Lancelot du Lac (French for Lancelot of the Lake), alternatively written as Launcelot and other variants, is a popular character in the Arthurian legend's chivalric romance tradition. He is typically depicted as King Arthur's close companion and one of the greatest Knights of the Round Table, as well as a secret lover of Arthur's wife, Guinevere.
In his most prominent and complete depiction, Lancelot is a beautiful orphaned son of King Ban of the lost kingdom of Benoïc. He is raised in a fairy realm by the Lady of the Lake while unaware of his real parentage prior to joining Arthur's court as a young knight and discovering his origins. A hero of many battles, quests and tournaments, and famed as a nearly unrivalled swordsman and jouster, Lancelot soon becomes the lord of the castle Joyous Gard and personal champion of Queen Guinevere, to whom he is devoted absolutely. He also develops a close relationship with Galehaut and suffers from frequent and sometimes prolonged fits of violent rage and other forms of madness. After Lady Elaine rapes him via magic, their bastard son Galahad, devoid of Lancelot's flaws of character, becomes the perfect knight who succeeds in completing the greatest of all quests, achieving the Holy Grail when Lancelot himself fails due to his sins. Eventually, when Lancelot's adulterous affair with Guinevere is publicly discovered, it develops into a bloody civil war that, once exploited by Mordred, brings an end to Arthur's kingdom.
Lancelot's first datable appearance as main character is found in Chrétien de Troyes' 12th-century French poem Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, which already centered around his courtly love for Guinevere. However, another early Lancelot poem, Lanzelet, a German translation of an unknown French book, did not feature such a motif and the connections between the both texts and their possible common source are uncertain. Later, his character and story was expanded upon Chrétien's tale in the other works of Arthurian romance, especially through the vast Lancelot-Grail prose cycle that presented the now-familiar version of his legend following its abridged retelling in Le Morte d'Arthur. Both loyal and treasonous, Lancelot has remained a popular character for centuries and is often reimagined by modern authors.
History
Name and origins There have been many theories regarding the origins of Lancelot as an Arthurian romance character. In those postulated by Roger Sherman Loomis, among others, Lancelot's figure is related to Llenlleog (Llenlleawc) the Irishman in the early Arthurian Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen (which associates him with the "headland of Gan[i]on"), and the Welsh hero Llwch Llawwynnauc (most likely a version of the euhemerised Irish deity Lug[h] Lonbemnech, with "Llwch" meaning "Lake" in Welsh), possibly via a now-forgotten epithet such as Lamhcalad,Bruce, The Arthurian Name Dictionary, pp. 305–306. suggesting that they are the same figure; their similarities beyond the name include wielding a sword and fighting for a cauldron in Culhwch and Preiddeu Annwn. Loomis also linked Lancelot to the Welsh mythological hero Lleu Llaw Gyffes, while T. Gwynn Jones claimed links between Lancelot and Eliwlod (Eliwlad), a nephew of Arthur in the Welsh legend. Proponents of the Scythian origins of Arthurian legend have speculated that an early form might have been Alanus-à-Lot, that is "Alan of the river Lot", and those looking for clues in classical antiquity see elements of Lancelot in the Ancient Greek mythical figures of Askalos and Mopsus (Moxus).
Alfred Anscombe proposed in 1913 that the name "Lancelot" came from Germanic Wlancloth, with roots in the Old English wlenceo (pride) and loða (cloak),Alfred Anscombe (1913), "The Name of Sir Lancelot du Lake", The Celtic Review 8(32): 365–366. in connection with Vinoviloth, the name of a Gothic chief or tribe mentioned in the 6th-century Getica.Alfred Anscombe (1913), "Sir Lancelot du Lake and Vinovia", The Celtic Review 9(33): 77–80. According to more recent authors, such as Norma Lorre Goodrich, the name, if not just an invention of the 12th-century French poet Chrétien de Troyes, may have been derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth's character Anguselaus, probably a Latinised name of Unguist, the name of a son of the 6th-century Pictish king Forgus; when translated from Geoffrey's Latin into Old French, it would become Anselaus. Other 6th-century figures proposed in modern times as candidates for the prototype of Lancelot include the early French saint Fraimbault de Lassay; Maelgwn, king of Gwynedd; and Llaennog (Llaenauc), father of Gwallog, king of Elmet.
Lancelot may have been the hero of a popular folk tale that was originally independent but was ultimately absorbed into the Arthurian tradition. The theft of an infant by a water fairy, the appearance of the hero at a tournament on three consecutive days in three different disguises, and the rescue of a queen or princess from an Otherworld prison are all features of a well-known and widespread tale, variants of which are found in numerous examples collected by Theodore Hersart de la Villemarqué in his Barzaz Breiz, by Emmanuel Cosquin in his Contes Lorrains, and by John Francis Campbell in his Tales of the West Highlands. As for his name, Lancelot may be a variant of the French name Lancelin (the word likely meaning javelin in Old FrenchFrédéric Godefroy, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, édition de F. Vieweg, Paris, 1881–1902, p. 709b.) as proposed by Gaston Paris in 1881, later supported by Rachel Bromwich.Goulven Péron, "La légende de Lancelot du Lac en Anjou". Les Cahiers du Baugeois, n°92 (March 2012), pp. 55–63, . It is also possibly derived from the Old French word L'Ancelot, meaning "Servant" (the hypothesis first put forward by de la Villemarqué in 1842); Lancelot's name is actually written this way in several manuscripts. It is furthermore reminiscent of an uncommon Saxon name Wlanc, meaning "The Proud One".
Stephen Pow has recently argued that the name "Lancelot" represents an Old French pronunciation of Hungarian "László" (Ladislaus) as inspired by the historical King Ladislaus I of Hungary. In the early 1180s, King Béla III of Hungary was pursuing Ladislaus' canonization as a saint (approved 1192) and a marriage alliance with France through Margaret of France (whom he married 1186). Margaret was the half-sister of Chrétien's patroness, Marie de Champagne, and the creation of Lancelot would thus be meant to honour the Hungarian king around the time of his marriage to a member of the French royal house.Stephen Pow, "Evolving Identities: A Connection between Royal Patronage of Dynastic Saints' Cults and Arthurian Literature in the Twelfth Century", Annual of Medieval Studies at CEU (2018): 65–74.
Chrétien and Ulrich
Lancelot's name appears third on a list of knights at King Arthur's court in the earliest known work featuring him as a character: Chrétien de Troyes' Old French poem Erec and Enide (1170). The fact that his name follows Gawain and Erec indicates the presumed importance of the knight at court, even though he did not figure prominently in Chrétien's tale. Lancelot reappears in Chrétien's Cligès, in which he takes a more important role as one of the knights that Cligès must overcome in his quest.
It is not until Chrétien's Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart (Le Chevalier de la charrette), however, that he becomes the protagonist and is given the full name Lancelot du Lac (Lancelot of the Lake),William Farina, Chretien de Troyes and the Dawn of Arthurian Romance (2010). p. 13: "Strictly speaking, the name Lancelot du Lac ("Lancelot of the Lake") first appears in Chrétien's Arthurian debut, Erec and Enide (line 1674), as a member of the Roundtable." which was later picked up by the French authors of the Lancelot-Grail and then by Thomas Malory.Elizabeth Archibald, Anthony Stockwell Garfield Edwards, A Companion to Malory (1996). p. 170: "This is the book of my lord Lancelot du Lac in which all his deeds and chivalric conduct are contained and the coming of the Holy Grail and his quest (which was) made and achieved by the good knight, Galahad." Chrétien treats Lancelot as if his audience were already familiar with the character's background, yet most of the characteristics and exploits that are commonly associated with Lancelot today are first mentioned here. The story tells of Lancelot's mad love for Arthur's wife Queen Guinevere, culminating in his rescue of her after she is abducted by Prince Meliagant (also in love for her, but entirely unrequited) to the otherworldly and perilous land of Gorre.
In the words of Matilda Bruckner, "what existed before Chrétien remains uncertain, but there is no doubt that his version became the starting point for all subsequent tales of Lancelot as the knight whose extraordinary prowess is inextricably linked to his love for Arthur's Queen." According to Danielle Quéruel of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, "the character of Lancelot, as imagined by Chrétien, is a superb image of the courtly lover pushing the love he bears for his lady to the point of exaltation and ecstasy ... governed by love, Lancelot no longer knows how to see the world around him, he no longer knows who he is."
Lancelot's love for Guinevere is entirely absent from another early work, Lanzelet, a Middle High German epic poem by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven dating from the very end of the 12th century (no earlier than 1194). Ulrich asserts that his poem is a translation of an earlier work from a "French book" he had obtained, assuring the reader that "there is nothing left out or added compared to what the French book tells." He describes his source as written by a certain Arnaud Daniel in Provençal dialect and which must have differed markedly in several points from Chrétien's story. In Lanzelet, the abductor of Ginover (Guinevere) is named as King Valerin, whose name, unlike that of Chrétien's Meliagant, does not appear to derive from the Welsh Melwas. Furthermore, Ginover's rescuer is not Lanzelet, who instead ends up finding happiness in marriage with the fairy princess Iblis. The book's Lancelot is Arthur's nephew, the son of Arthur's sister Queen Clarine, who lost his father King Pant of Genewis to a rebellion. Similar to Chrétien's version, Lanzelet too is raised by a fairy. Here she is elaborated as the aquatic Queen of the Maidenland and is the source of much of his early adventures.Schultz, James A. (1991). "Ulrich von Zatzikhoven". In Norris J. Lacy, The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, pp. 481–482. New York: Garland. .
The common elements between the two stories indicate that the legend of Lancelot had begun as a Fair Unknown romance. It has been suggested that Lancelot was originally the hero of a story independent of the love triangle of Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot, perhaps very similar to Ulrich's version. If this is true, then the motif of adultery might either have been invented by Chrétien for his Chevalier de la Charrette or have been present in the (now lost) source provided to him by his patroness, Marie de Champagne, a lady well known for her keen interest in matters relating to courtly love.Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages : A Collaborative History ed. Roger Sherman Loomis, pub. Oxford University Press 1959, special edition for Sandpiper Books Ltd. 2001, pp. 436–439 in Essay 33 Hartmann von Aue and his Successors by Hendricus Spaarnay. Chrétien himself abandoned the poem for unknown reason, perhaps because of his personal distaste for the subject, which was then given by him to and finished by his associate Godefroi de Leigni.
Evolution of the legend