In Chrétien’s Erec (ca. 1165), Lancelot is said to be the third best knight after Gawain and Erec, but in Chrétien’s Lancelot (1179-1180), Lancelot becomes the central figure and the lover of Guinevere who is willing to take any risk or to suffer any indignity in service of the queen. According to both Chrétien and Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, that Lancelot was raised by a fairy. Ulrich tells how this woman who lives in an enchanted realm in the sea raises Lancelot until he is fifteen, at which point he asks to be allowed to go into the world to earn honor. In Ulrich’s Lanzelet, Lanzelet never becomes the queen’s lover; although he is a lover of several ladies, his true love is Yblis, whom he ultimately marries and with whom he has a daughter and three sons.

In the fourteenth-century Tavola Ritonda, Lancilotto is taken and raised by the Lady of the Lake when his mother Gostanza dies in childbirth. The Lady of the Lake names him Lancilotto, which is said to mean “very wise and skilled knight of the lance and sword.” In the thirteenth-century Vulgate Lancelot, Lancelot is raised by the Lady of the Lake when his father dies due to the treachery of Claudas. It is from this upbringing that he is called “du Lac” or “of the Lake”. His baptismal name is Galahad in memory of Galahad, the younger son of Joseph of Arimathea and the first Christian king of Wales, whose tomb Lancelot opens. (This event was foreseen in a vision by monks from Wales, who are present at the time of the opening of the tomb and who take the body to Wales.) Lancelot is called Lancelot, however, after his grandfather. The text also says that “just...

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In Chrétien’s Erec (ca. 1165), Lancelot is said to be the third best knight after Gawain and Erec, but in Chrétien’s Lancelot (1179-1180), Lancelot becomes the central figure and the lover of Guinevere who is willing to take any risk or to suffer any indignity in service of the queen. According to both Chrétien and Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, that Lancelot was raised by a fairy. Ulrich tells how this woman who lives in an enchanted realm in the sea raises Lancelot until he is fifteen, at which point he asks to be allowed to go into the world to earn honor. In Ulrich’s Lanzelet, Lanzelet never becomes the queen’s lover; although he is a lover of several ladies, his true love is Yblis, whom he ultimately marries and with whom he has a daughter and three sons.

In the fourteenth-century Tavola Ritonda, Lancilotto is taken and raised by the Lady of the Lake when his mother Gostanza dies in childbirth. The Lady of the Lake names him Lancilotto, which is said to mean “very wise and skilled knight of the lance and sword.” In the thirteenth-century Vulgate Lancelot, Lancelot is raised by the Lady of the Lake when his father dies due to the treachery of Claudas. It is from this upbringing that he is called “du Lac” or “of the Lake”. His baptismal name is Galahad in memory of Galahad, the younger son of Joseph of Arimathea and the first Christian king of Wales, whose tomb Lancelot opens. (This event was foreseen in a vision by monks from Wales, who are present at the time of the opening of the tomb and who take the body to Wales.) Lancelot is called Lancelot, however, after his grandfather. The text also says that “just as the name Galahad had been lost to Lancelot by the flame of desire, so too was it restored in [his] offspring by mortification of the flesh.” Lancelot loves Guinevere from the first time he sees her. His friend Galehaut arranges the first meeting between them. Later, as in Chrétien’s Lancelot, he rescues the queen from Meleagant. In order to do so, he must ride in a cart, something that was considered a shameful act, cross a sword bridge, and defeat Meleagant. After breaking iron bars so he can spend the night with Guinevere, he must defend her when blood that drips from his cuts onto the queen’s sheets prompts Meleagant to accuse her of having slept with Kay. Lancelot’s accomplishments include not only deeds of valor but also, under the inspiration of love, the painting of beautiful murals in the room in which he is imprisoned by Morgan le Fay.

Tricked into thinking he is sleeping with the queen, Lancelot fathers Galahad on the daughter of King Pelles of Corbenic. Guinevere’s anger drives him mad, but he is ultimately cured by the Grail. Lancelot’s love for the queen keeps him from success in the quest for the Grail. In the Morte Artu, Lancelot resumes his affair with the queen shortly after his return from the quest. For love of her, he rejects the love of the Maid of Escalot. When he and Guinevere are trapped by Agravain, he flees but returns to save her from execution. In the course of the rescue, he tragically slays Gaheriet (Malory’s Gareth), Gawain’s favorite brother, and thus causes the war which gives Mordred the opportunity to seize the throne. After Arthur’s death, Lancelot returns to Logres to punish the sons of Mordred; then he becomes a hermit until his death, at which time he is buried in the same tomb as Galehaut.

In Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, Lancelot is the central figure. (John Steinbeck called him Malory’s “self-character,” the one who reflected the author’s highest aspirations as well as his failings.) Malory’s Lancelot also fails in the Grail quest—though he comes closer to success than any but the three who actually achieve it, one of whom is his own son Galahad. Lancelot strives for the highest achievement not only in this religious quest but also as a lover and as a knight. His devotion to the queen is unfailing. He has no other lover, rejecting even the beautiful Elaine of Astalot, who dies because her love for Lancelot is unrequited. Although he sleeps with Elaine of Corbenic, he does so thinking he is with Guinevere. While the Grail quest proves that Galahad, not Lancelot, is the best knight because of his spiritual qualities, Lancelot’s healing of the Hungarian knight Urre, a feat that can be accomplished only by the best knight, confirms that after the departure of Galahad from the world Lancelot is once again without peer. However, his love, which kept him from achieving the Grail, also allows Mordred to undermine Arthur’s realm and his order of the Round Table. When Lancelot is discovered by Mordred and his followers in the queen’s chamber, he flees but returns to save her from the pyre (as he had rescued her on two earlier occasions). In the rescue, he tragically slays Gareth and Gaheris. Since Gareth was particularly devoted to Lancelot, Gawain is unable to forgive the slaying and forces Arthur to besiege Lancelot. In the course of the siege, Lancelot reluctantly fights Gawain and gives him a serious wound. When Arthur returns to Britain and attacks Mordred because of his usurpation of the throne, the siege is lifted. After Arthur’s final battle, Lancelot returns to Britain for a last meeting with Guinevere. When she refuses even to kiss him, he leaves and leads a holy life until his death.

Following Malory, who says that after Lancelot went mad and was cured by the Grail, he called himself “ly Shyvalere Ill Mafeete, that ys to sey ‘the knyght that hath trespassed’”, T. H. White calls the second third book of The Once and Future King (1958) The Ill-Made Knight. Lancelot sees himself as “Mal Fet,” ill-made or ugly—although he does recognize the alternate meaning of a knight who has done wrong. White presents a Lancelot who strives for perfection and who desires to work a miracle, which he believes his sin with Guinevere prohibits him from doing. Thus he is particularly moved when he is allowed to heal Sir Urre and, as in Malory’s text, he “wept, as he had been a child that had been beaten” because he feels that he is unworthy.

The love between Lancelot and Guinevere remains one of the most common and most often reinterpreted elements of the Arthurian story. It is a frequent and enduring theme in poetry, drama, fiction, and film.
 
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