Talk:Idylls of the King

I will be rewriting this over the next few days, adding individual descriptions of the Idylls, thematic analysis, and critical sources. I've included a publishing history and eliminated (I think) the worst errors. Pishogue 03:37, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

I have, by particular request, reverted this article to its "cleaned-up" state. Synthesizing a "plot line" by selection among the poems doesn't really substitute for an analytic report on the themes of Idylls of the King, its evolution in Tennyson's hands, its context in Victorian culture: perhaps the links are sufficient on their own. --Wetman 05:19, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

I am not sure if you are claiming that the clean-up caused the "evolution in Tennyson's hands, its context in Victorian culture" to all disappear, but there wasn't sufficient information in the article to begin with to display all of this. The clean-up was focused more towards the technicalities rather than the actual information within the article and did little to change the information within. --Stoa 03:49, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

This article needs to be rewritten

This article is very poor. Parts are completely wrong, as if the author did not even read the poems. For example, Modred is not Arthur's son in Idylls of the King, which is one of the few times since the French Arthurian romances began that Modred (or Mordred) is simply Arthur's nephew. Idylls of the King is one of Tennyson's most famous works and is somewhat significant in the history of Arthurian literature. This article does not need to be edited, it needs to be completely re-done.

I agree, and add to that list Guinevere's near-burning at the stake, subsequent rescue by Lancelot, and their eloping to France. None of this is in Tennyson's Idylls from what I recall. Due to the number of inaccuracies, I've flagged it as disputed. I may try to clean up later if I have time. DoctorElmo 06:47, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

It definately needs a re-writing. The Idylls while they do encompass the entire story of King Arthur, it is with two real exceptions, never his story. Rather, each of the poems only tells a part of the story and that's my real problem with the article as it stands. The focus is too much on Arthur. The majority of the Idyll's, with the exception of "The Coming of Arthur" and "The Passing of Arthur" is focused on events that occur to his knights and other characters surrounding him; only in passing do those poems mention Arthur. That being said this article isn't completely wrong (with the exception noted in a previous post) it just doesn't do a good job explaining what is really in the Idylls. Talen10 21 July 2006

I would add one further note-- regarding the publication date of 1888: it gives those unaware of the history behind the publication of the poems the idea that they were all published in one shot. This is not the case. Tennyson began writing many of the poems as early as the 1830s and the first incarnation (the Morte d'Arthur) was, I believe, published in 1842. Something should reflect this in the text. I agree with the other comments that the author of the article is certainly confusing Malory (and perhaps even Geoffrey of Monmouth) with Tennyson.Omega 231 02:17, 15 August 2006 (UTC)J