J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Fall of King Arthur" and the holy realm of Logres

I am not a medievalist but was recently given a copy of The Fall of Arthur by J. R. R. Tolkien by my son. A long-time enthusiastic of Tolkien's work, this is verse that at times matches the doom-laden atmosphere of both The Silmarillion and The Children of Hurin. Tolkien abandoned the poem some time in the mid 1930s probably due to the overwhelming pressures of other projects and his teaching load at Oxford. What he left, though unfinished, is both powerful and memorable.

Perhaps more than anything, Tolkien manages to conjure up a world of brooding and tragic passions that seem reflected in the very landscapes he describes - the eastern forests and tempest-torn skies of Europe where the warring Arthur goes to defend the ruin of the "Roman realm" and the fierce seas driving Arthur and his enemies towards the shores of "blessed Britain" through sweeping surf and waters that glitter with green and silver.

Here is a brief example from the description of the Eastern forests where Arthur takes his army, a forest called Mirkwood:

                          "Thus at last came they
to Mirkwood's margin   under mountain-shadows:
waste was behind them,   walls before them;
on the houseless hills   ever higher mounting
vast, unvanquished,   lay the veiled forest." (I.67-71)

Further in we see "lowering trees", "ravens croaking" and "ruinous rocks" swallowed by "sudden tempest". The sense of a world haunted by the almost physical presence of evil and darkness is very powerful throughout the poem, as if the passions stirred up among warring and discontent men were played out in creation among "shapes disastrous" and "fell shadows". Readers of both The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion will recognise echoes of style and imagery in all of these phrases.

The Fall of Arthur is powerful verse capturing the last days of King Arthur returning from Eastern wars to defend his kingdom against the treachery of Mordred. Throughout the poem we are taken inside the loss of both Guinevere and Lancelot to a love that proves only tragic and divisive for themselves and the "kindly Christendom" for which Arthur longs on his return. The tragedy and unfolding darkness however, is at times shot though with glimpses of the Christian splendour that Arthur had come home to defend.

Here we will find "dragon-prowed" ships bringing death and destruction, the "wolf" Mordred whose lust drives him to hunt the runaway Guinivere even to the "walls of Wales" and darkness haunting both sea and land as war simmers on the shores of the "holy realm" of Logres. But here also we will find the "holy crown" of King Arthur coming back to reclaim his kingdom with both might of arms but also a deep devotion to the Catholic faith, and specifically to the Virgin and Child, an image of which is emblazoned on his sails:

"at last returning   to his lost kingdom.
On his shrouds there shone   sheen with silver
A white lady   in holy arms
a babe bearing   born of maiden.
Sun shone through them.   The sea sparkled." (IV.126-129)

Men, says the narrator "marked it well" and "Mordred knew it". In an egalitarian age, this remarkable devotion to all that is tender, beautiful and life-giving seems out of place amidst the cry and hue of war. But Tolkien knew, I think, that the two are far from incompatible.

Tolkien's wonderful verse reminds us that we need to rediscover the purity of devotion and the love of all that is truly holy and good in our time. But equally, we need to rediscover a willingness to defend it, even at great personal cost.

Images: The Fall of Arthur, King Arthur with Virgin on Shield (14th C.), Madonna and Child by Ansano di Pietro di Mencio (15th C.).