Siege Perilous - Definition

In Arthurian Legend, the Siege Perilous was a specially reserved seat at the Round Table which was kept vacant by Merlin for the knight who was destined to quest for and return with the Holy Grail. Sir Galahad was the purest, and most honorable of all the knights of the round table and he alone completed the quest and earned the Grail. The Siege Perilous was so strictly reserved, that it was fatal to anyone else who sat in it.

After being knighted by his father Sir Launcelot, Galahad was led to his seat in Camelot on Whitsunday, 454 years after the death of Jesus.

An account of this is recorded in Thomas Malory's "Le Morte D'Arthur" and in Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Idylls of the King".

The name Siege Perilous was also used by comic book writer Chris Claremont to describe two distinct devices.

• The first Siege Perilous, which appeared in Captain Britain #1 and 2 (1976), was a circle of standing stones which transformed Brian Braddock into Captain Britain.

• More well-known is the Siege Perilous featured in X-Men. This Siege Perilous, which first appeared in X-Men #227 (1988), was a gate with mystical powers. Those who passed through the Siege Perilous were judged by mysterious entities and then teleported back to Earth, usually naked and amnesiac and often substantially transformed. The Siege Perilous featured prominently in the history of Psylocke and Rogue, among other X-Men characters.

External link

• Article by Peter Luzifer on uncannyxmen.net (http://www.uncannyxmen.net/db/article/showquestion.asp?faq=4&fldAuto=22), with full explanation and pictures