Arthur’s cave

After the battle of Camlann where he was mortally wounded by Mordred, Arthur did not die. His sister Morgan bore him to Armorican Brittany, to the Huelgoat chaos. There, in a deep cave under the giant blocks, she put him to sleep with his twelve most faithful knights: Lancelot, Gauvain, Perceval, Bohort and the rest. All sleep in armour, sword in hand. An old woman watches — Morgan herself, they say. Once every hundred years she comes out to see whether Brittany needs the king.

In 1872 the twelve-year-old shepherd Yann Le Pioufle lost a sheep in the chaos. He went down a fissure between two rocks and came into a great hall. At the back, on a throne, slept a man, crowned, sword in hand. Around him twelve knights lay. Yann took fright and stepped back. An old woman appeared: «Boy, what do you seek?» «My sheep.» She showed him the sheep, crouched at the foot of the throne. «Take it and go. Tell no one what you saw — or tell, it makes no difference. No one will believe you.» Yann came up and told. They laughed. At sixty he tried to find the fissure again: unfindable. Today guides still point out «Arthur’s cave» — but that is only an empty chamber. The true one lies further, and opens only once per child.