The Story Archive

Idylls of the King

Alfred, Lord Tennyson · 1859 CE · Poem · English · Victorian

Twelve linked poems written over forty years take Arthur's fellowship through a single year from the coming of the king in spring to a last dim season, an idyll each for Geraint and Enid, Merlin and Vivien, Lancelot and Elaine. The Grail quest empties the hall of the men who might have held it together, while the queen's love works underneath. Tennyson drew on Malory and Lady Charlotte Guest's Mabinogion, and dedicated the whole to Prince Albert.

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