Idylls of the King is a cycle of twelve narrative poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, published between 1859 and 1885. Drawing on medieval sources, particularly Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, it retells the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The work chronicles Arthur's rise from obscurity, his marriage to Guinevere, and the noble ideals of Camelot, before tracing its tragic collapse through betrayal, the forbidden love of Guinevere and Lancelot, and the quest for the Holy Grail. Tennyson employed the Arthurian myth as a Victorian allegory, exploring themes of duty, faith, moral weakness, and civilization's decline.
