How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
[…] And here or there
Stood one who pointed toward the voice, the rest
Slew on and burnt, crying, ‘No king of ours,
No son of Uther, and no king of ours;’
Till with a wink his dream was changed, the haze
Descended, and the solid earth became
As nothing, but the King stood out in heaven,
Crown’d.
(“Coming of Arthur,” 436-443)
The dream that convinces Leodogran to marry Guinevere to Arthur doesn't confirm or deny Arthur’s legitimacy but implies that he will be successful in his endeavors. In the end, that’s all Leodogran really cares about: he wants to entrust his daughter to someone who will be a powerful ally. His willingness to base his opinion of Arthur on a dream suggests that he has taken Merlin’s riddle about the impossibility of ever knowing the truth to heart.
Quote #5
‘And, as thou sayest, it is enchanted, son,
For there is nothing in it as it seems
Saving the King; tho’ some there be that hold
The King a shadow, and the city real.’
(“Gareth and Lynette,” 259-262)
The gatekeeper of Camelot throws into question the reality of both Arthur and Camelot. His point seems to be that the truth depends upon your perception of it. The reality of Arthur is at issue throughout the Idylls, whichnever come down on one side or another on the question of whether he’s human or a creature from fairyland.
Quote #6
‘Know ye not then the Riddling of the Bards:
“Confusion, and illusion, and relation,
Elusion, and occasion, and evasion”?
I mock thee not but as thou mockest me,
And all that see thee, for thou art not who
Thou seemest, but I know thee who thou art.’
(“Gareth and Lynette,” 280-286)
The gatekeeper of Camelot refers to the same “riddling of the Bards” with which Merlin teased Bellicent regarding Arthur’s origins. He implies that his evasiveness about the reality of Camelot is no worse than Gareth’s decision to ride to Camelot in disguise: “Thou art not who thou seemest.” People not being who or what they seem is a theme that will continue throughout the Idylls, as characters like Vivien and Mark question the seeming purity of the knights of the Round Table, connecting Camelot’s ambiguous reality to the ambiguous “seeming” of its knights.