Editing Lancelot (section)

===Evolution of the legend===
[[File:Lancelot fighting the dragons of the Val without return.png|thumb|left|Lancelot fighting the two dragons guarding the entrance to Morgan's [[Val sans retour|Val Without Return]] in an illumination of a 15th-century French ''[[Lancelot-Grail]]'' manuscript. The arms [[attributed arms|attributed]] to him: [[argent (heraldry)|argent]] with three [[bend (heraldry)|bendlets]] [[gules]]|alt=]]

Lancelot's character was further developed during the early 13th century in the [[Old French]] prose romance [[Vulgate Cycle]], also known as the Lancelot-Grail. There, he appears prominently in the later parts, known as the ''Lancelot en prose'' (Prose ''Lancelot''), the ''Queste del Saint Graal'' (''The Quest for the Holy Grail''), and the ''Mort Artu'' (''The Death of Arthur''). When Chrétien de Troyes wrote at the request of Countess Marie, she was only interested in the romantic relationship between Lancelot and the queen. However, the Prose ''Lancelot'' greatly expands the story: he is assigned a family, a descent from lost kingdom (similar to his backstory in ''Lanzelet''), and many further adventures. Gaston Paris argued that the Guinevere-Meleagant episode of the Prose ''Lancelot '' is an almost literal adaptation of Chrétien's poem, the courtly love theme of which seemed to be forced on the unwilling Chrétien by Marie,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4WP8PoYI8p8C&pg=PA166|title=A Companion to Arthurian Literature|first=Helen|last=Fulton|year=2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9781118234303|via=Google Books}}</ref> though it can be seen as a considerable amplification. Much of the Prose ''Lancelot'' material from the Vulgate Cycle has been soon later removed in the rewriting known as the [[Post-Vulgate Cycle]], where Lancelot is no longer the central protagonist, with the surviving parts being reworked and attached to the other parts of this cycle.

[[File:Edward Coley Burne-Jones - The Earthly Paradise (Sir Lancelot at the Chapel of the Holy Grail).jpg|thumb|''The Earthly Paradise (Sir Lancelot at the Chapel of the Holy Grail)'' by [[Edward Burne-Jones]] (1890s)|alt=]]

Lancelot is often tied to the religiously Christian themes within the genre of Arthurian romance. His quest for Guinevere in ''Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart'' is similar to Christ's quest for the human soul.<ref name="raabe">Raabe, Pamela (1987). ''Chretien's Lancelot and the Sublimity of Adultery.'' Toronto Quarterly. 57: 259–270.</ref> His adventure among the tombs is described in terms that suggest Christ's [[harrowing of Hell]] and [[Resurrection of Jesus|resurrection]]; he effortlessly lifts the lid off the sarcophagus, which bears an inscription foretelling his freeing of the captives.<ref name="Pyle 1993 238">{{Cite book| last = Pyle| first = Howard| title = King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table| publisher = Waldman Publishing Corporation| year = 1993| location = New York City| page = [https://archive.org/details/kingarthurknigh00josh/page/238 238]| isbn = 978-0-86611-982-5| url = https://archive.org/details/kingarthurknigh00josh/page/238}}</ref> Lancelot would later become one of the chief knights associated with the Quest for the [[Holy Grail]], yet Chrétien did not include him at all in his final romance, the unfinished ''[[Perceval, le Conte du Graal]]'' (''Perceval, or the Story of the Grail'') which introduced the Grail motif into medieval literature. [[Perceval]] is the sole seeker of the Grail in Chrétien's treatment; Lancelot's involvement in the Grail quest is first recorded in the prose romance ''[[Perlesvaus]]'', written between 1200 and 1210.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.timelessmyths.com/arthurian/quest1.html#Perlesvaus|title=Grail Legends (Perceval's Tradition)|last=Joe|first=Jimmy|website=timelessmyths.com|access-date=29 May 2018}}</ref> [[Robert de Boron]]-inspired tradition of the Vulgate Cycle gives Lancelot a Biblical lineage, counting [[King David]] and [[King Solomon]] among his ancient ancestors,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KkBSujrlYRAC&pg=PA63|title=A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle|first=Carol|last=Dover|date=27 April 2003|publisher=DS Brewer|isbn=978-0-85991-783-4 |via=Google Books}}</ref> but also makes him fail in the Grail Quest because of his sins.

German romance ''[[Diu Crône]]'' gives Lancelot aspects of [[solar deity]] type hero, making his strength peak during high noon, a characteristic usually associated with Gawain.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MyWvBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT114 | title=Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance | isbn=9781613732106 | last1=Loomis | first1=Roger Sherman | year= 2005 | publisher=Chicago Review Press }}</ref> The [[Middle Dutch]] so-called [[Lancelot Compilation]] (c. 1320) contains seven Arthurian romances, including a new Lancelot one, folded into the three parts of the cycle. This new formulation of a Lancelot romance in the Netherlands indicates the character's widespread popularity independent of the Lancelot-Grail cycle.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Lancelot|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmedi00gerr/page/160 160–70]|last=Brandsma|first=Frank|title=A Dictionary of Medieval Heroes|publisher=Boydell and Brewer|editor1-last=Gerritsen|editor1-first=Willem P.|editor2-last=van Melle|editor2-first=Anthony G.|editor3-last=Guest|editor3-first=Tanis (trans.)|year=1998|isbn=978-0851153810|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmedi00gerr/page/160}}</ref> In this story, ''Lanceloet en het Hert met de Witte Voet'' ("Lancelot and the Hart with the White Foot"), he fights seven lions to get the white foot from a hart (deer) which will allow him to marry a princess.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.literatuurgeschiedenis.org/teksten/lanceloet-en-het-hert-met-de-witte-voet|title=Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet auteur onbekend, vóór 1291, Brabant|website=www.literatuurgeschiedenis.org|access-date=2021-07-28|language=nl}}</ref> Near the end of the 15th century, Malory's ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' followed the Lancelot-Grail in presenting Lancelot as the best knight, a departure from the preceding English tradition in which Gawain had been the most prominent.<ref>Radulescu, R. (2004). "‘Now I take uppon me the adventures to seke of holy thynges’: Lancelot and the Crisis of Arthurian Knighthood." In B. Wheeler (Ed.), ''Arthurian Studies in Honour of P.J.C. Field'' (pp. 285–296). Boydell & Brewer.</ref>

The forbidden love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere can be seen as a parallel to that of [[Tristan and Iseult]], with Lancelot ultimately being identified with the tragedy of chance and human failing that is responsible for the downfall of the [[Round Table]] in the later works continuing Chrétien's story.<ref>MacBain, Danielle Morgan (1993). ''The Tristramization of Malory's Lancelot''. English Studies. 74: 57–66.</ref> In ''[[Perceforest]]'', the different daughters of the ancient knight Lyonnel and the [[fairy queen]] Blanchete are actually ancestors of both Lancelot and Guinevere, as well as of [[Tristan]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ogYk78vHmAgC&pg=PA192 | title=Postcolonial Fictions in the Roman de Perceforest: Cultural Identities and Hybridities | isbn=978-1-84384-104-3 | last1=Huot | first1=Sylvia | date=2024 | publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref>