#not 100% on bedwyr's design here

[mortiscausa]

cai and bedwyr, out riding

[queer-ragnelle]

who do you consider the "main" (or most common) knights of the round table and what does your ideal round table look like

Hi there! What a fun question.

I have a very specific answer for this because I actually had to work this out when writing my books. :^) I'll talk a little bit about my inspirations as the potential for the Table is literally endless. Narrowing the scope of sources, both fictional and historical, helped me decided on what exactly my ideal was.

First of all there's a documentary about the Round Table hanging at Winchester that I've made available to watch here. When I first shared it, I made a post talking about how silly some of the inclusions were as they had characters that were most definitely not historical, but nonetheless interesting. That Round Table seats 24 knights, plus King Arthur. Some legends say the Table was part of Guinevere's dowry and came with 100 knights, although it could seat a total of 150. Personally, I have two minds about this.

I was inspired by the idea of a guild of knights in the historical sense. I looked at the Order of the Garter, which is the oldest of such groups in Britain still in exitance today. This guild was founded by King Edward III and directly inspired by his love of Arthurian Legend. So, building on that concept, I think "Knights of the Round Table" can be considered a guild of sorts which doesn't necessarily constitute an equal number of seats to butts. ;^) While I do write about magic, I wanted this aspect to be grounded somewhat in potential reality, so "my" Round Table, the actual physical object, only seats thirteen, including King Arthur himself. This number comes from the Prose Tristan, which in turn draws on the Bible, more specifically, the last supper at which Jesus broke bread with his disciples.

The great and skillful Merlin had exhausted all the secrets of his art in the constructing of that table. Thirteen seats were placed round it in honor of the thirteen apostles. Twelve only of these could be filled up, and only by the bravest and truest Knights. The thirteenth represented that of the execrable traitor Judas.

So, my Round Table seats thirteen people. The people in those seats fluctuates, as is customary with the legend. When a seat-holder dies, their name disappears, and someone can then replace them. I like to believe there's a lineage aspect to it as well, so scion replace predecessors. When King Arthur first began his reign and welcomed his allies into his guild, the Round Table would alighted with names it had deemed worthy. Joining the guild (or Arthur's "household" as some medieval texts would say) wasn't enough, this inner council constitutes an additional layer of honor afforded to but a handful. In the timeline of my books, the "original" members were King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Royal Wizard Merlin, King Ban, King Bors, King Pellinore, King Urien, Sir Kay, Sir Bedwyr, with 4 empty seats. Had King Lot allied with Arthur, perhaps he would have had a seat. But as it were, his son Sir Gawain ended up there instead. And thus, Lancelot replaced Ban, Lamorak replaced Pellinore, Owain replaced Urien, etc. Eventually, Sir Tristan, High Prince Galehaut, Sir Percival, and lastly Sir Galahad also get seats. It's a perpetually revolving door of people on the council, with more knights joining the "Knights of the Round Table" guild all the time. I think this adds a little extra spice to the whole thing, possibly fueling rivalries. I mean, how many of Lancelot's kinsmen get proper seats while Gawain's kinsmen, Arthur's nephews, stand around outside the hold like chumps? All three grail knights have seats but only one queen? Is it Merlin's magic that decides this or some divine force? How can this force be trusted? Who knows! :^)

Now as for the look of it, I really liked the design in The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956).

Each knight is labeled by name, they rest a decorative shield on the surface with their heraldry which is also on a little flag at each seat. It's so extra I love it. I went more rustic though and believe the Table to be made from a cross section of a giant oak tree and the names appear in gold lettering before the person. Fun fact as well, the Table doesn't deadname.

That was a very long answer lol but I think a great deal about these things. Thanks for the ask and take care!