Camelot

Camelot, in Arthurian legend, the favorite castle of King Arthur, a legendary British king of ancient times. In Arthurian stories, Camelot is a center for social, administrative, military, and religious activities. The knights of the Round Table (Arthur's inner circle), the ladies of the court, and Arthur's other subjects gather there frequently, for feasts and celebrations and sometimes to make plans and engage in love affairs. It is also from Camelot that knights leave on the quest for the Holy Grail, the sacred cup used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper. In some accounts, knights are baptized at Camelot, and one of them, Gawain, expresses a desire to be buried there.

Camelot was first mentioned in the romance Lancelot, ou le chevalier de la charrette (1170?; Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart) by French writer Chrétien de Troyes. French romances after Chrétien describe Camelot as a fine castle near plains and a forest. It was in or beside a city, where there was at least one church, and a river flowed through or near the castle. Descriptions of Camelot are rarely more detailed than that.

There has never been general agreement among writers about where Camelot was located, although Caerleon (in southeastern Wales) and London have been popular choices, and English writer Sir Thomas Malory identified it with Winchester (in southwestern England). Other medieval writers placed it at Camelford in Cornwall or at Caerwent in Wales. After the Middle Ages ended in the 15th century, popular beliefs often identified Camelot with an important castle or fortified hill fort at South Cadbury in Somerset. However, that simple fort bore no resemblance to Camelot as later artists and writers imagined it: a huge and luxurious castle with towers, turrets, and drawbridges.

In modern thought, the idea of Camelot as a place of honor is more important than its actual location or appearance. The very mention of Camelot evokes an image of 'one brief shining hour' of glory, morality, and justice (as English author T. H. White put it). Following this idea, the notion of Camelot has often been used, even in the 20th century, as a symbol of culture, enlightenment, and promise. One of the best-known such uses came after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, when Kennedy’s wife, Jacqueline, described the Kennedy household and administration as having been “Camelot.”