Fiction Excerpt 5: Sir Lancelot

Of all the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Lancelot was the mightiest. No knight had ever defeated Lancelot in combat. On horse or on foot, he was the champion knight. He was the king’s dear friend. He would help any woman in need, but he had sworn a lifelong vow of service to Guinevere, the queen. One night Lancelot was staying in a castle where an elderly couple had given him shelter. After dinner, the host led Sir Lancelot to a room over the castle’s gate. Lancelot put his armor and sword beside him and soon fell asleep on a bed of clean straw. During the night a violent knocking on the gate below awoke him. He ran to the window, and by the light of the moon he saw a knight, with three more chasing him. The knight turned to face his pursuers. At this, Sir Lancelot donned his armor, tied his bedsheet to the window, and slid down. He strode right into the middle of the fighting knights. To his surprise, he noticed the single knight’s shield to be that of Sir Kay, the king’s steward. Lancelot leaped at the three knights, and in seven strokes he beat them all to the ground. “Sir Knight,” they said, “we yield to you as to a champion of unmatched strength.” He answered: “I will not accept your yielding to me. You must yield to this knight, or else I will kill you.” “Fair knight, we cannot do that, because we would have beaten that knight if you had not come,” the three knights said. “Well, you can choose whether you will die or live,” said Sir Lancelot. “If you yield, it must be to Sir Kay.” So the three yielded to Sir Kay, and Sir Lancelot ordered them to go to the court at Camelot and beg the mercy of the queen, saying that Sir Kay sent them there as her prisoners. Over the years Lancelot sent many a defeated knight to Camelot, commanding each to bow down before Guinevere. Eventually, however, the love between Lancelot and Guinevere helped tear Camelot apart. Lancelot and Arthur, who had once been the best of friends, fought many battles against one another, and the kingdom once again descended into turmoil. Although Camelot ended unhappily, people still remember it as a time of peace and nobility, when chivalry shone as brightly as a polished suit of armor, and adventure was always waiting around the next turn in the road.

222 MEDIEVAL EUROPE