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Siege Perilous
The Siege Perilous. The Round Table contained sieges for 150 knights, but three of them were “reserved.” Of these, two were posts of honor, but the third was reserved for him who was destined to achieve the quest of the Holy Graal. This seat was called “perilous,” because if any one sat therein, except he for whom it was reserved, it would be his death. Every seat of the table bore the name of its rightful occupant, in letters of gold, and the name on the “Siege Perilous” was Sir Galahad, son of Sir Launcelot and Elaine.
Said Merlin, “There shall no man sit in the two void
places but they that shall be of most worship. But in the Siege
Perilous there shall no man sit but one, and if any other be so
hardy as to do it, he shall be destroyed.”—. Then the
old man made Sir Galahad unarm; and he put on him a coat of red
sandel, with a mantel upon his shoulder furred with fine ermines
... and he brought him unto the Siege Perilous, when he sat
beside Sir Launcelot. And the good old man lifted up the cloth,
and found there these words written: The Siege Of Sir Galahad.
Le
Morte d'Arthur By Sir Thomas Malory. Book
XIII
"By the deftness of the chroniclers the symbolism of the Round Table becomes slightly intermixed with the symbolism of the Grail quest, Sir Galahad, the perfect knight who could sit in the Siege Perilous, being the only knight who could be blessed with the vision of the Holy Grail." The Lost Land Of King Arthur By J. Cuming Walters. Chapter VI
‘Then came a year of miracle: O brother,
In our great hall there stood a vacant chair,
Fashioned by Merlin ere he past away,
And carven with strange figures; and in and out
The figures, like a serpent, ran a scroll
Of letters in a tongue no man could read.
And Merlin called it “The Siege perilous,”
Perilous for good and ill; “for there,” he said,
“No man could sit but he should lose himself:”
And once by misadvertence Merlin sat
In his own chair, and so was lost; but he,
Galahad, when he heard of Merlin’s doom,
Cried, “If I lose myself, I save myself!”
Idylls of
the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The
Holy Grail
