Dover
Dover is a port and castle in southeast England that features in three episodes of Le Morte d'Arthur.
Dover is a port and castle in southeast England that features in three episodes of Le Morte d'Arthur. In Book V, Dover appears during Arthur's continental campaigns when a duke's son surrenders the keys of a city to the king (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book V, Chapter XII). In the closing books, Dover becomes the site of Lancelot's return to England after Arthur's death: "he passed over the sea till he came to Dover, and there he landed with seven kings, and the number was hideous to behold" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI, Chapter VIII). At Dover, Lancelot is brought to the castle and shown Gawain's tomb (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI, Chapter VIII). The text later records that "the great host abode at Dover" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI, Chapter X).
Dover functions in Malory as a liminal point between the continental and British worlds. In Book V it marks the threshold of Arthur's imperial ambitions. In Book XXI its role shifts to become the place where the aftermath of Arthur's fall is confronted -- Lancelot arrives too late, and the castle of Dover holds Gawain's tomb as evidence of what has been lost. The "great host" that gathers there represents the fractured remnants of a fellowship that Dover, as England's gateway, had once seen depart in triumph.
Appears in: Places, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition