Characters Discussed
King Arthur
King Arthur, of Camelot. His birth is shrouded in great mystery, and he is reared by Merlin the magician. He receives his magic sword Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake and marries Guinevere. With his Round Table knights, he drives out the enemy and unifies his kingdom. He rules wisely and is successful until his Round Table fellowship diminishes in the knights’ quest for the Holy Grail. Exposure of Guinevere’s infidelity with Lancelot proves thoroughly demoralizing, and in a traitorous revolt, Arthur is mortally wounded. After his last remaining faithful knight returns Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake, three maidens come in a barge to the shore to carry Arthur away as mysteriously as he had come.
Guinevere
Guinevere, Arthur’s beloved queen and his inspiration. She falls in love with the courtly, gay Lancelot, whom Arthur had sent to bring her from her father’s home. Much later, when her guilty love is exposed, she goes to a nunnery, where she remains until her death.
Lancelot
Lancelot, a knight of the Round Table. His lifelong love for Guinevere is a source of great misery. He is loved by another woman, whom he cannot love in return. At last, the scandal with Guinevere revealed, he leaves Camelot and dies a monk.
Gareth
Gareth, a knight of the Round Table and a nephew of Arthur, his sister’s youngest son. His first quest is on behalf of a lady who is disdainful of her untried knight. Victorious in his quest, he wins her approval and her hand.
Geraint
Geraint, a knight of the Round Table. Married to Enid, he jealously keeps her away from the court. As a result of his absence from Camelot, his valor is doubted. Enid’s reticence on this subject convinces him that she loves another knight, but at last she is able to prove her love. They go to Camelot, where Guinevere welcomes Enid to the court.
Balan
Balan, a knight of the Round Table. Returning from a mission for Arthur, he hears mad shrieks and rushes against the knight making them, who is in fact his unrecognized brother.
Balin
Balin, Balan’s mad brother and a knight of the Round Table. Disillusioned on discovering the intimacy of Guinevere and his idol Lancelot, he leaves hanging on a tree the shield Guinevere had given him. Without the shield, he is unrecognized by his brother. In the struggle between them, Balin kills Balan and is crushed by his own horse.
Gawain
Gawain, a knight of the Round Table. He falls in love with Elaine of Astolat, who rejects him because she loves Lancelot. Later, he promises to help Pelleas with Ettarre, who has rejected Pelleas’ love. At her castle, he tells her he has killed Pelleas, and he becomes intimate with her.
Pelleas
Pelleas, a knight of the Round Table. Suspicious on hearing nothing from Gawain, he steals into Ettarre’s castle and finds the lovers in bed together. He places his naked sword across their throats and rushes madly away. After hearing about the scandal of Lancelot and Guinevere, he returns to Camelot, where his rudeness to the queen foreshadows the ruin of the Round Table.
Galahad
Galahad, the youngest and purest of the knights of the Round Table. The Holy Grail appears to him in all its splendor, but the experience proves fatal to him.
Percivale
Percivale, the only other knight of the Round Table pure enough, according to Arthur’s gloomy prediction, to see the Holy Grail.
Bors
Bors, a knight of the Round Table. He reports back to Arthur that he has seen the Holy Grail.
(This entire section contains 1082 words.)
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Bors, a knight of the Round Table. He reports back to Arthur that he has seen the Holy Grail.
Tristram
Tristram, a knight of the Round Table. He and Lancelot, equally guilty in loving other men’s wives, fight in a tournament that Tristram wins. He then goes to Isolt of Cornwall, whom he loves. Her husband finds the lovers together and kills Tristram.
Modred
Modred, the real Judas among the knights of the Round Table. Malevolent and opportunistic, he traps Lancelot and Guinevere. He heads the revolt that ends in Arthur’s death.
Bedivere
Bedivere, Arthur’s last remaining knight of the Round Table. Reluctant to throw Excalibur into the lake, he falsely reports to Arthur that he has done so but is sent back again. When he finally brings the report that an arm reached from the lake to take the sword, Arthur knows that Bedivere has truly done his bidding.
Merlin
Merlin, the magician who reared Arthur. Tricked by the wanton Vivien into teaching her his magic powers, he is enchanted by her and left forever a prisoner in a hollow tree.
Kay
Kay, a surly knight and Arthur’s seneschal.
Lynette
Lynette, the disdainful lady won by Gareth.
Enid
Enid, the faithful wife of Geraint.
Vivien
Vivien, a vain and coquettish woman of the court. Unsuccessful in her efforts to seduce Arthur, she goes to work on Merlin.
Elaine
Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat. In love with but rejected by Lancelot, she is loved by Gawain, whom she rejects. She dies of grief and, according to her dying wish, is sent floating in a boat to Camelot, where Arthur and Lancelot find her. She is buried in Camelot.
Ettarre
Ettarre, who is loved by Pelleas, whom she rejects, and by Gawain, to whom she succumbs.
Isolt of the White Hands
Isolt of the White Hands, Tristram’s bride, whom he leaves.
Isolt of Cornwall
Isolt of Cornwall, the wife of King Mark. She is loved by Tristram.
King Mark of Cornwall
King Mark of Cornwall, the husband of Isolt of Cornwall and the slayer of Tristram.
Ygerne
Ygerne, the mother of Arthur.
Gorlois
Gorlois, the first husband of Ygerne and possibly Arthur’s father.
King Uther
King Uther, who overcomes Gorlois in battle and immediately forces the widow Ygerne to marry him. Thus, he is possibly Arthur’s father.
Bellicent
Bellicent, the daughter of Gorlois and Ygerne and the mother of Gareth.
Morning Star
Morning Star, the first knight overcome by Gareth on Lynette’s behalf.
Death
Death, Gareth’s fourth opponent in his quest. Death proves to be a mere boy, forced by his brothers to assume a fearful disguise.
Earl Yniol
Earl Yniol, the impoverished father of Enid.
King Pellam
King Pellam, whose refusal to pay his yearly tribute to Arthur is the occasion for Balan’s leaving the court, thus neglecting the care of his mad brother.
Lavaine
Lavaine, the brother of Elaine of Astolat.