Knights of the Round Table
Lancelot to the rescue!
In the early Middle Ages, poets and story-tellers were telling a lot of different stories about knights and ladies and their adventures. When people wanted all of these stories to be tied together somehow, the poets came up with the idea of the Knights of the Round Table. A poet named Wace wrote the earliest written description of the Round Table, about 1150 AD.
The table was at the court of King Arthur, and it was round so that all his knights could sit at it without anyone seeming more important than anybody else: they would all be equal to each other (though not to women, or peasants, who couldn't even sit at the table).
Some of the most famous Knights of the Round Table were Sir Kay, Sir Gawain, Sir Lancelot, Sir Tristan, and Sir Mordred.
Tristan and Isolde
Lancelot and Guinevere
Arthur and Mordred
Arthur and Morgaine
Main medieval literature page
Main literature page
