The very first love-vow in the Idylls of the King is bromantical: it's the one Arthur and Lancelot swear to one another on the battlefield. We already know their relationship is doomed to collapse in the face of Lancelot’s adultery with Guinevere, so this doesn’t bode well for love relationships in the poem overall.
Sure enough, many turn out poorly. Elaine pines away when Lancelot doesn’t return her love. Pelleas goes mad when Gawain and Ettarre betray him by sleeping together. And Tristram dies when his lover’s husband slits his throat. All these love relationships are affected by the collapse of the central one between Arthur and Guinevere, which actually or symbolically destroys all of the others, including those between Arthur and his knights.
Questions About Love
- What kind of love relationships do we see in the Idylls? How do they compare with one another?
- Why does adulterous love threaten the fellowship of the Round Table and the society Arthur has created?
- What does Guinevere come to realize about the proper object of or motivation for love? If everyone in the Idylls followed this rule, how might the story have turned out differently?
- Why is Guinevere unable to love Arthur? What changes her mind?
- How do Arthur’s beliefs about love compare with Lancelot’s? Tristram’s?
Chew on This
The Idylls of the King implies that misdirected love—love for the wrong person or object—is at the root of the collapse of Arthur’s kingdom.
Both Guinevere and Ettarre are unable to love the people worthy of their love because of their lack of faith in their capacity for perfection.