Book Review: The Story of Sir Lancelot and His Companions

The story of sir Lancelot and his companions – An Overview

This is the third book in the four book set on the Arthurian Legends by Howard Pyle. As I noted in my previous review of the third book: The story of the champions of the Round Table, Pyle’s magic is in detailing the large number of adventures that the heroes go through. There are several important characters that are covered in this book including Sir Gareth (also known initially as Beuamains on account of his beautiful hands), Sir Ewaine, Sir Bors, Sir Ector and Sir Gawaine. Of course, a huge chunk of the book is reserved for the further adventures of Sir Lancelot whom we already followed along in the previous book.

Sir Gareth

The book starts off with the story of Sir Gareth of Orkney and how he spent time in King Arthur’s court being treated as a “kitchen knave” – especially by Sir Kay. He’s later shown to have remarkable patience with the lady Lynette who keeps abusing him, though it’s made clear as time goes on that she actually likes him and merely wants to piss him off. In spite of it all, Gareth falls in love with her sister whom he rescues from the Red Knight of the red lawns.

This story, as with others in the book, are slightly different from the ones recounted in “L Morte D’Arthur” which is usually acclaimed as the definitive work. But as observed in an earlier piece, when it comes to legends, there is no definitive work, and the beauty of it all is in how different the versions are. Pyle’s characters are generally more noble and sweet than how they are shown in other well known versions, and it is for this reason that you’ll enjoy reading about them.

The Adventure of the Fountain

Possibly the most important and longest running adventure in the book (with the exception of Lancelot’s “Worm of Corbin” story in terms of importance), this plot details the magical fountain that the wicked enchantress (don’t you just love them?) Vivien creates and how it is the bane of “The city of the fountain”. The primary focus of this plot is Sir Ewaine and to a much lesser extent Sir Sagramore and Sir Percival. Even Sir Lancelot comes in to make an appearance at the end.

Lancelot and the Lady Elaine

This is where the book gets really interesting. This is the only story in the Arthur’s tales, where I see the lady Elaine being totally and completely betrayed by Lancelot. In all other works, she is either a somewhat insane, if pitiable woman, or a general schemer.

In Pyle’s recounting of the legend, she is the noble daughter of the King of Corbin in whose city Lancelot slays the famous dragon or “worm” of Corbin. She falls in love with Lancelot who behaves quite unchivalrously with her – hiding his face so as not to show his pleasure when she asks him to go back to Arthur’s court as well as openly ditching her for Queen Guenivere though she is his lawful wife.

Guenivere also comes across as a nasty, jealous, and spiteful woman who drives Lancelot to madness by taunting him and later in the book, deliberately keeping him away from Elaine to whom he was married. On closer inspection though, it seems that Lancelot is quite happy to let her do whatever she wants with him.

Elaine’s brother Sir Lavaine accuses Lancelot of abandoning his sister and leaving her to die in a nunnery. All very unpleasant and not at all in keeping with Lancelot’s goody two shoes image. I mean most people forgive him for his affair with Guenivere, but deliberately abandoning his wife for her is a bit much.

Gawaine and the Chalice along with Bors

However, the story isn’t all bad and ends with hope when Sir Gawaine and Sir Bors are sent on a mission by a voice from the heaven’s to get Lancelot’s baby whom we are told later becomes Sir Galahad – the greatest and most pure knight of the Round Table who gets to sit in the prized Seige Perilous. Gawaine has his own curious adventures before this by being turned into a dwarf by the lady Vivien. He later meets Merlin (who is trapped) and learns that the end of the Round Table is near and will culiminate with the search for the Holy Grail.

The Story of Sir Lancelot and his companions – The ending

The ending of the story serves as a good launching pad for the fourth book which I’m currently reading. It gives a taste of what’s to come with Merlin’s prophecy and the birth of Galahad paving the way. All in all, a fascinating read and one that has given me many hours of reading entertainment on my trusty iPod Touch. It’s out of copyright and you can pick it up on Google Books. It’s almost ready on Gutenberg and is awaiting completion of Post Processing (PP). You can pick up a rough draft of it after creating a user ID on the Distributed proofreaders site. You’ll miss the pictures, but otherwise it’s almost perfect. Gotta love free books!