So it fell on a time king Arthur said unto Merlin, My barons will let me have no rest, but needs I must take a wife, and I will none take but by thy council and by thine advice.It is well done, said Merlin, that ye take a wife, for a man of your bounty and nobleness should not be without a wife.Now is there any that ye love more than another? Yea, said king Arthur, I love Guenever, the daughter of king Leodegrance, of the land of Cameliard, which Leodegrance holdeth in his house the Table Round, that ye told he had of my father, Uther.And this damsel is the most valiant and fairest lady that I know living, or yet that ever I could find.Sir, said Merlin, as of her beauty and fairness she is one of the fairest on live.But and ye loved her not so well as ye do, I could find you a damsel of beauty and of goodness that ghould like you and plea-se you, and your heart were not set; but there as a man's heart is set, he will be loth to return.That is truth, said king Arthur.But Merlin warned the king covertly that Guenever was not wholesome for him to take to wife, for he warned him that Launcelot should love her, and she him again; and so he turned his tale to the adventures of the Sangreal.Then Merlin desired of the king to have men with him that should enquire of Guenever, and so the king granted him.And Merlin went forth to king Leodegrance of Cameliard, and told him of the desire of the king that he would have unto his wife Guenever his daughter.That is to me, said king Leodegrance, the best tidings that ever I heard, that so worthy a king of prowess and noblesse will wed my daughter.And as for my lands I will give him wist I it might please him, but he hath lands enough, him needeth none, but I shall send him a gift shall please him much more, for I shall give him the Table Round, the which Uther Pendragon gave me, and when it is full complete there is an hundred knights and fifty.And as for an hundred good knights Ihave myself, but I lack fifty, for so many have been slain in my days.And so king Leodegrance delivered his daughter Guenever unto Merlin, and the Table Round, with the hundred knights, and so they rode freshly, with great royalty, what by water and what by land, till that they came nigh unto London.
Book III.Chapter 2.
How the knights of the Round Table were ordained, and their sieges blessed by the bishop of Canterbury.
When king Arthur heard Of the coming of Guenever and the hundred knights with the Table Round, then king Arthur made great joy for their coming, and that rich present, and said openly, This fair lady is passing welcome unto me, for I have loved her long, and therefore there is nothing so lief to me.And these knights with the Round Table please me more than right great riches.And in all haste the king let ordain for the marriage and the coronation in the most honourablest wise that could be devised.Now Merlin, said king Arthur, go thou and espy me in all this land fifty knights which be of most prowess and worship.Within short time Merlin had found such knights that should fulfil twenty and eight knights, but no more he could find.Then the bishop of Canterbury was fetched, and he blessed the sieges with great royalty and devotion, and there set the eight and twenty knights in their sieges.And when this was done Merlin said, Fair sirs, ye must all arise and come to king Arthur for to do him homage; he will have the better will to maintain you.And so they arose and did their homage.And when they were gone Merlin found in every siege letters of gold that told the knights' names that had sitten therein.But two sieges were void: And so anon came young Gawaine, and asked the king a gift.Ask, said the king, and Ishall grant it you.Sir, I ask that ye will make me knight that same day ye shall wed fair Guenever.I will do it with a good will, said king Arthur, and do unto you all the worship that Imay, for I must by reason you are my nephew, my sister's son.
It is now the Vigil of the feast of Pentecost, and the knights are all at Arthur's court.Sir Launcelot is suddenly desired to go on a mission by a fair damsel who takes him to a forest and an abbey.
Book XIII.Chapter 1.
Truly, said Sir Launcelot, a gentlewoman brought me hither, but Iknow not the cause.In the meanwhile, as they thus stood talking together, there came twelve nuns which brought with them Galahad, the which was passing fair and well made, that unneth in the world men might not find his match; and all those ladies wept.
Sir, said the ladies, we bring you here this child, the which we have nourished, and we pray you to make him a knight; for of a more worthier man's hand may he not receive the order of knighthood.Sir Launcelot beheld that young squire, and saw him seemly and demure as a dove, with all manner of good features, that he wend of his age never to have seen so fair a man of form.
Then said Sir Launcelot, Cometh this desire of himself? He and all they said, Yea.Then shall he, said Sir Launcelot, receive the high order of knighthood as tomorrow at the reverence of the high feast.That night Sir Launcelot had passing good cheer, and on the morn at the hour of prime, at Galahad's desire, he made him knight, and said, God make him a good man, For beauty faileth you not as any that liveth.
Sir Launcelot returns to court.It is noticed that the back of the "siege (seat) perilous," at the Round Table has a new inscription saying that this day this long unfilled seat should be filled.Before sitting down to feast on this day, it was an old custom to see "some adventure."Book XIII.Chapter 2.
So as they stood speaking, in came a squire, and said unto the king, Sir, I bring unto you marvellous tidings.What be they?
