- Welcome, dear Shmoopers, to the story that Bedivere, first and longest living of Arthur’s knights, told to the next generation when he was an old man.
- On the westward march to Arthur’s last battle, Bedivere heard Arthur moaning in his tent: I’ve seen God in the stars and the flowers, but I don’t see him in his ways with men. I fought wars for him, but now I’m going to die in vain. So basically, life sucks and I haven't managed to make it any better.
- Why does the world seem to be missing the beauty and majesty it should have if God created it? Or is it that men’s eyes just don’t have the power to see its beauty, or that we can’t understand the workings of divine providence?
- I tried to work God’s will, but instead I have killed a lot of people in vain and been betrayed by my wife and closest friend. Now my kingdom rebels against me. This is the worst.
- While Arthur sleeps, he hears Gawain’s ghost speaking, saying he’s going to die tomorrow. He wakes and cries out, asking if it’s really him.
- When Bedivere hears him, he reassures him that it’s just a harmless enchantment that will pass, unlike Arthur’s name and glory. Gawain was a harmless prattler in life, and his ghost is no different.
- He tells Arthur to rise and march westward, conquering just like he did in days of old.
- Arthur responds by saying that this battle is different from the ones he fought as a young king, for now he fights against his own knights, in a sense fighting against himself.
- Nevertheless, he struggles to find a way through the blind haze that has surrounded him ever since he saw Guinevere at Almesbury.
- Arthur and his host push Sir Mordred’s forces further and further westward, all the way to the edge of Lyonesse and the western coast.
- On the shortest day of the year, Arthur and Mordred’s forces encounter one another as a white mist cloaks them all, causing friends to kill friends and others to see ghosts. Worst battle ever.
- Finally, at twilight, a great silence descends and the mist clears, allowing Arthur to gaze out over the battlefield.
- He sees only dead bodies and the rising tide rolling empty helmets in and out. He hears a great voice and asks Bedivere if he hears it, too.
- Arthur’s declares himself to be king "only of the dead," and Bedivere responds that Arthur is still king everywhere, and that he still loves Arthur. So that's something.
- He points out that one who hates Arthur still lives, showing him where Mordred stands unharmed after the battle.
- Seeing him, Arthur declares his intention to do one last kingly act before death. He rushes at Mordred and kills him, receiving his own death-wound in the fight. Way to go, Artie.
- Bedivere carries Arthur to a chapel near the battlefield in between the ocean and a great lake.
- Arthur remarks that his death brings an end to the fellowship of the Round Table and the delightful talk of knightly deeds that resounded throughout Camelot.
- Merlin, he says, told him he would come again to rule Britain once more. But now he's so deeply wounded that he knows he won't last until morning.
- He asks Bedivere to take his sword, Excalibur, which was given to him by a white, silk-clothed arm jutting out from a lake.
- He tells Bedivere to throw Excalibur out into the middle of the lake, then return and tell him what he sees.
- Bedivere carries the sword to the lake but is so dazzled by the richness and beauty of its hilt that he decides to hide the sword among the reeds instead of throwing it in. Uh oh. Not good.
- When Arthur asks what he has seen, Bedivere responds that he heard only the ripple of the water in the reeds and lapping upon the rocks.
- Arthur knows that Bedivere did not perform his command, since he would surely have seen a hand and heard a voice if he had really thrown Excalibur in the lake.
- So Bedivere returns to the sword. This time he stops short of throwing it in the lake because he doesn’t want to lose this evidence of Arthur’s existence. Excuses excuses.
- Once again, Bedivere tells Arthur that all he heard was the sound of the water when he threw the sword in. Arthur calls him an un-knightly traitor. Nevertheless, he sends him back again. Job's gotta get done, after all.
- This time Bedivere rushes to the sword and throws it in the lake without looking at or thinking about it. A white, silk-clothed arm catches it and brandishes it three times. Whoa.
- Once Arthur learns that Bedivere has thrown the sword in the lake and has seen the arm, he asks him to carry him to the shore of the lake.
- When they reach the shore, they see a barge with three wailing women on its deck.
- Arthur instructs Bedivere to place him in the barge. When he does, the women come forward to take him. One lays his head in her lap.
- Bedivere asks Arthur what he should do now that the old times are dead. Arthur tells him to pray for his soul. He says he is going to the island of Avilion to be healed.
- The barge floats off into the distance as Bedivere watches. Then he thinks of a “weird rhyme”: “from the great deep to the great deep he goes.”
- He remarks that Arthur is going off to be king of the dead but may return again. He wonders if the three women on the boat are the same ones who guarded the gates of Camelot.
- At dawn he thinks he hears sounds like that of a far-off city welcoming the return of its king. He watches the barge vanish into the sunrise.