King Arthur

He wanted to see if they were as tough as he had heard, so he challenged one of them to chop his head off with an axe. Then, in 11 months from now the same man would come to the Green Chapel, and he could strike him once on the neck as he had done to him. Sir Gawain/Gwaine took up the challenge, and set out in 11 months. He stayed in a castle, where the lord struck a deal with him: when the lord went out hunting, he would give everything he caught to Gawain. In return, Gawain must give him everything he comes by at the castle. The lord's wife falls in love with Gawain, and on the first day, kisses him once. Gwaine kisses the lord once, keeping the deal. On the second day, she kissed him twice, so he again returned the kisses. But on the third day, when he was to be on his way to the Green Chapel, she gave him a hand-woven belt as a How_did_green_knight_challenge_arthur_and_his_knightsof her love. It would keep her safe, she said. Completely forgetting the bargain, he left with the belt on underneath his armor. When he reached the Green Chapel, the Green Knight was waiting for him. He swung his axe, but did not touch Gawain. He swung it a second time, and, again did not spill any blood. But on the third time, he cut the neck, just deep enough to spill blood. The Green Knight was really the lord from the castle, and was testing, no only the bravery of the knights, but the nobility, their truthfulness. He struck him only once on the third swing, because that was when he had broken his promise - he had not given him the belt his wife had given him.

MORAL IS TO TELL THE TRUTH :D

A lot of non-fiction books that say that King Arthur is a historic figure. But a lot disagree and say no. There is almost no information about Arthur in early texts and what there is is often fantastic in nature, indicating a legendary person. Camelot almost only appears in the late prose romances and is only important there.

In short, it is not known whether King Arthur is real or not.

Possible evidence of the existence of Arthur, the legendary warrior king, has been found at Tintagel in Cornwall. A Cornish slate with sixth-century engravings was found in July on the eastern terraces of Tintagel on the edge of a cliff overlooking the place traditionally known as Merlin's Cave. It was discovered under broken pottery and glass from the late sixth or seventh centuries during the re-excavations of an area last dug in the 1930s.

The 8 inch by 14 inch slate bears two inscriptions. The older, upper letters have been broken off and cannot be deciphered. The lower inscription, translated by Charles Thomas of the University of Glasgow, reads "Pater Coliavi ficit Artognov--Artognou, father of a descendant of Coll, has had this built." The inscription is basically in Latin, perhaps with some primitive Irish and British elements, according to Thomas. The British name represented by the Latin Atrognov is Arthnou. Geoffrey Wainwright of English Heritage says that the name is close enough to refer to Arthur, the legendary king and warrior. Thomas, however, believes that we must dismiss ideas that the name is associated with King Arthur. Christopher Morris, professor of archaeology at the University of Glasgow and the director of the excavations, feels that the script does not necessarily refer to Arthur, because King Arthur first entered the historical domain in the twelfth century.

The slate, part of a collapsed wall, was reused as a drain cover in the sixth century. The first secular inscription ever found at a site from the Dark Ages in England, the find demonstrates that Latin literacy and the Roman way of life survived the collapse of Roman Britain. It is the first evidence that the skills of reading and writing were handed down in a nonreligious context, according to Morris.

Also found were shards of Mediterranean amphorae, large vessels used for storing and transporting commodities, and a cache of fragments from a single glass vessel. The latter are from a large glass flagon of a type not found elsewhere in Britain or Ireland during this period, but found in Malaga and Cadiz from the sixth or seventh century. The find indicates, for the first time, a direct link between Spain and Western Britain at this time.

Tintagel has come to be associated with King Arthur as his birthplace, depicted by the Welsh monk Geoffrey of Monmouth in A History of the Kings of Britain (ca. 1139), and renewed by Alfred Lord Tennyson in Idylls of the King in the 1870s.

No one really knows. The current best bet is that Arthur as we know him is a mix-up of several historic persons, with a bit of myth thrown in for good measure.

There are two sword stories commonly associated with King Arthur.

The first is the Sword in the Stone where Merlin sets the sword of Uther Pendragon into a block of stone by magic and only the rightful King has the power to pull it out. Many men try, but only the boy Arthur succeeds, proving himself to be the true King.

The second is the story of the sword Excalibur which is given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake. In this story Arthur encounters a spirit creature who tests him for honesty humility and other virtues, and when he passed most (he fails the test for humility) of the tests she give him the magic sword Excalibur which is said to be unbreakable. Excalibur's scabbard held the real power though, the scabbard prevented the holder from bleeding and in thus making him invincible.

In some versions of King Arthur's story the sword in the stone and Excalibur are the same sword; but in most stories they are different swords.

In these versions the sword in the stone is not Excalibur. The sword from the stone is destroyed in battle, and it is then that Arthur, at the advice of Merlin, seeks out the Lady of the Lake to gain Excalibur.

Lancelot, when in infant, lived in the court of his father King Ban in the country of Benwick, in whatever city King Ban was dwelling in at a particular time. Benwick in the Prose Lancelot and later romances is approximately the Saumarois region of Anjou-Touraine.

During his childhood Lancelot lived in a valley over which an enchantment had been cast so that to outsiders it appeared to be a lake.

When he reached the age of 18, Lancelot went to Britain to be knighted by King Arthur at Camelot. For most of the period when Lancelot was one of Arthur's knights, his home was at King Arthur's court, which King Arthur held in many different cities: Camelot, Carlisle (Cardueil), Caerleon, London, and others. But Lancelot spent most of his time wandering Brtain seeking adventures and achieving quests. Lancelot had also won for himself the castle of Joyous Gard on the Humber River of which he was lord and he occasionally dwelt there.

When Queen Guenevere caught Lancelot lying with King Pelles' daughter, believing she was Guenevere, Guenevere banished Lancelot and Lancelot went mad. At last Lancelot stumbled into Corbenic and was healed by the Holy Grail and spent some years thereafter in a nearly island with King Pelles' daughter until he was found by Perceval and Hector and learned that Guenevere had forgiven him and very much wanted him to return to court.

When the love affair of Lancelot and Guenevere became openly known, Lancelot and his men took Guenevere to Joyous Gard and he remained there fighting a civil war with King Arthur. When the Church forced peace terms by which King Arthur was given back Guenevere, Lancelot and his men went to live in Benwick and Gaunes in Gaul, kingdoms which belonged to Lancelot and his kin by hereditary right.

Learning of Mordred's rebellion against Arthur, Lancelot and his men returned to Britain to aid Arthur, but on arriving they learned that Mordred had been slain and Arthur had vanished. Lancelot became a hermit and lived in a hermitage until he died.

In feudal England, most tables were made as rectangles, with the person at the head of the table being accorded the most power. Each person was seated a certain distance away from the head of the table, and the further away you were, the less power you had.

King Arthur revolutionized this by having his most trusted knights sit with him at a round table, in effect declaring all of them as equals with the king.