Vivien, from "The Idylls of the King"
After (?) Sir Edward Burne-Jones British
(?) Kelmscott Press British
Related author Alfred Tennyson British
Not on view
A woman with flowing garments walks through a wood, with text below tying the image to Tennyson's "Idlylls of the King," a poetic retelling of the story of Vivien and Merlin from Arthurian legend. There, King Mark of Cornwall sends his lover Vivien to Camelot to disrupt the court where she feigns love for Merlin, hoping to persuade him to share his secrets. After they travel to France, Merlin relents and, when he fallis asleep under a hollow oak tree, Vivien uses magic to trap and make him invisible, effectively ending his life.
