Medieval Arthurian Legend
The Old French Pre-cyclic Lancelot
13th century, Old French.
Sir Lancelot takes on thirteen different disguises between his initial presentation at King Arthur’s court and the disclosure of his name to the King near the end of this romance.
Sir Lancelot takes on thirteen different disguises between his initial presentation at King Arthur’s court and the disclosure of his name to the King near the end of the romance. He is armed in white by his foster mother, the Lady of the Lake, is given three white shields with one, two and three red bands on them by a damsel of the Lake, then he sports a red shield with a white band in order to conceal his identity, then a simple red shield, then a white shield with a black band, then a blackened shield with which he is captured by an idiot knight, prompting Queen Guinevere to remark of Lancelot, whom one feels she ought to recognise, that this knight seems a little simple. He then goes off and defeats two giants, then kills the knight of a lady who, as a punishment, puts him into a crystal cell. From here he issues forth with a red shield given to him by this lady, and a year later with a complete suit of black arms, also provided by this lady. He fights for King Arthur, then changes sides and fights for King Arthur’s enemy, Sir Galehot, on two occasions wearing Galehot’s own armour! And only after all these shenanigans of avoidance does he reveal to the King who he really is.
Could this have something to do with his having effected early in the tale the release of some of king Arthur's Knights of the Round Table who were imprisoned in a Dolorous Tower? Knights whose graves Sir Lancelot had seen in a cemetery within a Dolorous Castle, a cemetery in which his own grave had lain? Knights who were perhaps as dead as those good people who would later be taken to a 'land from which no stranger returns', a land whose only access is across a Sword bridge or an Underwater Bridge?
And having entered this Dolorous Castle, this Land of the Dead, and effected the release of these knights (and subsequently, of course, himself) back into the real world of men and women, is it significant that Sir Lancelot, like Ullr, Odin and Manannan before him, can now only roam about King Arthur's realm in disguise?
broomstick
∩ Weird Tales—discussion.
references
Lancelot - Wikipedia
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