Modern Interpretations
Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, were dedicated to the late Prince Albert and written over a period of twenty-five years. The final idyll of the epic twelve to be published, in Tiresias and other poems in 1885, was entitled by Tennyson "Balin and Balan". In this poem, King Arthur is concerned to help Balin to "control his violent tendencies". Algernon Charles Swinburne, in his Tale of Balen, published in 1896, "did not have to alter Malory's version of Balin's story very much to show how destiny governs human life.
The story of Sir Balin is recast in Douglas Carmichael's novel Pendragon, published in 1977. In The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White, the young Arthur meets two hawks called Balin and Balan.
Sir Balin could be the basis of Merlin's father Balinor in the BBC television series Merlin.
Read more about this topic: Sir Balin
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