The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture Arthurian Literatures and Cultures: 1500 to the Present
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Post-Medieval Arthurs in Literature and Culture
- 1 Welsh-Language Arthurian Writing from the Post-Medieval Period
- 2 Arthur in England and Scotland, 1500–1700
- 3 Arthur in France, Spain and Italy, 1550–1800
- 4 Arthur in Germanic Languages, Literatures and Cultures, 1550–1800
- 5 Arthur in English-Language Literature in England and Scotland, 1700–1830
- 6 Arthur in Continental Europe, 1800–1920
- 7 Tennyson’s Idylls of the King
- 8 Arthur in the English Language in Britain and Ireland, 1830–1920
- 9 Arthur in Continental European Literature and Culture, 1920 to the Present
- 10 Arthur in English and Irish Literature, 1920 to the Present
- 11 Arthur in North American Literature and Culture to c.1900
- 12 Arthur in North American Literature and Culture, from 1900 to the Present
- 13 Arthurian Legends in Japanese Pop Culture
- 14 Arthur in Africa
- 15 Arthur in Latin America
- 16 Arthurianism in Australia
- Part II Arthur Off the Page
- Part III Arthurian Approaches
- Index
- References
7 - Tennyson’s Idylls of the King
from Part I - Post-Medieval Arthurs in Literature and Culture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 January 2026
By
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Post-Medieval Arthurs in Literature and Culture
- 1 Welsh-Language Arthurian Writing from the Post-Medieval Period
- 2 Arthur in England and Scotland, 1500–1700
- 3 Arthur in France, Spain and Italy, 1550–1800
- 4 Arthur in Germanic Languages, Literatures and Cultures, 1550–1800
- 5 Arthur in English-Language Literature in England and Scotland, 1700–1830
- 6 Arthur in Continental Europe, 1800–1920
- 7 Tennyson’s Idylls of the King
- 8 Arthur in the English Language in Britain and Ireland, 1830–1920
- 9 Arthur in Continental European Literature and Culture, 1920 to the Present
- 10 Arthur in English and Irish Literature, 1920 to the Present
- 11 Arthur in North American Literature and Culture to c.1900
- 12 Arthur in North American Literature and Culture, from 1900 to the Present
- 13 Arthurian Legends in Japanese Pop Culture
- 14 Arthur in Africa
- 15 Arthur in Latin America
- 16 Arthurianism in Australia
- Part II Arthur Off the Page
- Part III Arthurian Approaches
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter traces the growth of Tennyson’s Idylls of the King from his earliest ideas for an Arthurian epic in his notebooks from the 1830s to the completion of his twelve-book epic in 1886. It examines his treatment of his Arthurian sources, most importantly Malory, and attempts to capture the reactions of nineteenth-century readers to the Idylls by drawing on a range of contemporary reviews. It is difficult to overestimate Tennyson’s role in recentring the Arthurian legend in popular consciousness, and the final section briefly explores the influence of the Idylls on aspects of Victorian popular culture.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and CultureArthurian Literatures and Cultures: 1500 to the Present, pp. 166 - 187Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
References
Primary Sources
Allingham, William. A Diary, ed. Allingham, H. and Radford, D. (London: Macmillan, 1907)Google Scholar
Anon, . ‘King Arthur and his Round Table’, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 89 (September 1860), 311–37Google Scholar
Anon, . ‘Review of Idylls of the King’, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 86 (November 1859), 608–27Google Scholar
Anon, . ‘Review of Idylls of the King’, Westminster Review, 16.2 (October 1859), 503–26Google Scholar
Hutton, Richard Holt. ‘Review of Idylls of the King’, National Review, 9.18 (October 1859), 368–94Google Scholar
Malory, Thomas. Le Morte Darthur, ed. Field, P. J. C., 2 vols. (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2017)Google Scholar
Morris, William. The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems (London: Bell and Daldy, 1858)Google Scholar
Mozley, Anne. ‘Review of Idylls of the King’, Bentley’s Quarterly Review, 2.3 (October 1859), 159–94Google Scholar
Sterling, John. ‘Review of Poems in Two Volumes’, Quarterly Review, 70 (September 1842), 385–416Google Scholar
Tennyson, Alfred. The Letters of Alfred Lord Tennyson, ed. Lang, Cecil B. and Shannon, Edgar F. Jr, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981–90)Google Scholar
Tennyson, Hallam. Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir, by his Son, 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1897)Google Scholar
Secondary Sources
Adams, James Eli. ‘Harlots and base interpreters: Scandal and slander in Idylls of the King’, Victorian Poetry, 30.3–4 (1992), 421–39Google Scholar
Ahern, Stephen. ‘Listening to Guinevere: Female agency and the politics of chivalry in the Idylls of the King’, Studies in Philology, 101.1 (2004), 88–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, Althea. An Annotated Bibliography and Study of the Contemporary Criticism of Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, 1859–1889 (New York: Peter Lang, 1993)Google Scholar
Bryden, Inga. Reinventing King Arthur: The Arthurian Legends in Victorian Culture (London: Routledge, 2005)Google Scholar
Buckley, Jerome Hamilton. Tennyson: The Growth of a Poet (Cambridge, ma: Harvard University Press, 1961)Google Scholar
Field, Hannah. ‘Amateur hours: The visual interpretation of Tennyson’s poetry in two manuscript albums’, Journal of Victorian Culture, 21.4 (2016), 471–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fries, Maureen. ‘What Tennyson really did to Malory’s women’, Quondam et Futurus, 1.1 (1991), 44–55Google Scholar
Garner, Katie. Romantic Women Writers and Arthurian Legend: The Quest for Knowledge (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J. M. Thro’ the Vision of the Night: A Study of Source, Evolution and Structure in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King (Edinburgh University Press, 1980)Google Scholar
Guest, Montague J. (ed.). Lady Charlotte Schreiber’s Journals: Confidences of a Collector of Ceramics & Antiques throughout Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Austria and Germany from the year 1869 to 1885, 2 vols. (London: Bodley Head, 1911)Google Scholar
Hughes, Linda K. ‘Tennyson’s urban Arthurians: Victorian audiences and the “city built to music”’, in Lagorio, Valerie M. and Day, Mildred Leake (eds.), King Arthur through the Ages, 2 vols. (New York and London: Garland, 1990), vol. ii, pp. 39–61Google Scholar
Lupack, Alan. ‘Illuminating Arthurian texts – in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries’, Arthuriana, 22.4 (2012), 46–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lupack, Alan. ‘Popular images derived from Tennyson’s Arthurian poems’, Arthuriana, 21.2 (2011), 90–118CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lupack, Alan and Lupack, Barbara. Illustrating Camelot (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2008)Google Scholar
MacFarren, G. A. Fortune and her Wheel: Enid’s Song from the ‘Idylls of the King’ (London: Joseph Williams, c. 1860s)Google Scholar
Margini, Matthew. ‘The beast with the broken lance: Humanism and posthumanism in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King’, Victorian Poetry, 53.2 (2015), 171–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCausland, Elly. Malory’s Magic Book: King Arthur and the Child, 1862–1980 (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2019)Google Scholar
Purton, Valerie. ‘Darwin, Tennyson and the writing of “The Holy Grail”’, in Purton, (ed.), Darwin, Tennyson and Their Readers: Explorations in Victorian Literature and Science (London: Anthem, 2013), pp. 49–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, Roger. Camelot Regained: The Arthurian Revival and Tennyson, 1800–1849 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1990)Google Scholar
Staines, David. ‘King Arthur in Victorian fiction’, in Buckley, Jerome H. (ed.), The Worlds of Victorian Fiction (Cambridge, ma: Harvard University Press, 1975), pp. 267–97Google Scholar
Staines, David. Tennyson’s Camelot: The Idylls of the King and Its Medieval Sources (Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1982)Google Scholar
Steffensen Hagen, June. Tennyson and His Publishers (University Park, pa: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephenson, William and Stephenson, Mimosa. ‘Proto-modernism in Tennyson’s “The Holy Grail”’, Quondam et Futurus, 2.4 (1992), 49–55Google Scholar
Tillotson, Kathleen. ‘Tennyson’s serial poem’, in Tillotson, Geoffrey and Tillotson, Kathleen, Mid-Victorian Studies (London: Athlone, 1965), pp. 80–119Google Scholar
Tucker, Herbert F. Epic: Britain’s Heroic Muse, 1790–1910 (Oxford University Press, 2007)Google Scholar
Umland, Rebecca. ‘The snake in the woodpile: Tennyson’s Vivien as Victorian prostitute’, in Shichtman, Martin B. and Carley, James P. (eds.), Culture and the King: The Social Implications of the Arthurian Legend (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), pp. 274–87Google Scholar
Accessibility standard: Inaccessible, or known limited accessibility
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
The HTML of this chapter is known to have missing or limited accessibility features.
We may be reviewing its accessibility for future improvement, but final compliance is
not yet assured and may be subject to legal exceptions. If you have any questions,
please contact
accessibility@cambridge.org.
Content Navigation
Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Index navigation
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.
Reading Order & Textual Equivalents
Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
Short alternative textual descriptions
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.
Visual Accessibility
Use of colour is not sole means of conveying information
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.
Structural and Technical Features
ARIA roles provided
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.