Book Three- The Ill Made Knight

In this book we are introduced to two more characters that play a big part in the legend of King Arthur. The first is the young knight Lancelot and the second is Arthurs wife Guenever. Lancelot is King Arthurs best knight and friend but before long sparks are beginning to fly between his friend and his wife. Several times throughout this book Lancelot leaves the court to separate himself from Guenever so as not to betray King Arthur and runs into some wild adventures along the way. However, despite his efforts before long Lancelot and Guenever become lovers while King Arthur is away for a year. We then see the tables turn when one day Lancelot is in another court spending the night and is tricked into sleeping with another woman named Elaine, who becomes pregnant. When Guenever discovers this news she becomes angry even though poor Lancelot is pleading his innocence and states several times that he wants nothing to do with this child. Eventually Guenever drives Lancelot mad and he leaves the court one more time and ends up on a quest for the Holy Grail. While on this quest he learns many things about himself and becomes a very religious man. In the end he even returns to the castle and saves the queen from burning at the stake due to a false accusation. As the book comes to an end we see things quiet down in the court and King Arthur trying his best to ignore any sparks between his wife and Lancelot.

The language in this book was fairly simplistic. The only person in this story whose language I struggled in comprehending was Sir Gawaine as he returns back from his quest for the Holy Grail. He speaks very differently from the rest of the characters in the book and it kind of makes you appreciate that he holds only a small part in the story.

I find the love between Lancelot and Guenever to follow a fairly typical story line. He could have any young and single woman that he liked and yet he chooses to chase after the one that he can not have. We see that a lot especially today although it is not punished as severely as it was then. We see Guenever portrayed as a bit of a seductress in this but in a rather crafty way and at one point it actually drives poor Lancelot into going crazy. We see her hypocrisy rather clearly when she tells Lancelot that she would like him to stay away from her while Elaine makes a visit to the castle in case there is a chance of rekindling the love between the two of them. Not more than a few minutes later however we see her telling him that she will send for him in the night to make sure that he has not left his room to be with Elaine and when she discovers that he has she unleashes her wrath on both of them.

I found this to be the hardest book so far to get through. It was really lengthy and went on for quite some time about the love affair between Lancelot and the queen. White also clearly mentions several times how hard it is becoming for King Arthur to overlook the love that has arisen between his wife and his best friend. My prediction however, is that in the next book we will find that poor King Arthur will be forced to face the facts of the two lovers affair and that it will be one sad moment for all three of them when this occurs.