Siege Perilous

[ seej per-uh-luhs ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Arthurian Legend. a vacant seat at the Round Table that could be filled only by the predestined finder of the Holy Grail and was fatal to pretenders.

Siege Perilous

(in Arthurian legend) the seat at the Round Table that could be filled only by the knight destined to find the Holy Grail and that was fatal to anyone else

First recorded in 1425–75; from Old French siege perilleus “dangerous seat”; siege ( def ), perilous ( def )

from siege (in the archaic sense: a seat or throne)

And when the hermit saw the Siege Perilous, he asked the king and all the knights why that siege was void.

Then she had marvel what knight it might be that durst adventure him to sit in the Siege Perilous.

One seat only long remained unoccupied, and that was the Siege Perilous.

The golden throne had become a "siege perilous," and she abdicated in favor of the grasshopper and his black and horrent visitor.

Let us have stranger castles than that of Usher, more dazzling chairs than the Siege Perilous.

April 19, 2024tortuous

[tawr-choo-uhs ]

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