Sir Launcelot

Home > ... > Literature and the Arts > Literature in English > English Literature to 1499 > ...

Sir Launcelot

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Sir Launcelot , in Arthurian legend , bravest and most celebrated knight at the court of King Arthur. He was kidnapped as an infant by the mysterious Lady of the Lake , from whom he received his education and took his title, Launcelot of the Lake. As a young man he went to the court of King Arthur, where he was knighted and became one of the most feared warriors in all Christendom. Launcelot was the lover of Guinevere, his sovereign's queen. He was also loved by Elaine (the daughter of King Pelles), by whom he was the father of Sir Galahad, and by Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat, who died for love of him. Launcelot's name sometimes appears as Lancelot.

Bibliography: See study by J. L. Weston (1901, repr. 1972).

Hide all research tools
Print this article Print all entries for this topic Cite this article Link to this article
Link to this article

CloseClose

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1E1-Launcelo" title="Facts and information about Sir Launcelot">Sir Launcelot</a>

Add this article to Del.icio.usBookmark this article on DiigoShare this article on FacebookSubmit this article to RedditGive this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon
Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

"Sir Launcelot." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 26 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Sir Launcelot." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (November 26, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Launcelo.html

"Sir Launcelot." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Retrieved November 26, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Launcelo.html

Learn more about citation styles

Greaves, Sir Launcelot, The Life and Adventures of

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | © The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Greaves, Sir Launcelot, The Life and Adventures of, a novel by Smollett, published in 1762. It is Smollett's shortest novel, written in episodes (many of them while he was in prison in 1760); he describes it as ‘an agreeable medley of mirth and madness’, but his purpose is serious in examining various states of madness and questioning conventional definitions of sanity. It contains the well-known words ‘I think for my part one half of the nation is mad—and the other half not very sound’.

Hide all research tools
Print this article Print all entries for this topic Cite this article Link to this article
Link to this article

CloseClose

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O54-GrevsSrLncltThLfnddvntrsf" title="Facts and information about Sir Launcelot">Sir Launcelot</a>

Add this article to Del.icio.usBookmark this article on DiigoShare this article on FacebookSubmit this article to RedditGive this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon
Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Greaves, Sir Launcelot, The Life and Adventures of." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 26 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Greaves, Sir Launcelot, The Life and Adventures of." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (November 26, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-GrevsSrLncltThLfnddvntrsf.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Greaves, Sir Launcelot, The Life and Adventures of." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved November 26, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-GrevsSrLncltThLfnddvntrsf.html

Learn more about citation styles

Launcelot of the Lake, Sir

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | © The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Launcelot of the Lake, Sir, the greatest and most romantic of the knights of the Round Table, son of King Ban of Benwick in Brittany, father of Galahad by Elaine Sans Pere (daughter of King Pelles) and the lover of Guinevere. He is a relatively late development in the English Arthurian tradition, not appearing at length before the 14th cent., although the story of his love for Guinevere is the subject of Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot (c.1170s) and of the early 13th-cent. French prose ‘Vulgate’ Lancelot. His name, which probably has Welsh etymological connections, refers to a tradition that he was abducted at birth and brought up by a lake-lady, before being brought by a hermit to Arthur's court. Chrétien's romance is concerned exclusively with the love of Launcelot and Guinevere, presented faithfully as a courtly love affair. The main elements of the Launcelot story are found in the three romances of the French prose cycle: Lancelot; the Queste del Saint Graal; and the Mort Artu. In Malory's Morte D'Arthur Launcelot's love for the queen is again central; it is strained by his relations with Elaine the Fair Maid of Astolot whose death ends Guinevere's jealousy. Their love is betrayed by Agravain; the lovers flee to Launcelot's castle of Joyous Gard and, after a siege, the queen is restored to Arthur. Launcelot withdraws to Brittany where he is pursued by Arthur and Gawain; in the ensuing clash Launcelot injures Gawain. Arthur returns to Dover to fight the usurping Modred and Gawain is killed. Launcelot comes back to help the king, but arrives too late for the final battle in Cornwall in which both Arthur and Modred die. He finds that Guinevere has become a nun, so he becomes a priest. On his death he is carried to Joyous Gard where visions suggest that he is taken to heaven. Malory stresses the tragedy of his imperfection (his courtly amour with the queen) which prevents his full achievement of the Grail.

Hide all research tools
Print this article Print all entries for this topic Cite this article Link to this article
Link to this article

CloseClose

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O54-LauncelotoftheLakeSir" title="Facts and information about Sir Launcelot">Sir Launcelot</a>

Add this article to Del.icio.usBookmark this article on DiigoShare this article on FacebookSubmit this article to RedditGive this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon
Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Launcelot of the Lake, Sir." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 26 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Launcelot of the Lake, Sir." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (November 26, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-LauncelotoftheLakeSir.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Launcelot of the Lake, Sir." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved November 26, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-LauncelotoftheLakeSir.html

Learn more about citation styles

Free newspaper and magazine articles

Free Article Don Quixote in England: The Aesthetics of Laughter.
Magazine article from: Yearbook of English Studies; 1/1/2000
Free Article FAMILY PATTERNS OF SOCIAL MOBILITY THROUGH HIGHER EDUCATION IN ENGLAND IN THE 1930S.
Magazine article from: Journal of Social History; 6/22/2001

Facts and information from other sites

Related topics

  Edit this list

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

Malory's Launcelot and the Language of Sin and Confession
Magazine article from: Arthuriana; 7/1/2006; ; 700+ words ; ...Original to Malory's scene of Launcelot's confession, this phrase specifically...rehearsal. The hermit then requires Launcelot to expiate his sin and absolves him: 'Than thys good man joyned sir Launcelot suche penaunce as he myght
Back from the Queste: Malory's Launcelot Enrages Gwenyvere
Magazine article from: Arthuriana; 7/1/2006; ; 700+ words ; ...essay takes a close look at Launcelot's disastrous speech in defense...printed in the volume he edited: Sir Thomas Malory: Views and Re...matrix, what is not said. What Launcelot does not say to Gwenyvere, what she should have said to Launcelot, and what Malory leaves in...
Elaine of Ascolat's Death and the Ars Moriendi
Magazine article from: Arthuriana; 7/1/2006; ; 700+ words ; ...circumstances of her death. After Launcelot is healed of his wounds from the...at the leste, wyte you well, sir Launcelot, my good dayes ar done' (1090...holds true to her words, for after Launcelot leaves, 'she never slepte, etc...
Divine Love or Loving Divinely?: The Ending of Malory's Morte Darthur
Magazine article from: Arthuriana; 7/1/2006; ; 700+ words ; ...Departing Out of this World of Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere that Malory...of his tale. For example, if Launcelot is cast in the role of a traditional...detects about the dead body of Launcelot, then the reader is hard pressed...
Malory and 'Perlesvaus.' (Old French source for Chapel Perilous episode of 'Mort Darthur')
Magazine article from: Medium Aevum; 9/22/1993; ; 700+ words ; ...episodes in Malory's 'Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake', the third tale in his...Chapel Perilous episode, in which Launcelot meets the widow of Gilbert the...he used two in his 'Tale of Sir Launcelot' than to postulate an unrecorded...
The reader erect: Edgar Allan Poe's "The premature burial".(Literature)(Critical Essay)
Magazine article from: Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: international review of English Studies; 1/1/2003; ; 700+ words ; ...of the very crackling and ripping sound which Sir Launcelot had so particularly described. (Stern 1977...narrative within a narrative is the apocryphal Sir Launcelot Canning. Launcelot Canning is, of course, Edgar Allan Poe, (1...
DON'T JUDGE HIS HEART.(Review) (book review)
Magazine article from: Harper's Magazine; 8/1/2000; ; 700+ words ; ...reputation was preserved. Thus in Sir Thomas Malory's Morte D'Arthur, everyone agrees that Sir Launcelot's affair with Queen Guinevere is...of either of them just so long as Launcelot is strong enough to kill in single...
'Magic carpet' ride from farmland to town.(News)
Newspaper article from: Daily Post (Liverpool, England); 2/23/2002; 424 words ; ...over the years. Proposals, drawn up by city architect Sir Launcelot Keay in the 1930s and 1940s, included 5,000 houses...to provide 56 bedsits for single people. In 1933, Sir Launcelot unveiled the first plans for his dream town, which...
NEW IN PAPERBACK
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 10/30/1988; 700+ words ; ...sandwiches in the universe." The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves , by Tobias Smollett (Penguin, $6.95...form with England's home-grown Arthurian mythos; Sir Launcelot Greaves was the result. The World As I Found It , by...
Doune's ready for fool Monty
Newspaper article from: Scotland on Sunday; 4/25/1999; ; 553 words ; ...it was also Castle Swamp, where Sir Launcelot, played by John Cleese, slaughtered...Anthrax, site of the temptation of Sir Galahad - Michael Palin - at the hands...sufficient indigenous virgins for the Sir Galahad section. Joyce Johnston is...
Click to see an enlarged picture
Sir Launcelot. Other (Public Domain)

For students and teachers!

Encyclopedia.com provides students and teachers facts, information, and biographies from verified, citable sources, including:

Encyclopedia.com provides students and teachers facts, information, and biographies from verified, citable sources, including:

Popular on Newser: