Camelot
Arthur's principal court, identified with Winchester, attested in 2 sources.
Camelot is Arthur's principal court and seat of power, attested across 34 citations in two sources: Le Morte d'Arthur and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It functions as the gravitational centre of Arthurian narrative -- the place from which quests depart, to which knights return, and where the Round Table holds its fellowship. Malory explicitly identifies it with a real English location: "Camelot, that is called in English, Winchester" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XII, Chapter X), a claim repeated when "there was great press of kings, dukes earls, and barons, and many noble knights" at "Camelot, that time called Winchester" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Chapter X).
Le Morte d'Arthur and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight present Camelot through overlapping but distinct emphases. Malory's Camelot is primarily a narrative hub -- a place of arrivals and departures rather than extended description. Knights ride "forth unto Camelot" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book III, Chapter VIII), depart toward it (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book III, Chapter X), and return after adventures to find "the king and the queen were passing fain" of their coming (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book III, Chapter XV). A dwarf rides "from the city of Camelot on horseback, as much as he might" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Chapter VII), and tempests drive ships to land "fast by Camelot" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XIX). Camelot's function is connective: it organizes the narrative geography of the Arthurian world.
Malory also uses Camelot for his most consequential scenes. Arthur summons lords to "a castle called Camelot" for a council-general and jousts (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Chapter I). The quest of the Holy Grail begins there at the vigil of Pentecost, "when all the fellowship of the Round Table were come unto Camelot and there heard their service" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIII, Chapter I), and Galahad arrives "unto Camelot by the hour of underne on Whitsunday" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIII, Chapter II). Arthur gathers his knights "for to joust in the meadow beside Camelot or they departed" on the Grail quest (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIII, Chapter VI), and "the king and all estates went home unto Camelot" for a final evensong (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIII, Chapter VII). The departure is marked by civic grief: "they mounted upon their horses and rode through the streets of Camelot; and there was weeping of rich and poor, and the king turned away and might not speak for weeping" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIII, Chapter VIII). Percivale is made knight "in Camelot" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XXIII), and the king returns there repeatedly after adventures: "the king returned unto Camelot in haste" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter IV), and "he rode unto Camelot, and found his queen and his barons right glad of his coming" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter XV). Knights arrive after twelve days' travel to find "the king was passing glad of their coming, and so was all the court" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter XXVIII). Tristram's ship is driven by tempest to land "fast by Camelot" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XIX), and others take their helms off and ride to Camelot after combat (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter V). William Caxton's Preface establishes Camelot's material reality by claiming that "in the town of Camelot, the great stones and the marvellous works of iron lying under the ground, and royal vaults, which divers now living have seen" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Preface of William Caxton).
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight gives Camelot a sensory richness that Malory's functional references lack. The feast "was holden fifteen days with all the mirth that men could devise, song and glee, glorious to hear, in the daytime, and dancing at night" (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part I, How Arthur held high feast at Camelot). The provision is lavish: "to each two were twelve dishes, with great plenty of beer and wine" (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part I, Of the noble knights there present), served "with the blast of trumpets and waving of banners, with the sound of drums and pipes, of song and lute" (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part I, Of the noble knights there present). On New Year's Day "a double portion was served on the high table to the noble guests" (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part I, New Year's Day). After the Green Knight's challenge, his axe is hung "on the dossal above the dais, where all men might look on it for a marvel, and by its true token tell of the wonder" (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part I, The marvel of the Green Knight).
Where Malory treats Camelot as a fixed point on a map -- going so far as to equate it with Winchester -- the Gawain-poet treats it as an atmosphere. The two sources complement one another: Malory provides geography and narrative function; the Gawain-poet provides ceremony and sensory texture.