The Knights of the Round Table Read online

  Arriving before a brilliant white pavilion standing beside a priory, the dwarf announced to Tor that the hound would be found inside. Tor dismounted and approached the tent; lifting the flap he saw four ladies sleeping, and at the feet of the most distinguished of the ladies lay the very white hound he searched for. As it saw him, the hound leapt to its feet and started to bark.

  Tor grabbed the hound and bundled it into the arms of his dwarf at the very same time as the ladies awoke. He hastily explained that he had been instructed to fetch the dog by his king, Arthur, and rode away quickly with the hound across the dwarf’s saddle.

  A short distance away, a knight blocked their path. It was Abelleus, the knight who had dashed from the wedding feast carrying the dog. Abelleus approached, shouting for Tor to yield and return the hound to the white pavilion. Tor refused.

  The two knights charged at one another. Both were thrown from their saddle at the crunching impact of lance on shield. They arose lightly and drew their swords as eagerly as lions, hammering each other in a duel that raged for many hours. Finally, Abelleus’ battered helmet fell to the ground and its owner fell with it. Tor stood over him, deciding what to do next.

  In that brief lull, an unknown lady rode up. She begged Tor to grant her one wish: the head of Abelleus, who had cut down her brother in murderously cold blood.

  Abelleus struggled to his feet, threw down his sword, and attempted to run from Tor. Without thinking and with the lady’s request in his mind, Tor wildly swung his sword at his fleeing foe and cleaved his head into two parts. The lady thanked him, and Tor, his dwarf, and the white hound continued their journey back to Camelot.

  Pellinor left Camelot at the same time as Tor and Gawain. So eager was he to fetch the kidnapped lady back to Arthur that he vowed that nothing would distract him. Riding through the forest beyond Camelot, he passed a lady sitting under a tree, cradling a dead knight in her arms. She wept miserably and cried out for help, but he did not tarry as she was not the lady he had been asked to rescue.

  Riding on, Pellinor entered a valley. There stood two pavilions, and outside them fought two knights on foot, one of whom he recognized as the kidnapper of the lady he sought. And then he saw that she too stood by the pavilion. Pellinor spurred his horse forward and pushed between the two knights, forcing their duel to pause. Pellinor announced that the lady must return with him to Camelot. One of the knights, Meliot of Logres, told Pellinor that the lady was his cousin and he fought to rescue her; the other, Hontzlake of Wentland, lied aloud that he had won her by force of arms at the court of Arthur. Pellinor drew himself up in his saddle and told both men that the lady must go with him.

  GUINEVERE

  Guinevere was Arthur’s first and only queen. In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae she is of Roman blood, raised by Cador of Cornwall. In later legend she is the daughter of King Leodegrance, and when she and Arthur marry, her father’s wedding gift to the king is the Round Table. Although she loves Arthur, she has a secret love of Lancelot, which eventually leads to the downfall of the Order of the Round Table and Arthur’s reign as Pendragon. Heartbroken by the ensuing civil war, Guinevere ends her days as a nun.

  A colourful depiction of knights jousting with ladies watching on in the background. Arthurian jousts often resulted in the riders being unhorsed and fighting on foot with sword and shield until one combatant became exhausted and allowed his guard to drop. (Alamy)

  As Pellinor spoke, Hontzlake drove his sword into Pellinor’s horse, which fell dead. Pellinor responded by removing that knight’s head with a single blow. Turning to Meliot, he realized that the lady’s defender was badly wounded. The injured knight asked Pellinor to protect his cousin by returning her to Arthur’s court, and this they did, leaving Meliot at an abbey so that his wounds could be dressed.

  A colourful depiction of Arthurian knights in battle, from the 15th-century French Livre de Messire Lancelot du Lac. (Bridgeman)

  Traveling back to Camelot, Pellinor and his companion passed the lady who sat cradling the dead knight in her arms. She too had died by now, of grief, and Pellinor continued his journey back to Camelot having succeeded in his quest.

  When the three knights returned to Camelot, Arthur and his new queen Guinevere sat in judgment, listening to each knight’s adventures. They decided that Gawain had acted in haste but not with evil intent; he was allowed to go unpunished, but swore to protect women from that time henceforth, wherever he travelled. Tor was praised for returning with the white hound, but chastised for the death of Abelleus, killed at the request of a vengeful lady. Pellinor should not have refused help to a lady in need … and as Arthur told him this, the king beckoned Merlin forward with a further announcement.

  The all-knowing Merlin explained that the lady who died cradling the wounded knight was Pellinor’s daughter. He had not recognized her, as for many years he had never returned home, instead hunting a magical creature known as the Questing Beast. His daughter had grown up as a stranger to him, but lived happily with her lover until Hontzlake of Wentland slew him. Merlin explained that Pellinor had at least avenged his daughter, even though he did not intervene to save her.

  The first quest of the Round Table had ended with some success and some failure; the well-intentioned misdeeds of these three knights were retold to each new member of the Order of the Round Table from that day on, ensuring that Arthur’s knights would act with honour and chivalry forever more.

  Gawain and his brother Gaheris charge into combat against Ablamor of the Marsh, on the Quest of the White Hart. Sadly, the hart lies dead before them and dishonour lies ahead of them. Gawain and Gaheris wear variations of the Orkney coat of arms belonging to their father King Lot, as shown in D’Armagnac Armoral; in Gawain and the Green Knight, the hero’s coat of arms is described differently, as a yellow pentangle on a red background.

  * * *

  The First Quest of the Round Table was popularized in Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, introducing the core concepts of Arthurian knighthood in one succinct story. As the events take place at Arthur’s wedding, this adventure is the first time that the Order of the Round Table gather to serve their king. The three questing knights misjudge the situations they are in as they enthusiastically strive to carry out their king’s command. Arthur and Guinevere’s judgment on the knights at the end of the quest lays down some of the key values of chivalry: many Arthurian stories were as educational as they were entertaining.

  The actions of the story’s other characters also carry messages about the correct behaviour expected of a knight: the knights who attack Gawain and Gaheris nobly agree to release the brothers at the request of a lady; the same four knights are appalled by Gawain’s bloody behaviour (a timely reminder of knighthood’s moral code); and Felot and Petipace do as they are commanded by Tor, travelling unguarded to serve Arthur (as does Ablamor of the Marsh under Gawain’s instruction).

  King Pellinor (also known as Pellinore) was the King of the Isles, possibly alluding to the Scottish western isles or Anglesey off the coast of north Wales. He was most famous for his ceaseless but fruitless hunt of the Questing Beast (a strange creature with the head and neck of a snake, the body of a leopard, the rear of a lion, and the feet of a hart… and a noise emitted from its belly that sounded like 30 pairs of hunting dogs), although later versions of the tale replace him with the Saracen knight Palamedes. However, Pellinor should equally be remembered as the duelling knight who broke Arthur’s Sword in the Stone when they first met… ultimately leading the king to seek a replacement in the form of Excalibur. After first being cast into a deep sleep by Merlin to end the duel, Pellinor served Arthur faithfully. Pellinor is a major character in the post-Vulgate Cycle and in Malory’s reworking of those stories. In the musical Camelot, ‘Pelly’ is a comical character, who shows disdain for Arthur’s idealistic approach to kingship.

  In his earliest appearances, Tor is named as the son of a shepherd or cowherd; the post-Vulgate Cycle and Malory explain that h
e was the natural son of Pellinor, who forced himself onto Tor’s mother before she later married a cowherd. Tor’s royal lineage is revealed by Merlin when the boy arrives at Camelot. Towards the end of Arthur’s reign, Guinevere is ordered to burn at the stake for her affair with Lancelot: Tor and his brother Aglovale are killed when Lancelot rides to her rescue.

  BALIN: THE KNIGHT WITH TWO SWORDS

  As she spoke, she dropped her cloak to the floor, revealing a well-crafted sword hanging from her waist in a scabbard. The task of the good knight she sought was to remove the sword from this scabbard. She had been cursed to wear it by the Lady of the Lake, the same faerie enchantress who had gifted another sword – the fabled blade Excalibur – to Arthur when he was crowned Pendragon. Ethereal and above all mysterious, not even the great wizard Merlin always understood the motives behind the Lady of the Lake’s actions, including the curse bestowed upon Arthur’s latest visitor.

  As she stood displaying the scabbarded sword, the lady explained that this blade had brought her great misery; the removal of the sword from the scabbard by a worthy knight would end the enchantment and set her free.

  Arthur moved forward to clasp the sword. First pulling gently and then with all his strength, he was unable to remove it from the scabbard. Pulling at his hardest, he managed to lift the lady from her feet and she begged him not to try so hard. Arthur stepped back and gestured to his knights; one at a time, led by Arthur’s strong-arm nephew Gawain and Arthur’s stepbrother Kay, each of the knights attempted to remove the sword. Each failed and the lady became ever more distressed.

  ‘The damsel warns Sir Balin.’ Despite several chances to change the course of his adventure, Balin was fated to stumble continually into further woe. By HJ Ford.

  Watching from the side of the hall was Balin. This young knight from the North did not lack bravery and nor did he lack the confidence to step forward, but he was newly released from captivity and out of favour in court. His crime had been to slay a cousin of Arthur, a miserable event indicative of the bad luck and hot head that accompanied Balin throughout his service as a knight. He watched with interest as each of Arthur’s great knights tried and failed to remove the sword, and finally looking around the hall, he realized that he was the only one who had not yet tried. Thinking that his luck might change if he could prove his worth to Arthur, Balin asked to try the sword’s hilt in an effort to show that he was a passingly good knight.

  THE LADY OF THE LAKE

  The Lady of the Lake (also known as: Argante; Vivien; Nimue; Nineve) is best known as the kindly enchantress who gave Arthur the sword Excalibur, and as the magical underwater ruler who raised Lancelot and trained him as a skilled swordsman. Chrétien de Troyes explained that Lancelot was raised by a faerie queen and Ulrich von Zatzikhoven described her as living as a mermaid in an enchanted realm under the sea.

  Elsewhere in Arthurian legend, she is a powerful enchantress who seals Merlin into a cave (or a tree, tomb, or tower), removing Arthur’s most valued advisor from his court. Despite this, she also assists Arthur by saving him from a knight named Accolon (whom Morgan le Fay has presented with Excalibur in order to kill the king) and at another time by preventing him from putting on a cloak that would kill him (in another dastardly plot by Morgan). In the story of Balin she is killed when trying to reclaim her sword, although she is later one of the Ladies of Avalon who ferries the mortally wounded Arthur away to be healed after his final battle at Camlann. Tennyson removes her ambiguity and uses her as the epitome of evil, comparing her to a serpent.

  These conflicting accounts and the variety of names for this sorceress cause confusion. The reality seems to be that there is more than one Lady of the Lake; it appears that ‘Lady of the Lake’ is a title for the faerie queen, whose identity changes during Arthur’s reign and in stories by different authors.

  Both Arthur and the lady nodded their agreement, and to everyone’s surprise – Balin’s most of all – the sword glided easily out of the scabbard and the triumphant young knight held it aloft for all to see.

  The lady smiled and brightened, but her delight was short lived as Balin refused to return the sword to her. Enchanted by its beauty and the unimaginable quality of the gleaming blade, Balin’s chivalry deserted him. The lady broke into tears and fled the Great Hall with a parting warning that the blade would bring sorrow to any who used it.

  Arthur turned to Balin to command him to return the sword, but before he spoke a chill descended on the hall and, preceded by a rolling low mist, the Lady of the Lady rode in on a shimmering white horse and floated gracefully from her mount to stand before Balin. Sometimes she acted for good, and sometimes for ill, but the sorceress was always welcomed at Camelot as Arthur’s patron and sword-giver. Her celestial voice demanded the head of the knight who stood before her holding a sword that had been stolen from her. Her hand threw arcane gestures in the direction of Balin.

  Balin’s temper flared and he charged toward the faerie enchantress. Before anyone present in the Great Hall could stop him, he swung the sword in a power-charged arc and severed her head from her body. Crumpling to the floor as her mist dissipated from the hall, the Lady of the Lake instantaneously died in a lake of her own blood and Balin fled Camelot in panic, carrying both his own sword and the cursed sword stolen from the Lady of the Lake. Balin was now the Knight with Two Swords.

  The court of Camelot was in shock and as Arthur stood in stunned silence over the Lady of the Lake’s body, an Irish knight named Launceor rode out from the castle’s gates. He was incensed at Balin’s actions and the dishonour he had bestowed upon Arthur’s court.

  In a short time, he caught up with Balin and cried out a challenge. Balin turned his horse, and riding at full tilt towards his challenger, cut Launceor from his horse with the cursed sword. As so often happened Balin’s temper rose, and he dismounted and strode towards his prone, dying enemy. At that very moment, a noble lady rode up and shouted that Balin had killed two hearts with his cursed blow.

  As she said this, she drew a dagger and swung it at Balin shouting that Launceor was her lover. She had followed behind the Irish knight from Camelot and had witnessed his final duel. Calmer than before, Balin disarmed her and threw her to the ground to subdue her. As he turned back to Launceor, he heard a cry and spun round just in time to see the lady throw herself onto Balin’s other sword. The lady died at the same moment as Launceor’s wound gave way to death. Surrounded by death, Balin felt remorse.

  Balin headed away from Camelot, living as an outcast and questing to redeem the wrongs he had caused. His heart full of regret, for he was not a wicked knight when calm, he headed north thinking that he might return to his homeland, and by chance met his brother Balan on the road. Balan listened to the ill fate that his brother had caused, and suggested that they ride together to defeat one of Arthur’s greatest enemies: King Ryons of Wales. By doing so they hoped that Arthur would grant Balin forgiveness.

  The brothers were formidable in battle, and the three swords of these two knights defeated King Ryons and 60 of his knights. With Balin’s sword at his throat, Ryons swore allegiance to Arthur and surrendered himself at Camelot naming Balin as his conqueror. Some time later, as Arthur battled against the rebellious King Lot at Castle Tarabil, Balin and Balan fought beside their king and saved his life during the ferocious melee. Arthur accepted Balin back to Camelot, but remained wary of such an ill-fated knight. Having aided his brother’s return to Arthur’s court, Balan bade him farewell and the two knights went their separate ways.

  Balin was determined to further redeem himself to Arthur, and travelled across Logres seeking misdeeds to set right. In all battles he was victorious, and he dissuaded a knight named Garnish of the Mount from killing himself after the desolate knight had beheaded the woman he loved in a jealous fury. Far from Camelot his path took him to a roadside cross, upon which was engraved: ‘No knight alone must ride toward this castle.’

  A maiden appeared on the track and advised Balin to t
urn back, but as she did so a horn blew in the distance: the signal of a knight’s challenge. Balin would not refuse this. Following the path, Balin arrived at a small castle standing beside a river, and from its gates emerged the lady of the castle. Balin was welcomed into the castle and joined his hostess and a company of knights and ladies at a feast. When the feast ended the lady of the castle announced that he must now joust against a knight who waited on an island in the river, for no knight could feast at her castle without challenging him.

  Balin agreed. His horse was weary but his heart was strong, and a worthy knight could not decline this customary joust. Looking at his armour, battered from so many hard-fought adventures, a knight at the feast took pity on him and offered him a fresh shield. With this new coat of arms, he rode down to the river and crossed to the island where the knight lived.

  The huge horn that he had heard earlier in the day hung from a tree, and nearby sat a knight on horseback, armoured entirely in red. When this red knight saw that his challenger carried two swords he wondered if this could be the famous Balin, but the newcomer’s shield told him otherwise. The knights saluted each other and put their horses into a canter as they lowered their lances. Each lance found the other knight’s shield and both warriors were hurled from their saddles. The impact of the clash left them both stunned on the ground for several heartbeats, but both rose with sword in hand and set about each other. They were well matched, breaking each other’s shields, hammering helmets tight onto skulls, and hacking through mail armour to draw blood. As he fought, Balin’s temper began to rise and each new blow was delivered with increased vigour. As afternoon turned to sunset each knight had delivered seven terrible great wounds upon one another, but Balin gained the upper hand and delivered a winning blow with the Lady of the Lake’s sword when his opponent’s strength faltered.