King Arthur and the Round Table

[IndigoStar]

Archaeologists searching for King Arthur's round table have found a "circular feature" beneath the historic King's Knot in Stirling.

The King's Knot, a geometrical earthwork in the former royal gardens below Stirling Castle, has been shrouded in mystery for hundreds of years.

Though the Knot as it appears today dates from the 1620s, its flat-topped central mound is thought to be much older.

Writers going back more than six centuries have linked the landmark to the legend of King Arthur.

Archaeologists from Glasgow University, working with the Stirling Local History Society and Stirling Field and Archaeological Society, conducted the first ever non-invasive survey of the site in May and June in a bid to uncover some of its secrets.

Their findings were show there was indeed a round feature on the site that pre-dates the visible earthworks.

Historian John Harrison, chair of the SLHS, who initiated the project, said: "Archaeologists using remote-sensing geophysics, have located remains of a circular ditch and other earth works beneath the King's Knot.

"The finds show that the present mound was created on an older site and throws new light on a tradition that King Arthur's Round Table was located in this vicinity."

Stories have been told about the curious geometrical mound for hundreds of years -- including that it was the Round Table where King Arthur gathered his knights.

Around 1375 the Scots poet John Barbour said that "the round table" was south of Stirling Castle, and in 1478 William of Worcester told how "King Arthur kept the Round Table at Stirling Castle".

Sir David Lindsay, the 16th century Scottish writer, added to the legend in 1529 when he said that Stirling Castle was home of the "Chapell-royall, park, and Tabyll Round".

It has also been suggested the site is partly Iron Age or medieval, or was used as a Roman fort.

Extensive work on the royal gardens was carried out in the early 17th century for Charles I, when the mound is thought to have taken its current form.

The first known record of the site being called the King's Knot is from 1767, by which time it was being leased for pasture.

Locals refer to the grassy earthworks as the "cup and saucer", but aerial photographs taken in 1980 showed three concentric ditches beneath and around the King's Knot mound, suggesting an earthwork monument had preceded it.

The new survey -- funded by Historic Scotland and Stirling City Heritage Trust -- used the latest scientific techniques to showing lost structures and features up to a metre below the ground.

It also revealed a series of ditches south of the main mound, as well as remains of buildings, and more recent structures, including modern drains which appear at the northern end of the gardens.

Mr Harrison, who has studied the King's Knot for 20 years, said: "It is a mystery which the documents cannot solve, but geophysics has given us new insights.

"Of course, we cannot say that King Arthur was there, but the feature which surrounds the core of the Knot could explain the stories and beliefs that people held."

Archaeologist Stephen Digney, who coordinated the project, said: "The area around Stirling Castle holds some of the finest medieval landscapes in Europe.

"This investigation is an exciting first step in a serious effort to explore, explain and interpret them. The results so far suggest that Scotland's monarchs integrated an ancient feature into their garden, something we know happened in other countries too.

"We are looking forward to the next stage in September when we hope to refine some of the details."

Dr. Kirsty Owen, Cultural Heritage Adviser at Historic Scotland, added: "The project has the potential to add to our knowledge of the landscape context of the medieval and early modern occupation of Stirling Castle.

"The ditches identified may intriguingly be part of historically documented earlier garden features, or if prehistoric in origin could add to our scant knowledge of prehistoric activity at Stirling Castle.

"We look forward to seeing the results of the next phase of investigations."Futher work including a ground-penetrating radar survey, is now planned to take place next month to find out more.

A small display of the interim results can be seen close to the site at the Smith Museum.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...-Scotland.html

[The One]

The legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table is well known, having been told for centuries and immortalized in films and books. The questions, however, remain about the reality of the man; did he ever actually exist? There are scant mentions of him in historical documents and those references that do exist were written down centuries after he supposedly lived. In the quest to verify facts about his life, archeological remains are examined and historians give their theories about his would-be life.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=XIlRJZNx5oM

[Cidersomerset]

Thanks TheOne interesting but still inconclusive.........

Obviously Camelot was in somerset...LOL and I love the apple connection as we are the home of cider....hence my avatar name....

Now the true Arthur as we know from this 80's doc was was a herioc figure prancing around to sound of coconuts & having trouble with the Franks...

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9V7zbWNznbs

[David Trd1]

Posted by The One (here)
The legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table is well known, having been told for centuries and immortalized in films and books. The questions, however, remain about the reality of the man; did he ever actually exist? There are scant mentions of him in historical documents and those references that do exist were written down centuries after he supposedly lived. In the quest to verify facts about his life, archeological remains are examined and historians give their theories about his would-be life.

Hello The one. thanks for the vid.
Weather he exsisted or not i would imagine is someting that can never be proven completey now.But in my view its the story that resonates with people and the themes therein.it has quite a few similarities with the story of jesus.The degridation of the female.i.e.magdalene being a prostitute,guinevere being unfaithful to arthur in the traditional legend.both these themes underly both storys which ulimately turn us away at the subconsious level from our female aspect.Also the cross on the mound and the sword i the stone,and i believe the sword represents knowledge and truth not the modern interpretation by different religious fundamentalists with would have us believe that it represents the physical annihilation of all opponents to said belief.

For me anyway its the themes of such stories that are the most important thing and what they are trying to teach and tell us and how they may have been twisted and contorted by such powers that would benifit.

None the less it would be interesting to discover if he ever exsisted of was the man we were lead to believe.

For anothe take on the legend try check out ''The Dragon Queen'' By Alice Borchardt ,clearly a fantasy wrapped up in myth but an interesting read none the less.

sorry if i ran away from the centreline of topic.

And as this is my first post ...HI

[therealslimady]

The work of Alan Wilson and Baram Blacket have done some amazing research on king Arthur and the true history of Britain, it links the exodus of the holy land to the descendents of the Welsh and also the Arc of the Covenant /the Coelbren alphabet
and the Holy Family, some one/thing/or group have tried very hard to stop this info getting widely known, well worth a read (or listen/watch) and let me know what you think?
but please take time to check it out before shooting it down in flames as i think it is important info that links to a lot of topics on this forum.

Enjoy

http://kingarthurslegacy.com/bookark.html

http://www.richplanet.net/starship_m...?ref=92&part=1

[Hazel]

Now the mods in their wisdom may decide to delete this lengthy quotation of Ancient Legend, which I would understand...
But I looked to it for use in another Thread and it struck me due to its remarkable sattirical equation to the want of current times:

http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/t...of-king-arthur

And the time will come when the sleep of old Avalon shall pass

Now the game of Loaves and Fishes, whereof Morgan spake, was on this wise. Before King Arthur was put to sleep in Avalon, he seemed to rule in the land as he had done in Britain. For he would call his Parliaments as he was wont to do in York;27 and he would choose his Ministers at his pleasure from the best of the Round Table; and he gave into their hands the good sword Excalibur, to do justice and to maintain right: according as it was done in Britain, so in appearance was it done in Avalon. Wherefore when Morgan threw King Arthur into a sleep, she saw that it behoved her to make the people of Avalon think that henceforth they must govern themselves; and, calling together the Knights of the Round Table, she said unto them: "Seeing that King Arthur is asleep, and no man may waken him, this is the way in which the land shall be governed. I will cut in two the Round Table, and one half of it I will raise to a more honourable place upon the dais that is at the end of the Banqueting Hall, and in every siege shall be written in golden letters the name of him who sits therein;28 and also on this part of the Table the meats shall be richer and more delicate than those on the other part, which standeth at the lower end of the Hall. For upon the dais shall sit those only whom for the time being the Parliament shall choose to rule in Britain: yet since it is not good that these should always be the same men, it shall be lawful for those of the other half-table to use all the arts they may to persuade the people that they are more worthy than the others to sit in the Golden Sieges; and if they can persuade them of this, they shall have their places, and they of the dais shall go to the lower end of the Hall." The Knights of the Round Table heard Morgan gladly, and thus was it done for about an hundred and eighty years after King Arthur was put to sleep.
During all this time the Knights of the Round Table did hold rule in Avalon, being chosen by the Parliament to sit at the dais or below it, and the Parliament which chose them being itself chosen from many uninhabited places, according to a model which Morgan made from that Old Sarum which is still to be seen in the Island of Britain. But after an hundred seventy and nine years were passed, there was made a great change in the rules of the game of Loaves and Fishes, and this was the cause of it. Before ever King Arthur was put to sleep, while Ogier the Dane was still in Avalon, his history showeth that war was made on the Castle of Avalon by the Lutons, an ancient British race, which did more than once get entrance into the lower court of the Castle. But Cephalus, King of the Lutons, rendered himself prisoner to Ogier, and Ogier brought him and his people within the gates of Avalon, and made their peace with King Arthur.29 So these became inhabitants of the place, but they had not yet the right to choose the Parliament, which chose the Knights of the Round Table who sat upon the dais: wherefore the Lutons could not join in the game of Loaves and Fishes. Of this they mightily complained, and Morgan took their part, for well she knew that she could use her enchantments more easily on many than on few: moreover, she was in favour of the appearance of change in itself. Therefore it was decreed that the Lutons should come into the game.
When they were permitted so to do, Morgan saw that the rules of the game must be changed. For whereas of old, when the Parliaments were chosen by the men of Old-Sarum-in-Avalon, and such like places, the Knights of the Round Table were wont to play for their sieges by the employment of much gold and silver. When the Lutons came in they were too many in number for this kind of game, and the sieges were bought and sold by the promises of new joy and pleasure, nay, even of a share in the Loaves and Fishes. And since these promises were not made to be kept, there was need of much enchantment by Morgan. She devised, therefore, a rule to be observed by both parts of the Round Table, to the intent that whichever half got possession of the Golden Sieges, they should abide by the policy of Let Be, or, as it is called in the Romance tongue, Laisser Faire; whereby Morgan made it appear that there was a real change in the government of Avalon, albeit nothing was changed save those that sat in the Golden Sieges. Hence it came to pass that they who sat at the lower end of the Hall found that the best way to persuade the Lutons to turn out those that sat upon the dais was the ofttimes repeating of old words and phrases, because in Avalon these had always more weight than things.

CHAPTER VI
HOW MORGAN LA FAYE MADE A PARLIAMENT TO BE CALLED IN AVALON

How five knights looked from the wall
And a parliament did call

WHEN Morgan had looked out on the world from the top of the lodestone wall, she made haste to get her down, and she went into the Hall, where the Knights of the Round Table were feasting, and cried with a loud voice: "Worthy knights, it becomes you no more to eat and drink, for great matters are passing in the world, and unless ye bestir yourselves, it may well be that the Fellowship of the Round Table will be destroyed. Wherefore I will that ye come with me where I shall show you all things that the time is bringing forth, and afterwards ye shall call a Parliament, and take counsel what should be done for the defence of Britain." But this she said knowing well that they would not see clearly how matters stood, since they could not see the lodestone wall which encompassed them, and much less, while they wore the crown of forgetfulness, could they perceive the truth of what was passing in the world. She had them therefore to her watchtower, and there went up with her knights from both parties: to wit, from the dais Sir Artegall, and from the lower end of the Hall Sir Camball, which was the son of King Micawber, and Sir Percival called Plough-the-Sand, and the ancient and valiant knight, Sir Ector, and also Sir Marhaus, who was by some held to be as good a prophet as Merlin.
All these went with Morgan to her watchtower, and looked out on the world; and Morgan used enchantments, and as they looked they knew not that many ages had passed by, but deemed they were in Britain, and that the hosts they saw moving in the world were the armies of the Romans and Sarasins, who had sought to conquer Britain when Arthur was King in the land.30 For a while they gazed upon the sight in silence, and at last Sir Artegall said: "Let us go down and call a Parliament, and therein will we take counsel what must be done for the defence of Britain." And this they did, and the Parliament came together, and first of all Sir Artegall addressed them, because he sat in the chief siege among them that ate of the Loaves and Fishes on the dais. He was a valiant knight, and one who was not altogether deceived by Morgan's enchantments, and when in Avalon the wind was southerly, he could, as the saying is, tell a hawk from a hand-saw;31 but he was a philosopher, and was content with knowing that he knew things were not what they seemed. When, therefore, the Parliament came together, thus spoke unto them Sir Artegall:

CHAPTER VII

'In Britain there is no room for general military policy, as men use these words. We mean not to do aught against our neighbours. As to the defence of these islands, though perchance there hath been slackness and delay in the past, yet have we reason to believe that, if full provision hath not yet been made, complete schemes have been devised to protect us against attacks, which cannot vary greatly in character. I see not therefore how it may be that, for the larger part of its duties, the department of defence can find any field in the circumstances of this our country. Methinks there might rather be a peril, in that the department would surely strive to create such a field for itself; and I fear me, while there would be no use for the office that is proposed, there might be in it some danger to our best interests, namely to the rule of Let Be.' This then is the sum of what I say: First, there can be no Empire of King


"As we lingered late on 'Change,
In the hope of something strange,
That might please the public humour
With some well-devised debenture,
There arose a sudden rumour
Of a spirit-stirring venture,
And from many correspondents we authentically learned
Of the boldest speculation
Ever offered to the nation,
For King Arthur had to Britain unexpectedly returned.
How our hearts within us burned!
And at eve, throughout the City,
There was talk in each committee,
Among brokers great and small;
And the Bulls declared 'twas pretty,
But 'twould never do at all;
While the Bears were quite delighted, and the Funds began to fall.
But whether wise or witty,
We were little anxious, we,
What the consequence might be,
Nor debated for one moment
If the tidings weal or woe meant,
But we posted swiftly westward, took ship, and put to sea;
For the prudent must agree,
And 'tis certainly the case,
That it needs an early waking
To promote this undertaking,
And applicants are many, but the foremost in the race
May perhaps secure enjoyment,
And potential possession of a profitable Place.

"It was surely, surely, time,
For we know not of one clime
Where the struggle for existence
Has not banished in the distance
The old imaginations of the Lofty and Sublime,
And, after long resistance,
Good Society has laid
Quite aside its prepossessions
For the Liberal Professions,
And Dukes are on the Stock Exchange and Marquesses in trade:
In the arts too we're afraid
There can scarcely be a doubt
That ideas are running out,
And since in vain for novelty we compass land and seas,
Exhausting each revival,
We must imitate and rival
The long-established practice of the excellent Chinese.
Now, with stubborn facts like these,
We would ask you, if you please,
To consider and to mention,
In the boundaries of space,
In what primitivest highlands,
On what undiscovered islands,
You may find a quiet kingdom, where, by fortune or by grace,
A Clerk may earn a pension,
Or a Bard display invention,
Or a Maid obtain a husband, or a Minister a Place.

"But if many hundred years,
On some island in the deep,
Good King Arthur, as one hears,
Has been lying sound asleep,
Then it certainly appears
That a monarch so discreet,
On revisiting his land,
Will not fail to understand
That his notions, it is likely, are a little obsolete;
And, on the other hand,
We should deem it somewhat strange,
If, in presence of such change,
He should stick to his Round Table, and should hesitate to take
His agents and advisers
From sagacious advertisers,
And Syndicates and Comers, which are very wide awake.
And 'tis therefore for his sake
That we speed at such a pace,
To make, despite the scoffer,
A disinterested offer
Of our service, which the Monarch must be eager to embrace:
And we own 'twould be a sorrow,
If the day after to-morrow
Anyone of all our party should be pining out of Place."

CHAPTER XII
HOW MERLIN WAS FETCHED OUT OF HIS CAVE, AND KING ARTHUR WAS AWAKED.

How good Sir Cephalus did save
Merlin from subterranean grave
Who bids him fly on speedy wing
And with an apple wake the King
While Merlin hasteneth to make fall
By magic art the lodestone wall.

WHEN Sir Cephalus heard these words he was mightily perplexed, and he said: "Who are these that sing, and what is it that they say? They seem to be men coming in haste out of Britain, and to think that King Arthur is about to return to their land; but of the words that they use I can make nothing; nor can I think what is a 'debenture,' or a 'speculation,' or a 'syndicate' or a 'corner,' since these are words that were not used in Britain in King Arthur's time: I cannot tell what they say. Nevertheless, they have put a good thought into my mind. For I mind well that in Britain Merlin was wont to prophesy that King Arthur would pass much time in the Island of Avalon, and should be healed there of his wounds; but that afterwards he should come again into Britain, and it may be that this prophecy is about to be accomplished. Therefore it is most surely expedient that, if it be possible, I should wake the King; but how this is to be done, and, when it is done, what is to be done next, is more than I can tell." Once again therefore he fell into deep sorrow and dismay; but, as he pondered in his heart, he heard close by him, but under the earth, a deep groan, and, paying heed thereto, he was aware of a voice proceeding out of a cave, and crying to him: "Sir Cephalus! Sir Cephalus! Sir Cephalus!" "Who art thou," said Sir Cephalus, "who callest upon me?" "I am Merlin," said the voice, "which was buried alive; and I am in great pain, because I have made a prophecy; and I have heard voices of the Bulls and the Bears whereby I wot well the time has come when the prophecy should be accomplished; yet cannot I accomplish it, because I am in prison, and have no man to set me free: but were I loose, know of a surety that I could deliver thee and thy fellows from Morgan la Faye, and bring to nought her foul enchantments." "What must I do," said Sir Cephalus, "to set thee free?" "Thou must, first of all," said the voice, "lay a stick upon the ground, and leap over it backwards three times; then strew vervain and dill upon the mouth of the cave, and cry with a loud voice, 'Aum mani padméhoum,46 and, when all this has been done, the stone whereunder I am bound will be rolled away, and I shall be able to come forth to the upper air, after which I will tell thee what more thou must do." In all these things Sir Cephalus did what the voice bade him; and forwithal there came from the cave with pain and difficulty an ancient man, whose beard had grown so long that it had wound all round him, as ivy about an oak, and had wrapped his limbs as it were with a cere-cloth. But when he came into the light and air he seemed to renew his manhood and vigour, and anon he appeared to Sir Cephalus in that disguise wherein he had formerly appeared to King Arthur, namely, all furred with black sheep-skins and with a great pair of boots and a russet gown, and with wild geese in his hand:47 whereby Sir Cephalus knew of a surety that it was Merlin, and he rejoiced greatly to see him again. "Truly," said Merlin, "the light is good, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun; but now let me deliver to thee the prophecy for the accomplishment whereof I am in labour, which indeed I made of old in Latin." Right so he lifted up his voice in a loud chant to this purpose, for so what he said may be rendered in the British tongue:
"After this shall the red dragon48 return to his own manners, and turn his rage upon himself. A blessed King shall prepare a fleet, and shall be reckoned the twelfth in the Court of Saints. There shall be a miserable desolation of the kingdom and the threshing-floors of the harvests shall return to unfruitful forests. The white dragon49 shall rise again, and invite over a daughter of Germany. Our gardens shall be again replenished with foreign seed, and the red dragon shall pine away at the end of the marsh. After that shall the German worm be crowned, and the brazen prince buried. He has his bounds assigned him which he shall not be able to fly over."
"Now, Sir Cephalus," said Merlin, "what dost thou think of this ancient prophecy?" "Truly," said Sir Cephalus, "I think that thou art talking gibberish." "That may well be," said Merlin; "nevertheless, these things are in a fair way to be accomplished. But now listen to my words. Thou must go, first of all, to the Lutons, and bid them take off their crowns of forgetfulness, that they may see clearly the case wherein they be, and then they also will desire, as thou dost, to wake King Arthur. Then go all together to rouse the King out of his sleep, and for this purpose place against his lips one of the Apples of Ennui, and when he is awake pray him to take off his head the crown of forgetfulness. After that ye shall all return to me, and, I will show you what things I will do to Morgan la Faye and her kingdom."
Right so sped away Sir Cephalus, and coming to the Lutons, he cried: "Worthy Lutons, take the crowns from off your heads, and see clearly the case wherein we all be; for Merlin has come to life, and hath uttered to me what soundeth like gibberish, but as he tells me, is a prophecy like to be accomplished." Whereupon the Lutons did as Sir Cephalus bade them; and when they had taken off their crowns their memories came back to them, and they saw that they were not truly in Britain, but that all around them the high wall of lodestone shut them off from the world without. Whereat they were horribly dismayed; but Sir Cephalus told them that if they waked King Arthur, all would be well, since Merlin knew what things ought afterwards to be done. They came therefore to the king, and found him asleep; but when Sir Cephalus touched his lips with the Apple of Ennui, he woke with a start and yawned mightily. And at first he knew not where he was, but when Sir Cephalus prayed him to remove his crown, he saw, like the rest, that he was in a great dungeon; and he called with a dreadful voice to bring him his sword Excalibur, that with it he might hew in pieces Morgan la Faye. So they brought Excalibur to him; but before he set forth to find the Queen there was a mighty sound, as of thunder, and a great earthquake, after which King Arthur and they that were with him looked abroad, and saw that the wall of lodestone was no longer standing; but they could see far away over the seas towards Britain; and they saw Merlin standing on a rock with his wizard's wand, and gathered all round the island was a multitude of folk such as no man could number, shouting aloud, and asking that Arthur their King might be brought forth to them.

CHAPTER XIII
OF THE THINGS THAT MERLIN DID TO MORGAN LA FAYE AND THE ROUND TABLE

What Merlin did doth Geoffrey say
To Table Round and Morgan Faye.

WHEN Sir Cephalus and the company of the Round Table came where Merlin was, Merlin said unto them: "Worthy knights, we have many things yet to perform, and the first of them is to make a fell arrest of Morgan la Faye, who hath wrought all these enchantments in Avalon, and now shall ye mark well the judgment that shall fall upon her." So he bade Morgan come forth in her true shape; and she, who was wont to appear before the eyes of the Round Table in all the marvel of her beauty, was now seen to be even as her sister Alcina, when she was transformed to her true shape by the fairy Logistilla, of whom the history saith: "Alcina's face was pale, wrinkled, and lean; her stature shrank to less than six spans; every tooth had fallen out of her mouth: for she had lived longer than Hecuba and the Cumæan Sibyl, and indeed than any other woman, but she made such use of arts unknown to our time that she could appear ever beautiful and young."50 And when they saw Morgan as she really was, all the men of Avalon loathed her.
After this Merlin said unto King Arthur: "Now will I join again the Round Table which Morgan cut in half; and there shall be no more a division between them that sit at the high dais and them that sit at the lower end of the Hall; but all shall dine together at the Round Table, as in the days when King Leodegrance gave it thee as a gift.51 Nor shall they play any longer at the game of Loaves and Fishes, or observe the rule of Let Be; but thou thyself shalt choose whom thou wilt to be thy ministers, even those whom the people shall judge to be the hablest to give thee counsel in defence of thy Empire." This therefore Merlin did, and he joined together the Round Table, making for it one hundred and fifty sieges, as in the days of old, for those who should be judged worthy to dine with the King. But King Arthur said to him: "Now, Merlin, hast thou done all these things marvellously; yet it appears not what I must do to recover my kingdom. To Britain we must surely return; but I see well that the Island of Britain is filled full of folk of whom I know nothing; nor do I know what things have passed in Britain since the days when Morgan led me away to Avalon, so that I shall not be able to rule my people with wisdom and judgment."

CHAPTER XIV
HOW MERLIN WROUGHT FOR THE LIFTING OF THE LAND OF LYONNESSE

Merlin of astral bodies' state
Doth many marvels here relate
And how by his almighty spells
It came to pass, as Geoffrey tells
That all the elves at his command
Returned once more from Fairyland
How beneath the waves these elves
So wondrously bestirred themselves
That from sea-bottom they did raise
The vanished world of ancient days
When Arthur might new realms possess
And reign in land of Lyonnesse.

MERLIN answered: "My liege lord, it is indeed not fitting that thou shouldest return to Britain knowing nothing of the things that have happened since thy passing away; nor will the records of those things that passed before the days of Uther Pendragon help thee altogether to govern aright; but for this there is a remedy. Well, I wot, thou rememberest that ancient land of Lyonnesse in Cornwall, where thou was wont sometime to take thy pleasure, and where Sir Tristram made his book of Venerie, and where Sir Palamedes all his lifetime followed the Questing Beast. This land, after thy passing into Avalon, was, as all good historians tell, by magic art sundered from the mainland, and sunk beneath the sea with one hundred and forty churches, and there it lies to this day. Moreover, it is known unto me that the memories of all things that have happened in Britain, when they are once past and gone, sink down into Lyonnesse and are preserved there for ever; and true copies of those past things remain in Lyonnesse, even as Morgan la Faye was able by her arts to preserve in this Island of Avalon false copies of those things which thou thyself didst remember in Britain." "How shall that avail me?" said King Arthur, "seeing that Lyonnesse is at the bottom of the sea; and I love not to rule there any better than in Avalon?" " We will," said Merlin, "certainly have it up, and thou shalt reign there, and all the Britons shall acknowledge thee for their lord and Emperor." "How may that be?" said the King. "I will tell you," said Merlin. "Be it known unto you all that, though my corporeal body was, by Morgan's arts, confined in Avalon these many hundreds of years, my astral body was free to move over the earth; and by keeping company with other men's souls, I have learned more of the magic art than ever I knew when thou, my liege, wast King in Britain. For in these ages I became acquainted with the magician Paracelsus, and with his disciples, Dee and Kelly; and these discovered to me many secrets; but far more have I learned from the great Fay Blavatsky, who was versed in all the mystic lore of the ancient Egyptians, and who unveiled to me the secret of Isis.52 She taught me many spells, and with one of these I will summon all the elves to come again from Fairyland, whither they long ago retired after I ceased to make use of them; and I will bid them lift Lyonnesse, with all that is therein, from the bottom of the sea." " Now, by my troth," said King Arthur, "I ever knew thee to be a good magician; but if thou canst do as thou sayest, I will maintain on my body that no conjurer can hold a candle to thee." So Merlin stood upon the rock where he was, and cried with a loud voice:—

"Abracadabra!
I conjure you,
Come into view,
Spirits that do, and do, and do!
Come by your troth
To the name of Thoth,
By Solomon's Seal; by the Mason's Oath;
By the mystic Serpent that bites his tail;
By the Nose of Isis behind her veil;
By the holy Elixir, each drop and each dreg;
By the yolk of the Philosophical Egg;
By Squares and by Curves;
By each drug that serves
To excite the highly fatidical nerves,
Or to slip the soul from its fleshly leash,
Opium, Soma, sweet Hascheesch;
By Female and Male; by False and by True;
By White wine and Red; by Black eye and Blue;
By Odd and by Even;
By Five and by Seven;
And by everything else 'twixt the earth and the heaven;


CHAPTER XV
HOW KING ARTHUR WAS CROWNED EMPEROR IN LYONNESSE

WHEN the land of Lyonnesse had thus been lifted on to the surface of the sea, Merlin first caused King Arthur and all that were with him to pass over thither from Avalon; and then turning with his rod he bade the Island of Avalon vanish, and straightway it melted into air and was no more seen. But Merlin took the King over Lyonnesse, and showed him all the life of past things that was there restored, and instructed him fully in the History of Britain since the days of his passing out of it. And when this was done he made ready to have the King duly crowned Emperor in Lyonnesse, and this was the manner of the ceremony.63 First of all, he sent for the Archbishop of Canterbury to perform the Coronation, which was the same Archbishop who had crowned the King in Britain and had blessed the Sieges of the Round Table, and afterwards had been carried away with the rest of the Fellowship of the Round Table into Avalon.64 But King Arthur, wearing on his head the Cap of State, of purple and miniver, went to a seat near the Altar, and thither came the Archbishop of Canterbury, and presented him to the people, and he tendered to him the Oath, whereto King Arthur, taking the cap off his head, answered: "The things which I have herebefore promised I will perform and keep:" moreover, he signed the Oath in writing. Right so he sat himself on the same stone whence he had drawn forth the sword before he was crowned King in Britain,65 and there he was anointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury under the pall of Samite out of the Golden Vessel with the Spoon; and when this was done the Golden Spurs were put upon his heels, and the sword Excalibur was brought unto him by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops who were there; and he was girded with it, and afterwards he took it off, and it was carried before him, while the Imperial Robe and Orb were given to him, and the Ring of Dignity was put on his finger, and he held in his two hands the two Sceptres with the Cross and the Dove; whereupon the Archbishop of Canterbury did put the imperial crown of Lyonnesse upon his head, and all the people shouted "God save King Arthur, the Emperor!" There came next to pay him homage his peers and knights, and they swore each of them to become his liege man of life and limb and of earthly worship. Moreover, they swore that they would train up their children to Knights' Service, in all manner of military discipline, so as to be ready, when called upon, to take part in the defence of their country.
Now when the tribes of the Bulls and the Bears, and other tribes of the unemployed men of money, whose were the voices heard by Sir Cephalus in Avalon, saw this, they also sought to do homage to King Arthur, because they longed exceedingly to make money out of the new realm of Lyonnesse. But Merlin would not have it, saying that the Land be kept for knighthood, and not for money; and he showed to all the fellowship of the Round Table the book concerning the Vision of Piers the Plowman, wherein he said were written the things that it was fitting to do and the customs that ought to be observed in the land of Lyonnesse.66 Now when the knights and gentlemen had heard him read the book they were mightily pleased with it, and they sang thus with one accord:

"You gentlemen of Lyonnesse, who dwell in freedom there,
And feel its sunshine in your frames, and breathe its bracing air,
Still ready at your country's call to raise your faithful band,
And judge in each manorial Court by custom of the land,
Who name your babes at parish font, and after death desire
To sleep within your fathers' graves, beneath your village spire,
Now harken while, by rules of Eld, we here expound to you
What deeds are those a gentleman in Lyonnesse must do.
First, since the Star of Chivalry is steadfast in its place,
His presence shall be ever near his country Home to grace,
And mind, as Work or Pastime call, the Sessions or the Chase;
That nourished by the genial air, like native ash or oak,
His roots may strike into the soil among his kindly folk.
But lest in rustical retreat his manners may grow rude,
Or vapours mount into his brain in lordly solitude,
Let him maintain an open door, and sometimes seek the town,
To pay, as loyal lieges should, his homage to the Crown,
And mingle in the companies of worship and renown.
But let him not the gapers strike with ostentation loud,
Or vie with moneyed men, or ape the imitative crowd,
Or mortgage for his monstrous waste his acres to the Jew,
But live in all simplicity, as gentlemen should do.

"For service vowed to Holy Church he surely shall Do Well,
Who shall promote but worthy clerks, and no advowson sell,
Nor drag the parson into Court to make him sue for tithe,
But pay his punctual dues himself with cheerful heart and blithe;
And if the greater Tithes he own, methinks, he shall Do Best
One half in charity to spend, and to remit the rest.
He shall not bruise the springing wheat with careless horse and hound,
Nor close an ancient right of way, nor fence the common ground,
But leave free pasture for the poor, and as their hearts incline,
Shall let them graze upon the waste their commonable kine;
Where he shall keep a harbour safe for vagrant paw or wing,
A place to watch the coney play, or hear the mavis sing,
Delighting in the open hill, the air, the space, the view,
As gentlemen in Lyonnesse were wont of old to do.
"If any man a heriot claim, his tenant late deceased,
He from the widow will Do Well to take a sorry beast,
But he far Better still will Do, who has the claim released.
And if a farm shall be to let, in judging of the rent,
He shall not ask the market price nor calculate per cent,
But he will find his sum disturbed by charities of eld,
And plain arithmetic by pure nobility compelled.
And when his tenants bring their bags in hard unkindly years,
He will not make the audit wine acidulous with fears,
But cheerly share the season's loss nor ask them for arrears.
An acre to each thrifty hind he will with joy allot,
And round each rose-clad door will grant a fertile garden-plot,
And that the orchard may bear fruit, the border blossom gay,
He will abridge of what they owe in labour for the day;
For something more or less to give and take than what is due,

Is what each kindly gentleman in Lyonnesse must do.
"For this is Heaven's eternal law, while Right contends with Wrong,
The Strong must still protect the Weak, the Weak obey the Strong;
No less though Evil spring from Good, though Weal revert to Woe,
Yet, in the dark unending strife that rends the world below,
Fair Mercy oft, in man's despite, may Judgment's sword withhold,
And in Life's balance Charity weighs heavier far than gold.
Therefore whate'er of courteous act may keep this old truth new,
These are the things that gentlemen in Lyonnesse will do."

But the Bulls and the Bears, hearing the things that were to be done, were somewhat cast down, and coming to King Arthur they showed him that, albeit these customs might be befitting in so ancient a land as Lyonnesse, yet that in Britain itself, and in all parts of the British dominion over which King Arthur must rule, the customs of chivalry had either fallen into decay or else were unknown, so that, as they said in their own words to the King, the decrees which Merlin proposed to make were not "up to date." They prayed him, therefore, that they also might be allowed to pay homage to him, and that he would give them orders in what way the moneyed interest might do him.

[Bill Ryan]

More has been discovered about the legend of King Arthur:

• https://explorersweb.com/archivists-...t-book-binding

Archivists Discover New Stories about King Arthur Hidden in Ancient Book Binding



In the dying years of the Roman Empire, a vassal king in the distant territory of Wales rallied his forces to shake off Roman rule. When the Saxons, too, turned their eye on his kingdom, that Welsh king joined with his northern confreres to beat them back. Eventually, he founded a model kingdom 800 years ahead of its time, complete with knights, metal armor, and even an early form of parliament.

His name was King Arthur, and unfortunately he did not exist, at least in a recognizable way. But the late medieval writers who crafted his legend would have had cause to rejoice this week. Digital archivists at the Cambridge University Library have just recovered a new fragment of their work, hidden in plain sight for centuries. It had been used as the binding for an Elizabeth property register.

How a 13th-century story became the cover of a 16th-century book

Stories of King Arthur were all the rage in the 1200s. After the self-described historian Geoffrey of Monmouth popularized Arthur’s legend in the 11th century, the setting of the Round Table spread across the Channel. What had once lived in the realm of pseudo-historical tracts and Welsh oral tradition reached the courts of France.

The defining stories of early French Arthuriana were poems. Marie de France, one of the most famous female French authors in history, wrote short, often satirical verse set in Arthur’s court. At the same time, the daughter of Eleonore of Aquitaine, Marie de Champagne, commissioned the first stories of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere’s forbidden love and of the Grail Quest.

These stories captured the imagination of the French and English nobility, culturally bound from the Norman conquest of England in 1066. In about 1200, an anonymous coalition of authors adapted them into what may be the first European fantasy blockbuster: the five-book series known as the Vulgate Cycle.

The Vulgate Cycle and its various additional texts are so numerous that the English translation comes in a 10-volume set.

The Vulgate Cycle

Novels were a new concept in Europe. But the magical quests, epic sagas of family strife, and heart-rending character arcs of the Vulgate Cycle were so successful that they endure even today. If you’ve heard of the Lady of the Lake, of Lancelot and Guinevere’s affair triggering the downfall of Camelot, of the Holy Grail being the cup that caught Christ’s blood on the cross, then that’s the Vulgate Cycle at work.

By the 16th century, though, stories of the Round Table were passé, especially in England. In the same way that a 21st-century scrapbooker might dismember an old novel, Elizabeth bookbinders yanked out a handful of pages from a copy of a Vulgate book. The copy they used dated to about 1300. They needed to bind a register of property deeds, and parchment was precious. So they folded up the Vulgate pages and sewed them into a new cover. There, the pages sat for half a millennium.

Recovering the story

In 2019, archivists at Cambridge University were sorting through the records of an estate in Suffolk when they realized that the cover of the property register contained fragments of a much older text. But it would be impossible to unfold the fragments without damaging the cover it comprised, an important historical artifact itself. More advanced methods would be needed to read the cover text, and in 2023, Cambridge began a new program to do so.

Digital imaging specialist Amelie Deblauwe and photographer Blażej Wladyslaw Mikula helped digitize the new text.

Just this week, the Cambridge Digital Library released the first results from this project. Archivists used multispectral imaging (MSI) to scan the whole text without unfolding the cover. MSI breaks images down into color categories, allowing conservationists to deblur old writing or even recover the traces of erased text.

CT scans probed through the folded layers of parchment. Finally, new techniques in digital image manipulation allowed the team to “unfold” the text and read it.

The wizard Merlin greeted them.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Gpl2jYZMI5c

Merlin’s magical shenanigans

Nowadays, images of Merlin are dominated by two pop culture phenomena. Either he’s a spry old wizard in a blue hat who ages backward (as portrayed in TH White’s The Once and Future King and its Disney adaptation, The Sword in the Stone), or he’s Arthur’s 20-something best friend, as in the BBC TV show Merlin.

The medieval Merlin was a lot stranger. He was born speaking like an adult, the child of a human woman and a demon. He could disguise himself however he wished and was prone to prophesying the downfall of those around him. (Personally, if my wizard advisor handed me a sword inscribed with the words, “With this sword, Sir Lancelot shall kill the man he loves most, and that man shall be Sir Gawain,” I wouldn’t let anyone named Lancelot or Gawain anywhere near my peaceful Round Table.)

An illustration from a different manuscript of the Vulgate Cycle shows Merlin playing harp with his apprentice Viviane, the future Lady of the Lake. Merlin falls in love with the teenage Viviane and pursues her until she traps him in a cave.

On one occasion, Merlin arrived at Camelot disguised as a blind harpist: “While they were rejoicing in the feast, and Kay the seneschal brought the first dish to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, there arrived the most handsome man ever seen in Christian lands. He was wearing a silk tunic girded by a silk harness woven with gold and precious stones, which glittered with such brightness that it illuminated the whole room.”

This is the excerpt that made up one of the two pages sewn into the cover. So far, the Cambridge Digital Library has only released the above passage, which agrees with other copies of the Vulgate Cycle. They are currently working to produce an annotated version of the whole text. Medieval scribes often edited or even rewrote the stories they copied, so it’s possible this text could differ substantially from other manuscripts.

A medieval action hero

Dev Patel starred as King Arthur’s nephew Gawain in David Lowery’s 2021 surrealist Arthurian film The Green Knight.

Although nowadays Arthur and Merlin are probably the most famous characters from the Arthurian canon, medieval readers had a favorite knight, and it wasn’t Lancelot. It was Arthur’s hot-headed, charismatic nephew Gawain.

Arthur has a relatively idyllic childhood in the Vulgate Cycle. A kindly knight raises him alongside his own son. But the children of his elder sister Morgause are less lucky. From a very young age, they fight alongside their father in wars against the Saxons. In addition to the Merlin episode, the property register cover text also includes a scene from this plot arc, in which Morgause’s eldest son Gawain rides his beloved horse Gringolet into battle.


A 1910 illustration of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight featuring Gawain on his horse Gringolet, a recurring character in many Arthurian stories.

This is one of the final snapshots of Gawain as a teenager in the Vulgate Cycle. Soon after, one of Arthur’s knights kills his father in battle. The young Gawain vows revenge, and although he later joins the Round Table, his vendetta against his father’s killer spirals into a vicious blood feud that contributes to the fall of Camelot.

Of course, that’s the version in other manuscripts. In the property register folio, none of that ever happens. Merlin dazzles Arthur’s court, and Gawain rides victorious into battle. The rest is left to the reader.