The Fall of Arthur

Canto I

1–9	On King Arthur’s campaign into eastern regions see here.
21	fanes: temples.
33	at last embayed (a pencilled correction of embayed and leaguered): No such meaning of a verb embay* is recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary, but the sense is obviously ‘brought to bay’.*
44–50	Knights of the Round Table. Lionel and Ector (on whom see here), Bors and Blamore, were kinsmen of Lancelot: Ector was his younger brother. Bedivere is only named here in The Fall of Arthur, but he would no doubt have played a part in the aftermath of the battle of Camlan, if my father had reached so far in his narrative (see here). Marrac and Meneduc and Errac are named in the alliterative Morte Arthure among the slain at Camlan. Reged was the name of a forgotten kingdom in North Britain. Urien king of Reged and his son Iwain (Ówein) seem to have been in origin historical kings, who became famous in the wars of the North Britons against the Angles in the sixth century. Several of these knights appear in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Lionel, Bors, Bedivere, Errac, Iwain son of Urien (in my father’s translation, stanzas 6 and 24).
51	Cador the hasty: my father wrote fearless but later pencilled in hasty above. One might suppose that in making this change he was thinking of the incident described by Geoffrey of Monmouth, when the letter from the Emperor Lucius was read (see here). Geoffrey called Cador, Duke of Cornwall, a ‘merry’ man (erat laeti animi): he burst out laughing on that occasion, urging that the Roman challenge be welcomed, for the Britons had become soft and slothful. In Laȝamon’s Brut (see here) Cador declared For nauere ne lufede ich longe grið inne mine londe (‘for never loved I long peace in my land’), and for this he was roundly rebuked by Gawain. But in The Fall of Arthur (I.36–8) it was Gawain who was for battle eager, in idle ease the evil seeing that had rent asunder the Round Table.
130	forwandered: wearied with wandering.
145	Cradoc: see here.
160	Wild blow the winds of war in Britain!: see here.
167	Lochlan: the name of a land in Irish legend, here it seems suggesting a remote people hostile to Arthur; it is repeated in IV.204.
168	Almain: Germany; Angel: the ancient homeland of the Angles in the Danish peninsula.
185, 191–2	Ban’s kindred: King Ban of Benwick in France was the father of Sir Lancelot; see here.
203–4	From the Forest’s margin / to the Isle of Avalon: see here.

Canto II

12	mort: the note blown on a horn at the death of a hunted deer.
27	Guinever: my father’s spelling of the Queen’s name was very various. Guinever preponderates, but in the latest text of Canto II, while Guinever appears at lines 27, 135, and 143, it is Guinevere at 194 and 211; and in the text preceding the last the spellings are Guinevere, Gwenevere, Gwenever.
50	the dungeon-stair: dungeon is here used in the old sense of the keep or great central tower of a medieval castle.
52–3	Time is spared us / too short for shrift. In the earliest version of the canto the text here reads The sea spares us / a shrift too short (see here). The original meaning of ‘short shrift’ was a short space of time in which to make a confession (shrift) before death; hence, a brief respite. Cf. II.68 shrift he sought not.
80	Whitesand: Wissant in the Pas-de-Calais, between Calais and Boulogne.
86	On the waves they wait and the wind’s fury: i.e. they wait until the waves and the wind abate.
101	Logres: the kingdom of Britain ruled by King Arthur.
107–8	Erin: Ireland; Alban: Scotland; East-Sassoin: East Saxony. For Almain and Angel see note to I.168.
198, 202–3	Leodegrance: King of Camiliard in Wales, father of Guinevere. The mention of the Round Table at line 203 is a reference to the legend that it was made for Uther Pendragon, Arthur’s father. In Malory’s Tale of King Arthur Leodegrance learned of Merlin that Arthur wished to have Guinevere for his wife: ‘That is to me,’ seyde kyng Leodegreauns, ‘the beste tydynges that ever I herde, that so worthy a kyng of prouesse and noblesse wol wedde my doughter. And as for my londis, I wolde geff hit hym yf I wyste hyt myght please hym, but he hath londis inow, he nedith none. But I shall sende hym a gyffte that shal please hym muche more, for I shall gyff hym the Table Rounde which Uther, hys fadir, gaff me.’

Canto III

7	On Benwick’s beaches: see note to I.185.
29	Gold was Gawain, gold as sunlight. Gawain is again likened to the sun later in the poem (III.177–9, ‘the westering sun’; IV.223–4, ‘the star of noon’), and ‘a sun rising’ was sewn on the sail of his ship (IV.142). But there is no reference to his strength increasing towards noon and then declining, which was an important element in the story of the siege of Benwick, where Lancelot wounded him grievously when his strength waned (see here).
55–6	These lines are a closely similar repetition of II.28–9, and reappear in the same form in another text where they are put into the mouth of Sir Lionel (see here). Their earliest appearance is in the third synopsis, see here.
62	steel well-tempered: these words have been applied to Lancelot in line 26 of this canto. In the manuscript as written the reading was Strong oaths she broke, changed in pencil to they broke; see here.
68.	For the story here briefly suggested see see here.
69–70	Agravain the dour-handed translates Agravain a la dure mayn (as he is called in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, line 110), using dour in its old sense ‘hard’.
82–3	Gaheris and Gareth: see here.
86	Here and in line 156 the word battle is used in the sense ‘battle array’.
89	ruth: remorse.
100	little liked her: little pleased her.
104	bewrayed: betrayed.
122	siege: seat.
140–2	These lines are a repetition of 15–16, 18 in this canto.
148	the Lord of Logres: King Arthur.

Canto IV

29	fewte: the track of a hunted animal. The word occurs in the accounts of the hunts in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as for example Summe fel in þe fute þer þe fox bade, in my father’s translation (stanza 68) Some [of the hounds] fell on the line to where the fox was lying.
41	Romeril: Romney in Kent (see here).
43	A partial repetition of II.108.
68	Leodegrance: see note to II.198.
98–9	the fair lily on the field sable: see note to IV.134.
126	sheen: bright, shining.
126–8	According to Geoffrey of Monmouth there was painted on the inside of Arthur’s shield Prydwen (see note to IV.186) an image of the Virgin Mary, so that he might never cease to think of her; and in the alliterative Morte Arthure the chief of Arthur’s banners before the great sea-battle is thus described: Bot thare was chosen in the chefe a chalkewhitte mayden and a childe in hir arme, that chefe es of hevynne. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the same is told of Sir Gawain, who on account of his devotion to Mary had (in my father’s translation, Stanza 28) on the inner side of his shield her image depainted, that when he cast his eyes thither his courage never failed.
134	flower-de-luce, or fleur-de-lys, the heraldic lily, the banner of Benwick (132); cf. IV.98, the fair lily on the field sable [of Ban’s kindred], and IV.158, Lancelot with his lilies came not.
144	a fiery griffon. The emblem of a griffon (a beast with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion) is ascribed to Gawain’s arms in the alliterative Morte Arthure (a gryffoune of golde: see here); and in notes for the continuation of the poem beyond the point reached (see here) it is said that his shield bore the image of a griffon.
146	vaward: vanguard.
150	deep weighed dromonds and drawn barges. The word dromonds occurs in the account of the sea-battle in the alliterative Morte Arthure, where Arthur’s fleet included dromowndes and dragges. In the Oxford English Dictionary, where this line is cited, dromond is glossed ‘a very large medieval ship’, while drag here is defined as ‘a float or raft for the conveyance of goods’.
154	targes: shields.
186	Prydwen was the name given to Arthur’s shield by Geoffrey of Monmouth (see note to IV.126-8), followed by Laȝamon in the Brut (see here) but in early Welsh poetry it was the name of his ship, as here.
210	roke: mist.

Canto V

26	trewage: tribute, toll.