Siege Perilous

American  

[seej per-uh-luhs] / ˈsidʒ ˈpɛr ə ləs /

noun

1. 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 British  

noun

1. (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

---

Etymology

Origin of Siege Perilous

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

Example Sentences

Enough would be a world that, like the Siege Perilous, lets us give one another the lives we are all entitled to.

From Washington Post • Apr. 22, 2021

Shortly after being beaten down by a group of cyborg supervillains, a number of the heroes enter a mirror-like portal called the Siege Perilous.

From Washington Post • Apr. 22, 2021

But in the Siege Perilous there shall no man sit but one, and if any other be so hardy as to do it, he shall be destroyed.”—Pt. i.

From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 by Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham

Only one siege was long empty, the Siege Perilous, for no man should sit therein but one, and if any one of unworthy life were so hardy as to sit therein, he should be destroyed.

From Stories of King Arthur and His Knights Retold from Malory's "Morte dArthur" by Cutler, U. Waldo

That business is to reach the Siege Perilous, or Magic Chair.

From He by Pollock, Walter Herries