Tales from Tennyson Read online

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  THREE TIMES THEY BROKE SPEARS]

  TALES FROM TENNYSON

  BY MOLLY K. BELLEW

  EDITOR OF "TALES FROM LONGFELLOW" "DICKENS' CHRISTMAS STORIES FOR CHILDREN" ETC., ETC.

  ILLUSTRATED BY H. S. CAMPBELL

  NEW YORK AND BOSTON H. M. CALDWELL CO. PUBLISHERS

  COPYRIGHT, 1902 BY JAMIESON-HIGGINS CO.

  CONTENTS.

  The Coming of King Arthur 9

  Gareth and Lynette 29

  The Marriage of Geraint 46

  Geraint's Quest of Honor 64

  Merlin and Vivien 85

  Balin and Balan 95

  Lancelot and Elaine 104

  The Holy Grail 119

  Pelleas and Ettarre 132

  The Last Tournament 142

  The Passing of Arthur 150

  To my Young Readers.

  Alfred Lord Tennyson was the typically English poet, and none, perhapsnot even Shakespeare, has appealed so keenly to the human heart. Noother man's poems have caused as many readers to shed tears of sympathynor have awakened higher sentiments in the human heart. The criticsagree in pronouncing him the ideal poet laureate. In his "Idylls fromthe King" are found the loftiest and proudest deeds of English historyand even in the retelling of these in prose the high spirit that is aninspiration to the noblest deeds cannot fail to be preserved.

  MOLLY K. BELLEW.

  THE COMING OF KING ARTHUR.

  Over a thousand years ago everybody was talking about the wonderful KingArthur and his brilliant Knights of the Round Table, who everywhere werepursuing bold quests, putting to rout the band of outlaws and robberswhich in those days infested every highway and by-way of the country,going to war with tyrannical nobles, establishing law and order amongthe rich, redressing the wrongs of women, the poor and the oppressed,and winning glorious renown for their valor and their successes.

  That was in England which at that time was not England as it is today,all one kingdom under a single ruler, but was divided into many bits ofkingdoms each with its own king and all warring against each other.Arthur's kingdom was the most unpeaceful of all. This was because fortwenty years or more, ever since the death of old King Uther, thecountry had been without a ruler. Old King Uther had died about a scoreof years before without leaving an heir to the throne, and all thenobles of the realm had immediately gone to war with one another eachtrying to get the most land and each trying to get the throne forhimself.

  OLD MERLIN APPEARS.]

  Suddenly, however, old Merlin, the wizard who had been King Uther'smagician, appeared one day in the royal council hall with a handsomeyoung man, Arthur, and declared him to be the king of the realm. Arthurwas crowned and for a time the nobles were quiet, for he ruled with astrong hand of iron, put down all the evils in his kingdom andeverywhere gave it peace and order. People in every part of the islandsent for him and his knights, begging him to come to help them out oftheir difficulties. But presently the nobles became troublesome again;they said that Arthur was not the true king, that he was not the son ofUther and that, therefore, he had no right to reign over them. So therewas fighting and unrest again, and in the midst of it Leodogran, theking of the Land of Cameliard, asked Arthur to come with his knights anddrive away the enemies besetting him on every side. The country ofCameliard had gone to waste and ruin, because of the continual warfarethat was waged with the kings that lived in the little neighboringcountries and a mass of wild-eyed foreign heathen peoples who invadedthe land. And so it happened that Cameliard was ravaged with battles,its strong men were cut down with the sword and wild dogs, wolves, andbears from the tangled weeds came rooting up the green fields andwallowing into the palace gardens. Sometimes the wolves stole littlechildren from the villages and nursed them like their own cubs, untilfinally these children grew up into a race of wolf-men who molested theland worse than the wolves themselves. Then another king foughtLeodogran, and at last the heathen hordes came swarming from over theseas and made all the earth red with his soldiers' blood, and they madethe sun red with the smoke of the burning homes of his people.

  Leodogran simply did not know which way to turn for help until at lasthe thought of young Arthur of the Round Table who recently had beencrowned king. So Leodogran sent for Arthur beseeching him to come andhelp him, for between the men and the beasts his country was dying.

  PRINCESS GUINEVERE.]

  King Arthur and his men welcomed the chance and went at once into theLand of Cameliard to drive away the heathen marauders. As he marchedwith his men past the castle walls, pretty Princess Guinevere stoodoutside to watch the glittering soldiers go by. Among so many richlydressed knights she did not particularly notice Arthur, for he worenothing to show that he was king, although his kingly bearing and braveforehead might suggest leadership. But no royal arms were engraved uponhis helmet or his shield, and he carried simple weapons not nearly sogorgeously emblazoned as those of some of the others.

  HE LED HIS WARRIORS BOLDLY.]

  Although Guinevere did not see the fair young King, Arthur spied herbeside the castle wall; he felt the light of her beautiful eyesglimmering out into his heart and setting it all aflame with a fire oflove for her.

  He led his warriors boldly to the forests where they pitched theirtents, then fought all the heathen until they scampered away to theirown territories, he slew the frightful wild beasts that had plunderedthe fields, cut down the forest trees so as to open out roads for thepeople of Cameliard to pass over from one part of their land to theother, then he traveled quietly away with his men, back to fight his ownbattles in his own country. For there was fighting everywhere in thosedays. But all the time in Arthur's heart, while he was doing thosewonderful things for Leodogran, he was thinking still, not of Leodogran,but of the lovely Guinevere, and yearning for her.

  If only she could be his queen he thought they two together could ruleon his throne as one strong, sweet, delicious life, and could exert amighty power over all his people to make them good and wise and happy.Each day increased his love until he could not bear even to think for amoment of living without her. So from the very field of battle, whilethe swords were flashing and clashing about him, as he fought the baronsand great lords who had risen up against him, Arthur dispatched threemessengers to Leodogran, the King of Cameliard.

  These three messengers were Ulfius, Brastias and Bedivere, the veryfirst knight Arthur had knighted upon his throne. They went to Leodogranand said that if Arthur had been of any service to him in his recenttroubles with the heathen and the wild beasts, he should give thePrincess Guinevere to be Arthur's wife as a mark of his good will.

  ARTHUR DISPATCHED THREE MESSENGERS TO LEODOGRAN.]

  Well, when they had said this, Leodogran did not know what to do anybetter than when the heathen and the beasts had come upon him. For whilehe thought Arthur a very bold soldier and a very fine man, and, althoughhe felt very grateful indeed to him for all the great things he haddone, still he was not certain that Guinevere ought to marry him. For,as Guinevere was the daughter of a king she should become the wife ofnone but the son of a king. And Leodogran did not know precisely whothis King Arthur was; but he did know that the barons of Arthur's courthad burst out into this uproar against him because they said he was nottheir true king and not the son of King Uther who had reigned beforehim. Some of them declared him to be the child of Gerlois,
and othersavowed that Sir Anton was his father.

  As poor, puzzled Leodogran knew nothing about the matter himself, hesent for his gray-headed trusty old chamberlain, who always had goodcounsel to give him in any dilemma; and he asked the chamberlain whetherhe had heard anything certainly as to Arthur's birth. The chamberlaintold him that there were just two men in all the world who knew thetruth with respect to Arthur and where he had come from, and that boththese men were twice as old as himself. One of them was Merlin thewizard, the other was Bleys, Merlin's teacher in magic, who had writtena book of his renowned pupil's wonders, which probably relatedeverything regarding the secret of Arthur's birth.

  "If King Arthur had done no more for me in my wars than you have justnow in my present trouble," the king answered the chamberlain, "I wouldhave died long ago from the wild beasts and the heathen. Send me inUlfius and Brastias and Bedivere again."

  So the chamberlain went out and Arthur's three men came into Leodogranwho spoke to them this way: "I have often seen a big cuckoo chased bylittle birds and understood why such tiny birds plagued him so, but whyare the nobles in your country rebelling against their king and sayingthat he is not the son of a king. Tell me whether you yourselves thinkhe is the child of King Uther."

  SIR KING, THERE ARE ALL SORTS OF STORIES ABOUT THAT.]

  Ulfius and Brastias answered immediately "yes," but Bedivere, the firstof all Arthur's knights, became very bold when anyone slandered hissovereign and he replied: "_Sir King, there are all sorts of storiesabout that_; some of the nobles hate him just because he is good andthey are wicked; they cry out that he is no man because his ways aregentler than their rough manners, while others again think he must bean angel dropped from heaven. But I will tell you the facts as I knowthem, King Uther and Gerlois were rivals long ago; they both lovedYgerne. And she was the wife of Gerlois and had no sons, but threedaughters, one of them the Queen of Orkney who has clung to Arthur likea sister. The two rivals, Gerlois and Uther went to war with each otherand Gerlois was killed in battle; then Uther quickly married the winsomeYgerne, the widow of Gerlois, for he loved her dearly and impatiently.In a few months Uther died, and on that very night of his death Arthurwas born. And as soon as he was born they carried him out by a secretback gateway to Merlin the magician, to be brought up far away from thecourt so that no one would hear about him until he was grown up ready tosit upon Uther's, his father, throne.

  "For those were wild lords in those years just like these of today,always struggling for the rule, and they would have shattered thehelpless little prince to pieces had they known about him. So Merlintook the baby and gave him over to old Sir Anton, a friend of Uther's,and Sir Anton's wife tended Arthur with her own little ones so thatnobody knew who he was or where he had come from. But while the princewas growing up the kingdom went to weed; the great lords and barons werefighting all the time among themselves and nobody ruled. But during thispresent year Arthur's time for ascending the throne had come, so Merlinbrought him from out of his hiding place, set him in the palace hall andcried out to all the lords and ladies, 'This is Uther's heir, yourking!' Of course, none of them would have that. A hundred voices criedback immediately: 'Away with him! he is no king of ours, that's the sonof Gerlois, or else the child of Anton, and no king.'

  "In spite of this opposition Merlin was so crafty and clever he won theday for the people, who were clamoring for a king and were glad to seeArthur crowned. But after it all was over the lords banded together andbroke out in open war against Arthur. That is the whole story of thiswar."

  Although pleased with Bedivere's good account of Arthur, yet when it wasended Leodogran scarcely felt satisfied. Was Bedivere right, he thoughtto himself, or were the barons right? As he sat pondering overeverything in his palace, _three great visitors came to the castle_;these were the Queen of Orkney, the daughter of Gerlois and Ygerne, withher two sons, Gawain and Modred. Leodogran made a great feast for themand while entertaining them at table remembered what Bedivere had saidabout Arthur and this queen. So he turned to the queen and remarked:

  THREE VISITORS TO THE CASTLE.]

  "An insecure throne is no better than a mass of ice in a summer's sea;it all melts away. You are from Arthur's court; tell me, do you thinkthis king with his few loyal Knights of the Round Table can triumph overthe rebellious lords, and keep his throne?"

  "O King, they are few indeed," the Queen of Orkney cried, "but so boldand true, and all of one mind with him. I was there at the coronationwhen the savage yells of the nobles died away, and Arthur sat crownedupon the dais with all his knights gathered round him to do his servicefor him forever. Arthur in low, deep tones, with simple words of greatauthority bound them to him with such wonderfully rigid vows that whenthey rose from their knees one after the other, some of them looked aspale as if a ghost had passed by them, others were flushed in theirfaces, and yet others seemed dazed and blind with their awe as if notfully awake. Then he spoke to them, cheering them with divine words thatare far more than my tongue can ever tell you, and while he spoke everyface flashed, for just a moment with his likeness, and from the crucifixabove, three rays in green, blue, scarlet, streamed across upon thebright, sweet faces of the three tall fair queens, his friends who stoodsilently beside his throne, and who will always be ready to help him ifhe is in need.

  "Merlin, the magician, came there too, with his hundred years of artlike so many hands of vassals to wait upon the young king. Near Merlinstood the mystical, marvelous Lady of the Lake, who knows a deeper magicthan Merlin's own, dressed in white. A mist of incense curled all abouther and her face was fairly hidden in the dim gloom. But when the holyhymns were sung a voice like flowing waters sounded through the music.It was the voice of the Lady of the Lake who lives in the lowest watersof the lake where it is always calm, no matter what storms may blow overthe earth and who when the waves tumble and roll above her can walk outupon their crests just as our Lord did.

  "_It was she who gave Arthur his remarkable sword_ Excalibur, with itshilt like a cross wherewith he drove away the heathen for you. Thatstrange sword rose up from out the bosom of the lake, and Arthur rowedover in a little boat and took it. The sword is incrusted with richjewels on the hilt, with a blade so bright that men are blinded by it.On one side the words 'Take me' are graven upon it in the oldestlanguage of the world, while on the other side the words 'Cast me away'are carved in the tongue that you speak.

  SHE GAVE ARTHUR HIS REMARKABLE SWORD]

  "Arthur became very sad when he saw the second inscription, but Merlinadvised him to take the beautiful blade and use it; he told him that nowwas the time to strike and that the time to cast away was very, very faroff. So Arthur took the tremendous sword and with it he will beat downhis enemies, King Leodogran."

  Leodogran was pleased with the queen's words, but he wished to test thestory Bedivere had told him, so he looked into her eyes narrowly as heobserved, with a question in his tones, "The swallow and the swift arevery near kin, but you are still closer to this noble prince as you arehis own dear sister."

  "I am the daughter of Gerlois and Ygerne," she answered.

  "Yes, that is why you are Arthur's sister," the king returned stillquestioningly.

  "These are secret things," the Queen of Orkney replied, and she motionedwith her hand for her two sons to leave her alone in the room with theking.

  Gawain immediately skipped away singing, his hair flying after andfrolicked outside like a frisky pony, _but cunning Modred laid his earclose beside the door to listen_, so that he half heard all the strangestory his mother told the king. This is what the queen said in thebeginning to the king.

  CUNNING MODRED BESIDE THE DOOR TO LISTEN]

  "What should I know about it? For my mother's hair and eyes were dark,and so were the eyes and hair of Gerlois, and Uther was dark too, almostblack, but the King Arthur is fairer than anyone else in Britain.However, I remember how my mother used often to weep and say, 'O thatyou had some brother, pretty little one, to guard you from the rou
ghways of the world."

  "Yes? She said that?" Leodogran rejoined, "but when did you see Arthurfirst?"

  "O king, I will tell you all about it," cried the Queen of Orkney. "Oncewhen I was a little bit of a girl and had been beaten for some childishfault that I had not committed, I ran outside and flung myself on agrassy bank and hated all the world and everything in it, and wished Iwere dead. But all of a sudden little Arthur stood by my side. I don'tknow how he came or anything about it. Perhaps Merlin brought him, forMerlin, they say, can walk about and nobody see him, if he will, but anyrate, Arthur was there by my side, comforting me and drying my tears.After that Arthur came very often without anybody knowing it and we werechildren together, and in those golden days I felt sure he would beking.

  "But now I must tell you about Bleys, the old wizard who taught themagician Merlin. You know they both served King Uther, and just a littlewhile ago when Bleys died he sent for me. He said he had something totell me that I must know before he left the world. He said that theytwo, Merlin and he, sat beside the bed of King Uther on the night whenthe king passed away, moaning and wailing because he left no heir to histhrone. After the king's death as Merlin and Bleys walked out from thecastle walls into the dismal misty night, they saw a wonderfulfairy-ship shaped like a winged dragon sailing the heavens, with shiningpeople collected on its decks; but in the twinkling of an eye the shipwas gone.

  "Then Merlin and Bleys passed down into the cove by the seashore towatch the billows, one after the other, as they lapped up against thebeach. And as they looked at last a great wave gathered up one-half ofthe ocean and came full of voices, slowly rising and plunging, roaringall the while. Then all the wave was in a flame; and down in the waveand in the flame they saw lying a naked babe that was carried by thewater to Merlin's very feet.

  "'The king!' cried Merlin. 'Here's an heir for Uther.'

  "Then as old Merlin spoke the fringe of that terrible great flamingbreaker lashed at him as he held up the baby; it rose up round him in amantle of fire so that he and the child were clothed in fire. Thensuddenly there was a calm, the stars looked out and the sky was open.

  "'And this same child,' Bleys whispered to me, 'is the young king whoreigns. And I could not die in peace unless the story had been told.'Then Bleys passed away into the land where nobody can question him.

  "So I came to Merlin to ask him whether that was all true about theshining dragon-ship and the tiny bare baby floating down from heavenover on the glory of the seas; but Merlin just laughed, as he alwaysdoes, and answered me in the riddles of the old song, this way:

  "'Rain, rain and sun! a rainbow in the sky! A young man will be wiser by and by; An old man's wit may wander ere he die. Rain, rain and sun! a rainbow on the lea! And truth is this to me and that to thee; And truth or clothed or naked let it be. Rain, sun and rain! and the free blossom blows; Sun, rain and sun! and where is he who knows. From the great deep to the great deep he goes!'

  "It vexed me dreadfully to have Merlin be so tantalizing; but you mustnot be afraid, king, to give your only child Guinevere to this KingArthur. For great poets will sing of his brave deeds in long years afterthis; and Merlin has said, and not joking, either, that even althoughArthur's enemies may wound him in battle he will never, never die, butwill only pass away for a time, for a little while, and then will cometo us again. And Merlin says too, that sometime Arthur is going totrample all the heathen kings under his feet until all the nations andall the men will call him their king."

  It pleased Leodogran tremendously to hear what the Queen of Orkney toldhim of Arthur, and when she had ended he lay thinking over it all, stillpuzzled as to whether he should say "yes" or "no" to the ambassadorswhom Arthur had sent. As he lay buried in his thoughts he grew very,very drowsy and dreamy, and at last, he fell asleep. And while he slepthe saw a wonderful vision in a dream.

  There was a strange, sloping land, rising before his eyes, that ascendedhigher and higher, field after field, to a very great height and at thetop there was a lofty peak hidden in the heavy, hazy clouds; and on thepeak a phantom king stood. One moment the king was there, and the nextmoment he was gone, while everything below him was in a frightfulconfusion, a battle with swords, and the flocks of sheep and cattlefalling back, and all the villages burning and their smoke rolling up instreams to the clouded pinnacle of the peak where the king stood in thefog, hiding him the more. Now and then the king spoke out through thehaze, and some one here or there beneath would point upward toward him,but the rest all went on fighting. They cried out, "He is no king ofours, no son of Uther's, no king of ours." Then in a twinkling the dreamall changed; the mists had quite blown away, the solid earth below thepeak had vanished like a bubble and only the wonderful king remained,crowned with his diadems, standing in the heavens.

  Then Leodogran while still looking at him woke from his sleep. He calledfor Ulfius and Brastias and Bedevere, and when they had come into thispresence he told them that Arthur should marry the fair PrincessGuinevere, and he sent them galloping back to Arthur's court.

  That was a joyful day for King Arthur when the three knights deliveredKing Leodogran's message. He made ready at once for his sweet queen. Hepicked out Lancelot, his favorite Knight of the Round Table, whom heloved better than any other man in all the world, to ride over into theLand of Cameliard and bring back Guinevere for his bride. And asLancelot mounted his dancing steed and rode away _Arthur watched himfrom the palace gates_, thinking of the lovely lady who would ride byhis side when he returned.

  LANCELOT MOUNTED HIS DANCING STEED.]

  Lancelot's horse trampled away among the flowers; for it was April whenhe left the court of Arthur, and just one month later he came ridingback among the flowers of the May-time. Guinevere was with him on hergraceful palfrey.

  Then Dubric, the head of the whole church in Britain, went out to meether. Happy Arthur was there too. They were married in the greatest andnoblest church in the land before the stately altar, with all theKnights of the Round Table dressed in stainless white clothes, gatheredabout them. And all the knights were as delighted as they could bebecause their king was so glad. Holy Dubric spread out his hands abovethe King and the lovely Queen to call down the blessings of heaven, andhe said:

  KING ARTHUR AND THE LOVELY QUEEN.]

  "Reign, King, and live and love, and make the world better, and may yourqueen be one with you, and may all the Knights of the Order of the RoundTable fulfill the boundless purposes of their king."

  There was spread a glorious marriage feast. Great lords came thitherfrom far away Rome, which once was the mistress of all the world, butnow was slowly fading away. These Roman lords called for the tributefrom Arthur that they had always received from Britain ever since Caesarwith his Roman legions had conquered it long years before.

  But Arthur, the king and bridegroom, pointed to his snowy knights andsaid: "These knights of mine have sworn to fight for me in all my warsand to worship me as their king. The old order of things has passed awayand a new order will take its place. We are fighting for our fair fatherChrist, while you have been growing so feeble and so weak and so oldthat you cannot even drive away the heathen from your Roman walls anymore. So we will not pay tribute to you nor be your slaves. This is tobe our own free country which we will defend and maintain."

  _The great lords from Rome drew back very angrily_ and went home andtold their king all about what Arthur had said. So Arthur had to battlewith Rome, but he won in the end.

  Arthur trained his Knights of the Round Table so that they all felt likeone great, vast strong man, all of one will. Thus he became mightierthan any of the other kings in any part of Britain. And when he foughtwith them he always conquered them. In that way he drew in all thelittle kingdoms under him, so that he was the one king of the land, andthey all fought together for him.

  There were twelve great battles against the heathen hordes that hadmolested them from across the terrible seas, and each of these battleshe won. So he made one g
reat realm and he reigned over it, the king.

  THE GREAT LORDS FROM ROME DREW BACK.]