PERILOUS

1. Perilous Bed
   Bed of Marvels
   
   A bed in the castle of Carbonek where Galahad slept and was wounded by a fiery lance. Some dubious sources say that it was Galahad's father, Lancelot, who slept in this bed having previously lain with Elaine, a coupling that led to the birth of Galahad.
   
   
   
2. Perilous Bed
   
   No knight of Arthur's could rest in this bed without rising in shame.
   
   When Gawaine came to the castle in which it was, at the frontier of the Terre Foraine of Gore, he was further told that no one could sleep in this bed without being maimed or killed. Lancelot later stopped here for a night during his pursuit of Guenevere and her captor Meliagrant. Lancelot took the risk and slept in the bed. At midnight the house trembled, a whirlwind swept through it, and a fiery lance came in the window and advanced toward the bed with such force that it entered half a foot into the ground. Lancelot got up, cut the lance in half with his sword, and went back to bed.
   
   I suspect that this bed should be identified with the one that Malory tells us Merlin made.
   
   

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   See also
   Deadly Bed | The Legend of King Arthur
   Wondrous Bed | The Legend of King Arthur
   Merlin's Bed | The Legend of King Arthur
   Castle Meliot | The Legend of King Arthur
   
   
   
3. Perilous Bridge
   Another name for the Sword Bridge leading to the land of Gorre. Lancelot crossed it in his quest to rescue Guinevere.
   
   
   
4. Perilous Bridge
   Pont Perileus
   
   A half-finished bridge on the way to the Castle Orguelleus. Perceval had to cross it. When he reached the end, it detached itself from one side of the chasm, turned 180 degrees, and allowed Perceval to keep riding to the other side. This was only to happen when the best of knights rode upon it.
   
   
   
5. Perilous Castle
   
   A manor where Sir Meliot of Logres lay sick until he was cured by Lancelot.
   
   
   
6. Perilous Castle
   
   A castle Arthur had to conquer in order to free the Kingdom of Damsels from the grip of a tyrant.
   
   
   
7. Perilous Castle
   Chastel Paorous
   
   A castle ruled by Lord Menelais. It was said that no one passed the castle without seeing or hearing something that would terrify him.
   
   
   
8. Perilous Castle
   
   A castle whose enchantments were destroyed by Arthur’s knights Claris and Laris. Its ruler was Orgueillox the Proud.
   
   
   
9. Perilous Cemetery
   
   A haunted graveyard in Perlesvaus. Its chapel, the Perilous Chapel, held the shroud that covered Christ, which Perceval needed to defeat the Lord of the Fens. Perceval’s sister, Dandrane, braved the horrors of the cemetery to retrieve a piece of the shroud. Lancelot had to perform similarly on a quest to heal Meliot of Logres. A variation of Dandrane’s adventure is given to Lore of Cardigan at the Waste Chapel in Meriadeuc.
   
   
   
10. Perilous Cemetery
    Atre Périlleux, L'Atre Perilleux
    
    A cemetery visited by Gawain during his quest to rescue Arthur’s female cupbearer from Sir Escanor. Gawain spent the night there and learned of a maiden trapped in a tomb by a fiend. He beheaded the devil and freed the damsel.
    
    
    
11. Perilous Chapel
    
    The chapel in the Perilous Cemetery, found in Perlesvaus and Malory’s Le Morte Darthur. In the former, Perceval had to brave the horrors of the haunted cemetery and chapel to retrieve the shroud which had covered Jesus Christ. Perceval’s sister, Dandrane, also had to journey to the Perilous Chapel to retrieve a piece of the shroud. Finally, Lancelot was required to face the Perilous Chapel to obtain a sword and cloth in order to heal Meliot of Logres.
    
    It is the latter knight’s adventure that Malory embellishes. In Le Morte Darthur, the Perilous Chapel is guarded by 30 knights twice the size of any man, and is ruled by Hellawes the Sorceress, lady of the Castle Nygramous. When Sir Meliot de Logres killed Sir Gylbert the Bastard, Gylbert’s lover, a witch, cast a spell on Sir Meliot so that his wounds would never be healed unless some knight braved the Perilous Chapel and retrieved a bloody sword within. Lancelot came upon the sickly Meliot and promised to help him. He traveled to the chapel, held his shield before him, and pushed through the ranks of knights into the chapel without incident. Inside, he found the sword on an altar. On his way out, the 30 knights, in unison, told him to replace the sword or perish, and Lancelot bravely chose to risk it and press forward. Again, the knights did not attack. It turned out that the entire Chapel was an elaborate charade created by Hellawes the Sorceress, and Lancelot was the first person to call her bluff. Hellawes appeared before Lancelot and asked him for a kiss in exchange for the sword, but Lancelot refused her. Hellawes then told him that if he had kissed her, he would have fallen down dead. She professed her love for Lancelot, and said that she would have rather had him dead than not have him at all. Lancelot hurried away, and Hellawes died within a fortnight from sorrow.
    
    
    
12. Perilous Chapel
    
    A chapel visited by Gawain and Hector during the Grail Quest. Both knights saw visions portending the completion of the quest by Galahad, Perceval, and Bors. The visions signified the unworthiness of both Gawain and Hector.
    
    
    
13. Perilous Chest
    
    A chest in the castle Dolorous Guard containing the demons that enchanted the castle. Lancelot, upon conquering the stronghold, found the key to open the chest and release the demons, thus ending the enchantments.
    
    
    
14. Perilous Ford
    Gué Perellos
    
    A treacherous ford in the land of Galloway that no knight dared to cross. Gawain reached it during his travels and tried to jump his horse across it, but his horse jumped badly and dumped him into the river.
    
    
    
15. Perilous Ford
    
    A ford defended by the knight Bleoberis. Gawain’s son Guinglain defeated Bleoberis at the Perilous Ford and sent him to King Arthur.
    
    
    
16. Perilous Ford
    
    A ford where Perceval defeated a knight named Urbain. Urbain, to honor his fairy lover, jousted with all knights who passed the ford.
    
    
    
17. Perilous Forest
    A name given to several woods in Arthurian romance; it is impossible to differentiate one from the other. Perlesvaus names it as a forest near the Grail Castle; the Post-Vulgate locates it between Logres and Gorre; Malory places it in Wales. The Vulgate Lancelot says that the lord of Bellegarde Castle (or the White Fortress) murdered King Lancelot, Lancelot’s grandfather, by a spring in the Perilous Forest. Lancelot visited his tomb there. Other locations in the Perilous Forest included the Small Charity Abbey, the Spring of the Two Sycamores, and the Forbidden Hill. In the Vulgate Merlin, it is the former name of the Forest of No Return, which was enchanted by Guinebal, Lancelot’s uncle. The Post-Vulgate names it as the forest of Merlin’s imprisonment by the Lady of the Lake. Knights who experienced adventures in the Perilous Forest include Galahad, Lancelot, Lamorat, Tristan, Meleagant, Gaheris, and Perceval.
    
    
    
18. Perilous Lake
    A lake in the Forest of Morrois in Cornwall. King Mark of Cornwall sent Sir Kay on an “adventure” to the Perilous Lake. Mark intended to ambush and kill him. Kay, unbeknownst to Mark, joined with Sir Gaheris on the way. Mark and his nephew Andred defeated Kay, but Gaheris defeated them both. Rather than kill King Mark, Gaheris forced him to revoke Tristan’s exile from Cornwall.
    
    
    
19. Perilous Mount
    
    A treacherous mountain that Arthur’s Sir Kahedins vowed to climb until he reached the top.
    
    
    
20. Perilous Palace
    
    In the Post-Vulgate, a castle in the forest of Darnantes where Simeon, a sinful follower of Joseph of Arimathea, was forced to burn until Galahad came and freed him of his torment. Elsewhere, the Perilous Palace is named as the castle of Pellehan, the Grail King, which is usually called the Palace of Adventures.
    
    
    
21. Perilous Pass
    Passage Perilleux
    
    A location with a castle guarded by Lord Febus and a band of twenty knights. Galehaut the Brown established the adventure. Guiron the Courteous defeated Febus and all the knights, completing the adventure. Guiron made Seguarades lord of the castle of the Perilous Pass.
    
    
    
22. Perilous Port
    Perilous Rock
    
    A rock in the middle of the sea, once used as a harbor for a band of pirates. After King Mordrain converted to Christianity, God transported him to the Rock of the Perilous Port to test his faith. Although tempted by a fiend and threatened by storms (which broke the Rock in two), Mordrain resisted his desire to leave the Rock, and thus passed the test. The geography given by the Estoire del Saint Graal suggests an identification with the Rock of Gibraltar, although the latter is not in the middle of the ocean.
    
    
    
23. Perilous Rock, Port of
    
    Malory mentions this mysterious spot only once, in the Grail Adventures - and that in a flashback. Nascien, entering a ship at the isle of Turnance, was blown to "another ship where King Mordrains was, which had been tempted full evil with a fiend in the Port of Perilous Rock", all this happening forty years after Christ's Passion. If Turnance is identified with Lundy, then Morte Point, in Devonshire, west of Ilfracome, might be a good spot for the Port of Perilous Rock, "Morte" suggesting death and therefore peril.
    
    I do not know whether the rocks are perilous there today, but even if they are not, they may have been fifteen or twenty centuries ago.
    
    
    
24. Perilous Seat
    
    The forbidden seat at the Grail Table and Round Table, meant only for the most pure. It was said to commemorate the seat occupied by Christ at the table of the Last Supper, or the one vacated by Judas at the same table. Robert de Boron was the first writer to mention it. According to the Didot-Perceval, it was the thirteenth seat the Round Table, and Merlin had ordained that only the best knight could sit in it. A newly-knighted Perceval jumped into the seat without thought, and it split under him. The seat had been intended for him, but he had sat in it prematurely. As a result, the Fisher King could not be cured and part of Britain became a Waste Land.
    
    The Vulgate romances relate that at the Grail Table, Josephus, the son of Joseph of Arimathea, sat in the Perilous Seat. The Round Table’s Perilous Seat was reserved for Galahad. (It was empty for many years until Galahad came to court at the beginning of the Grail Quest.) Any other man who sat in the Perilous Seat was swiftly incinerated, swallowed by the earth, or carried off in flames. This horrid fate befell Moses at the Grail Table, and Brumand and Riger at the Round Table. The seats next to the Perilous Seat were likewise reserved for the best of knights: at the Round Table, they were filled by Perceval and Bors.
    
    Analogs to the Perilous Seat appear in other romances. In Durmart le Gallois, Durmart sits in one upon is arrival at Arthur’s court. In Wirnt von Grafenberg’s Wigalois, Wigalois sits on a rock when he arrives at Arthur’s court, which astonishes the other knights because it was said that only a pure knight could even approach it.
    
    
    
25. Perilous Vale
    
    The residence of Morgan le Fay in Chrétien de Troyes’s Erec.
    
    
    
26. Perilous Valley
    
    Val Perilleus
    
    A land ruled by the Red Knight, an enemy of Arthur. Situated on the Sea of Norway, it was ringed by high mountains and could only be entered via a narrow passage. The Red Knight imprisoned many of Arthur’s knights in the Perilous Valley until they were freed by Gawain and Meriadeuc.
    
    
    
27. Perilous Valley
    
    A dangerous vale from which no knight ever returned alive. Lancelot and Tristan entered the valley during the Grail Quest and slew two savage giants at the castle of Sidravalle.