Ill doom is mine To war against my people and my knights. The king who fights his people fights himself. 23. THO' MERLINE SWARE--AGAIN. Merlin was the great wizard of Arthur's court. In the allegorical view of the poem he typifies the intellect, or, in Tennyson's words: "the sceptical understanding." This prophecy concerning Arthur is again referred to in _The Coming of Arthur_: And Merlin in our time Hath spoken also, not in jest, and sworn, Though men may wound him, that he will not die, But pass and come again. This belief is common to all the Arthurian sources. Compare, for example, Wace's _Brut_: "Arthur, if the story lies not, was mortally wounded in the body: he had himself borne to Avalon to heal his wounds. There he is still; the Britons await him, as they say and understand . . . The prophet spoke truth, and one can doubt, and always will doubt whether he is dead or living." Dr. Sykes writes that, "The sleep of Arthur associates the British story with the similar stories of Charlemagne and Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, Brian in Ireland, Boabdil el Chico in Spain, etc." 27. EXCALIBUR. Arthur's magical sword. It is described in _The Coming of Arthur_, ll. 295 f., as: the sword That rose from out the bosom of the lake, And Arthur rowed across and took it--rich With jewels, elfin Urim, on the hilt, Bewildering heart and eye--the blade so bright That men are blinded by it--on one side, Graven in the oldest tongue of all this world, "Take me," but turn the blade and ye shall see, And written in the speech ye speak yourself, "Cast me away." It has been variously held that Excalibur typifies temporal authority, or spiritual power. The casting away of the sword, therefore, represents the inevitable change in which human things are involved, and even faith itself. Compare _Morte d'Arthur_, ll. 240-241. Magical weapons and enchanted armour are a portion of the equipment of almost all the great legendary heroes. Their swords and their horses usually bear distinctive names. Roland's sword was _Durandal_, and Charlemagne's was _Joyeuse_. 37. FLING HIM. The sword is viewed as possessing life. THE MIDDLE MERE. Compare a similar classical construction in Oenone, l. 10, topmost Gargarus. 53-55. THE WINTER MOON--HILT. The frosty air made the moonlight more than usually brilliant. 60. THIS WAY--MIND. An echo of Vergil's line, Aeneid, VIII. 20. _Atque animum nunc huc celerem, nunc dividit illuc_. "And he divides his swift mind now this way, now that."