How does camelot end

Galahad is also responsible for pulling a sword from a stone that is meant to be pulled by the strongest knight in the world. Needless to say, as the story goes on there are many deaths and members of the Round Table are replaced after they perish. By the end of the saga, after the death of King Arthur, nearly every Knight of the Round Table is dead.

In the Vulgate cycles, there appear to be two sides to Camelot. On the surface, the leaders of the city are pious; the king attends mass regularly, and makes the sign of the cross when he hears bad news. Chivalry is essential, and vespers, a form of evening prayer, are held regularly. At times, battlefield enemies are even buried with honors.

Yet some of the most senior people in the city engage in destructive behavior. Some of the stories discuss how Queen Guinevere and Lancelot the most powerful knight of the realm engage in an affair.

When King Arthur finds out about this, he soon finds himself in a ruinous war with Lancelot. A knight name Bors tells Lancelot that "now it's going badly; now the affair is revealed; now a war will begin that will never end, and as much as the king has loved you until now — from his heart, more than any other man who was not of his kin — so much will he hate you from now on, once he knows truly the wrong you've done with his wife," translation by Martha Asher.

In fact, at the end of this story it is not Lancelot who kills Arthur, but the king's own son, Mordred. Entrusted with the kingdom of Logres while Arthur pursues Lancelot, he takes it over, forcing Arthur to confront him in a final battle. This betrayal of his father is foreshadowed in the appearance of an image of a dragon at St. Stephen's church that is meant to represent Mordred.

In the final battle, the king attacks Mordred, "bearing down on him with all his force he struck him so hard that he ripped apart the links of Mordred's hauberk and thrust the steel of his lance through his body. Mordred died and King Arthur would pass away soon afterward.

The story of Camelot does not end quite yet. According to the Post-Vulgate Cycle this would occur sometime after the death of Arthur.

A ruler named King Mark of Cornwall, whom Arthur with help from Galahad had once defeated in battle, takes his revenge by launching a final invasion of the Kingdom of Logres.

He reaches Camelot, whose people are now without the protection of the Knights of the Round Table. King Mark "went to Camelot, whose people were few in comparison to his own, but they were of great heart and reputation, and they said they would not let themselves be besieged.

They all rode forth from the city and fought with the enemy, but they were so few that they were all soon killed, so that none escaped For hatred of him I'll destroy the Round Table, his place first and after that all the others. This was the end of Camelot and the Round Table. For the 13th-century readers this story may have provided a reason why Camelot did not still exist. During the 15th century, the Arthurian legends, Camelot included, would be published in English thanks to the work of Sir Thomas Malory.

His book, called "Morte d'Arthur," drew heavily on the French Vulgate cycles in addition to other Arthurian sources. Writers such as Alfred Tennyson, T. White, John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, and countless others have encountered the Arthurian world through some version of Malory's work and reinterpreted it in their own writing," writes researcher Kara McShane in an article republished on the website of the University of Rochester's Camelot Project.

Indeed, in the 20th century the idea of Camelot was powerful and, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the name was used as a term used to describe the years of his presidency. Perhaps one of the most beautiful post-medieval written works on Camelot comes from an poem by Alfred Tennyson called The Lady of Shalott.

The start of the version reads:. On either side the river lie Long fields of barley and of rye, That clothe the wold and meet the sky; And thro' the field the road runs by To many-tower'd Camelot; And up and down the people go, Gazing where the lilies blow Round an island there below, The island of Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver, Little breezes dusk and shiver Thro' the wave that runs for ever By the island in the river Flowing down to Camelot Live Science. Owen Jarus. Then, along comes the French knight, Lancelot.

At first hated by all, he eventually proves himself and becomes the King's best friend and the best knight of the Round Table. He also becomes the Queen's lover, no matter how guilty both feel. Alas, Camelot cannot last!

For Mordred, the king's treacherous illegitimate son, catches on, and works to undo everything Arthur worked for. Sign In. Edit Camelot Jump to: Summaries 4 Synopsis 1.

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