Camelot (legendary place)
Camelot is a legendary castle associated with King Arthur, serving as the capital of his realm in British folklore. It is depicted as the site where Arthur held court with the renowned Knights of the Round Table, embodying ideals of chivalry and noble governance. While the earliest references to Arthur date back to the sixth and seventh centuries, the concept of Camelot emerged in the twelfth century through French literary adaptations. Scholars generally regard Camelot as a fictional location, though it may have been inspired by real places in southern England and Wales, such as Winchester, Caerleon, and Cadbury Castle.
The tales surrounding Camelot emphasize its symbolic significance rather than its physical details, portraying it as a walled castle-city characterized by meadows and forests, with a notable council chamber for the Round Table. While later stories depict Camelot's destruction after Arthur's death, the castle remains an enduring symbol of an idealized kingdom. The name "Camelot" itself has uncertain origins, with speculations linking it to various historical references. Ultimately, Camelot represents the aspirations of a chivalric society, rooted deeply in the mythology surrounding King Arthur.
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Camelot (legendary place)
In British folklore, Camelot was the legendary castle of King Arthur and the capital of his realm. Camelot was where the king held court and kept council with the famous Knights of the Round Table. Although the first legends of King Arthur date back to the sixth or seventh centuries, the concept of Camelot was not introduced until the French elaborated on the myths in the twelfth century. For this reason, modern scholars believe it was likely a fictional location that stood as a symbol of knightly chivalry and Arthur’s “perfect” kingdom. Those who believe it might have been modeled after a real place point to several locations in southern England and Wales as possible candidates.
Background
While historians have never been able to confirm if the literary character King Arthur was based on an actual person, they know that the origin of the legend has its roots in Ancient Britain prior to the sixth century. Modern humans first inhabited what would become Britain about 10,000 BCE, four thousand years before rising sea levels would turn it into an island. The island’s cultures evolved from nomadic hunting communities into agricultural-based settlements whose inhabitants built stone tombs, temples, and megaliths, like the world-famous Stonehenge.
About 900 to 600 BCE, a mix of tribal groups known as the Celts migrated from the mainland to settle in Britain. They spent centuries warring with each other and the other native peoples of Britain. In 43 CE, Roman forces invaded Britain and eventually subjugated all but the northern section of the island. The Britons, as the Romans called the local inhabitants, assimilated into Roman society and lived under the empire’s protection until the beginning of the fifth century CE.
By 410, Roman power had weakened to the point where Rome itself was under attack. The emperor ordered all Roman forces in Britain to return home to defend the capital, leaving the people on the island to fend for themselves. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, Germanic tribal groups from the mainland, began to migrate into Britain, coming into conflict with the Celtic Britons already living there. Within two centuries, the Anglo-Saxons, as they were called, controlled most of the southern half of Britain.
Overview
The earliest references to a figure known as Arthur appear in Welsh poetry from the late sixth to the early seventh centuries. This Arthur was a heroic figure who led the Britons against the Anglo-Saxon armies. The ninth-century Welsh monk Nennius mentions Arthur in his History of the Britons, which portrays him as a heroic military leader who also fought against the Anglo-Saxons. However, the first in-depth written record of a King Arthur dates from the twelfth century and the Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) by scholar Geoffrey of Monmouth. Monmouth’s Arthur introduced many of the familiar elements associated with the legend of the British king, but it made no mention of a castle known as Camelot.
Although Monmouth’s work is unreliable as a true history, it was very popular at the time and inspired a host of writers to expand on the Arthurian myth. One of those writers, French poet Chrétien de Troyes, introduced elements of chivalry and courtly love into his tales of Arthur and his knights. Troyes was the first to mention Arthur’s castle of Camelot, although he only mentions it once in passing in a tale about Sir Lancelot. Camelot is mentioned more frequently in a series of thirteenth-century French Arthurian tales, where it is firmly established as the home of King Arthur.
One of these stories claims that Camelot was a large pagan city in Britain and Christianized by a man named Josephus, whose father allowed the body of the slain Jesus Christ to rest in his tomb. After converting the people of Camelot, Josephus had the Church of St. Stephen built at the city’s center. According to many tales, Arthur and his wife, Guinevere, were married in the church.
Accounts of Camelot do not go into great detail about its layout, as the physical notion of Camelot is not as important as what it represents—the ideal of chivalric love and the noble heart of Arthur’s kingdom. Accounts do mention Camelot as a walled castle-city located near the ocean and surrounded by ample meadows and forests. The castle’s interior was said to have had a courtyard, many bedrooms, and a council chamber where the famed Round Table could seat up to 150 knights. In a later story in the French series, after Arthur’s death, a rival king, Mark of Cornwall, attacks Camelot and destroys the castle and the Round Table.
In the fifteenth century, English writer Sir Thomas Malory drew upon the existing stories of King Arthur to develop a complete reworking of the tale in Le Morte d’Arthur (The Death of Arthur). Malory’s work would become the definitive account of Arthur’s legend and create the template for later adaptations. Malory identifies Camelot as the castle in Winchester, a city in south-central England that once served as the capital of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex.
Camelot is likely a fictional location, but for those who view Arthur as a historical person and his castle as a real place, Winchester Castle is just one of several possible candidates in southern England and Wales. Among the others, the city of Caerleon in South Wales was home to several Roman-era fortresses and was mentioned as Arthur’s military base of operations by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Cadbury Castle in Somerset, southwestern England, is an ancient hill fort that was used until the late sixth century. Local legends dating back at least to the sixteenth century identify it as Camelot. Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote that Arthur was born in Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, leading some to suggest that his birthplace was later turned into his permanent home. Archeologists have found evidence that the castle was inhabited in the fifth or sixth century.
The origin of the name Camelot is unknown, although experts speculate it could have originated from the name Caerleon, or from Camulodunum, an English city now called Colchester. Some also believe it could have come from the battle of Camlann, Arthur’s final battle, in which he was mortally wounded.
Bibliography
Coffey, Sally. “The Legend of King Arthur and Camelot.” Britain Magazine, 20 Dec. 2016, www.britain-magazine.com/carousel/the-legend-of-king-arthur-and-camelot/. Accessed 23 May 2024.
Hammer, Joshua. “Was King Arthur a Real Person?” Smithsonian Magazine, Sept. 2022, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/king-arthur-real-person-180980466/. Accessed 23 May 2024.
Higham, Nick. “Caer Cadarn and Camelot: Where Was King Arthur's Castle?” History Extra, 18 Aug. 2023, www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/where-is-camelot-where-arthurs-court-camelot-castle/. Accessed 23 May 2024.
Jarus, Owen. “Camelot, King Arthur & the Knights of the Round Table.” Live Science, 11 Apr. 2018, www.livescience.com/28992-camelot.html. Accessed 23 May 2024.
Johnson, Ben. “Camelot, Court of King Arthur.” Historic UK, 21 June 2015, www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Camelot-Court-of-King-Arthur/. Accessed 23 May 2024.
Rebell, Sarah. “Learn about Arthurian Legends That Inspired ‘Camelot’ on Broadway.” New York Theatre Guide, 26 Apr. 2023, www.newyorktheatreguide.com/theatre-news/news/learn-about-arthurian-legends-that-inspired-camelot-on-broadway. Accessed 23 May 2024.
Sullivan, Tony. King Arthur: Man or Myth. Pen & Swords Books, 2020.