnest as redbreasts eye/The driver’s toil.’

  799. weal: welfare, well-being, happiness.

  802. dusky: gloomy.

  811. intermitted: interrupted.

  818. gaudy-day. ‘Holiday – now only used for special feast-days at the Universities’ (H. T.).

  826–7. Now thrice that morning Guinevere had climb’d/The giant tower. Geoffrey of Monmouth notes a Giant’s Tower at Caerleon. In Mabinogion Guinevere places a watch on the ramparts.

  836. Mabinogion: ‘And the choicest of all Gwenhwyvar’s apparel was given to the maiden.’

  838. Dubric, the high saint: no dignitary is mentioned in Mabinogion. The name and epithet are derived from Layamon’s Brut.

  Geraint and Enid

  Published 1859, the second half of ’Enid’. The title ‘Enid’ was expanded to ‘Geraint and Enid’ in 1870; the poem was divided into two parts in 1873; and the final titles were given in 1886.

  1. O purblind race of miserable men: Hallam Tennyson compares Lucretius ii 14: ‘O miseras hominum mentes, O pectora caeca’ (‘O pitiable minds of men, O blind intelligences!’). purblind: totally or morally blind.

  6— 7. until we pass and reach/That other, where we see as we are seen: 1 Corinthians xiii 12: ‘Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.’

  12. perforce: compulsorily, of necessity.

  14–18. Mabinogion: ‘And he desired Enid to mount her horse, and to ride forward, and to keep a long way before him. “And whatever thou mayest see, and whatever thou mayest hear concerning me,” said he, “do thou not turn back. And unless I speak to thee, say not thou one word either.”’

  20–27. Not in Mabinogion.

  30. Mabinogion: ‘And he did not choose the pleasantest and most frequented road, but that which was the wildest and most beset by thieves.’

  30. holds: strongholds, fortresses.

  31. Gray swamps and pools, waste places of the hern: adapted from an un published stanza of ’Come not, when I am dead’ (c. 1838): ‘By swamps and pools, waste places of the hern.’

  33. Round: brisk.

  35–54. Not in Mabinogion.

  51. In every wavering brake an ambuscade: suggesting Juvenal x 19–21.

  brake: a clump of bushes, thicket.

  ambuscade: ambush.

  55–100. Based closely on Mabinogion, where however there are four attackers.

  58. caitiffs: villains.

  86. cubit: an ancient measure of length, between 18 and 22 inches.

  101–15. Not in Mabinogion.

  118–45. Based closely on Mabinogion.

  146–52. Not in Mabinogion.

  153–78. Expanding Mabinogion.

  159. corselet: defensive armour covering the body.

  161. as he that tells the tale: Tennyson.

  169–70. On whom the victor, to confound them more/Spurr’d with his terrible war-cry: not in Mabinogion. Perhaps an allusion to elegy on Geraint composed by Llywarch Hên, which opens: ‘Before Geraint, the terror of the foe,/I saw steeds fatigued with the toil of battle./And after the shout was given, how dreadful was the onset.’

  170–75. ‘A memory of what I heard near Festiniog, but the scenery imagined is vaster’ (T.).

  171. torrent: rushing like a torrent.

  186–94. Not in Mabinogion, which has a further episode with five attackers, thus making Enid drive twelve horses in all.

  189. disedge: alleviate.

  195–9. Mabinogion: ‘And early in the day they left the wood, and they came to an open country, with meadows on one hand, and mowers mowing the meadows.’

  198. chased: set like a jewel.

  209. meet: suitable.

  210–31. Based on Mabinogion.

  232–40. Expanded from Mabinogion.

  241–69. Not in Mabinogion, which simply remarks: ‘And Geraint went to sleep; and so did Enid also.’

  245. errant: wandering.

  247. doom: ‘judgment’ (T.).

  250. ruth: contrition, repentance, remorse.

  255. daws: jackdaws.

  258. annulet: a little ring.

  267. supporters: figures represented as holding up or standing beside the shield, one on each side of the shield.

  274. roisterers: swaggering or noisy revellers.

  276–7. In Mabinogion, the Earl is not her previous suitor, though ‘he set all his thoughts and his affections upon her’.

  278. pliant: yielding, compliant.

  306–47. Again expanding and modifying Mabinogion.

  348–51. Not in Mabinogion.

  352. Mabinogion: ‘and she considered that it was advisable to encourage him in his request’.

  356. practise on: to delude.

  359–64. Not in Mabinogion.

  373–5. Mabinogion: ‘At midnight she arose, and placed all Geraint’s armour together, so that it might be ready to put on.’ Tennyson’s 11. 387–9 are his addition.

  376. overtoil’d: worn out or exhausted by excessive toil.

  409. In Mabinogion, the remaining eleven.

  418–35. Not in Mabinogion.

  426. mismated: ill-matched.

  431. See note to MG 774.

  434. Identical to MG 775.

  436–66. Expanded from Mabinogion.

  439. Doorm: in Mabinogion Limours. ‘The Bull’ is Tennyson’s designation.

  442. rood: rod, a unit of measure between six and eight yards.

  449. bicker, disturb, flash through.

  450–56. In Mabinogion, Enid simply speaks.

  458–9. Borne on a black horse, like a thunder-cloud/Whose skirts are loosen’d by the breaking storm: ‘The horse’s mane is compared to the skirts of the rain-cloud’ (T.).

  467–79. Not in Mabinogion, where Geraint has hereafter various combats, is wounded, meets Arthur, rests and is healed.

  475. cressy: abounding in cresses.

  490.’Shall we go hungry, or shall we take his spoils and pay for our dinner with them?’ (T.).

  491.‘Enid shrinks from taking anything from her old lover’ (T.).

  500. So fared it with Geraint: in Mabinogion, Geraint is wounded by a dwarf and faints. Doorm (there named Limours) comes upon Enid, who is with a damsel whose husband has been killed by giants.

  502. Bled underneath his armour secretly: in Mabinogion ‘And the heat of the sun was very great, and through the blood and sweat, Geraint’s armour cleaved to his flesh.’

  509–35. Not in Mabinogion.

  531–2. made/The long way smoke beneath him in his fear, echoing Faerie Queene11 v 3: ‘But prickt so fi
ers, that underneath his feete/The smouldering dust did round about him smoke.’

  534. scour’d: ran off.

  coppices: copses, thickets of small trees cut periodically for wood.

  536–78. Expanding Mabinogion.

  542.‘No, no, not dead!’ she answer’d: in Mabinogion, Enid thought Geraint was dead, and it was the Earl who ‘thought that there still remained some life in Geraint’.

  549. quicken: enliven

  568. All in the hollow of his shield: Mabinogion: ‘He had him carried with him in the hollow of his shield.’

  572. settle: bench, chair.

  597–607. Not in Mabinogion.

  601. beeves: oxen, cattle.

  608–717. Tennyson greatly expands this, though the main events are in Mabinogion (the brief commands to eat, drink and change apparel, and the blow).

  627. forage: loot, booty.

  631. old serpent: Revelation xii 9: ‘And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan.’ ‘My father would quote this simile as good’ (H. T.).

  674. flout: a mocking speech or action.

  679. weed: ‘garment’ (T.)

  687–9. ‘I made these lines on the High Down one morning at Freshwater’ (T.)

  693–4. harder to be moved/Than hardest tyrants in their day of power: ‘The worst tyrants are those who have long been tyrannized over, if they tyrannous natures’ (T.).

  716–17. unknightly with fat hand,/However lightly, smote her on the cheek: In Mabinogion: ‘and he gave her a box on the ear’.

  718 –21. As in Mabinogion.

  727—8. In Mabinogion: merely ‘he clove him in twain’.

  733–44. Mabinogion: ‘He was grieved for two causes; one was, to see that Enid had lost her colour and her wonted aspect; and the other, to know that she was in the right.’

  762ff. In Mabinogion there are other adventures, but the rest of Tennyson’s poem is his own.

  762–3. since high in Paradise/O’er the four rivers the first roses blew: Genesis ii 10: ‘And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.’

  768–70. came a happy mist/Like that which kept the heart of Eden green/Before the useful trouble of the rain: Genesis ii 6: ‘But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.’

  780ff. Tennyson’s version ends with Edyrn’s encounter with Gareth, and his account of his conversion.

  811. the blameless King: heroic epithet repeated GE 931, 969, BB 472, MV 162, 777, HG 865.

  833. And, toppling all antagonism: repeating MG 491.

  864. Dubric, the high saint: see notes to CA 452, M G 838.

  902. the vicious quitch: a species of grass. Emily Lady Tennyson’s letter diary records at this time Tennyson’s efforts to eradicate this from his Farringford lawn.

  903. of blood: inherited.

  922. leech: doctor, surgeon.

  925. tendance: attention, care.

  929. the sacred Dee: Tennyson compares Lycidas 55: ‘Where Deva spreads her wisard stream.’ In Welsh Dee means sacred river.

  932. Uther. see note to C A 13.

  935. Men weed the white horse on the Berkshire hills: ‘The white horse near Wantage on the Berkshire hills which commemorates the victory at Ashdown of the English under Alfred over the Danes (871). The white horse was the emblem of the English or Saxons, as the raven was of the Danes, and as the dragon was of the Britons’ (T.).

  939. chairs: places of authority.

  967–9. and fell/Against the heathen of the Northern Sea/In battle, fighting for the blameless King: Hallam Tennyson quotes, from the notes to Mabinogion, Llywarch Hen’s elegy on Geraint’s death in the battle of Llongborth. Mrs Patmore, by request, sent a copy of the elegy to Tennyson in November 1857 (Patmore, Memoir (1900) ii 308).

  Balin and Balan

  Published 1885. Written 1872–4. Complete transformation of Malory Book ii, with the added characters of Guinevere, Lancelot and Vivien.

  1. Pellam the King, who held and lost with Lot: not in Malory.

  8. Man’s word is God in man: repetition of C A 132.

  9–10. two strange knights/ Who sit near Camelot at a fountain-side: not in Malory’s account of Balin.

  13. undertake: enter into combat with.

  23. Brethren: Tennyson preserves their relationship in Malory, but adds twinhood – see 1. 617.

  23–5. to right and left the spring, that down,/From underneath a plume of lady-fem,/ Sang and the sand danced at the bottom of it: ‘suggested by a spring which rises near the house at Aldworth’ (H.T.).

  36. Paynim: pagan, heathen.

  45. pursuivant royal or state messenger with power to execute warrants.

  51. Balin, ‘the Savage’-that addition thine: in Malory Balin le savage from the first.

  55. half slew him: in Malory the man is slain. He is further ‘cousin to Arthur’.

  61. Saving for Balan: Balin’s brother has no such role in Malory.

  78. The Lost one Found was greeted as in Heaven: echoing Luke xv 4–7.

  80. garlandage: display of garlands. Tennyson’s coinage.

  85. twelve battles: the twelve battles listed by Nennius: see note to CA 517.

  97. heat: passion.

  98–9. Saint/Arimathtean Joseph: Joseph of Arimathea, reputed to have brought the Cross to Britain, leaving it at Glastonbury.

  107. arks: receptacles, coffers.

  114. Garlon, mine heir: in Malory Garlon is brother to Pellam.

  118ff. spear-stricken from behind: as of others attacked by Garlón in Malory, but there is no embassage, nor is Garlón in any way equated with a spirit of slander.

  128. the cave: not in Malory.

  151. moons: months.

  157. Lancelot: plays no part here in Malory.

  181. an: if.

  182–3. as he/That brought her thither. Lancelot. See CA 446—51, G 375–404.

  191. cognizance: badge, device or emblem.

  193. langued gules: ‘red-tongued-language of heraldry’ (H.T.).

  204. earnest: promise.

  226–9. Thus, as a hearth lit in a mountain home, /And glancing on the window, when the gloom/Of twilight deepens round it, seems aflame/That rages in the woodland far below: ‘Suggested by what he often saw from his own study at Aldworth’ (H.T.).

  235–75. Not in Malory.

  241. counter door, door opposite.

  289. hoarhead woodman: in part suggested by a hoary-headed man in Malory.

  302. fabler: one who invents fictitious stories.

  309–10. rocks/Roof-pendent: stalactites.

  310. others from the floor,/Tusklike, arising: stalagmites.

  329. donjon: great tower or innermost keep of a castle.

  330. ivytods: ivy bushes.

  332–420. Sketchily based on Malory ii 14 where Balin enters Pellam’s castle and is accosted by Pellam’s brother, Garlón, at a feast: ‘Then was Balin wel received, and brought to a chamber and unarmed him; and there were brought him robes to his pleasure, and would have had Balin leave his sword behinde him. “Nay,” said Balin, “that will I not doe, for it is the custome of my countrey a knight alway to keepe his weapon with him, and that custome will I keepe, or else I will depart as I came.” Then they gave him leave to were his’ sword. And so he went to the castle, and was set among knights of worship, and his lady afore him. Soone Balin asked a knight, “Is there not a knight in this court whose name is Garlón?” “Yonder he goeth,” said the knight, “he with that blacke face; he is the marvailest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.” “Ah, wel,” said Balin, “is that he?” Then Balin advised him long: “If I slay him heere, I shall not scape; and if I leave him now, peradventure I shall never meete with him againe at such a steven; and much harm he will doe and he live.” Therewith this Garlón espied that this Balin beheld him, and then he came and smote Balin on the face with the backe of his hand, and sa
id, ‘Knight, why beholdest thou me so? for shame therefore, eate thy meate and doe that thou came for.” “Thou saist sooth,” said Balin; “this is not the first despite that thou hast done me, and therefore I will doe that I came for;” and rose up fiersly, and clave his head to the shoulders. “Give me the troncheon,” said Balin to his lady, “wherewith he slew your knight.” Anone she gave it him, for alway she bare that troncheon with her; and therewith Balin smote him through the body, and said openly, “With that troncheon thou hast slaine a good knight, and now it sticketh in thy body.” And then Balin called to him his hoast, saying, “Now may yee fetch blood inough to heale your sonne withall.” Anone all the knights arose from the table for to set on Balin. And king Pellam himself arose up fiersly, and said, “Knight, why hast thou slaine my brother? thou shalt dye therefor, or thou depart.” “Wei,” said Balin, “then doe it your selfe.” “Yes,” said king Pellam, “there shall no man have adoe with thee but my selfe for the love of my brother.” Then king Pellam caught in his hand a grim weapon, and smote egerly at Balin, but Balin put the sword betweene his head and the stroke, and therewith his sword burst in sunder; and when Balin was weponlesse he ranne into a chamber for to seeke some weapon, and so from chamber to chamber, and no weapon could he find, and alway king Pellam followed him; and at the last he entred into a chamber that was marvelously well dight and richly, and a bed arayed with cloth of gold, the richest that might be thought, and one lying therein; and thereby stood a table of cleane gold, with foure pillars of silver that bare up the table, and upon the table stood a marvailous speare strangely wrought. And when Balin saw the speare, hee gat it in his hand and turned him to king Pellam, and smote him passingly sore with that speare that king Pellam fell downe in a swowne, and therewith the castle rove and the walls brake and fell to the earth, and Balin fel downe so that he might not stir hand nor foot. And so the most part of the castle that was fallen downe through that dolorous stroke lay upon king Pellam and Balin three dayes… And that was the same speare that Longius smot our Lord to the heart. And king Pellam was nigh of Josephs kinne, and that was the most worshipfull man that lived in those dayes, and great pittie it was of his hurt.’