Q: "Alright, I read the summary of the Arthurian legend, but I'm still really confused about who's related to who. Could you maybe show me a family tree?
A: Sure. It might be strange to look at, but this is how things happened in the legend. I'll modify the one in The Once and Future King for your convenience. Take a look....

( = Means a marriage bond, <3 means an affair. The main characters in this paper are underlined in bold. You can also trace the colors for help--i.e., green travels through one family. Note that Morgause brings some bad blood into the family)

Earl of Cornwall = Igraine <3 Uther Pendragon
                            |                 |______________
                            |                                            |
              _______|____________                    |
               |             |                     |                      |                          
Morgan le Fay Elaine Lot = Morgause <3 Arthur = Guinevere <3 Lancelot <3 Elaine (of Corbin)
     ___________________|___               |                                                             |        
      |              |               |           |                |                                                             |
Gawain Agravaine Gaheris Gareth    Mordred                                               Galahad

Q: "Wait a second, let me get this straight: Arthur and Morgause have the same mother, which makes them half- siblings. Then they slept together, so when Mordred was born, he was Arthur's son/nephew? And then that meant he was half-brother/cousins with Lot and Morgause's other sons?
A: Precisely. And just for further clarification, Morgause and her sisters are of the Cornwall family, and Gawain and his brothers are of the Orkney family.

Q: "I looked at the family tree more closely, and there doesn't seem to be many children on the right side. How come? The left side seems to be pretty fertile."
A: Well, it certainly would've helped if Arthur could've produced another, less evil heir, but that didn't work out. Why, you ask? Well, in some versions of the legend, Queen Guinevere exiled a young man from her court who just so happened to be Morgan le Fay's lover. This turned out to be a bad idea, since Morgan was a magically powerful queen who held grudges. So, she cursed Guinevere's womb and made her barren. Thus, Arthur is unable to produce a legitimate heir with his queen, just as she is unable to produce Lancelot's bastard (Elaine does that for him).

Q: "So how many of these characters are important?"
A: Most of them. Although you can ignore everyone in the top row, as long as you remember everyone's royal parentage. Morgan le Fay is just one of those people who makes mischief with her magic every now and then, and Elaine is just one of about five women with that name in the legend. Morgause is just a conniving little troublemaker who worsens Arthur's situation throughout the story. Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot are obviously important, since they're the three corners of the love triangle. Elaine (another one) has her fifteen minutes of fame eventually. The Orkney brothers fade in and out of the picture throughout the texts (particularly Gawain). Galahad is your basic holy boy on the quest for the Holy Grail, while Mordred is his complete opposite--evil, scheming, and vengeful. Mix these characters together and you have a very interesting result...

Q: "Am I reading this thing right? It looks like Lancelot had a kid with some lady who I've never even heard of before. Wasn't he supposed to be in love with Guinevere?"
A: You're right on all accounts. Yes, he had a child with Elaine of Corbin, and yes, he was in love with Guinevere. But bear in mind that Camelot was a land of magic--potions included. Get my drift? No? Well, read the paper, and it'll make sense.

Q: "Alright, so all these knights of the Round Table went on a quest to go find the Holy Grail. But what the heck is it, anyway?"
A: Well, have you ever seen the Indiana Jones movie (the one with Sean Connery) about the Holy Grail? Remember how at the end they go to this obstacle course kinda thing, and Harrison Ford ends up at this place with all these cups? Well, the one that he drinks from is the Holy Grail--or, simply put, the cup that Jesus Christ drank out of at the last supper. Historically speaking, this is the most sacred object of the Christian faith, which makes it so important to Arthur and his devout pack of knights. And, to further confuse you, the Grail is also sometimes known as the shallow bowl which caught Jesus’ blood as he was being crucified. Either way, the search for it is the ultimate quest for Christian knights.

Q: "Hey, I haven't noticed all the links at the bottom of every single page, so how can I e-mail you?
A: Alright, here's the link again, just incase you looked over all twenty of them…  [email protected]