King Arthur & the Matter of Britain
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Elaine of Astolat
Elaine
the Fair of Astolat is a maiden who
dies of grief when Lancelot will not love her. The story
appears in the vulgate Mort Artu and in Malory, but
it is the Victorians who embraced the tale. The best-known retelling
is Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott", in two versions (1833 and
1842), which inspired dozens of images of the maiden weaving in her bower, or
setting out heart-broken on the barge that will bear her dead body
to Camelot, by such artists as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt,
John William Waterhouse, Howard Pyle, Elizabeth Siddal, and H.J. Ford.
Tennyson revisited the tale again in 1859 in Idylls of the King,
where the story is called "Lancelot and Elaine."
The Lady of Shalott
Elaine of Astolat,
an index of texts and images at the Camelot Project. New URL.
Tennyson's
"The Lady of Shalott: An Overview" at the Victorian Web includes
an essay
by Elizabeth Nelson on the Victorian paintings inspired by the poem. New URLs.
Versions of the Tale
The Lady of Shalott
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. New URL.
The 1833 and 1842
versions, and a side-by-side comparison of the
two, at the Camelot Project. New !
How Sir Launcelot rode to Astolat, and received a sleeve to wear upon his
helm at the request of a maid..., the story as told by
Malory in Le Morte D'Arthur, at the World Wide School.
And another version
at Celtic Twilight. New URLs.
The
Ballad of Elaine by Sidney Fowler Wright, at Britannia.
Lancelot and Elaine
from Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1859). New URL.
Loreena McKennitt set "The Lady of Shalott" to music on her album
The Visit (1992).
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22 February 2004