"The Lady of Shallott" troubles

[Starlight]

I'm writing an essay on the Lady of Shallott as a fairy tale and am having a bit of trouble finding info. Can anyone give some insight?

:confused: :huh: :confused: :huh:

[Theres]

have you tried looking up Alfred Lord Tennyson?
it was he that wrote the poem 'The Lady of Shallot'. this is also a common subject among the pre-Rafaelite artists, with no less than five different interpretations of the story being painted by them, including two by J.W Waterhouse.
and, of course, there's the version that Loreena McKennitt set to music.

[Danustouch]

I think she's asking more for the story of who the Lady of Shallot is. Wasn't she Elaine? The woman married to Lancelot, even though he was in Love with Guinevere. And she died from love for him?

[Azure]

No. Elaine of Astolet was the wife of Launcelot and the mother of Galahad. She loved him, he didn't love her. There are variations on the story, some in which she dies and others in which she betrays Launcelot and Guinevere because she is bitterly jealous.


The Lady of Shallott was a witch who lived on an island weaving a tapestry which tells what's going on in the world. She can see things away from the island through a magic mirror, but she is under a curse - if she ever leaves the island, she will die. One day she sees Launcelot in the mirror and falls hopelessly in love with him. She begins to go mad, longing for him, and eventually sets out in a boat towards Camelot, but dies of a broken heart before she gets there. Launcelot finds her on the shore, and notices how beautiful she is, but it's too late. The irony is the might-have-been is she had lived and he had loved her instead of the queen.

I'll try to post links to pictures.

[Azure]

Go here:
http://www.artmagick.com/Themes/Theme11.aspx

For links to all the Victorian paintings and drawings. There should be about 20.

[Danustouch]

Thanks, Azure. I got confused because I believe (if I'm remembering correctly), in the Mists of Avalon, Elaine kills herself. Or maybe it was in the Guinevere trilogy (can't remember the author). Anyway..one of these series wove the two stories of Lady of Shallot, and Elaine together.

[StarryDancer]

Yes indeed, I had always associated the Lady of Shallot with Elaine, but couldn't tell you where I got the notion from. I've read so many different versions of the Arthurian legends, I couldn't tell you Galahad from Gawain any more. But I love your version, Azure! And it sound more like what Starlite was looking for. Though the various associations with the Arthurian legends would be an interesting study in itself...!

[Azure]

Eh, I have a masters in medieval English lit in the closet somewhere. Got it at the same time as my theatre one, thinking that it might at least be marketable (ha!)

I have to be at the theatre tonight, but if you need more help, I'll be happy to look for more source material for you tomorrow.

[Starlight]

Thanx everyone for the info and suggestions! I think I cna write a decent essay now! :D

Oh and I was told that The Lady Of Shallot didn't actually physically die, Only metaphorically(sp?) Anyone else hear that? :huh:

[Azure]

Well, "death" in medieval literature is slang for orgasm. . . just so you know. So all that poetry that says "o! Let me die for love" may not mean what you thought it means.

The Victorians were pretty aware of that, and given their repressive sexuality, sex and death were always issues that tied together - there's a whole school of thought on the paintings of the Lady of Shallot and the idea of a Victorian "cult" of fantasy - the dead sexualized woman. She, and Ophelia, and Juliet and so on - all these beautiful women who are sexually active or aware - and likewise, end up dead. It's sort of a twisted version of pornography. The punishment for lack of purity is death. . . Go to the link above, go to the artist's page, and just start looking at the sheer number of sexy dead people. . . The alternative in the witch - the living sexual woman, who is a user and manipulator of men - Keat's Belle Dame Sans Merci, Morgan le Fey, Circe, Lamia, etc. you'll find them there too.

All Tennyson's women end up dead. He really doesn't like women.


Earliest reference I can specifically find for an Elaine is in the Morte D'Arthur (15th century) at the beginning, where she is actually one of the daughters of Gorlois and Ygraine, between Morgawse and Morgan le Fey, and she gets married off to King Nentres when Uther marries Ygraine.

I'll really look this afternoon for something.

[Azure]

here's Mallory's other Elaine and the tie to the Elaine poem by Tennyson on the same art site, so it's got pictures. This is the sad, dead Elaine, as opposed to the meaner one that would come later.

So far as I know, Mallory invented Elaine.

http://www.artmagick.com/gallery/Maidens/elaine.aspx

(For those who don't know, Sir Thomas Mallory wrote the Morte d'Arthur, or "Death of Arthur" in the 15th century. He was an English knight, in prison for raping a nun. . . although even consensual sex with a nun was considered rape at that time, and he was a political prisoner, so we really don't know if he was a big nasty or not).

[StarryDancer]

Gads, Azure, you are a bundle of interesting information! Sounds like you could make Medieval lit really fun and interesting. If you ever have the fancy to do so, you could try suggesting a course at the local Community College.

[Azure]

Thanks. I've always wanted to teach a really good Arthurian survey course. Start with Gildas and Bede and go all the way through the way contemporary authors like Jack Whyte or Diana Paxon deal with the story.

I am a font of generally useless, but cool knowledge. . .

[Azure]

Okay, went and checked my Tennyson. hadn't read any of his poems in a while. Now I understand the confusion. Tennyson does combine the two stories, and make Elaine the Lily Maid of Astolet into the Lady of Shallott - which sort of has different origins as a story.

This makes sense now. Just needed to look at the poems themselves to confirm that. Should have done that last night.

I have never been fond of what Tennyson does to women, as I said above.

Does anyone remember "Anne of Green Gables" when Anne decides she's going to play being dead Elaine, and lies down in a row boat that promptly sinks with her in it, while Gilbert and the others try to "save" her?

[Azure]

me again.

I'm looking, but right now, the major difference I find between the Lady of Shallott story and the Elaine story (the original is also contained in Mallory, did I mention that?) is that Elaine, while in her tower, asks her body be placed in a boat AFTER she dies and be sent down river to Camelot, while the Lady of Shallott is still alive when she starts out, but dies en route.