His spere he nom an honde tha Ron wes ihaten. 
  Layamon. Brut, (twelfth century).

Arthur’s Sword, Escal’ibur or Excal’ibur.  Geoffrey calls it Caliburn, and says it was made in the isle of Avallon.—­British History, ix. 4 (1142).

The temper of his sword, the tried Escalabour, The bigness and the length of Rone, his noble spear, With Pridwin, his great shield.

Drayton, Polyolbion, iv. (1612).

Arthur’s Round Table.  It contained seats for 150 knights.  Three were reserved, two for honor, and one (called the “siege perilous”) for sir Galahad, destined to achieve the quest of the sangreal.  If any one else attempted to sit in it, his death was the certain penalty.

[Illustration] There is a table so called at Winchester, and Henry VIII. showed it to Francois I. as the very table made by Merlin for Uther the pendragon.

And for great Arthur’s seat, her Winchester prefers, Whose old round table yet she vaunteth to be hers.

M. Drayton, Polyolbion, ii. (1612).

Arthur (King), in the burlesque opera of

Tom Thumb, has Dollallolla for his queen, and Huncamunca for his daughter.  This dramatic piece, by Henry Fielding, the novelist, was produced in 1730, but was altered by Kane O’Hara, author of Midas, about half a century later.

ARTHURIAN ROMANCES.

King Arthur and the Round Table, a romance in verse (1096).

The Holy Graal (in verse, 1100).

Titurel, or The Guardian of the Holy Graal, by Wolfram von Eschenbach.  Titurel founded the temple of Graalburg as a shrine for the holy graal.

The Romance of Parzival, prince of the race of the kings of Graalburg.  By Wolfram of Eschenbach (in verse).  This romance (written about 1205) was partly founded upon a French poem by Chretien de Troyes, Parceval le Gallois (1170).

Launcelot of the Lake, by Ulrich of Zazikoven, contemporary with William Rufus.

Wigalois, or The Knight of the Wheel, by Wirnd of Graffenberg.  This adventurer leaves his mother in Syria, and goes in search of his father, a knight of the Round Table.

I’wain, or The Knight of the Lion, and Ereck, by Hartmann von der Aue (thirteenth century).

Tristan and Yseult (in verse), by Master Grottfried of Strasburg (thirteenth century).  This is also the subject of Luc du Grast’s prose romance, which was revised by Elie de Borron, and turned into verse by Thomas the Rhymer, of Erceldoune, under the title of the Romance of Tristram.

Merlyn Ambroise, by Robert de Borron.

Roman des diverses Quetes de St. Graal, by Walter Mapes (prose).

La Morte d’Arthur, by Walter Mapes.

A Life of Joseph of Arimathea, by Robert de Borron.