There is a real sense of the elven magic and Arthurian romance in John William Waterhouse’s painting, “The Lady of Shallot,” which unites it aesthetically with Tennyson’s poem. It is other-worldly, suggestive of other-worlds beyond the merely mundane. It takes us out of ourselves to a realm beyond the confines of the ego. Such is the power of great art, uniting it with the power of prayer.
Revisiting the elven magic and Arthurian romance of nineteenth century neo-medievalism, which…