Medieval literature Īrthur's court at Camelot is mentioned for the first time in Chrétien's poem Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, dating to the 1170s, though it does not appear in all the manuscripts. Given Chrétien's known tendency to create new stories and characters, being the first to mention the hero Lancelot's love affair with Queen Guinevere for example, the name might also be entirely invented. Holmes argued in 1929 that Chrétien had access to Book 2 of Pliny's Natural History, where it is rendered as Camaloduno. It is unclear, however, where Chrétien de Troyes would have encountered the name Camulodunum, or why he would render it as Camaalot, though Urban T. Indeed, John Morris, the English historian who specialized in the study of the institutions of the Roman Empire and the history of Sub-Roman Britain, suggested in his book The Age of Arthur that as the descendants of Romanized Britons looked back to a golden age of peace and prosperity under Rome, the name 'Camelot' of Arthurian legend may have referred to the capital of Britannia (Camulodunum) in Roman times. Others have suggested a derivation from the British Iron Age and Romano-British place name Camulodunum, one of the first capitals of Roman Britain and which would have significance in Romano-British culture. He further suggested that Cavalon became Arthur's capital due to confusion with Arthur's other traditional court at Caerleon ( Caer Lleon in Welsh). Roger Sherman Loomis believed it was derived from Cavalon, a place name that he suggested was a corruption of Avalon (under the influence of the Breton place name Cavallon). Arthurian scholar Ernst Brugger suggested that it was a corruption of the site of Arthur's final battle, the Battle of Camlann, in Welsh tradition. It has numerous different spellings in medieval French Arthurian romances, including Camaalot, Camalot, Chamalot, Camehelot (sometimes read as Camchilot), Camaaloth, Caamalot, Camahaloth, Camaelot, Kamaalot, Kamaaloth, Kaamalot, Kamahaloth, Kameloth, Kamaelot, Kamelot, Kaamelot, Cameloth, and Gamalaot. Nevertheless, arguments about the location of the 'real Camelot' have occurred since the 15th century and continue today in popular works and for tourism purposes. Most scholars regard it as being entirely fictional, its unspecified geography being perfect for chivalric romance writers. The stories locate it somewhere in Great Britain and sometimes associate it with real cities, though more usually its precise location is not revealed. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm and a symbol of the Arthurian world. Guinevere, Knights of the Round Table, Morgan le FayĬamelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Gustave Doré's illustration of Camelot from Idylls of the King (1867)

Camelot unchained graphics