|
|
Round Table
The Round Table, a table made at Carduel, by Merlin, for Uther, the pendragon. Uther gave it to King Leodegraunce, of Camelyard, and when Arthur married Guinever (the daughter of Leodegraunce), he received the table with a hundred knights as a wedding present.
The table would seat 150 knights, and each seat was appropriated. One of them was called the “Siege Perilous,” because it was fatal for any one to sit therein, except the knight who was destined to achieve the Holy Graal. King Arthur instituted an order of knighthood called “the knights of the Round Table,” the chief of whom were Sir Launcelot, Sir Tristram, and Sir Lamerock, or Lamorake. The “Siege Perilous” was reserved for Sir Galahad, the son of Sir Launcelot by Elaine. Le Morte d'Arthur By Sir Thomas Malory.
The Round Table in Winchester Great Hall
| Mordrede (Mordred) | Galahallt (Galahad) |
| Alynore (Alymere) | Launcelot Deulake (Lancelot) |
| Lybyus Dysconyus (Le Bel Desconneu) |
Gauen (Gawain) |
| Brumear | Percyvale (Percival) |
| Degore | Lyonell (Lionell) |
Dagonet |
Trystram Delyens (Tristan) |
Ector de Marys (Ector) |
Garethe (Gareth) |
| Kay | Bedwere (Bedevere) |
| Pelleus (Pelleas) | Blubrys (Bleoberis) |
| Safer | Lacotemale Tayle (Cotemal) |
| Bors De Ganys (Bors) | Lucane (Lucan) |
| Lamorak | Plomyde (Palomides) |
There is a table shown at Winchester, as “Arthur’s Round Table,” but it corresponds in no respect with the Round Table described in Le Morte d'Arthur By Sir Thomas Malory. Round Tables are not unusual, as Dr. Percy has shown, with other kings in the times of chivalry. Thus, the king of Ireland, father of Christabelle, had his “knights of the Round Table.”—See “Sir Cauline,” in Percy’s Reliques.
In the eighth year of Edward I., Roger de Mortimer established
at Kenilworth, a Round Table for “the encouragement of
military pastimes.” Some seventy years later, Edward III.
had his Round Table at Windsor; it was 200 feet in
diameter.
"It is absolutely impossible to reconcile the many conflicting
accounts of how King Arthur's Round Table was obtained. One
report is that it was made by Merlin for Uther Pendragon; that
Uther gave it to King Leodegraunce of Cameliard; and that
Leodegraunce gave it as a wedding gift to Arthur when he married
his daughter, Guinevere. Malory confirmed this in his Book of the
Round Table and the Three Quests, when he put these words into
the mouth of the king "I love Guinevere, the King's daughter,
Leodegraunce, of the land of Cameliard, which holdeth in his
house the Table Round, that ye told he had of my father, Uther."
And Leodegraunce, when he heard of the projected marriage, said:
" He hath lands enough, he needeth none; but I shall send him a
gift that shall please him much more, for I shall give him the
Table Round, the which Uther Pendragon gave me; and, when it is
full complete, there is a hundred knights and fifty; and as for a
hundred good knights, I have myself, but I lack fifty, for so
many have been slain in my days." King Arthur received the Table
Round and the hundred knights, "which," he said, "please me more
than right great wishes."" The
Lost Land Of King Arthur By J. Cuming Walters
