"Tramples on the goodly shield to show
His loathing of our Order and the Queen."


They fight, fatally wound, and finally recognise each other: Balan
trying to restore Balin's faith in Guinevere, who is merely slandered
by Garlon and Vivien. Balin acknowledges that his wildness has been
their common bane, and they die, "either locked in either's arms."

There is nothing in Malory, nor in any other source, so far as I am
aware, which suggested to Tennyson the clou of the situation--the use
of Guinevere's crown as a cognisance by Balin. This device enables
the poet to weave the rather confused and unintelligible adventures
of Balin and Balan into the scheme, and to make it a stage in the
progress of his fable. That Balin was reckless and wild Malory bears
witness, but his endeavours to conquer himself and reach the ideal
set by Lancelot are Tennyson's addition, with all the tragedy of
Balin's disenchantment and despair. The strange fantastic house of
Pellam, full of the most sacred things,


"In which he scarce could spy the Christ for Saints,"


yet sheltering the human fiend Garlon, is supplied by Malory, whose
predecessors probably blended more than one myth of the old Cymry
into the romance, washed over with Christian colouring. As Malory
tells this part of the tale it is perhaps more strange and effective
than in the Idyll. The introduction of Vivien into this adventure is
wholly due to Tennyson: her appearance here leads up to her triumph