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How does Arthur's death in Le Morte D'Arthur differ from Idylls of the King?
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Arthur's death in Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur differs from Tennyson's Idylls of the King in several ways. Malory includes Lucan and Bedivere with Arthur, while Tennyson only mentions Bedivere. Malory's Arthur can avoid death by not fighting Mordred, whereas Tennyson's Arthur is fated to die. Malory depicts a peace negotiation and a snake incident before the battle, which Tennyson omits. Tennyson's Arthur faces identity loss, unlike Malory's confident Arthur. The queens' identities and Arthur's destination are more detailed in Malory.
We can point out quite a number of textual details which highlight how Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur version of Arthur's death is different from that in Tennyson's Idylls of the King.
First of all, in Malory’s version, Arthur is accompanied by two friends, Lucan and Bedivere, while Tennyson mentions only Bedivere. Both authors recount the dream that Arthur sees shortly before his final clash with the enemy. However, according to Malory, the prediction that the king hears is not fixed. He should avoid fighting Mordred in order to live. Tennyson, on the other hand, makes the prediction of the dream final. Arthur will surely die.
Malory prefaces the final battle with the scene of peace negotiations. No such scene is found in Tennyson. The battle, according to Malory, begins with a fatal incident with the snake. Tennyson does not introduce this incident in his portrayal of the battle. As for...
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the battle itself, Malory emphasizes that bravery has been shown on both sides, while Tennyson does not hesitate to add that “in the mist was many a noble deed, many a base” (“The Passing of Arthur”).
The battle ends differently in Malory and Tennyson. While the former pictures Mordred as a defeated and miserable foe, the latter presents Modred as triumphant. In line with the prediction of the dream, the friends dissuade Arthur from taking revenge on Mordred (Malory). Because for Tennyson, Arthur’s fate is sealed, Bedivere, Arthur’s only friend, prompts the king to kill Modred.
Tennyson’s Arthur, faced with approaching death, appears before the reader as a person suffering from a loss of identity. Says he to Bedivere,
... for on my heart hath fall’n
Confusion, till I know not what I am.
Nor whence I am, nor whether I be King.
Behold I seem a King among the dead. (“The Passing of Arthur”)
Malory’s Arthur, however, shows no such self-doubts.
In Tennyson, the king, moved by wrath, ultimately regains his identity. Arthur denounces Modred as not his own, but at the same time, he declares that he remains king over him.
In the scene of the final duel, Malory mentions the spear, which Tennyson never mentions. As he is mortally wounded, Arthur in Tennyson laments the loss of his knights and refers to the prophecy of his return in the future. In Malory, no such reference is made, and the knights have been lamented earlier.
As Bedivere brings Arthur to the seashore, Tennyson says that the king’s appearance has become very different from what he used to look like. No such change in appearance is referred to in Malory.
While both of the authors talk about queens meeting Arthur as he is ready to pass to his eternal abode, it is only Malory who gives their names and says that there are three of them (Queen Morgan le Fay, the Queen of Northgalis, and the Queen of the Waste Lands). As an aside, the fourth one, Nimue, is mentioned. Tennyson never mentions the queens by name.
In his last farewell to Bedivere, Malory’s Arthur only asks him to pray for him. As for Tennyson, his Arthur emphasizes and elaborates on the role of prayer in accomplishing God’s purposes. Similarly, the former only states his destination as Avalon, but the latter presents Avalon as a paradise-like place.
In Tennyson, as the ship takes Arthur to Avalon, Bedivere sees a vision of the king’s reception into eternal glory. We find no such vision in Malory’s version. By contrast, Malory concludes his story with an interesting epilogue which is absent from Tennyson’s text. In this epilogue, Bedivere meets a hermit (the former Bishop of Canterbury) who tells him of a burial in the chapel, performed by a number of ladies, which makes Bedivere believe that the cleric talks about Arthur. The hermit, however, is said to have been uncertain whether it is Arthur who has been buried, and this is presented as the occasion for Bedivere to have recorded the whole story.