the story of lancelot and guinevere (king arthur)

BRO I STARTED WRITING A BUNCH AND THEN MY LAPTOP RESETTED WHAT THE FUCK im gonna try again and if it doesnt work im going to kill a man

ANYWAY i got super fixated on king arthur so im gonna yap about my favourite love story of all time

first: who is king arthur

arthur pendragon is the son of uther pendragon (their names are so similar haha) who, long story short became king of england.

he recently fell in love with a lady named Igrayne (also spelt Igraine idk) who was already married to a guy name Gorlois so him and Uther fought until Gorlois literally died so that Uther could marry Igrayne. 

There's an alternative story where Uther disguised himself as Gorlois and bedded Igrayne so that she conceived Arthur but that just seems so unlikely to me so im not gonna say anything

Igrayne and Gorlois already had three daughters but with Uther, Igrayne had a son named Arthur Pendragon.

Uther gave Arthur away to Merlin for him to be raised somewhere far in the country and it's odd for a king to give away his only son so easily, and there is no one reason as to why Uther did what he did but I do know three possible reasons

1. uther promised his first born child to Merlin if he helped Uther marry Igrayne

2. Uther became king through war, meaning he had a lot of enemies who were out to kill him, so he sent arthur away for his own protection.

3. Merlin told Uther some sort of prophecy that said arthur was destined to become great so uther gave away arthur to merlin so that he can become strong (?) (this is the one im most unsure about..... but then again merlin was spoiling the entire story from book 1 for me lolol)

anywho, merlin sent arthur to be raised by sir ector in the country of cornwall. for anyone who has watched the disney king arthur movie, sir ector was kind of a hoe but in literature, sir ector was described to be a stern, but loving father. so basically a good dad.

sir ector raised arthur with his biological son, kay. kay and arthur's relationship was okay, i guess. i think they became closer as they got older and matured. but that's just what I think.

at this point, Uther Pendragon died due to poisoning from an undercover traitor (which is highkey a pathetic way to die for a great king but whatever)

in cornwall, where arthur was raised. a sword in a stone appeared one day, stating that whoever is to pull out the sword is the true king of britain. obviously, no one was able to pull it.

i know a lot of people think that the sword in the stone is excalibur but older arthurian legends clarify that excalibur is in fact NOT the sword in the stone! excalibur was given to arthur by a lady of the lake once he became king (which is its whole nother thing) so it's actually two different swords.

since no one was able to pull the sword, the archbishop declared a great tournament was to be held, which he expected would gather a lot of great knights to come in, and he could get them to try and pull the sword.

kay is several years older than arthur, and he had recently been made a knight. everyone in the family (including arthur!) was extremely proud of him. when kay heard of this great tournament, he obviously really wanted to go. but uh oh! he was so excited to be in his first tournament that he forgot to bring his sword! panicking, he sent arthur to get a sword from the house, but since everyone in the family went to watch the tournament, the house was locked, so arthur had another idea.

he's seen a sword in a stone in the churchyard before, and arthur thought there was no use for the sword just sitting in the stone, so he hurried and PULLED THE SWORD OUT and ran and gave it to kay.

kay obviously immediately recognized the sword, unlike arthur, and called for his father and said "look at this sword! I pulled it out which mean I am the true king of britain!" and arthur did not even protest LOL (sometimes I wonder how he became such a great king) 

sir ector, who only took the information with a grain of salt, took kay to the churchyard and told him: "put the sword back in and pull it out, then." and kay sighed and huffed and sighed again and admitted that it was arthur who brought the sword to him.

so arthur, who is really fucking confused at this point, puts the sword back in and pulled it out. this garnered a lot of attention and once again no one was able to pull it out, other than arthur! soon, he was declared the true king of britain! woo hoo!

okay now WHO IS LANCELOT THIS BLOG IS ABOUT LANCELOT AND GUINEVERE WHO IS LANCELOT!!!!!!

so when arthur became king, he has all these great knights working for him. arthur become an awesome dude and didn't want the knights to feel like they were any less than arthur, but more of an equal. so he created the round table, where no one is at the end or the top, but all beside each other, therefore like equals.

lancelot was the first knight of the round table. he is one of, if not the greatest knights of the round table.

He is mentioned even in the earliest stories of king arthur, but he was really mentioned as the lancelot I personally want to talk about in chretien de troye's (a french poet and I think a writer? probably.) 12th century love poem : lancelot, the knight of the cart

who is guinevere then???

I actually...... don't know that much about her LOL sorry guys I'm more interested in king arthur I just like their love story a lot... but I do know that guinevere is actually queen guinevere, the WIFE of queen arthur (oh how bold! scandalous even!)

there's this guy named Lord Meleagant who was so passionately in love with Guinevere that he challenged arthur for the queen. if Meleagant wins, he gets the queen but if he loses then.... idk I didn't really understand that part LOL im lowkey illiterate sorry

Kay (Arthur's brother!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!) champions for Guinevere but loses, ultimately letting Meleagant take the queen. Arthur lets Gawain, a knight, go and find Guinevere and Meleagant and rescue the queen.

Along the way, Gawain meets an unnamed knight (whom we find out is lancelot later in the story), who rode his horse to death (poor guy) in pursuit of the queen and convinced Gawain to give him another horse.... which he also rides to death???

Because he has no mode of transportation, he encounters a cart-driving dwarf, who will tell where Guinevere went if Lancelot rides his cart.

Back then, it was incredibly dishonorable and a tarnish to a knight's reputation if they were to ride a cart (I think it's because people who rode on the back of carts were usually criminals, so it's humiliating for a knight to do so? not sure), but reluctantly, lancelot got into the cart.

Lancelot got into cart and I think Gawain followed along on his horse (?) but eventually they arrive to two bridges, one that is underwater and a bridge made of only sword blades?????. the dwarf assures then that this is the only way to get to the queen so gawain takes the underwater bridge and Lancelot takes the sword bladed bridge.

It's kind of obvious at this point that Lancelot is in love with Guinevere.

Lancelot reaches where Meleagant and Guinevere is located and beats him in a duel allowing Guinevere to return back to court. Meleagant, still upset about losing and still wanting Guinevere, called for a properly duel in king arthur's court, unless they forfeit, which means they automatically lose.

But he's a pussy so he captures Lancelot and ties him up in a tower so he doesnt show up on the day of the duel. Lancelot actually gets saved by Meleagant's sister (lmfao) and he's obviously mad a shell so he kills Meleagant.

In the medieval times, there were very limited forms of travel and people understood gravely that you must take very well care of your horses, as optimal transportation is extremely scarce. To treat your horse that badly, enough to ride TWO to death knows readers easily in those times that a character is easily flawed, but also incredibly passionate about the queen guinevere if you were to easily dismiss such important animals likes horses, which are almost crucial for knights especially.

What most significant to me is when Lancelot hesitated to get into the cart. He knew of the things that would come his way if he got into the cart. his reputation, his respect, his dignity, the people around him, they would all fall down. He knew of the consequences, but even considered it as he hesitated. But guess what? He chose the queen anyway im doing to die alone

Guinevere was first ungrateful for Lancelot saving her, saying that even after all this she will not "show any gratitude." he probably just stared at her wide-eyed and just shrugged. He just shrugged it off, thinking there probably was a good reason she was upset at him. he decided to patiently wait for her instead, hoping that even as a married queen, she would return his unaltered affections towards her.

Although she was unmoving at first, Guinevere eventually succumbed to Lancelot's patience and charms and affections and soon they became lovers, the start of the fall of the round table.

Im generally not fully certain on exactly *how* they were caught (im pretty illiterate sorry guys LOL) because there are so many alternate versions after the 12th century poems and after researching for a while, it's all nineteenth century versions and I'm not sure if I liked those versions so we can leave it up to interpretation.

But rumours of their relationship did start to bloom around and about, a bunch of knights stormed Guinevere's chambers and caught her in bed with Lancelot.

Lancelot was able to get away, but Guinevere was caught and condemned to death for adultry.

Lancelot staged a rescue for Guinevere after she was sentenced, killing a bunch of knights in the process, including Gawain's brothers. I'm pretty sure lancelot did manage to rescue Guinevere because she joins a nunnery and then dies, but war did break out after Arthur sent an army after Lancelot, starting the fall of King Arthur.

Knowing that guinevere joined a nunnery and leading a life of penitence, Lancelot declared he will do so as well (he wanted to match his girlfriend so bad lol jokes) he became a monk and they both died at different place, different times and different days.

I know I said I'm not a fan of the nineteenth century version but im a fucking liar but I def have some 19th century story mix up in there somewhere because I thought it was so much more romantic so there's a poem Lord Alfred Tennyson wrote about them because i kinda pissed my pants reading it (JOKES I JUST LOOOOVE LOVE POEMS)