The Ill-made Knight

In book three of the Once and Future King, the story mostly revolves around Sir Lancelot. He is an ugly knight who grows up serving Arthur and becomes the most powerful knight on earth. Growing up he is trained by Arthur's Uncle Dap. Him and Lancelot become close. When he gets older he defeats many knights and earns his right as the best knight. He falls in love with Guenevere, Arthur's wife and they have an affair for many years. Lancelot goes on many quests and helps a lot of people. People fear to fight him, because he is simply the best. Even being the best though he still feels insecure because of his sins. He beats himself up over them, emotionally and physically. Lancelot and Guenevere romance goes through some challenges in this book. Lancelot sleeps with a women thinking she was Guenevere, and they have a child. Although being tricked Lancelot refused to take care of the child. Guenevere accuses Lancelot of loving the other woman, Elaine. While Guenevere and Lancelot fall apart he runs away and loses his mind. Elaine finds him and they give him a different name Le Chevalier Mal Fet, the ill-made knight. When he fights at a tournament he beats everyone there and Sir Degalis and Sir Ector find out his true identity and take Lancelot back to Camelot. While this is happening Camelot is constantly in chaos, and then out of chaos. After Camelot has been civilized for a long time it gets out of control again. Agravaine one of the Orkney boys killed Morgause their mother. Then them and Mordred go after Lamorak and kill him, because his father killed theirs. This is a time where Arthur sends his knights on a quest because he feels they are becoming weak. He sends them on a quest to find the Holy Grail. After a while the knights give up looking for it and return to England. When Lancelot returns to Camelot from his search for the Holy Grail, him and Guenevere romance picks back up. He will not keep having his affair with her though because he feels his sins are the reason that he is getting beaten by other knights. He washes away his sins and wears a hair shirt to pay penance for them. Elaine comes back and Lancelot wears her sleeve in a tournament, Guenevere becomes jealous and Eliane realizes Lancelot doesn't love her and commits suicide. Lancelot and Guenevere sleep together again and continue their affair and Arthur ignores this. When a man comes to Camelot sick, only the best knight in the world can heal him. Lancelot places his hands upon the man and heals him. Only he could do that.

I really like Lancelot, he is caring and does good deeds. Although sometimes he can be arrogant, and he is having an affair with Arthur's wife, but you cant help love and he has a right to be somewhat cocky. He feels bad for hurting Arthur though, so he wears a hair shirt for his sins. He has always wanted to be the best knight in the world, but when he saves the man he feels guilty for all he has done and doesn't think that he is the best knight in the world. I think that Arthur should do something more than ignore their affair, and if I was him I would ask them if they wanted to be together and if that is what they want then leave Guenevere. He is just going to hurt himself in the end. As far as Lancelot having a child, I think that he should have taken care of it whether he was tricked or not. The whole relationship with Lancelot, Elaine and Guenevere was messy, and I'm kind of glad that Elaine is out of the picture. I think that there affair is cute, but they shouldn't be going behind Arthur's back. This is my favorite section of the book so far, it was long but it was very interesting and a lot of lose ends are getting tied up. It has changed since the last parts of the story. It is more sad and it is starting to get more into the lives of the characters. In contrast to Le Morte D'Arthur I like this better. Lancelot is described as handsome in the other story. In this book he is ugly. This makes him and Arthur This part of the book was also sad. Pellinore dies and his son, and unfortunately I predict that Mordred will defeat Arthur and become king. I think that this book shapes Arthur as a more powerful and great king. He does a lot of great things and I don't want this book to have a bad ending. It talks some about the Orkney brothers, I'm kinda glad they killed their mother. She caused a lot of problems, but I don't think that have changed much as characters. They are still misfits and they love to hurt and kill. Overall, I am excited to read the end of the story and find out what happens to everyone.


Vocabulary:
Stinted, tempestuously, habergenonoly, poniard, parabola, heraldry, emaciated.