The Land of King Arthur - Dozmary Pool

A slender arm that gripped a sword

rose slowly from the water.

"I'll save her" cried young Arthur.

"She must be some knight's daugter..."

"Be still," hissed Merlin. "There you see

the Lady of the Lake.

She's like a kind of mermaid.

That sword is yours to take."  

Excalibur the Magic Sword- Crazy Camelot Capers  Tony Mitton and Arthur Robins

My children loved the stories from Crazy Camelot when they were little. There is nothing like children stories in rhyme and the illustrations that are inside the book are fabulous. If you have young children and you want to introduce them to King Arthur and his knights then this is a fun way to do it.

Before I take the rest of this post to praise Crazy Camelot, I actually wanted to talk about a very famous lake in Arthurian legend.
 
There are two stories as to how Arthur came by his magical sword. Both will be familiar I am sure. The first one claims that Arthur pulled a sword from a stone. The other states that the sword was gifted to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake.

But where is the Lake?

Could Dozmary Pool be the lake in question??!

Dozmary Pool can be found in Cornwall, in the parish of Altarnun on Bodmin Moor. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - I can understand why. And from the picture above, it is easy to imagine a sword rising from the water.

Now, Excalibur came with instructions - not quite a 'how to use' manual - I am sure Arthur knew how to handle a sword. The instructions were simple. I shall quote from Crazy Camelot again, so prepare yourself for some more rhyme...

I am Excalibur, your sword,

and I will never break.

But when your reign is over,

return me to the lake.

The general consensuses is that Arthur was mortally wounded at the Battle of Camlann. Arthur recalled the instructions about the sword. He had to get back to the lake. Sir Bedivere, the only surviving knight of The Round Table - took Arthur back to the lake, but Arthur was too weak to throw the sword back into the lake, so he instructs Sir Bedivere to do it for him. But Sir Bedivere could not bring himself to throw such a beautiful sword into the water, so he hid it and returned to Arthur. Arthur asked him if he had thrown the sword back in the lake. Sir Bedivere lied and said he had. Arthur could see through the lies and told Sir Bedivere to do as he instructed. But Sir Bedivere just could not do it. He lied to Arthur for the second time. Once again, Arthur could see through the lies and for the last time told Sir Bedivere to do as he was instructed. Against his better instincts, Sir Bedivere threw the sword into the lake. To his very great surprise, a hand reached up from the water and grabbed the sword, drawing it back down into the watery depths, out of sight forever more. Sir Bedivere returned to Arthur and told him what he had seen. This time, Arthur believed him.

Dozmary Pool is bottomless and has a secret tunnel that leads directly to the ocean - a perfect home for the Lady of the Lake.  

 

Back to the question is Dozmary Pool - that lake?

It is certainly atmospheric enough, but...

It isn't bottomless - in 1869 the pool dried up and apart from finding some amazing Neolithic arrowheads, there was no tunnel - so there goes that theory.

It is also argued that Dozmary Pool is too far away from the proposed site of the Battle of Camlann.

 So the bottom line is that it is very unlikely that Dozmary Pool is that lake - but it is stunning.

Sir Bedivere

Back to my knights!
Like Sir Kay, Sir Bedivere, is one of the original Knights of the Round Table.

Excalibur into the Water. Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley, 1894.

Who was the great Sir Bedivere?

The first mention of him is in the 10th Century poem Pa Gur. This is how the poet describes Bedivere.

They fell by the hundred

before Bedwyr of the Perfect-Sinew.

On the shores of Tryfrwyd

fighting with Garwlwyd

furious was his nature

with sword and shield.

We can also find him in the story of Culhwch and Olwen. In this he is described as being a good friend of Culhwch (Sir Kay) and helps Culhwch with his quests to win the hand of Olwen. Bedivere is later given the title, Duke of Neustria.

 He is also described as being very handsome, although not as handsome as Arthur, and he had a magic lance -- like you do!

Monmouth portrays him as the most loyal of men, to which no one ever seems to despite. His reputation is left untarnished in future accounts.

He is one of only a handful of knights that survive the Battle of Camlann -- the battle where Arthur fought Mordred -- and he was the last person to see Arthur alive.

But what he is remembered for the most happened after the Battle of Camlann.

The Battle of Camlann leaves Arthur mortally wounded. Arthur commands Bedivere to throw Excalibur (his magical sword) back into the lake. However, Bedivere is reluctant to do so, for the sword is very valuable and is a symbol of Arthur's reign. So he decides to lie to his King, but Arthur can see right through the lie and tells him he must throw the sword into the lake. Once again Bedivere lies and Arthur looses his temper, telling him the sword must go back. Realising that his King will not die peacefully if he does not do as he is told, Bedivere reluctantly throws the sword back into the lake -- what happens next is unbelievable -- The Lady of the Lakes' hand reached out from the depths of the water and catched the sword mid-air, before disappearing back into the water again, taking the sword with her. Bedivere tells Arthur of what he saw and Arthur is comforted.

What happened to Sir Bedivere after Arthur died?

Some say Sir Bedivere died on the Roman Campaign, by which time he only had one hand.

But many of these medieval story tellers had a bit of thing for putting all these noble knights into religious orders and that is what many of them did with Sir Bedivere. He enters the hermitage led by Mordred-ousted Bishop of Canterbury. Ironically, it is the same hermitage Lancelot also ends up in. I hope it was a silent order, I cannot imagine the two of them having much to talk about.

...Perhaps I should do that with my stories, if a character is getting on my nerve I can stick them in a hermitage -- now there's a thought...

The one other thing that Sir Bedivere is remembered for is his logic and if any of you are fans of Monty Python, then you will know what I am talking about!