What exactly is The Round Table?
Posted by Carol_Noble at 19:19, 08 Dec 2011Recently I have been reading a book by John Buchan (he of the 39 Steps)entitled "Montrose". It covers the story of the Earl of Montrose, James Graham, during the time of the Covenanters in Scotland in the mid-1640s. That in itself may not seem too important, however, there was something mentioned on page 62 which pricked up my own ears. I will quote one sentence from that page.
"With the sanction of the Lord Advocate, Sir Thomas Hope, the malcontents organized themselves into a body of commissioners - four committees of nobles, lairds, burgesses, and ministers, henceforth to be known as "The Tables"".
The idea that a group of people could make up a Table reminded me immediately of the Round Table of King Arthur and his knights. Buchan continues to mention the Tables quite often in this book, and he is always referring to the people on the committees, NOT a particular piece of furniture.
I know that some people have suggested that the Round Table may have been a hill with a flat top from which people could see who was there and hear what was agreed. I also know that King Arthur is said to have been from different areas, such as South West England, Wales, Scotland and North East England, and so was Merlin, so it is possible that the table is more Celtic than post Roman.
Buchan's book was written in 1928 and extremely well researched. He also indicates that he had a personal library with documents and books which would be extremely rare and expensive both then, and today. This is the first time I have heard the word table used in this precise way, and it is clearly something the Scots were familiar with.
Could it be that the Round Table of Arthurian Legend was also just a name given to the group of knights, rather than a specific piece of furniture?
Just a thought.
Does anyone else have any information that could throw further light on this matter?
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Comments
14 April 2009
3 weeks 1 day
The round table is the ova around which the sperm try to congregate.
EDIT: Here's s'more:
There is a style of music composition called the round.
A circle has infinite sides or no sides? Quantum Mechanics vs. postmodernism/nihilism?
A circle is a process & not an ending = the "goal" is the process, not any final decisions?
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All that lives is holy, life delights in life.
--William Blake
28 June 2006
2 days 21 hours
Carol,
Since the Legend of Arthur, as it comes to us today, is a group of legends that have been woven together into one legend, it is possible that the round table, like the search for the holy grail, is a later addition to the legend.
What do you think?
cnnek
{You Can Teach People How To Think Critically Or What To Think; But, You Can't Do Both! It Is Better To Teach People How To Think Critically!!!}
10 August 2004
17 weeks 4 days
My personal view, Carol, is that a Round Table is a metaphor for any group of people or things (items might be a better word), where none hold greater importance than any of the others.
For instance, a round table doesn't allow for there to be a 'head' or a 'foot' - all have to have equal status. Your 4 Tables (groups) mentioned in the book by Buchan are interesting and I've not heard the word used that way before either. If there were three of each, that would make the 12 that so often turns up in conjunction with Round Tables.
The description would equally apply to something like the zodiac, which is a form of Round Table. Yes - there are actually 13 signs (and folk irritate me by continually referring to Ophiuchus as the 13th - it isn't. If put in its correct order it is the 9th). I feel the 13th would be whichever sign happens to be that in which the sun rises in any given age, an honour which passes as the Precessional cycle moves on - another form of Round Table.
A real Arthurian Round Table may have existed (I believe they think they have it in Winchester Cathedral), but then any old table without corners would serve the same purpose!
Interesting subject! Good luck in solving the mystery - or perhaps that would spoil it. Regards, Kathrinn
3 June 2008
1 year 23 weeks
I agree, with all of you! Still, it is interesting that views and ideas held by people almost a century or more ago seem to have been lost in the mists of time. So many people knew things then that we are totally unaware of today. Why? I personally have come to the conclusion that Arthur and Merlin existed long before the Romans came, but no historian wants to even consider the possibility. As for the round table, it probably always did refer to a group of people, and the idea of it being round is so that there is no confrontation only a method of putting together ideas in a wholesome way. No head, no tail, just a circle of ideas and people. Thanks anyway for your input.
For something to survive and thrive something else must die.
Carol A Noble
18 September 2007
4 hours 13 min
It is also difficult for us to understand how revered wooden tables were in those days. Given the primitive and arduous means by which trees were bucked up into lumber a table represented a lot of work. It was really a status symbol like suits of armor. Using the term "table" gave a panache to a group or undertaking. It was a symbol of classiness and high status. It implied that the group was serious enough and dedicated enough to erect a table around which to meet and deliberate.