The Lay of Lady Percival Countdown Post: Lancelot

Ah, Lancelot. Lancelot du Lac, Guinevere's paramour. Arthur's favorite knight and best friend.

...right? Right.

It's actually strongly believed now that Lancelot was...invented in the 12th century, by the French poet Chretien de Troyes. He has elements of certain classic stories. Changelings are common, appearances at a tournament by a warrior in three different disguises shows up many times. Lancelot originally had nothing to do with King Arthur.

Of course, neither did Merlin.

But the adulterous love triangle almost certainly was invented by Chretien, rather than being part of the original story.

Now, I've never really cared for Lancelot. The love triangle, though, is great for establishing the tragedy...and at its heart the tale of Camelot as we now know and love it is a tragedy. But Lancelot is as much Christian metaphor as knight, as much independent folk hero as friend to Arthur. And I honestly find him boring.

So, instead, I went with a different best friend for Arthur - Kay, who in most versions is his foster brother.

And I replaced Lancelot with a completely different character. It's obvious who it is from his fondness for a short spear (Lance-lot means small lance in French). But he's my own creation entirely...