Morte D'Arthur - Classic Text | Alexandria
Morte D'Arthur by Alfred Lord Tennyson, more than just a retelling of Arthur's death, is a poignant exploration of duty, faith, and the fading of an ideal, shrouded in the mists of a bygone age. It is a fragment, yet a gateway into a realm of chivalry both celebrated and questioned. What we think we know of Arthur, Tennyson asks us to reconsider.
Tennyson's "Morte D'Arthur" first took shape as "Sir Bedivere," published in 1842 in his Poems. This initial version, emerging during the early Victorian era, already showed Tennyson wrestling with themes of societal change and the loss of spiritual certainty. This period was marked by both industrial progress and anxieties about the erosion of traditional values, sentiments that subtly seep into Tennyson's Arthurian landscape.
Later incorporated into Tennyson's epic Idylls of the King (1859-1885), "Morte D'Arthur" gained new resonance as part of a larger, grander tapestry depicting the rise and fall of Camelot. Tennyson transformed Malory's brutal, medieval world into a refined, allegorical drama. The poem became a touchstone for Victorian ideals even as it subtly questioned the sustainability of utopian visions in a world defined by conflict and moral ambiguity. Consider the shimmering Lake, the ambiguous Lady, and the returning sword – do they represent divine intervention, or simply a desperate yearning for the miraculous in a world losing faith?
Ultimately, Tennyson's "Morte D'Arthur" endures not just as a literary masterpiece, but as a reflection of humanity's ongoing struggle to reconcile the ideal with the real. Transformed into film adaptations, paintings, and other modern retellings, it continues to inspire reflection on leadership, morality, and the cyclical nature of history. But what does Arthur's final departure truly signify? Is it tragedy, or promise of a new dawn?