illustration: Matthew Lopz
Let all me know from this day This is the door to the Noble Hall. Where honour on the worthy shall be bestowed And the worthless shall dishonour know.
-- Le Roman de Perceforest
Before Arthur, Before the arrival of Caesar, the kingdom of Logres was ruled by a Greek of Alexander called Betis, later known as Perceforest because he purged the forest of the evil Darnant.
His hall, built on the place where the first rainbow ended had a great round table made of black marble where only the worthy could sit, engraved with these words:
Pay good heed to this warning: No man should sit at this table Unless his shield be hung on the western wall.
If not, I cannot protect him From the gravest harm. I have no wish to see him in trouble And advise him not to sit in any of these seats I hope he will take these words to heart. Let him go and sit at the tables below, For there he will be safe.
A lord called Verminex once sat at the table though his arms were not hung, a hand holding a sword then cut of his head, which was displayed in the center of the hall as a warning.
The day after a tournament in the morning all the knights would leave their shields on the floor of the hall which would be locked until the third minute after noon, when it would be opened and the shields of the worthy knights would have been magically hung on the western wall, some would be hung on the North wall or the South wall which permitted them to sit at the tables immediately below the round table, some would be left on the floor which was no disgrace, on occasion a shield may be hung on the eastern wall which signified that the owner was dead, doomed to die or guilty of a grave transgression.
Gallafur, the grandson of Perceforest eventually becomes king, however by this time the kingdom has been devastated and divided by Caesar.
Kora, the most beautiful young woman in the world emerges from the forest for the first time after being raised by the woodland animals and spirits and comes to the hall, Gallafur declares his love to her, but she takes fright and runs away and is captured by Victor the huntsman. A stag hearing her cry charges at him and sticks his antlers into the huntsman's stomach.
Victor kills the stag and chains Kora to an oak tree. With the carcass of the stag still stuck in his stomach he visits an old healer who tells him to wear the skin and antlers of the deer to preserve his life.
Gallafur meanwhile receives a prophecy about the coming conquest of Rome so he drives his sword into an anvil and enchants it so only his true successor could lift it and entrusts it to a servant, he and his knights abandon the hall which immediately becomes overgrown with ivy and shrubs and goes into the forest.
Victor returns to the oak tree and finds Gallafur embracing Kora. They fight and Gallafur wins and hangs Victor with the chains of Kora, taking the skin and antlers of the stag and throwing them to the ground.
The trickster Zephyr cuts Victor down and wraps his corpse in the skin of the stag and attaches the antlers to his head, bringing him back to life and then helps Victor seize Kora and take her to the underworld.
illustration: Matthew Lopz
Gallafur sues Victor in the court of the underworld for Kora, the judge rules that they must fight each other on every first of May until one utterly destroys the other and until now neither has.
The knights of the great hall still rule the forests of Britain and can sometimes be seen in vicious pursuit of Britain's enemies.
Every British hero is allowed to visit the ruin of the Noble hall in a dream and leave their arms there, and perhaps become accepted. The latest identified arms in the hall are Sir Francis Drake's.
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