24 October 2026
(20 May 2016) Here are the next trio of stanzas from Tennyson’s “Morte D’Arthur”; we remind our readers that last week the wounded and dying Arthur asks Sir Bedivere to return his sword, Excalibur to the lake from which Arthur received it:
To him replied the bold Sir Bedivere:
“It is not meet, Sir King, to leave thee thus,
Aidless, alone, and smitten thro’ the helm.
A little thing may harm a wounded man.
Yet I thy hest will all perform at full,
Watch what I see, and lightly bring thee word.”
The “bold Sir Bedivere” responds to his king’s request by reminding the king that he should not be left alone, and then, Bedivere agrees that he will go and do as Arthur has commanded him. So off he goes:
So saying, from the ruin’d shrine he stept
And in the moon athwart the place of tombs,
Where lay the mighty bones of ancient men,
Old knights, and over them the sea-wind sang
Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam. He, stepping down
By zigzag paths, and juts of pointed rock,
Came on the shining levels of the lake.
In order to make the scene as mournful as possible, Bedivere’s route to the lake passes through the broken church’s graveyard, a ‘noble’ graveyard filled with the remains of “ancient men” & “Old knights.” Beyond this sad place, Bedivere comes to the shore of the lake, preparing to fulfill Arthur’s final command:
There drew he forth the brand Excalibur,
And o’er him, drawing it, the winter moon,
Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth
And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt:
For all the haft twinkled with diamond sparks,
Myriads of topaz-lights, and jacinth work
Of subtlest jewellery. He gazed so long
That both his eyes were dazzled, as he stood,
This way and that dividing the swift mind,
In act to throw: but at the last it seem’d
Better to leave Excalibur conceal’d
There in the many-knotted water-flags,
That whistled stiff and dry about the marge.
So strode he back slow to the wounded King.
However, Bedivere examines the sword in close detail, noticing how the perpetually sharp blade gleams in the moonlight, how the jewel-encrusted hilt sparkles, ‘dazzling’ this knight’s eyes. Instead of hurling the sword into the lake, he decides to hide it, and return to report to his dying king. Next Tuesday, we will see what ‘lie’ Sir Bedivere tells Arthur, and the king’s response. Good reading!
Leave a Reply