Idylls of the King Resources
WEBSITES
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This one's got it all: links to articles by literary scholars about the social and historical context of the Idylls, as well as interpretive essays, a Tennyson biography, and more.
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A fun, accessible, and detailed Tennyson bio should do the trick if you're hungry for info.
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Hungry to read it from cover to cover? You're in luck, as each and every one of the Idylls is available on Google Books.
MOVIE OR TV PRODUCTIONS
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This classic film is based on the 1960 musical of the same name. Shmoop promises: it's a delight.
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This fairly straightforward retelling of the story is light on the detail, of course.
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Richard Gere plays Lancelot to Sean Connery’s Arthur in this film, which focuses only on the love triangle aspect of the story. High on drama, low on historical accuracy.
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This is a fairly recent version of the story of star-crossed lovers Tristan (a.k.a. Tristram) and Isolde (a.k.a. Isolt), starring James Franco. Need we say more?
HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
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Here’s an e-text of Sir Thomas Malory’s 15th-century Morte d’Arthur, the book upon which much of Tennyson Idylls is based.
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More Morte? Shmoop's got you covered.
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Here's another of Tennyson’s sources for the Idylls.
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The 1859 edition features the first four Idylls to be published: Enid, Vivien, Guinevere, and Elaine.
AUDIO
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A cast of British actors performed the entire Idylls for the BBC. The entire thing. Here's part one.
IMAGES
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Tennyson’s fellow Victorian medievalist J.W. Waterhouse did a number of paintings based on the story of Elaine of Astolat and the Tennyson poem “The Lady of Shalott.”
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Here's another by the late, great J.W. Waterhouse. This one's our fave.
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The title says it all, no?
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The hat is simply the icing on this Victorian cake.