How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
‘And near him stood the Lady of the Lake,
Who knows a subtler magic than his own—
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful.
She gave the King his huge cross-hilted sword,
Whereby to drive the heathen out: a mist
Of incense curl’d about her, and her face
Wellnigh was hidden in the minster gloom;
But there was heard among the holy hymns
A voice as of the waters, for she dwells
Down in a deep—calm, whatsoever storms
May shake the world -- and when the surface rolls,
Hath power to walk the waters like our Lord.’
(“Coming of Arthur,” 282-293)
Bellicent’s description of the Lady of the Lake uses Christian imagery and language to describe a druidic “earth-mother” type. Although the Lady gives Arthur a “cross-hilted” sword, appears in “minster gloom” surrounded by incense, and walks the water “like our Lord,” she dwells under the water and works a “subtler magic” than Merlin. This description seems to be trying to enfold the Lady into a Christian belief system.
Quote #2
‘It seem’d in heaven, a ship, the shape thereof
A dragon wing’d, and all from stem to stern
Bright with shining people on the decks,
And gone as soon as seen […]
[…]
And down the wave and in the flame was borne
A naked babe, and rood to Merlin’s feet,
Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried, “The King!”’
(“Coming of Arthur,” 373-376, 382-384)
Merlin’s master Bleys described Arthur’s origin to Bellicent in the story she now tells Leodogran. The “shining people” on the decks share Arthur’s bright physical appearance, suggesting that he may be a fairy child rather than a human. The naked baby Arthur is “borne” on the wave rather than born to a human mother.
Quote #3
‘For truly, as thou sayest, a fairy king
And fairy queen have built the city, son;
They came from out a sacred mountain-cleft
Toward the sunrise, each with harp in hand,
And built it to the music of their harps.
And, as thou sayest, it is enchanted, son,
For there is nothing in it as it seems
Saving the King.’
(“Gareth and Lynette,” 253-260)
The music of the harps to which the fairies supposedly built Camelot might symbolize the principles upon which Arthur founds it, which he later describes as “music.” The gatekeeper’s definition of enchantment—when nothing is what it seems—foreshadows the poem’s thematic connection of unreality with the impossibility of knowing whether Arthur and his knights are really as pure as they seem.