The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien

Author:J.R.R. Tolkien
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2013-05-22T23:00:00+00:00

when shining like the moon, with shrouds of pearl,

with sails of samite, and the silver stars

on her blue banner embroidered white

in glittering gems, that galleon was thrust

on the shadowy seas under shades of night!

Eärendel goeth on eager quest

to magic islands beyond the miles of the sea,

past the hills of Avalon and the halls of the moon,

the dragon’s portals and the dark mountains

of the Bay of Faery on the borders of the world.

The first seven lines were later hastily altered by my father thus, largely for metrical improvement.

The moon was fallen into misty caves,

and quivering cold the keen starlight

wavered wanly in the waiting East

failed and faded; the foam upon the shore

was glimmering ghostly upon grey shingle,

and the roaring sea rising and falling

under walls of stone.

On another page is a pencilled text of verses in the primary stage of composition, with deletions and substitutions, of exceptional difficulty, but of the utmost interest in relation to the ‘Eärendel pasage’ just given.

The grave of Gawain under grass lieth

by the sounding sea, where the sun westers.

What grave hath Guinever The grey shadow

her gold in [?ground] [(struck out:) gleams like]

her gold in silence unseen gleameth.

Britain nor Benwick did barrow keep

of Lancelot and his lady.

No [(struck out:) grave hath Arthur]

No mound hath Arthur in mortal land

under moon or sun who in ...........

beyond the miles of the sea and the magic islands

beyond the halls of night upon Heaven’s borders

[(struck out:) the] dragon’s portals and the dark mountains

of the Bay of Avalon on the borders of the world.

up[on] Earth’s border in Avalon [sleeping >] biding.

While the world w....eth

till the world [??awaketh]

In the penultimate line the verb is not waiteth and seems not to be watcheth. Beneath the verses is written: The tomb

*

The departure of Arthur

Among the scanty and enigmatic notes that I have given on see here there is so little that refers to the departure of Arthur after his mortal wounding in the battle of Camlan that must one look to other writings in the attempt to interpret them.

Of the departure of Arthur we have only these sentences (see here): Arthur dying in the gloom. Robbers search the field. Caliburn and the lake. The dark ship comes up the river. Arthur placed upon it. And subsequently we read that Lancelot sailed into the west following Arthur, but never returns, and Whether he found him in Avalon and will return no one knows.

I have given on see here Malory’s account of Arthur’s departure. In this he was following the stanzaic Morte Arthur fairly closely, rather than the French Mort Artu (see here). The most curious point, in relation to my father’s notes, concerns the place and nature of Arthur’s departure. In Le Morte Arthur it is said of the king and the knights Bedivere and Lucan that ‘all night they in the chapel lay by the sea side’, and Malory has ‘not far from the sea’. In Le Morte Arthur Arthur orders Bedivere to cast Excalibur ‘in the salt flood’, and when Bedivere finally obeys the command ‘into the

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