POST: Visit Camelot Project (closes 10/25)

Below is an amazing website all about Arthurian Literature. It's the Camelot Project at the University of Rochester (New York).

Visit the site and surf around. Then, write a paragraph about something you learned from the site.

Some of the fun threads on this site include:

Arthurian Characters
Images (pictures of the characters from the last two centuries)
Questions Often Asked about Arthurian Literature


Have fun!




www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/arthmenu

On the "Camelot Project" website, I read about Merlin, the Holy Grail, and Excalibur. I learned that Merlin created many prophecies, which were incoorporated into Arthurian legend. Additionally, Merling was responsible for creating Stonehenge, by moving giant rocks from Ireland. The Holy Grail is said to be the cup from which Jesus drank at his last supper. However, some authors refer to the grail as a plate or platter, which was brought to the table at certain times in the meal. Finally, Excalibur was the sword that is giving to Arthur by the Lady in the Lake. Many believe that Excalibur is the sword that Author pulls from the stone, but this is inacurrate. This website gives many detailed facts on these topics, and other interesting topics in Athurian legend.

K. Hoffer 3 wrote:

On the "Camelot Project" website, I read about Merlin, the Holy Grail, and Excalibur. I learned that Merlin created many prophecies, which were incoorporated into Arthurian legend. Additionally, Merling was responsible for creating Stonehenge, by moving giant rocks from Ireland. The Holy Grail is said to be the cup from which Jesus drank at his last supper. However, some authors refer to the grail as a plate or platter, which was brought to the table at certain times in the meal. Finally, Excalibur was the sword that is giving to Arthur by the Lady in the Lake. Many believe that Excalibur is the sword that Author pulls from the stone, but this is inacurrate. This website gives many detailed facts on these topics, and other interesting topics in Athurian legend.

Thanks for getting this strand started, Kyle.

After reviewing the Camelot Project website, I learned a lot of information about Lancelot, and Guinevere. I learned that Lancelot was raised by the lady of the lake, which is why he is referred to as Lancelot of the lake. I learned that Lancelot proves to be quite a hero after "rescuing the abducted Queen Guinevere from Meleagant, an unsuccessful quest for the Holy Grail and the rescue of the queen after she is condemned to be burned to death for adultery."
After reading about Guinevere, I learned that she is the daughter of Leodegrance of Cameliard and marries Arthur. However she makes a huge mistake by having a love affair with Lancelot which ultimately causes the downfall of Camelot.

While looking around in the Camelot website, I stumbled across the name "Galahad". I looked at this name because it was the only name that I have some backround information on. I knew he was in search of the Holy Grail, but only from the Monty Python movie. I didn't know that he was the son of Lancelot, though. I also found it it interesting that he was baptized by Josephus, the son of Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph of Arimathea was the man who used the Holy Grail to catch the blood of Christ as he hung on the cross. I wonder if there is any connection between Joseph and Galahad, because both of them seemed to have had the Holy Grail in their life at some point.

While looking at the website, I learned several new facts about the characters in the Arthurian Legends. I learned that King Arthur has two different roles for differnt stories. I some of the stories, he's the military leader and in others, he's an emperor/king. I never know that before though, I always known him as the King in all the books I read about him. I also learned that there are debates on if King Arthur is a true historical character. The debate is still on because there are no proves that tell if he is real or not.

I read about Morgan le Fay. I find this character very interesting because of how different people view her. I dont really find her to be to evil... yet but when i read the website i felt a little more hate for her when i found that she steals from her brother and tries very hard to defeat him an anything. I would like to read more works where morgan is viewed as good and maybe merlin is viewed as bad. When reading the website i learned tha morgan actually does not like arthur or gueneviere, which suprised me because in our book it says Arthur liked having her over. Morgan seems like a very confusing character and i would love to learn more about her.

I read about Balin and Balan. Most people probably already read about the tragic death of both by each other's hand, but although in my book only Balan was really mentioned, Balin had much more unusual adventures. When Balin offers to protect a knight, Garlon kills the knight, with his invisiblity. Even more tragic, in revenge, he accidently kills the lord of a castle, King Pellem with the "sacred" spear that peirced christ. Leaving a wound that can only be healed with the holy grail.

Hi Folks,

What a terrific start on our Camelot Project postings. Keep up the great work.

Mr. K

On the site, I read about a few characters that interested me. First, I read about Gawain because I liked the story of him and the green knight, but there wasn't a lot of information on him. I then read about Mordred, Arthur's illegitimate son. I haven't read about him in the Sword and the Circle yet, but I was interested in him because the root mor- usually has something to do with death and wickedness. I was suprised to see that my instinct was right, and that most novels and stories portray him as a villain. Some stories explain him as the cause of Arthur's death. I am definitely looking forward to reading about Mordred in the future.

I read about Sir Gareth and Lynette while surfing around on the site. I learned that Sir Gareth was the son of Lot and Morgause of Orkey. It turns out that he is also the younger brother of Sir Gawain. He is usually associated with Lynette and her abusive actions toward him. After many battles with strong opponents, he proves himself a worthy knight. I think it was pretty interesting to know that Lancelot blindly slayed him in his attempt to rescue Guinevere. This causes Sir Gawain to turn against Sir Lancelot, and asks King Arthur to punish him. All this results in is bringing Mordred's plan to take over closer.

On the camelot website I found that Perceval achieves the grail I thought king Arthur found it or achieved it.

I learned several interesting facts about Arturian legend. First of all, I learned that the word in the stone was sometimes called the sword in the anvil, of which I personally found very strange. I also learned that Camelot, although it is supposed to be a city of legend, may have actally been based on a real hill fortress that was at the time ruled by a "powerful king and his followers". Finall, I learned that the Seige (seat) Perilous was an enchanted seat made by Merlin that only the chosen grail knight may sit in without dire consequences. Consequently, when Sir Galahad, the grail knight, arrives at Camelot his name appears on the seat and he takes his rightful place. Overall, the website was pretty interesting and I may go back and read some more from it later.

There wasn't alot of infomation on the Siege Perilous, so I went off the website to look up more infomation. The seat was for the purest of the knights who achieved the Holy Grail. Galahad was the one who got the seat on Whitsunday 454 years after death of Jesus.

I found out that Mordred had several names like Modred, Medrawd, and Medraut. Also that Lancelot Failed to find the holy grail and his son Galahad found it first.

I discovered that there are two Excaliburs or maybe different versions have the sword as different. In our book, Excalibur was the second sword, given to him by Nimue, the Lady of the Lake, and that the first one wasn't Excalibur. The website said the one drawn from the stone and anvil was called Excalibur once, while the one from the Lake is always referred to as Excalibur. Wikipedia says sometimes Excalibur and the Sword in Stone are said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered seperate.

I read about The Holy Grail, Lancelot, and Camelot. I learned that the significance if the Holy Grail was introduced into the Arthurian legends by Robert de Boron. I also learned that Lancelot was the son of King Ban of Benwick, and if short for Lancelot of the Lake, raised by the Lady of the Lake. Lastly I learned that Camelot was first mentioned in line 34 of Chrétien de Troyes's Lancelot.

On the website, I learned many interesting things. I learned that Merlin was the son of the devil, and that he was born to a kind mother and an invisible demon, to be the antichrist, but the plan failed because of the mother's kindness.

While I was looking at who you could read about on the website, I found the names Tristan and Isolde. I didn't remember reading about them in the Arthurian book for class, but I remember that movie that came out a while ago called Tristan and Isolde. I didn't know that they were part of the Arthurian legend. The website said that they are only second to Lancelot and Guinevere as the great lovers of Arthurian legend.
I also read about Morgan le Fay, and I was suprised to read that she held a dislike for Guinevere and tried to frighten and anger her many times. It says that she had an affair with Guinevere's cousin, but Guinevere put an end to it.

I did some research on Sir Galahad. He is the son of Sir Lancelot but only because Elaine of Corbenic tricked Lancelot into thinking that she was Guenevere. Sir Galahad is best known for achieving the quest of the Holy Grail. I think that Galahad is very holy. In the some of the book's that people are reading, Galahad is looked at with angels. When he opens the tomb, the evil spirit says he can't hurt Galahad due to his awesome holiness. Even though he died finishing the quest of the Grail, I think that it is proper that he does go straight to heaven. He was truly pure enough to gaze upon the Grail.

At this website, I learned about Mordred who has various names such as Modred, Medrawd, or Medraut. He is Arthur's son by his half-sister Morgause, the wife of King Lot. Mordred is supposd to be a villian in the arthurian legend. And in the film "Excalibur" that we are watching, he supposedly a bad character but yet does not have a really bad reputation.

I learned about the Round Table's history from visiting this website. In different stories, the amount of seats varied, and this was a symbol of how many Arthurian Legends are different from others.
The Round Table seated the knights by their position in society, but it was still equal since the table was round. It was also meant to symbolize the "The Last Supper" in the sense that it was equal for everyone.

in this site i learned about Uther Pendragon and Igraine. i did not know that both of them had several names. for example Igraine wsa also known as Igerne, Igrayne, Igerna, Ygraine, Ygerna, Ygerne, and Eigyr. Uther was a great warrior and is characterized as having a very short temper. Igraine is described as a faithful and virtuious woman, and also a woman with beauty.

In the Arthurian novel I read, it said the Holy Grail was a vessel so I thought it was a boat. I learned from the website that the Holy Grail is generally considered to be the cup Jesus drank from at the last supper. In other versions, the Holy Grail is sometimes viewed as a plate or stone. I also learned from the website that Tom Thumb was an Arthurian character. Before, I only knew him from the cartoon movie. Finally, I learned about Excalibur. The sword Arthur drew from the stone is different from the one the Lady of the Lake. The sword the Lady of the Lake gave to Arthur is always referred to as Excalibur, but the one he pulled out of the stone is only called Excalibur once.

King Arthur as first portrayed as a military leader, then a king/emperor. I always thought he was written to be a king only. I never knew the early Latin stories portrayed him as a military leader. What shocks me is that there are so many stories about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, but they both might not even exist. King Arthur and the Round Table could be just myth.