圓桌騎士The Round Table Knights

The Round Table Knights were a group of greatest knights who had the honour to sit at the Round Table at King Arthur’s court. According to a story, Arthur had a carpenter build the Round Table to show that no knight, not even Arthur himself was “head of the table”. All were equal and the king was just “first among equals”. The table was so large that it had enough seats for 1600 men and yet could be folded up and carried on horseback. According to another source.. Merlin the magician had the table built for Uther, Arthur’s father. Uther gave the table to King Leodegan. Later,Leodegan gave the table to Arthur after Arthur married Guenevere, Leodegan’s daughter. Still another story says that the Round Table had 12 seats around it, like the table at the Last Supper, with an empty place representing Judas’s seat. This seat was called the Siege Perilous, and was reserved for the knight so pure in heart that he would someday find the Holy Grail, the cup or dish used by Jesus at the Last Supper.Any other knight who sat in the seat would die. One day, Sir Galahad’s name appeared on the seat. From then on, he occupied the Siege Perilous .Later, as expected, he found the Holy Grail with the other two knights.

Knights considered it a great honour to have a seat at the Round Table. Brave men came to Arthur’s court from many countries hoping to become a Round Table Knight. Many stories describe the heroic deeds of various Knights of the Round Table. Several tell of the adventures of Sir Tristram and Sir Gawin. Other famous Round Table Knights included Lancelot, Bedevere, Bors, Galahad, Perceval and Modred..

The greatest adventure of the Round Table was the search for the Holy Grail. However, only the three knights---Bors, Galahad and Perceval were pure enough to be able to find the Grail. All the others had various moral defects. This fact damaged the reputation of the Round Table. To make things worse, a love affair developed between Queen Guenevere and Sir Lancelot, who was perhaps the greatest of the Round Table knights. This scandal destroyed the bonds of respect and friendship that had united all the knights.

The mortal blow to the Round Table ws given by Sir Modred, who tried to seize Arthur’s power. In a battle between the forces of the two men, Arthur killed Modred but he mimself was seriously wounded and soon died. The Round Table broke up following the death of Arthur.

圓桌騎士是亞瑟王宮廷里有權在圓桌旁就座的騎士。據傳，亞瑟之所以讓人造一圓桌，是因為圓桌無首席，所有騎士平起平坐，即使亞瑟本人也只是“眾平等騎士之首”而已。這張桌子可坐1600人，但又可以折疊起來，一匹馬就能馱走。據另一說，圓桌是墨林為尤瑟造的，尤瑟將它贈給了利奧德根王，而當亞瑟娶利奧德根王的女兒圭內維爾時，利奧德根又將它贈給亞瑟。也有人說圓桌周圍有12個座位，與耶穌和他的門徒共進最后的晚餐時用的桌子相仿。其中有一個空位，代表猶大。這個座位被稱為“危座”，留給能夠找到圣杯的最圣潔的騎士。圣杯是耶穌在最后的晚餐上用過的杯子。不夠圣潔的騎士若膽敢就座，就會馬上死去。有一天，加拉哈爵士的名字出現在“危座”上，此后，這個座位就歸他了。他后來果真與另外兩位騎士找到了圣杯。

騎士們將能在圓桌旁就座視為最大的榮譽。各路豪杰紛紛前來，希望在圓桌旁得到位置。很多故事講各圓桌騎士的英雄業(yè)績。特利斯特拉姆和高文爵士的故事膾炙人口。其他著名的圓桌騎士還有朗斯洛、拜德維爾、博斯、加位哈德、珀西瓦爾、莫德雷德等人。

圓桌騎士們最偉大的歷險是尋找圣杯。但其中只有博斯、加拉哈德和珀西瓦爾三人足夠圣潔，有資格找到圣杯。所有其他騎士都有各種各樣的道德缺陷，敗壞了圓桌騎士們的名聲。使事情更糟的是，圓桌騎士中最驍勇善戰(zhàn)的朗斯洛爵士與亞瑟的妻子圭內維爾私通，違反了騎士道，破壞了騎士們的團結。

最后，莫德雷德爵士試圖篡位，給圓桌騎士這一集體以致命的一擊。亞瑟王率軍與莫德雷德作戰(zhàn)，在戰(zhàn)斗中殺死莫德雷德，但自己也受了致命傷，不久死去。亞瑟死后，圓桌騎士各奔東西。