Top Questions
Who is Lancelot?
The legendary Lancelot is one of the greatest knights of Arthurian romance literature.
How did Lancelot become famous?
The character of Lancelot first appeared by name as one of Arthur’s knights in Chrétien de Troyes’s 12th-century romance writings. His legend was further developed in the great 13th-centuryVulgate cycle, or “ProseLancelot,” and inmedievalEnglish romance Lancelot played a leading role in the 15th-centuryLe Morte Darthur.
What was Lancelot’s family like?
In Arthurian legend Lancelot is known for being the father of the pure knight Sir Galahad, whose mother is Elaine, daughter of King Pelleas, the keeper of the Holy Grail. Lancelot is also the lover of King Arthur’s queen, Guinevere.
Lancelot, one of the greatest knights in Arthurian romance; he was the lover of Arthur’s queen, Guinevere, and was the father of the pure knight Sir Galahad.
(Read Sir Walter Scott’s 1824 Britannica essay on chivalry.)
Britannica Quiz
A Quick Quiz on Arthurian Legend
Lancelot’s name first appeared as one of Arthur’s knights in Chrétien de Troyes’s 12th-century romance of Erec, and the same author later made him the hero of Lancelot; ou, le chevalier de la charrette, which retold an existing legend about Guinevere’s abduction, making Lancelot her rescuer and lover. It also mentioned Lancelot’s upbringing by a fairy in a lake, a story that received fuller treatment in the German poem Lanzelet. These two themes were developed further in the great 13th-century Vulgate cycle, or “Prose Lancelot.” According to this, after the death of his father, King Ban of Benoic, Lancelot was carried off by the enchantress Vivien, the Lady of the Lake, who in time sent him to Arthur’s court. Her careful education of Lancelot, combined with the inspiring force of his love for Guinevere, produced a knight who was the very model of chivalry.
In later branches of the cycle, in which worldly chivalry was set against chivalry inspired by spiritual love, Lancelot’s son, Sir Galahad, whom he fathered by Elaine, daughter of the Grail keeper King Pelleas, displaced him as the perfect knight. Lancelot’s adulterous love for the queen, moreover, caused him to fail in the quest for the Holy Grail and set in motion the fatal chain of events that brought about the destruction of the knightly fellowship of the Round Table.
In medieval English romance, Lancelot played a leading role in the late 14th-century Le Morte Arthur, which told of a fatal passion for Lancelot conceived by Elaine the Fair of Astolat and which described the tragic end of Lancelot’s love for Guinevere. He also played a central role in Malory’s 15th-century prose work Le Morte Darthur, in which it was essentially the conflict between Lancelot’s love for Guinevere and his loyalty to his lord that led to Arthur’s “dolorous death and departing out of this world.”
This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Sheetz.
