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Camelot is a legendary castle and Royal court associated with King Arthur. 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.
Medieval texts locate it somewhere in Great Britain and sometimes associate it with real cities, though more usually its precise location is not revealed. Most scholars regard it as being entirely fictional, its unspecified geography being perfect for chivalric romance writers. 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.
Others have suggested a derivation from the British Iron Age and Roman Britain place name Camulodunum, one of the first capitals of Roman Britain and which would have significance in Romano-British culture. 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. 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. Holmes argued Chrétien could have had access to Book 2 of Pliny's Natural History, where it is rendered as Camaloduno.Nitze, William A. et al. Le Haut Livre del Graal: Perlesvaus – Volume 2: Commentary and Notes, p. 196. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937.
Nothing in Chrétien's poem suggests the level of importance Camelot would have in later romances. For Chrétien, Arthur's chief court was in Caerleon in Wales; this was the king's primary base in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and subsequent literature. Chrétien depicts Arthur, like a typical medieval monarch, holding court at a number of cities and castles.
It is not until the 13th-century French prose romances, including the Lancelot-Grail and Post-Vulgate cycles, that Camelot began to supersede Caerleon, and even then, many descriptive details applied to Camelot derive from Geoffrey's earlier grand depiction of the Welsh town. Most Arthurian romances of this period produced in English or Welsh did not follow this trend; Camelot was referred to infrequently, and usually in translations from French. However, in Britain, Arthur's court was generally located at Caerleon, or at Carlisle, which is usually identified with the "Carduel" of the French romances.Ashley, pp. 612–613. One exception is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which locates Arthur's court at Camelot. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, line 37.
From Geoffrey's grand description of Caerleon, Camelot gains its impressive architecture, its many churches and the chivalry and courtesy of its inhabitants. Geoffrey's description in turn drew on an already established tradition in Welsh oral tradition of the grandeur of Arthur's court. The tale Culhwch and Olwen, associated with the Mabinogion and perhaps first written in the 11th century, draws a dramatic picture of Arthur's hall and his many powerful warriors who go from there on great adventures, placing it in Celliwig, an uncertain locale in Cornwall.
The Lancelot-Grail cycle and the texts it influenced depict the city of Camelot as standing along a river, downstream from Astolat. It is surrounded by plains and forests, and its magnificent cathedral, Saint Stephen, originally established by Josephus, the son of Joseph of Arimathea, is the religious centre for Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. There, Arthur and Guinevere are married and there are the tombs of many kings and knights. In a mighty castle stands the Round Table, created by Merlin and Uther Pendragon; it is here that Galahad conquers the Siege Perilous, and where the knights see a vision of the Holy Grail and swear to find it. Jousting are often held in a meadow outside the city.
Its imprecise geography serves the romances well, as Camelot becomes less a literal place than a powerful symbol of Arthur's court and universe. There is also a Kamaalot featured as the home of Percival's mother in the romance Perlesvaus. In Palamedes and some other works, including the Post-Vulgate cycle, King Arthur's Camelot is eventually razed to the ground by the treacherous King Mark of Cornwall (who had besieged it earlier) in his invasion of Logres after the Battle of Camlann. In the Tavola Ritonda, Camelot is abandoned and falls to ruin after the death of Arthur.
Although the court at Celliwig is the most prominent in remaining early Welsh manuscripts, the various versions of the Welsh Triads agree in giving Arthur multiple courts, one in each of the areas inhabited by the Celtic Britons: Cornwall, Wales and the Hen Ogledd. This perhaps reflects the influence of widespread oral traditions common by the 9th century which are recorded in various place names and features such as Arthur's Seat, indicating Arthur was a hero known and associated with many locations across Brittonic areas of Britain as well as Brittany. Even at this stage Arthur could not be tied to one location.Geoffrey Ashe (1991). "Topography and Local Legends". In Norris J. Lacy (Ed.), The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, pp. 455–458. New York: Garland. . Many other places are listed as a location where Arthur holds court in the later romances, Carlisle and London perhaps being the most prominent.
In the 15th century, the English writer Thomas Malory created the image of Camelot most familiar today in his Le Morte d'Arthur, a summary compilation work based mostly on the French romances. He firmly identifies Camelot with Winchester in England, an identification that remained popular over the centuries, though it was rejected by Malory's own editor, William Caxton, who preferred a Welsh location.Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, p. xvii.
In 1542, John Leland reported that the locals around Cadbury Castle (formerly known as Camalet)Phelps, W. The History and Antiquities of Somersetshire; Being a General and Parochial Survey of That Interesting County, to which is Prefixed an Historical Introduction, with a Brief View of Ecclesiastical History; and an Account of the Druidical, Belgic-British, Roman, Saxon, Danish, and Norman Antiquities, Now Extant, Vol. II, Ch. VI, §1: "Camalet or Cadbury", p. 118 . J. B. Nichols & Son (London), 1839. in Somerset considered it to be the original Camelot. This theory, which was repeated by later antiquaries, is bolstered, or may have derived from, Cadbury's proximity to the River Cam and the villages of Queen Camel and West Camel, and remained popular enough to help inspire a large-scale archaeological dig in the 20th century. These excavations, led by archaeologist Leslie Alcock from 1966 to 1970, were titled "Cadbury-Camelot" and won much media attention. The dig revealed that the site seems to have been occupied as early as the 4th millennium BC and to have been refortified and occupied by a major Brittonic ruler and his war band from . This early medieval settlement continued until around 580. The works were by far the largest known fortification of the period, double the size of comparative and with Mediterranean artefacts representing extensive trade and Saxons ones showing possible conquest. The use of the name Camelot and the support of Geoffrey Ashe helped ensure much publicity for the finds, but Alcock himself later grew embarrassed by the supposed Arthurian connection to the site. Following the arguments of David Dumville, Alcock felt the site was too late and too uncertain to be a tenable Camelot.Alcock & al. Modern archaeologists follow him in rejecting the name, calling it instead Cadbury Castle hill fort. Despite this, Cadbury remains widely associated with Camelot.
The name of the Romano-British town of Camulodunum (modern Colchester) was derived from the Celtic god Camulus. However, it was located well within territory usually thought to have been conquered early in the 5th century by Saxons, so it is unlikely to have been the location of any "true" Camelot, as Arthur is traditionally dated to the late 5th and early 6th century. The town was definitely known as Colchester as early as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 917. Even Colchester Museum argues strongly regarding the historical Arthur: "It would be impossible and inconceivable to link him to the Colchester area, or to Essex more generally," pointing out that the connection between the name Camulodunum and Colchester was unknown until the 18th century. Arthurian scholar Peter Field has suggested that another Camulodunum, a former Roman fort, is a likely location of King Arthur's Camelot and that "Slack, on the outskirts of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire," is where Arthur would have held court. This is because of the name, and also regarding its strategic location: it is but a few miles from the extreme south-west of Hen Ogledd (also making close to North Wales), and would have been a flagship point in staving off attacks to the Celtic kingdoms from the Angles and others.
Other places in Britain with names related to "Camel" have also been suggested, such as Camelford in Cornwall, located down the River Camel from where Geoffrey places Camlann, the scene of Arthur's final battle. The area's connections with Camelot and Camlann are merely speculative. Further north, Camelon and its connections with Arthur's O'on have been mentioned in relation to Camelot, but Camelon may be an antiquarian neologism coined after the 15th century, with its earlier name being Carmore or Carmure. Graham Phillips rejected the word "Camelot" entirely as just Chrétien's invention and instead proposed the old Roman city of Viroconium (near Shrewsbury in modern England) as Arthur's capital, citing archaeological evidence of a grand palace having been in use around 500 AD. Alistair Moffat identified Camelot with Roxburgh in Scotland.
Camelot lends its name to the musical Camelot, which was adapted into a film of the same title, featuring the Castle of Coca, Segovia as Camelot. An Arthurian television series Camelot was also named after the castle, as were some other works including the video game Camelot and the comic book series Camelot 3000. French television series Kaamelott presents a humorous alternative version of the Arthurian legend; Camelot Theme Park is a now-abandoned Arthurian theme park resort located in the English county of Lancashire. The Camelot Group was the first operator of the UK National Lottery with lottery machines named after characters, places, and objects in Arthurian legend. The vast cultural impact of Camelot can be seen in numerous works, products, and organisations.
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In strictly American contexts, Camelot era refers to the presidency of John F. Kennedy. In a 1963 Life interview, Jacqueline, his widow, referenced a line from the Lerner and Loewe musical to describe the Kennedy era White House: "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot." She indicated that it was one of Kennedy's favourite lyrics from the musical and added, "there'll be great Presidents again ... but there'll never be another Camelot again."
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