Preparation: c/o Mr. Aron

1.) Excalibur or Caliburn is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain. Sometimes Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone (the proof of Arthur's lineage) are said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. The sword was associated with the Arthurian legend very early. In Welsh, the sword is called Caledfwlch.
In surviving accounts of Arthur, there are two originally separate legends about the sword's origin. The first is the "Sword in the Stone" legend, originally appearing in Robert de Boron's poem Merlin, in which Excalibur can only be drawn from the stone by Arthur, the rightful king. The second comes from the later Post-Vulgate Suite du Merlin, which was taken up by Sir Thomas Malory. Here, Arthur receives Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake after breaking his first sword in a fight with King Pellinore. The Lady of the Lake calls the sword "Excalibur, that is as to say as Cut-steel," and Arthur takes it from a hand rising out of the lake.
As Arthur lies dying, he tells Sir Bedivere (Sir Griflet in some versions) to return his sword to the lake by throwing it into the water. Bedivere is reluctant to throw away such a precious sword, so twice he only pretends to do so. Each time, Arthur asks him to describe what he saw. When Bedivere tells him the sword simply fell into the water, Arthur scolds him harshly. Finally, Bedivere throws Excalibur into the lake. Before the sword strikes the water's surface, a hand reaches up to grasp it and pulls it under. Arthur leaves on a death barge with the three queens to Avalon, where as his legend says, he will one day return to rule in Britain's darkest hour.
Malory records both versions of the legend in his Le Morte d'Arthur, and confusingly calls both swords Excalibur. The film Excalibur attempts to rectify this by having only one sword, which Arthur inherits through his father and later breaks; the Lady of the Lake then repairs it.


2.) Camelot is the most famous fictional castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Later romance depicts it as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm, from which he fought many of the battles and quests that made up his life. Camelot as a place is associated with ideals like justice, bravery and truth, the virtues Arthur and his knights embody in the romances. It is absent from the early material, and its location, if it even existed, is unknown. Thus most modern academic scholars regard it as being entirely fictional, its vague geography being perfect for romance writers; Arthurian scholar Norris J. Lacy commented that "Camelot, located nowhere in particular, can be anywhere."[1] Nevertheless arguments about the location of the "real Camelot" have occurred since the 15th century and continue to rage today in popular works and for tourism purposes.
The Lady of the Lake is the name of several related characters who play integral parts in the Arthurian legend. These characters' roles include giving King Arthur his sword Excalibur, taking the dying king to Avalon after the Battle of Camlann, enchanting Merlin, and raising Lancelot after the death of his father. Different writers and copyists give her name variously as Nimue, Viviane, Niniane, Nyneve, and other variations.


3.) The Lady of the Lake's origins are probably ancient and pagan, like Morgan le Fay's, and she and Morgan may have ultimately derived from the same tradition. The first mention of Avalon, a magical island with which the Lady and Morgan are frequently associated, is in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae; Geoffrey says Arthur's sword Caliburn was forged there, and says Arthur was taken to the isle after his battle with Mordred to have his wounds healed.
Chrétien de Troyes mentions in his romance Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart that Lancelot had been raised by a water fay who gave him a magic-resisting ring. Lancelot's life with the Lady of the Lake is detailed in the German Lanzelet by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven and the Prose Lancelot Proper, which was later expanded into the Lancelot-Grail Cycle. There, the Lady of the Lake fosters the infant Lancelot after his father Ban has been killed fighting against his enemy Claudas. It has been suggested that these three works are derived from a lost tradition of Lancelot[citation needed], which is perhaps best preserved in Ulrich's version.
The character has some similarities to the sea nymph Thetis of Greek mythology. Like the Lady of the Lake, Thetis is an aquatic spirit who raises the greatest warrior of her time (in this case, her son Achilles). Thetis' husband is Peleus, while the Lady of the Lake takes the knight Pelleas as her lover in some versions. Thetis uses magic to make her son invulnerable to harm and later gives him a shield and armor forged by the god Hephaestus, while the Arthurian character gives Lancelot a ring that protects him from all magic and delivers Excalibur to King Arthur. The Greek theme may have influenced or originated the tradition; the epic poem Iliad which features Thetis was popular both with the Romans, who occupied and colonized Great Britain and Brittany, and with the medieval scholars who wrote down the celtic myths and oral traditions. The Lady of the Lake's guise as a water fay also makes her somewhat similar to Melusine.


4.) Merlin was a prophet and magician, thought to have lived in Britain, who was first published in Paris in 1498.[1] His life is "hopelessly mixed with fiction".[1] Merlin is best known as the wizard featured in Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures. Geoffrey combined existing stories of Myrddin Wyllt (Merlinus Caledonensis), a northern madman with no connection to King Arthur, with tales of Aurelius Ambrosius to form the composite figure he called Merlin Ambrosius.
Geoffrey's rendering of the character was immediately popular; later writers expanded the account to produce a fuller image of the wizard. Merlin's traditional biography casts him as born of mortal woman, sired by incubus, the non-human wellspring from whom he inherits his supernatural powers and abilities.[2] Merlin matures to an ascendant sagehood and engineers the birth of Arthur through magic and intrigue. Later, Merlin serves as the king's advisor until he is bewitched and imprisoned by The Lady of the Lake.


5.) Uther Pendragon (French: Uter Pendragon; Welsh: Wthyr Bendragon, Uthr Bendragon, Uthyr Pendraeg) is a legendary king of sub-Roman Britain and the father of King Arthur.
A few minor references to Uther appear in Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in most later versions. He is a fairly ambiguous individual throughout the literature; he is described as a strong king and a defender of the people. Uther, through circumstances (and Merlin's help) tricks the wife of his enemy Gorlois, Lady Igraine and sleeps with her. Thus Arthur, "the once and future king," is an illegitimate child. This act of conception ironically occurs the very night Uther's troops dispatch Gorlois. This theme of illegitimate conception is repeated in Arthur's siring of Mordred on his own sister Morgause in the later prose romances. It is Mordred who will eventually mortally wound King Arthur in the Battle of Camlann.
Uther's epithet Pendragon means literally "head dragon" or "dragon's head", probably in a figurative sense of "chief warrior."[1] In the early stories Uther is dubbed "Pendragon" because he witnesses a portentous dragon-shaped comet, which inspires him to use dragons on his standards; later versions attribute this to his older brother, and have Uther assume the epithet "Pendragon" in his honour when he dies.


6.) The Round Table
The consensus is that Merlin the Wizard created the legendary Round Table - in a shape symbolising the roundness of the universe - for Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father. When Uther died, it passed to Guinevere's father, King Laudegraunce, and then to King Arthur when he married Guinevere. Real or symbolic, the Round Table for the fellowship of knights has remained a powerful and appealing concept for several hundreds of years.
The Round Table was first mentioned by the French poet, Wace, in 1155 and in that account was made round so that all the knights seated around it would have the same stature - a table with no head to sqabble over. In Arthurian legend it wasn't just an actual table but represented the highest Order of Chivalry at King Arthur's court. The Knights of the Round Table were the cream of British nobility, who followed a strict code of honour and service.


7.) The Knights of the Round Table
If the Knights of the Round Table ever existed in real life, it wasn't in the time of King Arthur. Medieval knights as characterised in Arthurian Legend belong to a period running from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries - the historical King Arthur is placed much earlier, around the fifth century. Nonetheless, the image of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table appeals to the imagination and has become an accepted one, if only in literature and legend.
Knights, as such, were real enough - and still are: people become knighted in Britain even today. Medieval knights were usually of noble birth: kings, princes, dukes, earls, and barons, who formed the backbone of any army of the time. They could afford armour and weapons, and the cost of training and maintaining their war-horse: in medieval times, the armoured warrior on horseback was the equivalent to the modern tank. Glory in war spilled over into peacetime, with attitude and status and knightly pursuits like jousting and heraldry, hunting and hawking, and a chivalrous way of life (especially towards the ladies, as the knight became the archetypal hero of high romance). Knights were also formed into religious or other 'Orders of Chivalry' - like the Round Table - and made an oath to protect the distressed, maintain the right, and live a stainless existence.

King Arthur's Knights
The names of the 25 knights inscribed on the Winchester Round Table are given as:
1. King Arthur,
2. Sir Galahad,
3. Sir Lancelot du Lac,
4. Sir Gawain,
5. Sir Percivale,
6. Sir Lionell,
7. Sir Bors de Ganis,
8. Sir Kay,
9. Sir Tristram de Lyones,
10. Sir Gareth,
11. Sir Bedivere,
12. Sir Bleoberis,
13. La Cote Male Taile,
14. Sir Lucan,
15. Sir Palomedes,
16. Sir Lamorak,
17. Sir Safer,
18. Sir Pelleas,
19. Sir Ector de Maris,
20. Sir Dagonet,
21. Sir Degore,
22. Sir Brunor le Noir, Sir
23. Le Bel Desconneu,
24. Sir Alymere,
25. Sir Mordred.


8.) Maleagant (also spelled Malagent, Malagant or Meleagant) is a villain from Arthurian legend. Originally a Knight of the Round Table son of King Bagdemagus of Gorre, his claim to fame is as the abductor of Guinevere.
His earliest appearance is in Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart by Chrétien de Troyes, where he brings Guinevere to his impenetrable castle. The queen is rescued by Lancelot and Gawain; this is the first appearance of Lancelot in Arthurian legend. Maleagant is believed to have been based on Melwas, a villain from earlier Welsh Arthurian stories (the name 'Maleagant' can be shown to have evolved from 'Melwas'[citation needed]) who captures Guinevere in the Life of Gildas. Here, King Melwas captures the queen and takes her to his fortress on Glastonbury. Arthur locates her after a year of searching and prepares to storm the castle, but Gildas negotiates her safe return.
If he was ever more than an obscure villain, Maleagant's role seems to have diminished as Mordred became more popular; however Maleagant appears in most accounts of Guinevere's kidnapping. He plays that part in the Lancelot-Grail cycle and Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, as well as in modern retellings like Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, T.H. White's The Once and Future King (as Sir Meliagrance), and the film First Knight.


9.) The Grail plays a different role everywhere it appears, but in most versions of the legend the hero must prove himself worthy to be in its presence. In the early tales, Percival's immaturity prevents him from fulfilling his destiny when he first encounters the Grail, and he must grow spiritually and mentally before he can locate it again. In later tellings the Grail is a symbol of God's grace, available to all but only fully realized by those who prepare themselves spiritually, like the saintly Galahad.

According to Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess miraculous powers. The connection of Joseph of Arimathea with the Grail legend dates from Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie (late 12th century) in which Joseph receives the Grail from an apparition of Jesus and sends it with his followers to Great Britain; building upon this theme, later writers recounted how Joseph used the Grail to catch Christ's blood while interring him and that in Britain he founded a line of guardians to keep it safe. The quest for the Holy Grail makes up an important segment of the Arthurian cycle, appearing first in works by Chrétien de Troyes.[1] The legend may combine Christian lore with a Celtic myth of a cauldron endowed with special powers.
The development of the Grail legend has been traced in detail by cultural historians: It is a legend which first came together in the form of written romances, deriving perhaps from some pre-Christian folklore hints, in the later 12th and early 13th centuries. The early Grail romances centered on Percival and were woven into the more general Arthurian fabric.Some of the Grail legend is interwoven with legends of the Holy Chalice.


10.) In the Arthurian legend, Sir Lancelot (Lancelot du Lac, also Launcelot) is one of the Knights of the Round Table. In most of the French prose romances and works, he is characterized as the greatest and most trusted of Arthur's knights, and plays a part in many of Arthur's victories – but Arthur's eventual downfall is also brought about in part by Lancelot, whose affair with Arthur's wife Guinevere destroys the unity of Arthur's court.
Lancelot is a popular character, and has been the subject of many poems, stories, plays, and films as a famous figure in the Arthurian cycle of romances. To the great majority of English readers the name of no knight of King Arthur's court is so familiar as is that of Sir Lancelot. The mention of Arthur and the Round Table at once brings him to mind to moderns as the most valiant member of that brotherhood and the secret lover of the Queen. Lancelot, however, is not an original member of the cycle, and the development of his story is still a source of considerable disagreement between scholars.
According to legend Lancelot's father is King Ban of Benioic and his mother's name is Elaine; his illegitimate half-brother is Hector de Maris, King Bors is his uncle, and Sir Bors and Sir Lionel are his cousins. With the Fisher King's daughter Elaine, he becomes the father of Galahad (in some sources, Galahad is also Lancelot's own baptismal name). His home is the castle Joyous Guard