But lift a shining hand against the sun,
There is not left the twinkle of a fin
Betwixt the cressy islets white in flower;
So, scared but at the motion of the man,
Fled all the boon companions of the Earl,
And left him lying in the public way."


In Balin and Balan Tennyson displays great constructive power, and
remarkable skill in moulding the most recalcitrant materials. Balin
or Balyn, according to Mr Rhys, is the Belinus of Geoffrey of
Monmouth, "whose name represents the Celtic divinity described in
Latin as Apollo Belenus or Belinus." {14} In Geoffrey, Belinus,
euphemerised, or reduced from god to hero, has a brother, Brennius,
the Celtic Bran, King of Britain from Caithness to the Humber.
Belinus drives Bran into exile. "Thus it is seen that Belinus or
Balyn was, mythologically speaking, the natural enemy" (as Apollo
Belinus, the radiant god) "of the dark divinity Bran or Balan."

If this view be correct, the two brothers answer to the good and bad
principles of myths like that of the Huron Iouskeha the Sun, and
Anatensic the Moon, or rather Taouiscara and Iouskeha, the hostile
brothers, Black and White. {15} These mythical brethren are, in
Malory, two knights of Northumberland, Balin the wild and Balan.
Their adventures are mixed up with a hostile Lady of the Lake, whom
Balin slays in Arthur's presence, with a sword which none but Balin
can draw from sheath; and with an evil black-faced knight Garlon,
invisible at will, whom Balin slays in the castle of the knight's
brother, King Pellam. Pursued from room to room by Pellam, Balin
finds himself in a chamber full of relics of Joseph of Arimathea.