Lancelot Facts for Kids

Illustration from page 38 of The Boy's King Arthur: "I am Sir Launcelot du Lake, King Ban's son of Benwick, and knight of the Round Table."

Sir Lancelot was a character in the legend of King Arthur, and was a Knight of the Round Table. Sir Lancelot of the Lake was one of the most trusted knights of King Arthur's Round Table, but this soon changed when he fell in love with the king's wife, Queen Guinevere. He was raised by the Lady of the Lake, hence his title Lancelot Du Lac. Sir Lancelot was the only knight known to defeat King Arthur during a jousting match. He is also known briefly as the father of Sir Galahad, the greatest knight of all Camelot.

Lancelot was a Red Cross Knight, which meant that he was one of the knights who was in the quest to find the Holy Grail. He saw the ascension of Sir Galahad.

Courtly love

Images for kids

Lancelot slays the dragon of Corbenic in Arthur Rackham's illustration for Tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, abridged from Le Morte d'Arthur by Alfred W. Pollard (1917)
James Archer's Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere (1864)
Lancelot fighting the two dragons guarding the entrance to Morgan's Val Without Return in an illumination of a 15th-century French Lancelot-Grail manuscript. The arms attributed to him: argent with three bendlets gules
The Earthly Paradise (Sir Lancelot at the Chapel of the Holy Grail) by Edward Burne-Jones (1890s)
Howard Pyle's illustration for The Story of the Champions of the Round Table (1905): "The Lady Nymue beareth away Launcelot into the Lakes."
N. C. Wyeth's illustration for The Boy's King Arthur, abridged from Le Morte d'Arthur by Sidney Lanier (1922): "He rode his way with the Queen unto Joyous Gard."
Lancelot Brings Guenevere to Arthur, an illustration for Andrew Lang's The Book of Romance (1902)
Morgan, Sebile and two other witch-queens find Lancelot sleeping in William Henry Margetson's illustration for Legends of King Arthur and His Knights, abridged from Le Morte d'Arthur by Janet MacDonald Clark (1914)
Lancelot's rescue of Guinevere from the stake in Henry Justice Ford's illustration for Andrew Lang's Tales of the Round Table (1908)
A 1962 publicity photo of Robert Goulet as Lancelot and Janet Pavek as Guenevere in the musical Camelot
"Sir Mador's spear broke all to pieces, but his spear held."
"[Lancelot] ever ran wild wood from place to place"
"Launcelot saw her visage, he wept not greatly, but sighed."

Lancelot facts for kids

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