Aflame in Camelot (Bodices and Boudoirs)

Bending Tyme

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Jul 28, Kimberly rated it liked it Shelves: With the help of a few legen Blue Ribbon Rating: Payne makes the falling of Camelot, the ruination of Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot so vivid that I was spellbound by the destruction. That being said, Bryce and Adelaide were not protagonists without merit. Each is swept off their feet by the other, but class differences and prior engagements stand in their way.

My review was written for Romance Junkies and is cross-posted here courtesy of Romance Junkies. Tracey marked it as to-read Nov 27, Emilie marked it as to-read Oct 07, There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Books by Maria-Claire Payne. Here Gerald rails against the excesses of monasteries: I use parentheses to help render some of Gerald's complicated Latin syntax into readable English. In his age, he was a distinguished patron, generous donor, and a splendid supporter of the renowned monastery of Glastonbury; they praise him greatly in their annals.

Indeed, more than all other churches of his realm he prized the Glastonbury church of Holy Mary, mother of God, and sponsored it with greater devotion by far than he did for the rest. When that man went forth for war, depicted on the inside part of his shield was the image of the Blessed Virgin, so that he would always have her before his eyes in battle, and whenever he found himself in a dangerous encounter he was accustomed to kiss her feet with the greatest devotion.

Although legends had fabricated something fantastical about his demise that he had not suffered death, and was conveyed, as if by a spirit, to a distant place , his body was discovered at Glastonbury, in our own times, hidden very deep in the earth in an oak-hollow, between two stone pyramids that were erected long ago in that holy place. The tomb was sealed up with astonishing tokens, like some sort of miracle. The body was then conveyed into the church with honor, and properly committed to a marble tomb.

A lead cross was placed under the stone, not above as is usual in our times, but instead fastened to the underside. I have seen this cross, and have traced the engraved letters -- not visible and facing outward, but rather turned inwardly toward the stone. For instance, he had two wives, of whom the last was buried with him.

Her bones were discovered with her husband's, though separated in such a way that two-thirds of the sepulcher, namely the part nearer the top, was believed to contain the bones of the husband, and then one-third, toward the bottom, separately contained the bones of his wife -- wherein was also discovered a yellow lock of feminine hair, entirely intact and pristine in color, which a certain monk eagerly seized in hand and lifted out; immediately the whole thing crumbled to dust.

Indeed, there had been some evidence from the records that the body might be found there, and some from the lettering carved on the pyramids although that was mostly obliterated by excessive antiquity , and also some that came from the visions and revelations made by good men and the devout. But the clearest evidence came when King Henry II of England explained the whole matter to the monks as he had heard it from an aged British poet: The body had been placed so deep, and was so well concealed, that it could not be found by the Saxons who conquered the island after the king's death -- those whom he had battled with so much exertion while he was alive, and whom he had nearly annihilated.

And so because of this the lettering on the cross -- the confirmation of the truth -- had been inscribed on the reverse side, turned toward the stone, so that it would conceal the tomb at that time and yet at some moment or occasion could ultimately divulge what it contained.

What is now called Glastonbury was, in antiquity, called the Isle of Avalon; it is like an island because it is entirely hemmed in by swamps. In British4 it is called Inis Avallon, that is, insula pomifera [Latin: This is because the apple, which is called aval in the British tongue, was once abundant in that place. Morgan, a noble matron, mistress and patroness of those regions, and also King Arthur's kinswoman by blood, brought Arthur to the island now called Glastonbury for the healing of his wounds after the Battle of Camlann. Moreover, the island had once been called in British Inis Gutrin, that is, insula vitrea [Latin: It should be noted also that the bones of Arthur's body that they discovered were so large that the poet's verse seems to ring true: And the skull was broad and huge, as if he were a monster or prodigy, to the extent that the space between the eyebrows and the eye-sockets amply encompassed the breadth of one's palm.

Moreover, ten or more wounds were visible on that skull, all of which had healed into scars except one, greater than the rest, which had made a large cleft -- this seems to have been the lethal one. Regarding the monk who, at the discovery of the tomb of Arthur, pulled out a lock of women's hair with his hand, and quite shamelessly accelerated its ruin. Furthermore, in our times, while Henry II was ruling England, the tomb of the renowned Arthur was searched for meticulously in Glastonbury Abbey; this was done at the instruction of the king and under the supervision of the abbot of that place, Henry, who was later transferred to Worcester Cathedral.

With much effort the tomb was excavated in the holy burial-ground that had been dedicated by Saint Dunstan; it was found between two tall, emblazoned pyramids, erected long ago in memory of Arthur. Though his body and bones had been reduced to dust, they were conveyed from below into the air, and to a more dignified place. A lock of female hair -- blond and beautiful, twisted and braided with astonishing skill -- was discovered in the same tomb, evidently from Arthur's wife, who was buried in the same place as her husband.

Then the aforementioned monk, that insolent spectator, no less impudent than imprudent, descended into the depths -- the depths symbolize the infernal realm, which cannot be sated. Thus the monk thought to pull it out with his hand, to take hold of the lock of hair before all others -- evidence of his shameless mind, for women's hair entangles the weak-willed, while strong souls avoid it. Hair, of course, is said to be incorruptible, for it has no flesh in it, nor any moisture mixed with it.

Nevertheless, as he held it in his hand, having raised it up in order to inspect it many watched intently and in amazement , it crumbled into the thinnest dust; miraculously it disintegrated, as if reduced to granules. Regarding the bones lying intact in the tomb of King Arthur, discovered at Glastonbury in our times, and about the many things relating to these remarkable circumstances. Furthermore, tales are regularly reported and fabricated about King Arthur and his uncertain end, with the British peoples even now contending foolishly that he is still alive.

True and accurate information has been sought out, so the legends have finally been extinguished; the truth about this matter should be revealed plainly, so here I have endeavored to add something to the indisputable facts that have been disclosed. After the Battle of Camlann. As a result of this, the Britons and their poets have been concocting legends that a certain fantastic goddess, also called Morgan, carried off the body of Arthur to the Isle of Avalon for the healing of his wounds.

When his wounds have healed, the strong and powerful king will return to rule the Britons or so the Britons suppose , as he did before. Thus they still await him, just as the Jews, deceived by even greater stupidity, misfortune, and faithlessness, likewise await their Messiah. Because of this, it was later called Glastonia in the language of the Saxons who seized this land, since glas in English or in Saxon means vitrum [Latin: It is clear from this, therefore, why it was called an island, why it was called Avalon, and why it was called Glastonia; it is also clear how the fantastic goddess Morgan was contrived by poets.

It is also notable that.

The abbot had the best evidence from the aforementioned King Henry, for the king had said many times, as he had heard from the historical tales of the Britons and from their poets, that Arthur was buried between two pyramids that were erected in the holy burial-ground. These were very deep, on account of the Saxons whom he had subdued often and expelled from the Island of Britain, and whom his evil nephew Mordred had later called back against him , who endeavored to occupy the whole island again after his death; so their fear was that Saxons might despoil him in death through the wickedness of their vengeful spirit.

A broad stone was unearthed during the excavating at the tomb, about seven feet. It had these words inscribed on it: The cross was fastened to the underside the stone, and, moreover, the engraved part of the cross was turned toward the stone, so that it would be better concealed. Remarkable indeed was the industry and exquisite prudence of the men of that era, who, by all their exertions, wished to hide forever the body of so great a man, their lord, and the patron of that region, from the danger of sudden disturbance.

Moreover, they took care that -- at some time in the future when their tribulations had ceased -- the evidence of the letters inscribed on the cross could be made public. The renowned King Arthur was a patron of Glastonbury Abbey. When the body was discovered according to the directions indicated by King Henry, the aforementioned abbot had an extraordinary marble tomb made for the remains, as was fitting for an excellent patron of that place, for indeed, he had prized that church more than all the rest in his kingdom, and had enriched it with large and numerous lands.

And for that reason it was not undeserved, but just and by the judgment of God, who rewards all good deeds not only in heaven, but also on earth and in this life. Footnotes 1 Warner, pp. This was the native language of the Romanized Celtic peoples who inhabited the island before the coming of the Germanic tribes; these Celtic peoples were displaced and driven west into what is now called Wales.

I have attempted to give a sense of what is missing, using brackets for my textual commentary; parentheses, again, are reserved for sorting out some of Gerald's convoluted Latin syntax. Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, scilicet, Speculum Ecclesiae. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, United Kingdom: Penguin Books Ltd, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, Vol. Gerald of Wales on Finding Arthur's Tomb: Sunday, 12 April King Arthur: In the case of Arthur's authenticity it can only be a relative concept.

There is not much historical truth to rely on and we have little knowledge of the development of the Arthurian legend in the early stages. Criticising Arthurian films as portraits of a certain era in history seems rather useless, because over the centuries the legend has proven it is a timeless story, applicable and adaptable to every age. Over time it has been used and enjoyed by many people, pagans as well as christians, conservatives as well as hippies, and it has been subject to both low and hight art.

Therefore it is hardly surprising that the legend does not contain one single message, but many being both incredibly rich and versatile. There are on the other hand some elements in the Arturian tradition that can not be pushed aside if one wants to re tell the main story and not use the Arthurian court merely as background for a new or other hero. The adultery between Lancelot and Guinevere for instance can hardly be denied. I have tried to analyse the way popular movies deal with the Arthurian tradition. Arthur and his knights riding back to Camelot from Lancelot du Lac, French, early fourteenth century Introduction: King Arthur's longevity The real Arthur, if there ever was such a person, was definitely not a king.

That is just about the only indisputable fact about the historical Arthur scholars can agree on. Some early sources speak of him as a warlord. There is not much else, no truth to rely on. But there are a lot of people who like to believe in him as historical figure, and there are others who will tell you he is just a legend. The historical Arthur, or the illusion of historical truth has been an important characteristic of the Arthurian legends through the ages. Nowadays it is still quite interesting for writers to play with the historical illusion; the name king Arthur has an authentic ring to it.

The fact that we know so little about Arthur and the dark ages he came from is one of the reasons why, after fifteen centuries of changes to and repetitions of the story, he is still alive and well in our popular and even more serious culture. The story was part of the oral Celtic tradition, must have been told and retold before it was written down and most of these early versions have perished in time. The Round Table was not mentioned until the 12th century, by Wace, who also gave Arthur's sword the name Excalibur. In later chronicles Perceval is surpassed by the perfect knight Galahad.

That is another reason for Arthur's longevity: An example of a modern hero that joins the Camelot court is Prince Valiant, the main character of Hal Foster's cartoons, published in sev eral American Sunday papers from to Prince Valiant dreaming of his beloved AletaIn: As far as the medieval Arthurian stories from the 12th until the 15th century is concerned, one can make a rough distinction between two types: The first one is the episodic novel in verse, in which the hero often starts his quest from Arthur's court and returns there after his mission is completed, which usually does not take more than two years.

In his courtly vision the love between Lancelot and Guinevere was not yet burdened with guilt and the Grail was not yet the cup of Christ. The second type is the chronicle in prose , in which the rise and fall of the kingdom is depicted. This is where the celebration of courtly love is overruled by Christian ethics. The story does not evolve around one or two heroes, but is a mixture of many different story-lines, all tied together, not unlike modern soap operas. There is however one difference, the Arthurian chronicles actually have a point to them; the events lead up to the death of Arthur and the decay of civilisation, triggered by sins like adultery and incest Adam and Eve.

We are left with some hope though: Arthur is carried away to the isle of Avalon and rumour has it that he will return. The most important Arthurian chronicle of the thirteenth century is the Lancelot en Prose, also called the Vulgate Cycle. Supernatural phenomena are present in both the poems, in which the fantasy of the old Celtic fairy-tales is still recognisable, and the chronicles, in which the wondrous world has a more Christian connotation.

His work is usually the starting point for modern Anglo-Saxon versions of the legend. In many different versions of the legend Lancelot crosses the swordbridge in pursuit of Guinevere who is abducted by an evil knight, Meleagrant. In the Vulgate Cycle it is embedded in many other adventures and Lancelots love of Guinevere is tainted with guilt. Malory mentions the abduction in his Morte Dartur, but not the swordbridge, either because he was in a hurry to tell the story and left out lots of details or because he thought crossing a bridge as sharp as a razorblade was just too improbable.

The abduction of the queen is still part of the action in several modern versions of the legend, with a little imagination one can even detect a faint echo of the swordbridge story in the movie First Knight. Galeholt watches the lovers Lancelot and Guinevere first kiss as the seneschal and ladies converse.

Kay attempts to save her, but fails miserably. Gawain sets out for the rescue. On the way he meets a nameless knight who is very eager to retrieve the Queen. A dwarf invites both knights to ride a cart a very shameful thing in those days in order to reach their goal, and where Gawain refuses, the nameless knights only hesitates for a few seconds before he mounts the cart. Gawain and the nameless knight part at a crossroad. Gawain will try to reach Gorre through the underwaterbridge, the other knight heads for the swordbridge.

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After a lot of delays the knight reaches the swordbridge and crosses it although it is sharp as a razor. The knight arrives in Gorre and agrees to fight Meleagant. Queen Guinevere recognises him as Lancelot. When he is about to win the duel, it is postponed. Afterwards the queen treats him as if he has failed her. Lancelot has no idea what he has done wrong. With an aching heart he rides on to find Gawain, but is attacked by Meleagants men.

Only after rumour has it that Lancelot is dead, Guinevere is sorry about giving him the cool treatment. She forgives him the short hesitation before mounting the cart, which was the reason for her animosity. When Lancelot turns up again, the lovers enjoy a passionate night together. Meleagant accuses the queen of adultery with Kaye, but it is Lancelot who defends her honour. Again the duel is stopped when Lancelot has the upper hand. They agree to fight again in one years time at king Arthurs court.

Treacherous Meleagant tricks Lancelot into a tower from which there is no escape. He finally defeats Meleagant. In Erec et Enide the hero Erec gets preoccupied by his love for Enide to such an extent he forgets his knightly duties. In the end it is Enide who helps him to get his act together. In Chevalier au Lion it is the other way around.

Yvain is so busy to be a good knight that he forgets his lady Laudine. When she denies him her love because of that, Yvain goes mad. He has to do a lot of good deeds to be worthy of his ladies pardon. Chevalier de la Charette the "amour" is dominant. During the course of the adventure Lancelot frees a lot of prisoners, but it is just a side-effect.

His main objective is Guinevere, his love for her is perfect, and it has to be, even a few seconds of doubt are reprehensible. He was obligated to reflect the ideas of his maecenas, in this case Marie de Champagne. The humorous undertone in his writing might have been his way to put the extremeties of the court into perspective.

There are two heroes: Gawain whose adventure is more or less "traditional", and Perceval: Conte du Graal"Perceval grows up in the woods, because his mother does not want him to die on the battlefield like his older brothers. But when he meets a couple of knights in the forest, he decides to be a knight himself. As a very naive and ignorant boy he sets out to find king Arthurs court.

During the course of his adventures his noble descent becomes apparent. Perceval does heroic deeds and falls in love, but the perfect balance between "amour" and "chevalerie" does not mark the end of his path. He is destined for higher purposes and arrives at the castle of the Fisher King. The castle is surrounded by a waste-land and the Fisher King is wounded in the lower part of the body. Perceval witnesses a procession in which a girl carries a radiating grail. He fails to ask about the grail and thus fails to heal the Fisher King.

His failure is connected with an earlier sin against his mother. It is clear that Perceval has to do penance and find the way to God before he can be worthy. And his contemporaries were probably just as keen to know what ending he had in mind as we are nowadays. Four different continuations were written in the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the grail was soon to be associated with the cup of Christ in the chronicles such as the Vulgate Cycle.

While reading the summaries, do not forget the original story is an immense and chaotic tangle of narrative threads, written in Old French. The writers wrote the story as a chronicle, as factual history, which of course it is not.

The technique of waving narrative threads together, often called "entrelacement", also gave the reader the illusion of reality. It was copied often, by hand, a real monk's work but by that time the secular prductions were mostly done by craftsmen in proffesional workshops. In most manuscripts the Lancelot trilogy was preceded by two other stories: L'Estoire del Saint Graal and Merlin. This compilation is often called the Vulgate Cycle: L'Estoire del Saint Graal: One seat at the table, the Perilous Seat, is meant for a chosen knight, and until this knight arrives nobody is to be seated there, for this person will surely die.

Uther develops a raging passion for Ygraine, the wife of the Duke of Gorlois. With the aid of Merlin's magic Uther makes love to Ygraine and thus Arthur is conceived. The child grows up as stepbrother to Kay.

His descent remains a secret until Arthur is the only one capable of drawing the sword from the stone. He is crowned king and has to fight a lot of battles against the Saxons and rebellious vassals.

Queen Guinevere

Merlin's advice and magic are on his side. Arthur marries Guinevere and her father gives him the Round Table as a marriage-gift. Merlin falls in love with the fairy Niniane and teaches her all his magic. But when she is fully-qualified, she locks him up in a tower from which there is no escape. As a young man he receives knighthood at king Arthur's court and falls in love with Guinevere the moment he sees her.

He rides out, has adventures and meets his best friend Galehout, who initiates the first rendezvous between Lancelot an Guinevere. Several knights of the Round Table undertake quests to find him, but to no avail. Galehout is convinced his friend is dead and dies from sorrow. Morgan's magic can not extinguish Lancelot's love for Guinevere. When she understands it is no use, she lets him go.

Meanwhile Guinevere has been captured by Meleagant and Lancelot sets out to find her. Lancelot is naturally no longer the "Fair Unknown", the nameless knight; and the lovers passion is no longer a celebration of courtly love, but burdened with guilt. The knights of the Round Table are regularly on the road, often just to find each other. Lancelot roams the country.

Once again he becomes Morgan's prisoner and this time he is locked up for more than two years. To kill the time he paints murals, in which he depicts his love story with Guinevere. One day he sees a rose in the garden which is more beautiful than all the other roses and therefore reminds him of his lady and gives him the strength to break the bars of his prison and escape. He is just in time to join the expedition to Europe that king Arthur undertakes to beat the Romans. That night the Holy Grail appears before the court, to disappear as quickly as it came. Gawain swears to reveal the secret of the Grail and the all the knights of the Round Table follow his example.

Soon it becomes clear that the Grail is not their destiny. The knights wander through the country, but the only adventures they have, are duels with each other, because they do not recognise each other before it is too late. Lancelot comes close to the Grail, but he is not the one because of his adulterous sins. In the end Galahad is the only one who is initiated in the secrets of the Holy Grail.

He dies in ecstasy. Bors is the only one to return and tell the tale, because Perceval dies as well. Arthur ignores the accusations until Morgan shows him the murals Lancelot made during his imprisonment. Guinevere is convicted to burn at the stake, but is saved just in time by Lancelot. In the process he kills Gawain's three brothers. Arthur's army besieges Lancelot at his castle, but when they are facing each other directly Lancelot refuses to defend himself. After months of war the pope acts as a mediator and both sides agree to a compromise.

Guinevere is restored to favour and Lancelot withdraws himself to France.

Gawain however is still after revenge for the death of his brothers and Arthur leads his troops to France. Lancelot defeats Gawain in a duel, and the latter will eventually die from his wounds. Meanwhile in Britain Mordred at the end of Lancelot Propre it turned out that he was not Gawain's youngest brother but the child of Arthur and his halfsister Morgan has pronounced himself king and besieges Guinevere, who has fled to London.

The armies of Arthur and Mordred slaughter each other at Salisbury. Arthur kills Mordred but is mortally wounded himself. He orders Excalibur to be thrown into the lake. A hand rises up from the water to receive the sword. Morgan arrives by ship to take Arthur to Avalon.

Lancelot avenges Arthur on Mordred's sons. As a recluse Lancelot finally finds himself at peace with God. The popularity of the Arthurian stories faded slowly in the fourteenth century, but it was not until the end of the fifteenth century that the English knight Thomas Malory wrote his magnum opus: His work is one big recapitulation of the medieval stories concerning king Arthur. Malory paid no heed to pictorial details and tedious descriptions, he was in it for the action. At times his work reads like a long and hyperactive enumeration of battles, tournaments and duels.

The Morte D' Artur can be divided in three parts: The first part deals with Arthur who draws the sword from the stone, becomes king, establishes the Round Table and fights the Romans in France, and with the deeds of the knights of the Round Table, especially Lancelot and Gareth.

Merlins part in the events is minimised. Part two deals mainly with the adventures of Tristan, also a character from the Celtic tradition.

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In the verse romances of the twelfth century he makes name as the perfect lover of Isolde Ysolt, Yseut, Isoude. In the Tristan en Prose ca. Malory concentrates on Tristan's deeds as a knight, rather than the sad and passionate story of the lovers. In part three the Grail quest with Galahad as the hero is quickly told. And then it is time for Malory's best work: Especially touching is the ending which can not be found in the Lancelot en Prose , when Lancelot and Guinevere meet for one last time after Arthur's death.

He wants to ask her to marry him, but she has devoted her life to God, and inspires him to do the same. The poet Tennyson and the artists of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood in the 19th century were depending heavily on Malory for their Arthurian inspiration. The death of Arthur and his passing to Avalon, the flawless grail-knight Galahad, mysterious ladies and the attainment of the Holy Grail were amongst the favourite su bjects of the Pre-Raphaelites. Tennyson idealised king Arthur as the perfect king and husband and put Guinevere on trial for her fling with Lancelot.

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Where Tennyson judged with reason on Arthur's side, the Pre-Raphaelites on the other hand seemed to admire Guinevere for her enigmatic qualities. One of the moving spirits behind the brotherhood, William Morris, wrote a poem The Defence of Guenevere and painted her as the typical Pre-Raphaelite woman: The model for this Guinevere was his wife Jane Morris. Juicy detail is that William had to endure his wife's adultery with his friend and Pre-Raphaelite brother, the painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, for years to come.

An Arthurian love triangle in real life. He choose to depict the Tristan story based on Malory , but with the emphasis on the love story rather than Tristans many achievements as a knight. In this case the sympathy goes entirely to the lovers Tristan and Isolde. The deceived husband, king Mark, is the bad guy. William asked several Pre-Raphaelite brothers to design the panels, amongst them Date Gabriel Rossetti. Images of the Tristan stained glass windows. The influence of 19th century Pre-Raphaelite art on popular movies was not that big until two decades ago.

Hollywood adventure movies, especially in the first half of this century, were mostly inspired by late 19th century pulp narratives and simplified adaptations of the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott and his successors. The rise of Fantasy as a filmgenre in the late seventies and eighties brought the need for coherent secondary worlds, and that is exactly how the Pre-Raphaelites depicted the Middle Ages, as an idealised romantic time, a coherent world of fantasy.

It is hard for me to say how far this influ ence goes in general, but the Pre-Raphaelite connection is certainly visible in John Boorman's Excalibur And the ideal Pre-Raphaelite woman seems to have a lot of features in common with the standard type of medieval queens, princesses and maidens in popular films. Julia Ormond as Guinevere in First Knight. Amongst the popular Arthurian movies are the big Hollywood productions of the s and 60s and recently First Knight Zucker, , and John Boormans Excalibur , which was also produced in Hollywood for a large audience.

The legends surrounding king Arthur fit perfectly into the scheme of popular adventure narratives because most of the Arthurian heroes are excellent embodiments of the light in the darkness, the hero on a quest, who gains a name and a girl and brings prosperity to the society he lives in. This scheme was used for hundreds of adventure movies that were produced in Hollywood since the s, in the. But in this film the incest is not mentioned, Lancelot and Guinevere suffer without relief and the supernatural Holy Grail is only used to give the film an upbeat ending. Those omissions did not pay off; the story was still far too gloomy and tragic for a Swashbuckler.

After the s the Swashbuckler-genre evolved dramatically. In the 60s Lancelot and Guinevere actually get their moment of joy in a movie that is not surprisingly titled Lancelot and Guinevere , Wilde. The Adventure-heroes had to learn to ironise their own status in order to survive in the s and 80s. This irony made it for instance possible that Indiana Jones and his father share the same woman in Indiana Jones and the last Crusade , Spielberg.

And the rise of Fantasy as a filmgenre made the supernatural acceptable, mildly used in the Hollywood and Swashbuckler blockbuster Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves , Reynolds. Knights of the Round Table, summary. Watching the film on a television set is not a good idea. It was the first MGM production in Cinemascope and the cinema is the only place to enjoy the wide panoramic view on the scenes that were shot partly in Ireland and Cornwall. Both Arthur and Mordred here Mordred is the lover of Arthur's sister Morgan want to be his successor.

Mordred has tyranny in mind, Arthur intends to be a king for the people and has Merlin on his side, who is his counsellor rather than a magician. Arthur draws Excalibur from the stone, but Mordred refuses to give in. Lancelot, the son of the French king Ban of Benwick, is looking for king Arthur, the only lord he wants to serve. In a forest he meets the young lady Elaine. When he is ambushed by Mordred's men who are waiting for Arthur a knight comes to his aid. Lancelot does not like to be helped and challenges the knight. After a long and undecided duel the knight turns out to be Arthur.

Lancelot offers him his service, and so does young Perceval, who comes to pick up his sister Elaine. Lancelot joins Arthur on his way to the council at the ring of stones Stonehenge. There Mordred tries to kill Arthur, but Lancelot saves him. The war is on. After his victory Arthur establishes the Round Table. But soon after he gets into conflict with Lancelot, who does not want him to pardon Mordred and Morgan. Guinevere is to marry Arthur, but on the way to Camelot she is captured by an evil knight. It is Lancelot as a nameless knight who saves her and orders the evil knight who will be one of his companions later on to bring her to Camelot in safety.

After the wedding the knights are to pay homage to their king and queen. Lancelot reappears and is the first to kneel before them. Arthur makes him the champion of the queen. Lancelot and Guinevere feel deeply for each other, but do not consume their passion. Instead Lancelot marries Elaine to silence the gossip about him and the queen, and he takes his bride away from the court. Gawain and Gareth are Lancelot's loyal companions: Gawain watches over Elaine, while Lancelot and Gareth are out fighting the Picts. Perceval visits them and talks about his quest for the Holy Grail. Elaine dies after giving birth to a son: Mordred and Morgan are responsible for the death of Merlin and a plot to get Lancelot back to Camelot and Guinevere.

Lancelot pretends to have lost his feelings for her and flirts openly with lady Vivien. The queen is hurt by this and visits his chambers late at night. When Mordred's men amongst them Agravaine are banging on the door and all is lost, she sees proof of Lancelot's love for her. They kiss for the first and last time, right before Lancelot kills Agravaine and his men and brings the queen to safety.

King Arthur has to judge his best friend and wife, but does not give in to Mordred's demand to have them killed. Instead Lancelot is banished to France and Guinevere has to retreat in a convent. The union of the Round Table falls apart and Mordred finds support to challenge Arthur again. Once again the civil war rages over the country and Arthur is mortally wounded.

It is Lancelot who throws Excalibur into the lake and then kills Mordred. Afterwards Lancelot and Perceval enter the ruins of Camelot. Perceval has a vision of the Holy Grail and hears a heavenly voice that tells him Lancelot will be forgiven for his sins and Lancelot's son, Galahad, will be the most accomplished knight ever. The success of this Robin Hood Reynolds, , see the menu on the left under Swashbuclers paved the way for a revival of the Middle Ages in Hollywood Rob Roy and Braveheart also came out in and it gave the Arthurian legend a new change.

However, First Knight is in the light of the cinematographic developments mentioned earlier a huge disappointment. The producers avoided all risks and the result is a visually and technically overwhelming, but in every other respect half-hearted, picture. The way Lancelot is introduced, seems to indicate that they wanted to bring a new hero to the court, but it is also the old Lancelot of the chronicles whose feelings for the queen are condemned.

And there is the Swashbuckler Lancelot who has to get his girl in the end to secure a happy ending. To solve the problems that this mixture of the traditional legend and the conventions of the Swashbuckler-genre bring about, Arthur has to be killed without hope on his return. The bier that floats on the water reminds the audience of the traditional voyage to Avalon, but then a burning arrow discards all hope. And the kingdom does not fall: Lancelot will be the new king, with lady Guinevere on his side.

This is also necessary because Camelot is, once again, depicted as the ideal American society. At one point Arthur delivers a speech that could easily be interpreted as a plea for the American in tervention policy. Throwing in her secure job on a metropolitan daily four years later, she travelled to Botswana to manage a luxury safari lodge in the Okavango Delta. There she met a handsome Norwegian bush pilot. Beverley resumed her romance writing career in a thatched cottage in the middle of a mopane forest with the aforementioned handsome Norwegian bush pilot who is still just as handsome and once again called Africa home.

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