Editing Knights of the Round Table (section)

== Numbers of members ==
[[File:William Dyce - Piety- The Knights of the Round Table about to Depart in Quest of the Holy Grail - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|''Piety: The Knights of the Round Table about to Depart in Quest of the Holy Grail'' by [[William Dyce]] (1849)]]

The number of the Knights of the Round Table (including [[King Arthur]]) and their names vary greatly between the versions published by different writers. The figure may range from a dozen to as many as potentially 1,600 (the number of seats at the table), the latter claimed by [[Layamon]] in his ''[[Layamon's Brut|Brut]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=67XWQD7rZcoC&pg=PA120|title=Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe|first=Richard|last=Kaeuper|year=1999|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-154275-6 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Most commonly,<ref>Daniel Mersey, ''Myths & Legends: The Knights of the Round Table'', p. 4.</ref> however, there are between about 100 and 300 seats at the table, often with [[Siege Perilous|one seat usually permanently empty]]. The number of three hundred was also chosen by King [[Edward III of England]] when he decided to create his own real-life Order of the Round Table at [[Windsor Castle]] in 1344.<ref>Jennifer Westwood, ''Albion: A Guide to Legendary Britain'', p. 314.</ref>

In many chivalric romances there are over 100 members of Arthur's Round Table, as with either 140 or 150 according to [[Thomas Malory]]'s popular ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Withrington, John|title = 'He Telleth the Number of the Stars; He Calleth Them All by Their Names': The Lesser Knights of Sir Thomas Malory's 'Morte Darthur'|year=1993|journal=Quondam et Futurus|volume=3|issue=4|pages=17–27|jstor = 27870251}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OAk7EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA54|title=A New Companion to Malory|first1=Megan G.|last1=Leitch|first2=Cory|last2=Rushton|year=2019|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|isbn=9781843845232 |via=Google Books}}</ref> and about 140 according to ''[[Erec (poem)|Erec]]'' by [[Hartmann von Aue]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dtsDg48PgtMC&pg=PA31|title=The Court Reconvenes: Courtly Literature Across the Disciplines : Selected Papers from the Ninth Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, University of British Columbia, 25–31 July, 1998|first=International Courtly Literature Society|last=Congress|date=17 August 2003|publisher=DS Brewer|isbn=9780859917971 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Some sources offer much smaller numbers, such as 13 in the Didot ''Perceval'' and 60 in the count by [[Jean d'Outremeuse]] in his ''Ly Myreur des Histors''.<ref>Theresa Bane, ''Encyclopedia of Mythological Objects'', p. 132.</ref><ref name=cb>Christopher W. Bruce, ''The Arthurian Name Dictionary'', p. 140.</ref> Others yet give higher numbers, as with 250 in the [[Vulgate Cycle|Prose ''Merlin'']],<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UTNrEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA352|title=Prose Merlin|first=John|last=Conlee|date= 1998|publisher=Medieval Institute Publications|isbn=9781580444163 |via=Google Books}}</ref> and 366 in both ''Li Chevaliers as Deus Espees''<ref name=cb/> and ''[[Perlesvaus]]'' (where this is their peak number that nevertheless had dwindled to only about 25 at the time when the story begins<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xEsCWEYFfkC&pg=PA189|title=Sources of the Grail: An Anthology|first=John|last=Matthews|date= 1997|publisher=SteinerBooks|isbn=9780940262867 |via=Google Books}}</ref>).

[[Chrétien de Troyes]] suggested around 500 knights in his early romance ''[[Erec and Enide]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zACqIw3ozxcC&pg=PA49|title=Chivalry in Twelfth-century Germany: The Works of Hartmann Von Aue|first=W. H.|last=Jackson|year= 1994|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=9780859914314 |via=Google Books}}</ref> In the same work, Chrétien catalogued many of Arthur's top knights in a series of long hierarchical lists of names. These rankings are different in each of the surviving manuscripts, none of which is believed to be the author's original version.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDGcAlG0vtsC&pg=PA117|title=Essays in Honor of Norris J. Lacy|first1=Keith|last1=Busby|first2=Catherine M.|last2=Jones|year= 2000|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=9789042006201 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

While not mentioning the Round Table as such, one of the late [[Welsh Triads]] lists 24 extraordinary knights permanently living in Arthur's court,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/triads4.html|title=The Twenty-Four Knights of King Arthur's Court|website=www.ancienttexts.org}}</ref> mixing romance characters with several Arthur's warriors from a largely lost Welsh tradition considered to originate in old Celtic folklore. Companions of Arthur numbering 24 also appear in the Welsh tale of ''[[Peredur son of Efrawg]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KSnFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT83|title=This is Not a Grail Romance: Understanding Peredur Vab Efrawc|first=Natalia|last=Petrovskaia|date=2023|publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn=9781837720385 |via=Google Books}}</ref>