Sir Launcelot

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).

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’.

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.