Knights of the Round Table

The tradition & historical record

The Knights of the Round Table (French: Chevaliers de la Table Ronde) are the legendary knights of the fellowship of King Arthur that first appeared in the French-language Matter of Britain literature in the mid-12th century. The Knights are a chivalric order dedicated to ensuring the peace of Arthur's kingdom following an early warring period, entrusted in later years to undergo a mystical quest for the Holy Grail. The Round Table at which they meet is a symbol of the equality of its members, who range from sovereign royals to minor nobles. The various Round Table stories present an assortment of knights from all over Great Britain and abroad, some of whom are even from outside of Europe. Their ranks often include Arthur's close and distant relatives, such as Agravain, Gaheris and Yvain, as well as his reconciled former enemies, like Galehaut, Pellinore and Lot. Several of the most notable Knights of the Round Table, among them Bedivere, Gawain and Kay, are based on older characters from a host of great warriors associated with Arthur in the early Welsh tales. Some, such as Lancelot, Perceval and Tristan, feature in the roles of a protagonist or eponymous hero in various works of chivalric romance. Other well-known members of the Round Table include the holy knight Galahad, replacing Perceval as the main Grail Knight in the later stories, and Arthur's traitorous son and nemesis Mordred. ¹

The number of the Knights of the Round Table (including King Arthur) and their names vary greatly between the versions published by different writers. The figure may range from a dozen to as many as potentially 1,600 (the number of seats at the table), the latter claimed by Layamon in his Brut. Most commonly, however, there are between about 100 and 300 seats at the table, often with one seat permanently empty. The number of three hundred was also chosen by King Edward III of England when he decided to create his own real-life Order of the Round Table at Windsor Castle in 1344. In many chivalric romances, there are over 100 members of Arthur's Round Table, as with either 140 or 150 according to Thomas Malory's popular Le Morte d'Arthur, and about 140 according to Erec by Hartmann von Aue. Some sources offer much smaller numbers, such as 13 in the Didot Perceval and 60 in the count by Jean d'Outremeuse in his Ly Myreur des Histors. Others yet give higher numbers, as with 250 in the Prose Merlin, and 366 in both Li Chevaliers as Deus Espees and Perlesvaus (where this is their peak number that nevertheless had dwindled to only about 25 at the time when the story begins). Chrétien de Troyes suggested around 500 knights in his early romance Erec and Enide. In the same work, Chrétien catalogued many of Arthur's top knights in a series of long hierarchical lists of names. ¹

Some of the more notable knights include the following (the bolded out entries indicate separate character articles): ¹

In addition, there are many less prominent knights. For instance, the "Healing of Sir Urry" episode in the Winchester Manuscript of Le Morte d'Arthur counts, in addition to many of the mentioned above, the following (the bolded out entries have their separate articles): ¹

Conversely, the 13th-century Winchester Round Table features only Sir Alynore (Alymere), Sir Bedwere (Bedivere), Sir Blubrys (Bleoberis), Sir Bors Deganys (Bors), Sir Brumear (Brunor), Sir Dagonet, Sir Degore (Calogrenant?), Sir Ectorde Marys (Hector de Maris), Sir Galahallt (Galahad), Sir Garethe (Gareth), Sir Gauen (Gawain), Sir Kay, Sir Lamorak, Sir Launcelot Deulake (Lancelot), Sirotemale Tayle (La Cote Male Taile), Sir Lucane (Lucan), Sir Lybyus Dysconyus (the Fair Unknown), Sir Lyonell (Lionel), Sir Mordrede (Mordred), Sir Plomyde (Palamedes), Sir Pelleus (Pelleas), Sir Percyvale (Perceval), Sir Safer (Safir), and Sir Trystram Delyens (Tristan), for the total of merely 24 (not counting Arthur). Of these, Alymere is a minor character from the Alliterative Morte Arthure and Safir has a section below. ¹

Arthur the Less or Arthur the Little (Arthur le Petit) is a bastard son of King Arthur ("Arthur the Great") found only in the Post-Vulgate Cycle. There, he is Arthur's only son other than Mordred, effectively replacing the Vulgate Cycle's Arthur's illegimate son Lohot in a larger role with an also tragic but much darker story, the latter theme typical for the Post-Vulgate treatment of many Vulgate characters. After Arthur forces himself on a daughter of a knight named Tanas, he orders the child to be named either Guenevere or Arthur the Less. Having been abandoned and raised by a foster mother, the boy appears at Arthur's court on the eve of the Grail Quest when his arrival is miraculously prophesied at the Round Table. He is knighted by Tristan and soon proves to be superior to even Gawain and Perceval, defeating both of them. However, he is publicly known only as the Unknown Knight, keeping his lineage secret as to not shame his father with the story of his mother's rape. Loyal to King Arthur (who is eventually informed about his son's identity by Morgan), he fights in the late wars against domestic and foreign enemies, and is one of Galahad's companions during the Grail Quest. After his father's death at Salisbury, Arthur the Less is a candidate for the heir of throne of Logres, however, he obsessively hates Lancelot's renegade faction, blaming them for the disaster. When soon defeated by Bleoberis in a duel to the death, he curses the entire kingdom in his dying breath. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Knights of the Round Table”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Knights of the Round Table is elite companions of King Arthur and order of chivalry in Arthurian romance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 9 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²