Where Was Camelot?

Escape into creative worlds of fiction.

St. Michael's Tower on Glastonbury Tor overlooks flatlands. Some believe it was once the Arthurian Isle of Avalon.
Courtesy of Donnylad [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Ah, Camelot! The legendary home of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and the Knights of the Round Table inspires our imaginations today. Whether (and where) it existed remains a hotly contested topic. 

The first mention of Camelot occurred in Chrétien de Troyes' poem "Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart," written around 1177, with a passing reference to Arthur coming from Caerleon in Wales, his usual seat, to hold court there. The name, Camelot usurped Caerleon in 13th-century French romances such as the Lancelot-Grail and the Post-Vulgate Cycle, although many details remained the same. It wasn’t until Sir Thomas Malory’s “Le Morte d'Arthur,” based on the earlier French romances, appeared in the late 15th-century that Camelot came into its own.

Mallory placed Camelot in Winchester, a Northampton town, and indeed a Round Table hangs in Winchester Castle. Although an interesting artifact, it is not the original. King Henry VIII commissioned this table in 1522 in honor of a state visit of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The table features the names of Arthur’s knights and King Henry, himself, in Arthur’s seat below a Tudor rose.

Winchester Castle Great Hall and Winchester Round Table,
Courtesy of Graham Horn [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Arthurian scholar Ernst Brugger thought that ‘Camelot’ might be a corruption of ‘Camlann,’ the site of Arthur’s final battle against Mordred and a Pictish army. The location of this battle is not known, however theories exist. 

Another Arthurian scholar, Roger Sherman Loomis, thought ‘Camelot’ to be a corruption of ‘Avalon.’ The Isle of Avalon is first mentioned in “Historia Regum Britanniae” (‘The History of the Kings of Britain”) by Geoffrey of Monmouth (circa 1136). Glastonbury became associated with Avalon in 1191 when monks at the abbey claimed to have located the graves of King Arthur and Queen. These remains were moved and lost during the Reformation, and scholars suspect they were not genuine.

Could this be the grave of King Arthur?
Courtesy of Harvey Robinson [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

One of the best claims comes from Cadbury Castle, an iron-age hill fort that was reoccupied and rebuilt by someone who was probably a king of great wealth during the Arthurian era. Read why this location has my vote in Cadbury Castle: Location of Camelot? 

I’ve barely scraped the surface of possible locations for Camelot. The list goes on. In reality, we may never know for certain whether Camelot, or King Arthur himself, actually existed. For most of us, that’s not important. Arthur, Guinevere, the Knights of the Roundd Table, and Camelot live in our imaginations and belong to us all. As Arthurian scholar Norris J. Lacy so aptly put it, "Camelot, located no where in particular, can be anywhere."

About the Author

Escape into creative worlds of fiction with Janalyn Voigt, an author whose unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and fantasy creates breathtaking fictional worlds for readers.

Beginning with DawnSinger, Janalyn's epic fantasy series, Tales of Faeraven, carries readers into a land only imagined in dreams.

Janalyn is represented by Sarah Joy Freese of Wordserve Literary. Her memberships include ACFW and NCWA. When she's not writing, she loves to discover worlds of adventure in the great outdoors with her family.