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Definition of Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved directly or indirectly, by making... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the... read full definition
Book 1
Explanation and Analysis—Mordred's Banishment:
In Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 27, Arthur follows Merlin's advice to have all the children born around May-Day killed because one of them will grow up to destroy Arthur. This incident alludes to two Biblical stories, and it foreshadows Arthur's downfall at the end of the Book:
Merlin told King Arthur that he that should destroy him should be born in May-day, wherefore he sent for them all, upon pain of death; and so there were found many lords’ sons, [...] and all were put in a ship to the sea, and some were four weeks old, and some less.
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Explanation and Analysis—Ominous Dreams:
Ominous dreams are a motif throughout the book, and they usually foreshadow events to come. For example, in Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 13, the King with the Hundred Knights has a dream about the battle ahead:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The King with the Hundred Knights mette a wonder dream two nights afore the battle, that there blew a great wind, and blew down their castles and their towns, and after that came a water and bare it all away. All that heard of the sweven said it was a token of great battle.
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Book 3
Explanation and Analysis—Gawaine's Error:
In Volume 1, Book 3, Chapter 7, Gawaine's refusal to have mercy on a knight who killed his hounds leads him to accidentally behead the man's lover. This scene, laced with situational irony, foreshadows Gawaine's eventual role in the civil war that destroys the knights of the Round Table:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘Thou shalt die,’ said Sir Gawain, ‘for slaying of my hounds.’
‘I will make amends,’ said the knight, ‘unto my power.’
Sir Gawain would no mercy have but unlaced his helm to have stricken off his head. Right so came his lady out of a chamber and fell over him, and so he smote off her head by misadventure.
‘Alas,’ said Gaheris, ‘that is foul and shamefully done, that shame shall never from you; also ye should give mercy unto them that ask mercy, for a knight without mercy is without worship.’
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Book 5
Explanation and Analysis—Ominous Dreams:
Ominous dreams are a motif throughout the book, and they usually foreshadow events to come. For example, in Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 13, the King with the Hundred Knights has a dream about the battle ahead:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The King with the Hundred Knights mette a wonder dream two nights afore the battle, that there blew a great wind, and blew down their castles and their towns, and after that came a water and bare it all away. All that heard of the sweven said it was a token of great battle.
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Book 18
Explanation and Analysis—Discord Among Knights:
In Volume 2, Book 18, Chapter 25, the narrator comments on how love has changed since "King Arthur's days." This commentary foreshadows the book's ending, in which the brotherhood of the Round Table fractures and the world changes for good:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But nowadays men cannot love seven night but they must have all their desires: that love may not endure by reason; for where they be soon accorded and hasty, heat soon it cooleth. Right so fareth love nowadays, soon hot soon cold: this is no stability. But the old love was not so; men and women could love together seven years, and no licours lusts were between them, and then was love, truth, and faithfulness: and lo, in likewise was used love in King Arthur’s days.
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Book 19
Explanation and Analysis—Agravaine Lying in Wait:
Volume 2, Book 19, Chapter 13 (the last chapter in Book 19) ends peacefully, but it closes with a line that foreshadows the civil war that begins in Book 20:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But every night and day Sir Agravain, Sir Gawain’s brother, awaited Queen Guenever and Sir Launcelot du Lake to put them to a rebuke and shame.
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