The classic image for King Arthur's court: the ever-fair Round Table.

Surely you have heard of how the knights all sat around the table, planning their adventures, plotting their quests, but never with any man higher than another.

But did you know from whence the table came?

Most do agree that the table was a part of Guenevere's dowry in her marriage to Arthur. Most don't agree on the size of this table. Some say it sat twelve, others say fifty, others claim a hundred, even a thousand.

But why did Guenevere have the table? It was created by Merlin upon Arthur's birth, because the magician knew the destinies of both Guenevere and Arthur, and he knew that such a table would be integral to the success of Arthur's court.

The table was transported from Guenevere's home to Camelot upon her marriage. So large was this table that it was taken apart into pieces like a giant puzzle, and reassembled in the great hall at Arthur's court.

And at that table, the Arthur and his knights led their country into its most shining Golden Age.



The Round Table Winchester, Hampshire England

Accounts differ about the origin of the Round Table, at which Arthur's knights met to tell of their deeds and from which they invariably set forth in search of further adventures. The Norman chronicler Wace was the first to mention it, in his Roman de Brut of 1155. There, he simply says that Arthur devised the idea of a round table to prevent quarrels between his barons over the question of precedence. Another writer, Layamon,

The design displayed on the Winchester Round Table dates from 1552 and was made to impress the visiting Emperor Charles V. adapted Wace's account and added to it, describing a quarrel between Arthur's lords which was settled by a Cornish carpenter who, on hearing of the problem, created a portable table which could seat 1600 men. Both Wace and Layamon refer to Breton story-tellers as their source for this and there is little reason to doubt them. This being the case, the origins of the table may well date back to Celtic times, and even be traceable to the age of Arthur himself. In the later medieval stories, however, it is Merlin who is responsible for the creation of the table. Malory, taking up the theme and developing it, made it the centre-piece of his epic re-telling.