Idylls Of The King Part XIII The Passing Of Arthur - Analysis

Introduction

This passage from Tennyson’s Idylls of the King is elegiac, solemn, and increasingly visionary as it moves from battle to farewell. The tone shifts from urgent and martial to confused and mournful, then to a resigned, almost mystical calm as Arthur departs. Tennyson blends personal grief, national collapse, and religious assurance in a sustained final scene.

Authorial and historical frame

Alfred Lord Tennyson, writing in Victorian England, often explored national identity, moral duty, and faith through medieval legend. The Arthurian tale here reflects Victorian anxieties about social change, the integrity of institutions, and the hope that moral and spiritual renewal may transcend decline.

Main themes

Betrayal and decay: The poem repeatedly shows Arthur betrayed by his own people—Modred, the traitor knights—and a realm that “reels back into the beast.” The imagery of a kingdom dissolving into mist and death dramatizes moral collapse. Mortality and loss: Arthur’s wound, the fallen Round Table, and Bedivere’s lament (“the true old times are dead”) make personal and cultural mortality central. Hope, faith, and renewal: Despite defeat, Arthur speaks of prayer and Avilion, and the closing lines suggest possible return—“he comes again”—so the poem balances despair with religious consolation and the idea of cyclical restoration.

Recurring symbols and vivid images

The mist and winter sea symbolize confusion, moral blindness, and the erasure of clear loyalties: battle fought in a “deathwhite mist” makes friend and foe indistinguishable. Excalibur and the lake-vision function as sacramental, otherworldly tokens of kingship; the throwing of the sword and the white-arm episode restore sacred order and mark a transition from temporal rule to a spiritual destiny. The barge with the three queens and Avilion evoke funerary passage and promised healing, leaving the story deliberately ambiguous: is Arthur dead, asleep, or awaiting return?

Imagery and tone development

Tennyson anchors dramatic scenes in sensory detail—clamour of battle, the “pale King,” the “sparkled” hilt—then moves to quieter, symbolic moments (the arm in white, the barge) that convert corporeal loss into visionary meaning. The mood slides from martial immediacy to grief and finally to a calm, solemn acceptance informed by Christian language of prayer and redemption.

Conclusion

Part XIII frames Arthur’s end as both national catastrophe and spiritual passage: a majestic, melancholic meditation on duty, failure, and the possibility that moral and religious continuity survives political ruin. The poem leaves readers between mourning and hope, asking whether greatness can be restored or must be remembered as an emblematic loss.