Dover Castle stands at a hinge in the final conflict: it receives the dead Sir Gawaine after the fighting at Dover, then becomes the first place Sir Launcelot seeks when he returns too late to aid King Arthur. Its tomb turns a fortress into a place of mourning, where Launcelot’s grief for the knight he wounded meets the larger ruin of Arthur’s kingdom.

A Burial Place in the Final Conflict

After Sir Mordred’s rebellion, King Arthur landed at Dover, where Mordred tried to prevent him from entering the kingdom. Sir Gawaine was wounded in the fighting. He later asked Arthur to send for Sir Launcelot and to show him kindness, and at noon he died. Arthur had him buried in a chapel within Dover Castle. The account makes the burial site concrete and enduring: visitors could still see Gawaine’s skull and the wound Launcelot had given him in battle.

Launcelot at the Tomb

When Sir Launcelot crossed to England with seven kings and his forces, he learned at Dover that Arthur was dead and that Gawaine had died in the conflict. He asked the townspeople to show him Gawaine’s tomb, then knelt there, wept, and prayed for his soul. For two nights he remained at the tomb in prayer and mourning. The visit answers Gawaine’s final request, conveyed in a letter written shortly before his death, that Launcelot come to see his tomb and pray for him.

Memorial and Narrative Significance

The mourning at Dover Castle takes public as well as personal form. Launcelot provided food and drink for those who came, giving each person twelve pence; the next day, priests and clerks held a Requiem Mass. Launcelot offered one hundred pounds, each of the seven kings forty pounds, and a thousand knights one pound apiece. The offerings continued from morning until night. These acts of prayer and giving make the tomb a communal memorial, while the visible mark of Launcelot’s blow preserves the cause of their grief. After two nights there, Launcelot gathered his companions and said they had arrived too late; he then set out to find Queen Guenever.