The Once and Future King

Lancelot spends his waking hours in the armory or practicing “tilting” (jousting) in the field. At night, he obsesses over the minutiae of the chivalric code. For three years, he devotes his life completely to becoming the best knight he can to win Arthur’s favor and love.

Lancelot’s uncle Gwenbors—whose expertise is chivalry—is a mentor to him. From Gwenbors, he learns about armor and fencing. One morning, Merlyn comes to visit; at his side is his love, Nimue. Lancelot is now 18, and Arthur has reserved a spot for him at his round table. With that news, Merlyn and Nimue vanish. Lancelot informs Gwenbors that he is leaving for England that night. A week later, Lancelot and Gwenbors sit in a boat on route to England.

Lancelot approaches Camelot, feeling jealous of Arthur’s love for his new wife, Guenever. As he and Gwenbors—now his squire—come to a stream cutting through some woods, they encounter a menacing black knight who challenges Lancelot to a joust. Lancelot knocks the knight from his horse, but when he dismounts to offer him assistance, he discovers that the black knight is actually King Arthur. They ride back to Camelot, and Arthur tells him of the goings-on at court.

Lancelot is knighted, and Arthur introduces him to Guenever; Lancelot is cold to her, seeing her as competition. Arthur reports that implementing his new code of chivalry has encountered some bumps in the road (Morgause’s sons, although three are knights of the Round Table, harbor resentment against Pellinore, who killed their father in a joust). Arthur presents Lancelot with a falcon, and Guenever begins to accompany him for the bird’s training flights. One day, she makes a mistake, and Lancelot snaps at her. He sees the hurt in her eyes, and he regrets that he has returned kindness with cruelty.

Arthur—having been warned by Merlyn—realizes that Guenever and Lancelot are falling in love but tries to deny it. Gwenbors reprimands Lancelot for his feelings, and Lancelot tries to send his uncle back to France. When Rome declares war on England, Arthur takes Lancelot into battle to keep his best friend and his wife apart. Lancelot resents it but serves bravely. After several years, Arthur and his knights return to England victorious. For now, the problem of Lancelot and Guenever is forgotten.

When Lancelot returns from war, he discovers his feelings for Guenever are unchanged. He decides he must leave, choosing to go on a quest.

Lancelot’s legendary quests stem from his conflicted love for Guenever: “They were an attempt to escape from Guenever. They were his struggles to save his honour, not to establish it” (340). His first quest is to rescue Gawaine from a villainous baron, Sir Carados. Lancelot kills the baron in a swordfight, leaving the body to the elements. Later, as Lancelot and his cousin, Sir Lionel, rest in a forest, Lionel witnesses another knight, Sir Turquine (Carados’s brother), taking three other knights as prisoners. He tries to challenge Turquine but is taken as well.

Lancelot is still asleep when a pageant—four witches, led by Morgan le Fay—passes by. They argue over who may lay claim to Lancelot. Morgan le Fay enchants him, and they bring him back to her castle. He is left in a dark chamber until morning, when the four witches enter and demand he choose one of them as his mistress. Lancelot refuses. Later, a young maiden enters his cell, distraught that her father—King Bagdemagus—must fight in a tournament against several of Arthur’s knights. They make a pact: If she will help him escape, then he will fight on behalf of her father. During the night, Lancelot is led out of the castle and told to meet Bagdemagus and his daughter at an abbey. Unfortunately, he becomes lost in the forest and takes refuge in an abandoned pavilion. During the night, he is awakened by a man sitting on the bed. Both startled, they each grab their swords and begin to duel. Lancelot wounds the man and helps him to bed. The man’s wife accuses Lancelot of murder, but her husband assures her he will recover, and they offer Lancelot lodging in their pavilion for the night.

The next morning, he finds the abbey and waits for King Bagdemagus. Although outnumbered, Lancelot wins the tournament the following day. He then sets out to find Sir Lionel. He returns to the forest where his cousin disappeared and meets a woman who informs him of Turquine and his prisoners. Lancelot vows to defeat Turquine. They meet in battle, and after several hours, Lancelot is victorious and frees the prisoners.

Desperate to cling to power, the old Norman barons, whose might-makes-right ideology Arthur is fighting against, see Lancelot as an “antichrist.” Meanwhile, passing an unfamiliar castle, Lancelot helps a woman rescue her falcon from a tree. While Lancelot is climbing down—without armor—the woman’s husband rides up and vows to kill him. Using a branch as a weapon, Lancelot kills the man.

Lancelot’s final adventure involves a knight who vows to kill his wife, who he claims committed adultery. Lancelot tries to intercede, but the knight distracts Lancelot and cuts his wife’s head off. Enraged, Lancelot prepares to avenge her death, but the knight pleads mercy. Unsettled by his own thirst for violence, Lancelot grants the man mercy.

After a year of questing, Lancelot returns to Camelot, desperate to see Guenever. All those rescued or defeated by him appear before her, testifying to Lancelot’s great strength and courage.

Although Guenever loves Arthur (eight years her senior), she does not feel for him the passion she feels for Lancelot. Arthur, meanwhile, despairs that his quest for chivalry has failed: His knights see it as a competition rather than as an end in itself. Arthur warns Lancelot to beware Morgause’s sons and their wounded honor, fearing that the blood feud will never be settled. Lancelot, however, still believes in the ideals of the Round Table.

Lancelot, plagued by doubt and self-loathing, cannot act on his love for Guenever. He is torn between his love for her and his love for Arthur, and he cannot reconcile the two.

Lancelot resists sleeping with Guenever, believing chastity is the source of his mighty strength. Guenever, unhappy about the situation, bids him go on another quest; Arthur sends him to investigate King Pelles and his haunted castle. On the way, Lancelot comes to an enchanted village. The villagers plead with him to rescue a maiden from a nearby tower. Reluctantly—he senses something strange about the village—he agrees. He enters the tower, finds the girl magically bound to sit in a bath of boiling water, and pulls her out. They thank God for her rescue, and Lancelot realizes he has performed a miracle. Soon after, he meets King Pelles, who thanks him for rescuing the girl, who is his daughter, Elaine. He claims Lancelot is prophesied to be “the eighth degree from our Lord Jesus Christ” (372), and he invites Lancelot to stay with them.

Over dinner one evening, Pelles’s butler gets Lancelot drunk and leaves him a note claiming that Guenever waits for him at a castle nearby. Lancelot staggers to his horse and rides out into the night. The next morning, he awakens to find himself lying alongside not Guenever but Elaine. Outraged at the betrayal, he threatens to kill her, fearing his loss of virginity will sap his strength. When she mentions the possibility of pregnancy, Lancelot refuses to accept responsibility for the child and leaves.

Guenever, 22 and still wrestling with the profound questions of life, sits alone, pining for Lancelot. Lancelot rides to Camelot and he and Guenever consummate their long-simmering passion.