Idylls Of The King Part II The Coming Of Arthur - Analysis

Introduction

This passage from Tennyson’s Idylls Of The King presents an epic, ceremonial tone that alternates with intimate, reflective moments. It moves from landscape and battle scenes to private exchanges about lineage and love, producing shifts from grandeur and prophecy to doubt and tenderness. The mood balances hope—Arthur’s promise of order—and anxiety—questions about his birth and the fragility of a new order.

Relevant context

Written in Victorian England, Tennyson’s Arthurian retelling reflects 19th-century concerns: national unity after upheaval, Christianized kingship, and faith in moral leadership. The poem treats medieval material through Victorian ideals of duty, chivalry, and providence, and it draws on myths (Merlin, Excalibur) to comment on contemporary social hopes and fears.

Theme: Leadership, legitimacy, and the making of a realm

A chief concern is what makes a true ruler: force, birth, or moral authority. Arthur’s kingship combines martial success—he "drew in the petty princedoms"—with spiritual and symbolic validation (Merlin, the Lady of the Lake, and Excalibur). Yet many lords doubt his bloodline ("No king of ours, a son of Gorlois"), so Tennyson probes legitimacy as both public recognition and a deeper, almost mystical investiture.

Theme: Civilization versus wilderness

The poem repeatedly contrasts wildness and order: wasteland overrun by "wolf and boar and bear" becomes the site of Arthur’s civilizing work—he "felled the forest, letting in the sun" and made "broad pathways." This action frames Arthur as a restorative figure who transforms chaotic nature and fragmented politics into cultivated, lawful society.

Theme: Love, union, and purpose

Arthur’s desire for Guinevere is both personal and instrumental: love promises to complete his kingship ("But were I joined with her, / Then might we live together as one life"). Their marriage is cast as a sacramental union that legitimates and beautifies the new order, while also foreshadowing tensions—private vows bound to public destiny.

Symbols and imagery

The sword Excalibur and the Lady of the Lake symbolize divine sanction and sacred power: the blade bears paradoxical inscriptions ("Take me" / "Cast me away!") suggesting duty that alternates between possession and relinquishment. The forest functions as a living image of disorder; cutting it admits "sun" and society. The wolf and its fostered children create a disturbing image of human degeneration when social structures fail. Celestial images—the morning star, the "Sun of May"—underscore providence and the dawning of a new era.

Final assessment

Tennyson frames Arthur as both a historical agent and a quasi-mythic savior whose authority rests on courage, ritual, and enigmatic prophecy. The passage intertwines public triumphs and private commitments to argue that political renewal requires moral union, symbolic sanction, and the labor of converting wilderness into community—a Victorian ideal rendered in medieval garb.