LANCELOT DU LAC

Sir Lancelot du Lac was the greatest of King ARTHUR’s knights, according to most late medieval Arthurian romances. Known for his strength, prowess, and bravery, Lancelot was even better known as the lover of Arthur’s queen, GUENEVERE. Their affair became one of the major causes of the downfall of Arthur’s Round Table, according to the very influential work of Sir Thomas MALORY at the end of the 15th century.

Lancelot’s first appearance in literature is in the Old FrenchLANCELOT: THE KNIGHT OF THE CART(ca. 1175), by CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES. Here, after the queen has been abducted by the evil Meleagant, Lancelot sets out to rescue her.When his horse dies and he is offered a ride in a cart—an act that would publicly shame a knight—he hesitates for only two steps before climbing in. After crossing a dangerous sword bridge, he does battle with Meleagant until he is persuaded by the queen not to kill the treacherous knight. But when Lancelot comes face to face with Guenevere, she snubs him, angry that he hesitated for two steps before getting into the cart to rescue her. Ultimately, after she has forgiven him, Lancelot tears the bars from the window of her chamber and the two spend the night together. From that point, Lancelot obeys everything that the queen tells him to do, even if it means his own shame, as happens when she tells him to “do his worst” in a tournament.

In ULRICH VON ZATZIKHOVEN’sLanzelet(ca. 1194–1204), Lancelot is carried off by a mermaid as a child, and is raised without knowledge of his royal parentage until he is 15. (This relates to one odd detail in Chrétien’s story, where the poet mentions a magic ring that was given Lancelot by a fairy woman who raised him.) At 15 Lancelot sets out to win a place at Arthur’s court. He conquers the lords of three castles, and wins the love of three separate maidens, one of whom (Yblis, daughter of Iweret) he marries. After finally discovering his true parentage, Lancelot hears word that Guenevere has been abducted, this time by Valerin of the Tangled Wood.Ultimately Lancelot, along with Arthur’s other knights, rescues the queen. It seems unlikely that Chrétien was Ulrich’s source, since Ulrich does not include anything about Lancelot’s affair with the queen. Rather the two poets may have had a common source, perhaps a Celtic story of abduction. Since Chrétien stated at the beginning of his romance that he had been given the material and treatment by his patron, MARIE DE CHAMPAGNE, it seems likely that Marie and Chrétien are responsible for turning what may have been an earlier story of Lancelot (one that more closely resembled Ulrich’s) into one that incorporated the fashionable new concept of COURTLY LOVE.

The other major romance of which Lancelot is the protagonist is the voluminous early 13thcenturyProse Lancelot, a part of the VULGATE CYCLE of Arthurian romances. In it, Lancelot is revealed as the son of King Ban of Benwick.When his father dies, he is carried off by the Lady of the Lake and raised by her, joined eventually by his cousins, Lionel and Bors. At the age of 18, Lancelot learns his true parentage from the Lady, and she takes him to Arthur’s court. Here, he sees and falls in love with the queen, and it is she who knights him and gives him his sword—a ceremony that symbolized his divided loyalties. But his many adventures win him the reputation of the greatest knight in the world. He does learn, however, that because of his adultery with the queen, he will be prevented from achieving the greatest knightly quest of all, the HOLY GRAIL. Instead, that quest is reserved for his son, GALAHAD, whom Lancelot begets with Elaine, daughter of King Pelles, who tricks him into believing he is sleeping with Guenevere.

Lancelot continues as a major character in the two subsequent Vulgate Cycle romances,The Quest of the Holy Grailand theMort Artu(Death of Arthur). In theQuest, Lancelot is repeatedly reminded of his sin with the queen, and on this spiritual quest, the skills of the secular warrior are of no use—it is purity that achieves the Grail, and in this, Galahad, Perceval, and Bors all exceed Lancelot. In the last romance of the cycle, Lancelot and the queen are discovered together. Lancelot escapes, but the queen is condemned to death. In rescuing her, Lancelot by chance kills two of Sir GAWAIN’s brothers, and the war that ensues ultimately tears apart Arthur’s kingdom.

The Vulgate Cycle romances were the major sources for Malory’sLe MORTE DARTHUR. But Malory’s sympathies remain solidly with his favorite knight, Sir Lancelot du Lac. While the Christian ideals that permeated chivalric romance in the Vulgate Cycle changed the perception of Lancelot as the great secular hero and lover,Malory was not willing to abandon the secular ideal. In his version of the Quest, Lancelot is convinced of his sin, but by his own penance he earns a glimpse of the Grail, and is clearly depicted as fourth among the Grail knights, and the greatest of all earthly knights. In an episode apparently invented by Malory, Lancelot is able to heal the Hungarian knight Sir Urry,who can only be made whole by the greatest knight in the world. In the end, the love of Lancelot and Guenevere is proof of their nobility, so that both lovers end their lives in sanctity in holy orders.

Lancelot generally does not fare as well in postmedieval versions of Arthurian legend, which often depict him as tormented by his dual loyalty. This kind of psychological “realism” is not characteristic of the medieval depictions of the knight, which were more concerned with what Malory calls his “worship,” or his public image. For this, Malory’s Lancelot is the high point.

■ Chrétien de Troyes.Lancelot: The Knight of the Cart. Translated by Burton Raffel. Afterword by Joseph J. Duggan. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997.

■ Lacy, Norris J., et al., eds.Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation. 5 vols.New York: Garland Publishing, 1993–1996.

■ Malory, Sir Thomas.Le Morte Darthur, or the Hole Book of Kyng Arthur and of His Noble Knyghtes of the Rounde Table. Edited by Stephen H. A. Shepherd. New York: Norton, 2004.

■ Ulrich von Zatzikhoven.Lanzelet. Translated by G. T. Webster.With an introduction by Roger Sherman Loomis. New York: Columbia University Press, 1951.

■ Walters, Lori J., ed.Lancelot and Guinevere: A Casebook. New York: Garland, 1996.