Glossing Tennyson: The Platypus Reads Part XC

  Then, ere that last weird battle in the west,

“The last weird battle in the west” or “the battle in the west” will become a recurring motif in both “The Passing of Arthur” and “To The Queen.”  Merlin has already predicted this battle in “Merlin and Vivian” where he gave it the ominous title of “world war.”  With Arthur’s Camelot serving as an allegory for Victoria’s England, these passages then become arrestingly prophetic as we remember the destruction of the Victorian achievement on the fields of France in World War I.  Beyond this, Arthur’s last battle takes place in the west, not the north as in Nennius, and thus plays into Tennyson’s seasonal and day imagery.  Throughout “The Idylls of the King” we find Tennyson playing with the seasons, the hours of the day, and time.  The whole work moves through the seasons from spring to winter.  Arthur wages twelve great battles and there are twelve idylls, one for each hour of the day (there are none for the hours of the night for, as Christ points out, no work can be done at night).  Many of the idylls do not follow a direct sequence of events, but rather flash forward and backward in time.  The whole effect is twofold.  One, it enhances the Tennyson’s central meditations on the rise and fall of Victorian society in particular and civilization in general.  Two, it reminds us that time and its passing are relative, not fixed, in so far as human events are concerned, especially on the supernatural level.  These things having been said, the Tennyson’s choice to set Arthur’s last battle in the west taps into the “day imagery.”  Arthur’s “day” is setting as he faces death and the destruction of the Round Table.   

There came on Arthur sleeping, Gawain killed
In Lancelot's war, the ghost of Gawain blown
Along a wandering wind, and past his ear
Went shrilling, 'Hollow, hollow all delight!

In the sequence that follows, Gawain’s ghost returns in a dream to foretell Arthur’s passing and the ruin of his realm.  Notice again the motif that Arthur “passes” rather than “dies.”  Gawain, according to Mallory, was wounded in single combat with Sir Lancelot while trying to avenge the death of his brother.  During the first assault on Modred’s troops, the wound reopened and Gawain perished.  Why Gawain’s ghost predicts Arthur’s passing is a bit of a mystery.  We may speculate that because he is Arthur’s kin he is allowed to speak to Arthur prophetically.  Like Hamlet’s ghost, however, there is a certain ambiguity to the figure of Gawain’s ghost.  The torments and bloody course of revenge that Hamlet’s ghost advocates seem much more appropriate for a damned spirit than one doing penance in Purgatory.  Likewise, the image of Gawain’s spirit being “blown along a wandering wind” sans delight seems to be a reference to the Circle of the Lustful in Dante’s “Inferno.”  This is also not the first time we have seen Gawain associated with Dante’s Circle of the Lustful.  In “The Holy Grail” Gawain wearies of the quest and takes up with a bevy of beautiful women.  A whirlwind comes and blows Gawain and his ladies all about. The tenor of his message is also devoid of hope and even seems to contain a certain element of schadenfreude.  All of this leads us to wonder what the ghost’s purpose is and whether Arthur should believe it or alter his course of action based on this visitation. 

Hail, King! tomorrow 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.'
And fainter onward, like wild birds that change
Their season in the night and wail their way
From cloud to cloud, down the long wind the dream
Shrilled; but in going mingled with dim cries
Far in the moonlit haze among the hills,
As of some lonely city sacked by night,
When all is lost, and wife and child with wail
Pass to new lords; and Arthur woke and called,

What, then, is Tennyson doing with this section?  The ambiguity of the messenger aside, Arthur’s dream has odd parallels with the dream King Leodogran has in “The Coming of Arthur” where he sees a phantom king surrounded by unheeding figures that slay and pillage.  Perhaps Leodogran is granted a prophetic glimpse of Arthur’s ruin and ultimate “apotheosis.”  If so, it is interesting that this vision convinces Leodogran to give Arthur his daughter in marriage, thus unknowingly precipitating Camelot’s ruin and Arthur’s passing into mythic icon.  It is also interesting that the dream Leodogran has causes him put aside his doubts and change his course of action while Arthur’s dream enhances his doubts but does nothing to change his course of action. 

'Who spake? A dream. O light upon the wind,
Thine, Gawain, was the voice--are these dim cries
Thine? or doth all that haunts the waste and wild
Mourn, knowing it will go along with me?'

Arthur, unlike the young prince Hamlet, is old and wise enough to doubt such an ambiguous messenger.

   This heard the bold Sir Bedivere and spake:
'O me, my King, let pass whatever will,
Elves, and the harmless glamour of the field;
But in their stead thy name and glory cling
To all high places like a golden cloud
For ever: but as yet thou shalt not pass.

One wonders what the angels said to Christ in Gethsemane when they came and brought comfort to him.  Arthur, being only a type of Christ and not the reality does not receive angelic succor but is nevertheless comforted by the appearance of Bedivere.  Bedivere comforts Arthur with Arthur’s name; a reminder that the King’s good deeds have not been in vain.  This parallels with Arthur’s concern for Lancelot’s name in “Lancelot and Elaine.”  There, a dejected Lancelot finds his name and reputation a torment since they make his sin with Guinevere stand out all the worse.  We can also note a parallel with “Guinevere” where the novice in her story makes the elves and fair folk a sign of the blessedness of Arthur’s early reign.  Here, at the end of Arthur’s reign, the King worries that the fair folk may be signaling his ultimate defeat.  Bedivere, who, unlike the novice, remembers the events of “The Coming of Arthur,” will have nothing to do with such fictitious portents.  Bedivere’s strident tone in this portion of the poem matches with Peter’s rash assertions to follow Christ no matter what.  This is ironic, since Bedivere will later deny Arthur twice.

Light was Gawain in life, and light in death
Is Gawain, for the ghost is as the man;
And care not thou for dreams from him, but rise—

Bedivere also knows just what to do with Gawain’s ghost: ignore it.  Whether it is a true visitation or just a dream, Arthur’s duty remains the same.

I hear the steps of Modred in the west,

Notice that we have here again the link between the “west” and death or doom.

And with him many of thy people, and knights
Once thine, whom thou hast loved, but grosser grown
Than heathen, spitting at their vows and thee.
Right well in heart they know thee for the King.
Arise, go forth and conquer as of old.'

Bedivere sees the apostate knights as worse than the pagan Anglo-Saxon invaders since they side with barbarism having known civilization and paganism having known Christianity.  This can be linked with the devolution motif, as the Round Table was created to ennoble mankind by its good example and now is joining in corrupting mankind with its lust for power.  Arthur has already seen this lust eating up the younger knights in “The Last Tournament” and thus knows that there is no going back to the old days as Bedivere urges (“Arise, go forth and conquer as of old”).  This becomes apparent in his reply.

   Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:
'Far other is this battle in the west
Whereto we move, than when we strove in youth,
And brake the petty kings, and fought with Rome,
Or thrust the heathen from the Roman wall,
And shook him through the north. Ill doom is mine
To war against my people and my knights.

The king who fights his people fights himself.

And they my knights, who loved me once, the stroke
That strikes them dead is as my death to me.

Bedivere is trying to hold onto the past and Arthur gently rebukes him for it.  Arthur’s reply is not as stern an admonishment as “get thee behind me Satan,” but the overall tenor is still there.  The nature of this battle, being a civil war, is such that there can be no such thing as a “glorious” victory.  Even if Arthur wins, it will be by killing off a great portion of his remaining knights and the realm will be left in a hopelessly weakened state.  Most of all, however, Bedivere is trying to convince Arthur that his impending crucifixion need not be a crucifixion and in this way continues in his role as Peter with Arthur as the Christ figure.  The mention of Rome is meant to be a parallel with “The Coming of Arthur” where the final test of Arthur’s new order is a war with Rome.  Rome will be mentioned again and forms a motif in this poem reminding us that Arthur’s civilization is going the way of all great civilizations.  This should have been evident from the beginning, and yet Bedivere is tempted to believe that somehow Camelot can be different.  Arthur rightly understands this sentiment for what it is, a temptation, and rejects it.

Yet let us hence, and find or feel a way
Through this blind haze, which ever since I saw
One lying in the dust at Almesbury,
Hath folded in the passes of the world.'

We see here again what the loss of Guinevere means both literally and symbolically for Arthur.  Without the Heart, Reason’s perception of the world becomes clouded.  The blind haze, continuing the motif from “Guinevere,” is also a reminder that Arthur is swiftly passing into the realm of myth and legend.