Travels in England: The Round Table and King Arthur's Grave

A meme has been going round on Facebook over the last few days that several friends have shared with me:

 
Though I am a great fan of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and I have been since I was a boy, I find this meme to be something of a groaner. The timing of the meme, however, is interesting, because it was only a few days ago that I visited the Great Hall at Winchester to see the Round Table that hangs there.

Part of the beauty and the appeal of the Arthurian legends is the manner in which this body of literature has been - and continues to be - adapted in different times and places for various means and purposes. As the Matter of Britain grew and expanded, new elements were introduced by particular authors.

The Round Table, for instance, perhaps the most politically important element of Arthuriana, was, so far as we can tell, introduced into the corpus in 1155 by Robert Wace in his "translation" of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. Concerning the Round Table, Wace writes:

Arthur fashioned the Round Table

Of which many tales are told

There sit his knights,

Each one equal to the next:

The sit equally at the Table

And are equally served.

None of them can boast

That he sits ahead of the next.

None has a favored position,

And none is excluded.

Sir Thomas Malory (if memory serves, though it may have been Chrétien de Troyes) would later say instead that the Round Table was not made by King Arthur, but received as a wedding gift from Guinevere's father, King Leodegrance, though the symbolism given to the Round Table by Robert Wace was retained.

Hanging today in the Great Hall at Winchester is a Round Table that, although repainted by order of King Henry VIII around 1516, the table itself dates between 1250 and 1350 and was likely constructed by order of either King Edward I (who sought to make use of the Arthurian Legends to his advantage) or of King Edward II. This Round Table measures some eighteen feet in diameter and weighs 1.3 tons:

 
From Winchester, I made my way to Glastonbury where, in 1191, the monks of Glastonbury Abbey - one of the finest in England - claimed to have discovered the lost (and previously forgotten) grave of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. 

Gerald of Wales relates what was found in his De Instructione Principis, written about 1223:

However, Arthur’s body, which the fables allege was like a fantastic thing at the end, and as it were moved by the spirit to far away places, and not subject to death, in our own days was discovered at Glastonbury between two stone pyramids erected in the holy cemetery, hidden deep in the ground by a hollow oak and marked with wonderful signs and marvels, and it was moved into the church with honor and committed properly to a marble tomb. Whence a leaden cross with a stone underneath, not above as it usually is in our day, but rather lower nailed on the side, (which I have seen, and in fact I have traced these sculpted letters - not projecting and protruding, but carved into the stone) contains the words: “Here lies buried the famous King Arthur with Guinevere, his second wife, in the isle of Avalon.”

At the time, not everyone accepted the claim of the monks and some viewed it as an utter deception, a belief held by many - though not all - historians and archeologists today. in fact, Graham Phillips claimed last month to have discovered two possible locations for King Arthur's grave in Shropshire (I'm a bit skeptical of his claims, but I haven't yet read his book and my skepticism is greatly increased by looking at the titles of his books).

Several decades later, King Edward I ordered the exhumation of the mortal remains and their re-interment in a marble tomb in the sanctuary of the great abbey on Easter Tuesday in 1278, as Adam of Domerham recounts:

[T]he lord king had the tomb of the famous king Arthur opened. Wherein in two caskets painted with their pictures and arms, were found separately the bones of the said king, and those of Queen Guinevere, which were of marvelous beauty...on the following day...the lord king replaced the bones of the king and the queen those of the queen, each in their own casket, having wrapped them in costly silks. When they had been sealed they ordered the tomb to be placed forthwith in front of the high altar, after the removal of the skulls for the veneration of the people.

After King Henry VIII ordered the "dissolution" of the abbeys in 1536, the Glastonbury Abbey - with the graves - was destroyed in 1539 and the bones lost to history, though the leaden cross discovered with the bones survived. We know John Leland saw it about 1540 and William Camden seems to have used it for an illustration in a work printed in 1607. In the early 1700s, the cross was in the keeping of William Hughes of Wells Cathedral, though what happened to it afterward is uncertain.

Could it be?! The Round Table?!

From the days of my childhood I have enjoyed the Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and few things lighten my heart even today as do these same legends.
This morning my heart took a childish and enthusiastic leap when I saw that archealogists may have found the round table!  From the Telegraph (with my emphases and comments):

The King's Knot, a geometrical earthwork in the former royal gardens below Stirling Castle, has been shrouded in mystery for hundreds of years.

Though the Knot as it appears today dates from the 1620s, its flat-topped central mound is thought to be much older.

Writers going back more than six centuries have linked the landmark to the legend of King Arthur.

Archaeologists from Glasgow University, working with the Stirling Local History Society and Stirling Field and Archaeological Society, conducted the first ever non-invasive survey of the site in May and June in a bid to uncover some of its secrets.

Their findings were show there was indeed a round feature on the site that pre-dates the visible earthworks.

Historian John Harrison, chair of the SLHS, who initiated the project, said: "Archaeologists using remote-sensing geophysics, have located remains of a circular ditch and other earth works beneath the King's Knot.
"The finds show that the present mound was created on an older site and throws new light on a tradition that King Arthur's Round Table was located in this vicinity" [I've long wondered if too much skepticism is used when reading old legends; by definition, they are, after all, based on some fact.  The lost city of Troy was discovered when Schliemann decided to follow the directions given in the Illiad to find city.  Everyone thought he was crazy but find the city he did].
Stories have been told about the curious geometrical mound for hundreds of years -- including that it was the Round Table where King Arthur gathered his knights.
Around 1375 the Scots poet John Barbour said that "the round table" was south of Stirling Castle, and in 1478 William of Worcester told how "King Arthur kept the Round Table at Stirling Castle".
Sir David Lindsay, the 16th century Scottish writer, added to the legend in 1529 when he said that Stirling Castle was home of the "Chapell-royall, park, and Tabyll Round".
It has also been suggested the site is partly Iron Age or medieval, or was used as a Roman fort [which also make sense since Arthur would have lived shortly after the Romans left the island to its own defenses].
Extensive work on the royal gardens was carried out in the early 17th century for Charles I, when the mound is thought to have taken its current form.
The first known record of the site being called the King's Knot is from 1767, by which time it was being leased for pasture.
Locals refer to the grassy earthworks as the "cup and saucer", but aerial photographs taken in 1980 showed three concentric ditches beneath and around the King's Knot mound, suggesting an earthwork monument had preceded it.
The new survey -- funded by Historic Scotland and Stirling City Heritage Trust -- used the latest scientific techniques to showing lost structures and features up to a metre below the ground.
It also revealed a series of ditches south of the main mound, as well as remains of buildings, and more recent structures, including modern drains which appear at the northern end of the gardens.
Mr Harrison, who has studied the King's Knot for 20 years, said: "It is a mystery which the documents cannot solve, but geophysics has given us new insights.
"Of course, we cannot say that King Arthur was there, but the feature which surrounds the core of the Knot could explain the stories and beliefs that people held."
Archaeologist Stephen Digney, who coordinated the project, said: "The area around Stirling Castle holds some of the finest medieval landscapes in Europe.
"This investigation is an exciting first step in a serious effort to explore, explain and interpret them. The results so far suggest that Scotland's monarchs integrated an ancient feature into their garden, something we know happened in other countries too.
"We are looking forward to the next stage in September when we hope to refine some of the details." 

Dr. Kirsty Owen, Cultural Heritage Adviser at Historic Scotland, added: "The project has the potential to add to our knowledge of the landscape context of the medieval and early modern occupation of Stirling Castle.
"The ditches identified may intriguingly be part of historically documented earlier garden features, or if prehistoric in origin could add to our scant knowledge of prehistoric activity at Stirling Castle.
"We look forward to seeing the results of the next phase of investigations."Futher work including a ground-penetrating radar survey, is now planned to take place next month to find out more.
A small display of the interim results can be seen close to the site at the Smith Museum.

St. Francis and chivalry

Saint Francis of Assisi once referred to his Friars Minor as "my Knights of the Round Table, who remain in deserts and lonely places in order to devote themselves more completely to prayer and meditation."

One of these days - after I finish a few other writing projects - I'll tackle an exploration of what the Poverello means by this.

At any rate, in the current issue of The Cord (60:1), Mark Elvins, O.F.M., Cap., argues, in his article, "Saint Francis and Chivalry: From Military Code to Spiritual Romance," that Francis "resolved to exchange the carnal weapons of knighthood for spiritual ones." He explains:

Worldly knighthood was marked by extravagance of dress; Francis chose the garb of a leper. Worldly knightood was indicated by wealth and largesse; Francis chose poverty and mendicancy. Worldly knighthood - when not bearing arms - was identified by leisure; Francis sought to labor with his hands. Worldly knighthood indicated power; Francis sought to be subject to all. Worldly knighthood was marked by a title - Dominus or Messire - Francis chose to be called a Lesser Brother. Finally, worldly knighthood sought military prowess; Francis became a peacemaker (55-56).

Let each of us seek to become one of Saint Francis' Knights of the Round Table.

Just because

Browsing around this morning looking for a particular image of the Visti of the Magi (which I did find and you'll see later), I stumbled upon this image.

It is "The Attainment of the Holy Grail" by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, one of my favorite artists. His work on the Arthurian Legends is spectacular.

Ponderables from the Poverello

There are many who busy themselves solely with advancing their learning and are concerned with that and that only. If they preach to the people and then learn that some of them have been edified or converted to penitence, they get puffed up, or they flatter themselves because of the works which actually others have done. Because of the prayers of the holy brothers, the Lord had done the work of edifying and converting to penitence which these men think they had done by their words. Those holy brothers don’t know what they have accomplished, because it is God’s will that they remain unaware of it, lest they become proud. These are my Knights of the Round Table! They are the brothers who go and hide themselves in the wilderness or in secluded places so that they can give themselves the more assiduously to prayer, and weep for their own sins and the sins of others.