How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
‘And near him stood the Lady of the Lake,
Who knows a subtler magic than his own—
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful.
She gave the King his huge cross-hilted sword,
Whereby to drive the heathen out: a mist
Of incense curl’d about her, and her face
Wellnigh was hidden in the minster gloom;
But there was heard among the holy hymns
A voice as of the waters, for she dwells
Down in a deep—calm, whatsoever storms
May shake the world -- and when the surface rolls,
Hath power to walk the waters like our Lord.’
(“Coming of Arthur,” 282-293)
Bellicent’s description of the Lady of the Lake uses Christian imagery and language to describe a druidic “earth-mother” type. Although the Lady gives Arthur a “cross-hilted” sword, appears in “minster gloom” surrounded by incense, and walks the water “like our Lord,” she dwells under the water and works a “subtler magic” than Merlin. This description seems to be trying to enfold the Lady into a Christian belief system.
Quote #2
‘It seem’d in heaven, a ship, the shape thereof
A dragon wing’d, and all from stem to stern
Bright with shining people on the decks,
And gone as soon as seen […]
[…]
And down the wave and in the flame was borne
A naked babe, and rood to Merlin’s feet,
Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried, “The King!”’
(“Coming of Arthur,” 373-376, 382-384)
Merlin’s master Bleys described Arthur’s origin to Bellicent in the story she now tells Leodogran. The “shining people” on the decks share Arthur’s bright physical appearance, suggesting that he may be a fairy child rather than a human. The naked baby Arthur is “borne” on the wave rather than born to a human mother.
Quote #3
‘For truly, as thou sayest, a fairy king
And fairy queen have built the city, son;
They came from out a sacred mountain-cleft
Toward the sunrise, each with harp in hand,
And built it to the music of their harps.
And, as thou sayest, it is enchanted, son,
For there is nothing in it as it seems
Saving the King.’
(“Gareth and Lynette,” 253-260)
The music of the harps to which the fairies supposedly built Camelot might symbolize the principles upon which Arthur founds it, which he later describes as “music.” The gatekeeper’s definition of enchantment—when nothing is what it seems—foreshadows the poem’s thematic connection of unreality with the impossibility of knowing whether Arthur and his knights are really as pure as they seem.
Quote #4
‘Yet take thou heed of him, for, so thou pass
Beneath this archway, then wilt thou become
A thrall to his enchantments, for the King
Will bind thee by such vows as is a shame
A man should not be bound by, yet the which
No man can keep.’
(“Gareth and Lynette,” 263-268)
The gatekeeper refers to the vows Arthur binds his knights with as “enchantments.” This description makes the vows into something mysterious and magical, possibly even ominous and threatening.
Quote #5
[…] See you not, dear love,
That such a mood as that which lately gloom’d
Your fancy when ye saw me following you
Must make me fear still more you are not mine,
Must make me yearn still more to prove you mine,
And make me wish still more to learn this charm
Of woven paces and of waving hands,
As proof of trust. O Merlin, teach it me!
The charm so taught will charm us both to rest.
(“Merlin and Vivien,” 322-330)
Vivien begs Merlin to teach her how to turn someone into a statue to do her bidding. She longs for this charm as proof that Merlin is “hers.” She says the charm will “charm us both to rest,” claiming that once Merlin teaches it to her she will believe in his love for her and will not trouble him anymore for proof. The irony, of course, is that Vivien intends to use the charm to make Merlin “rest” in another way—by imprisoning him in the hollow oak.
Quote #6
‘Nay monk! what phantom?’ answer’d Percivale.
‘The cup, the cup itself, from which our Lord
Drank at the last sad supper with his own.
This, from the blessed land of Aromat—
After the day of darkness, when the dead
Went wandering o’er Moriah—the good saint,
Arimathaean Joseph, journeying brought
To Glastonbury, where the winter thorn
Blossoms at Christmas, mindful of our Lord.
And there awhile it bode; and if a man
Could touch or see it, he was heal’d at once,
By faith, of all his ills.’
(“The Holy Grail,” 45-56)
Percivale responds with indignation to his fellow monk’s suggestion that the Holy Grail is a mere “phantom,” although this characterization of the Grail is precisely the one that Arthur will give just a few lines later. Percivale describes the Grail in terms that associate it with new life: it originates on a day when the dead walked, was placed in an abbey where the “winter thorn/Blossoms” (a time of year when everything else is dead), and cures the dying of their illnesses.
Quote #7
‘Came ye on none but phantoms in your quest,
No man, no woman?’ Then Sir Percivale:
‘All men, to one so bound by such a vow,
And women were as phantoms.’
(“The Holy Grail,” 561-565)
Sir Percivale describes the way in which a vow like the one he took, to search for a spiritual vision, makes the earthly world fade away into “phantoms.” To Percivale, the vision for which he longs seems more real than the world through which he actually walks.
Quote #8
There came on Arthur sleeping, Gawain kill’d
In Lancelot’s war, the ghost of Gawain blown
Along a wandering wind, and past his ear
Went shrilling: ‘Hollow, hollow all delight!
Hail, King! to-morrow thou shalt pass away.
Farewell! there is an isle of rest for thee.
And I am blown along a wandering wind,
And hollow, hollow, hollow all delight!’
(“Passing of Arthur,” 29-37)
Gawain’s ghost appears to Arthur to tell him that he is about to die. Gawain contrasts his own unrest—how he is “blown along a wandering wind”—with the “isle of rest” that awaits Arthur. That Gawain’s ghost now wanders between this world and the next reflects the recklessness with which he lived. He lived only in pursuit of empty sensual delights, but those delights are now hollow for him as he is denied the rest that awaits Arthur.
Quote #9
[…] And even on Arthur fell
Confusion, since he saw not whom he fought.
For friend and foe were shadows in the mist,
And friend slew friend not knowing whom he slew;
And some had visions out of golden youth,
And some beheld the faces of old ghosts
Look in upon the battle.
(“Passing of Arthur,” 98-103)
Arthur’s battle against Mordred occurs in a thick fog that causes the knights to mistake friends for foes, symbolizing the sad truth that in this battle, in which some of Arthur’s own knights fight with Mordred against him, friend is foe. The “faces of old ghosts” and visions that the knights see as they fight are like their life passing before their eyes before them, marking this battle as the one that ends not just the knights’ lives but their whole society.
Quote #10
‘But now farewell. I am going a long way
With these thou seest—if indeed I go—
For all my mind is clouded with a doubt—
To the island-valley of Avilion;
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
Deep-meadow’d, happy, fair with orchard lawns
And bowery hollows crown’d with summer sea,
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.’
(“Passing of Arthur,” 424-432)
Arthur tells Bedivere that he’s going with the three mysterious women on the barge to the Island of Avilion. It’s clearly a supernatural place, since the weather is eerily perfect and the landscape perfectly beautiful. Arthur says he will be healed of his death-wound there, but not necessarily that he will return. With this ending, the poem leaves open the question of whether Arthur was a human or an immortal child of fairies. His journey to Avilion may be a journey home or a courtesy afforded him by these three women who have promised to “help him at his need.”