Editing Lancelot (section)

===Chrétien and Ulrich===
{{Main|Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart|Lanzelet}}

[[File:The book of romance; (1902) (14566092039).jpg|thumb|220x220px|''Lancelot Brings Guenevere to Arthur'' in [[Andrew Lang]]'s ''The Book of Romance'' (1902)|alt=]]

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.<ref name=":0" />

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),<ref>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."</ref> which was later picked up by the French authors of the [[Lancelot-Grail]] and then by [[Thomas Malory]].<ref>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."</ref> 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 [[Maleagant|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."<ref>{{cite book |title=A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle |first=Carol |last=Dover |date=2003 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |contribution=Redefining the Center: Verse and Prose Charrette |pages=95–106 |jstor=10.7722/j.ctt9qdj80.15 |isbn=9780859917834 |contributor-first=Matilda Tomaryn |contributor-last=Bruckner |contributor-link=Matilda Bruckner |contribution-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt9qdj80.15 }}</ref> According to of the [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]], "the character of Lancelot, as imagined by Chrétien, is a superb image of the [[courtly love]]r 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."<ref name=bnf/>

{{Quote box
| align = left|On the lyrical model of the astonished lover, paralyzed by his love and losing all his faculties while thinking of his lady, Chrétien makes Lancelot a knight who is entirely taken by his [[passion (emotion)|passion]] for the queen. Overwhelmed by desire, he repeatedly forgets the reality around him. [...] The knight is ready for his lady to suffer the wounds that make him a martyr of love, just as Christ is a martyr of God. The lady here becomes the idol to which the knight worships: Lancelot bows before the bed where the queen awaits him as before an altar, remaining in adoration as before a holy relic in which he places all his faith. The night of love between Lancelot and Guinevere is then evoked as a feast for all the senses, and as an indescribable joy, greater and deeper than that known to all other lovers. But the separation, when day breaks, revives the suffering of the knight who leaves in despair: "The body departs, but the heart remains."<ref name=bnf>{{Cite web|url=https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/focus/77f00f63-0679-4f6f-8c83-24a70a965830-lancelot-et-exces-lamour|title=Lancelot et les excès de l'amour|website=BnF Essentiels}}</ref>
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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 [[Maleagant|Melwas]]. Furthermore, Ginover's rescuer is not Lanzelet, who instead ends up finding happiness in marriage with the fairy princess [[Sebile|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 [[Land of Maidens|Maidenland]] and is the source of much of his early adventures.<ref>Schultz, James A. (1991). "Ulrich von Zatzikhoven". In Norris J. Lacy, ''The New Arthurian Encyclopedia'', pp. 481–482. New York: Garland. {{ISBN|0-8240-4377-4}}.</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Lancelot's Wives|author=Cooper, Helen|year=2006|journal=Arthuriana|volume=16|issue=2|pages=59–62|doi = 10.1353/art.2006.0081|jstor = 27870759|s2cid = 162124722}}</ref> 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.<ref>''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, {{ISBN|0 19 811588 1}} pp. 436–439 in Essay 33 ''Hartmann von Aue and his Successors'' by Hendricus Spaarnay.</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IjZR4WsQQGkC&pg=PA90 | title=The Continuations of Chrétien's Perceval: Content and Construction, Extension and Ending | isbn=978-1-84384-316-0 | last1=Tether | first1=Leah | date=2012 | publisher=DS Brewer }}</ref>