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Starting with an analysis of Smith’s poem Glastonbury, included in the posthumously published collection A Spring Harvest and introduced by Tolkien, this chapter examines the differing ways in which the two authors engage with the themes and settings of the Matter of Britain. While Smith’s poem preserves the mystical, almost visionary quality of the legends surrounding King Arthur, his knights, and the Isle of Avalon (identified with Glastonbury itself), Tolkien’s alliterative poem The Fall of Arthur—begun in the 1930s but never completed—strips the tradition of its fairy-tale elements, recasting it as a narrative driven by human agency and the unfolding of historical events. Tolkien’s implicit rejection of Christian doctrine in this context stands in contrast to Smith’s poem, which ends with a clear declaration of Christian faith.

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From the ‘Dawns’ to the ‘Tides of Time’: Smith and Tolkien in the Mists of Glastonbury Legends

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年

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  • Federica Calabrese

摘要

Starting with an analysis of Smith’s poem Glastonbury, included in the posthumously published collection A Spring Harvest and introduced by Tolkien, this chapter examines the differing ways in which the two authors engage with the themes and settings of the Matter of Britain. While Smith’s poem preserves the mystical, almost visionary quality of the legends surrounding King Arthur, his knights, and the Isle of Avalon (identified with Glastonbury itself), Tolkien’s alliterative poem The Fall of Arthur—begun in the 1930s but never completed—strips the tradition of its fairy-tale elements, recasting it as a narrative driven by human agency and the unfolding of historical events. Tolkien’s implicit rejection of Christian doctrine in this context stands in contrast to Smith’s poem, which ends with a clear declaration of Christian faith.