Idylls Of The King Part VI Balin And Balan - Analysis

Introduction

Idylls Of The King: Balin and Balan presents a tragic episode in Arthurian legend marked by sudden violence beneath a veneer of courtly splendour. The tone moves from celebratory and warm—Arthur’s welcoming of Balin—to increasingly tense and dark as jealousy, misunderstanding, and fate close in. Mood shifts from communal harmony to private rage and finally to elegiac resignation as both brothers die. Tennyson blends chivalric ideals with the corrosive effects of pride and passion.

Authorial and historical context

Alfred Lord Tennyson, writing in Victorian England, revived Arthurian material to explore moral ideals and social order; his emphasis on courtesy, Christian relics, and courtly ritual reflects Victorian anxieties about honor, faith, and social cohesion. The narrative’s concern with inward violence and fatal consequences resonates with Tennyson’s broader preoccupation with human frailty and destiny.

Main theme: The conflict between courtesy and violent nature

The poem repeatedly contrasts courtly grace—Arthur’s hall, the Queen’s favour, the crown-as-token—with the brothers’ raw impulses. Balin’s exile for slaying a thrall and his later attempts to adopt gentler manners (bearing the Queen’s crown) show a struggle to internalize courtesy. Yet sudden provocations (Garlon’s mockery, Vivien’s insinuations) ignite his old savagery, suggesting that external symbols of gentleness cannot fully erase deep-seated violence.

Main theme: Misunderstanding, rumor, and tragic fate

Misreadings and slander drive the plot: Pellam’s hall, the woodman’s tales of a demon, and Vivien’s calculated lies catalyze Balin’s rage. Tennyson frames destiny as compounded by human error—Balin’s misinterpretation of homage and his impulsive actions lead to mutual destruction. The repeated images of blind strikes and attacks from behind underscore how unseen forces (rumor, envy, fate) wound more surely than open combat.

Recurring symbols and vivid imagery

The crown on the shield functions as a complex symbol: at once a token of gentleness and an emblem of shame. It civilizes Balin temporarily, yet its desecration—stamped and hurled away—marks his rejection of the civil order and precipitates disaster. The fountain and the woods recur as contrasting spaces: the fountain-side is stately, ordered glory; the wood is wild, secretive, and the stage for treachery and fatal encounters. The long lance in Pellam’s chapel and the spear-shot from behind link sacred relics and profane violence, darkening religious symbols with mortal sin.

Character dynamics and psychological insight

Balin and Balan’s bond is foregrounded: their brotherhood amplifies the tragedy—each act of pride and misunderstanding impacts both. Balin’s internal monologues reveal insecurity beneath bravado: admiration for Lancelot’s effortless courtesy, yearning for Guinevere’s favour, and dread that gentleness may only deepen his own failings. Vivien and Garlon function as external tempters—one seductive and manipulative, the other provocatively scornful—exposing Balin’s psychological fracture.

Conclusion

Tennyson’s episode offers a moral parable: symbols of honour and piety fail when individual passions and slander go unchecked, and communal rites cannot prevent private ruin. Through potent images—the crown, the lance, the forest void—and a tightening mood from rejoicing to lament, the poem shows how chivalric ideals are vulnerable to human weakness, yielding a bleak but resonant meditation on fate, honor, and loss.