OFK: The Ill-Made Knight

Plot Synopsis

• Lancelot is the son of King Ban and Queen Elaine. Arthur notices him playing games one day and asks him if he would like to be a knight of the round table one day when he is older. Lancelot gets excited and starts his learning from Uncle Dap.
• When the time comes Lancelot and his squire Uncle Dap go to meet Arthur. On the way Lancelot meets a knight at a ford and has his first joust, which he wins. Turns out that knight was King Arthur. Lancelot and Uncle Dap went with Arthur back to Camelot where they were given a place to stay and a jerfalcon.
• After a short time Uncle Dap and Arthur realize that Lancelot and Queen Guenever are in love. Arthur decides to take Lancelot with him to the Roman war as to keep him away from Guenever for a while. After the war Lancelot goes on a quest, to set "might for right" as the knights of the round table are to do.
• He finds himself killing one of the best knights in the world Sir Cardos, and later kills his brother Sir Tarquin. Throughout his quest he had many captives who he brought home to his lover Guenever.
• Lancelot sets out on another quest to Corbin. Under the Corbin Castle there was a beautiful city with the need of the best knight in the world. Lancelot was the best knight in the world and was asked to rescue the cities dolorous lady from a pot of scalding water where she had been for many years. Lancelot rescues the lady who was Elaine daughter of King Pelles.
• Lancelot finds himself drunk and in bed with Elaine and later learns that they conceived a son on that night. Mad, because he was tricked by Elaine he returns to Guenever and their love affair starts. Once Elaine has the child and names him Galahad (Lancelot's first name) word gets out that it is Lancelot's son and Guenever gets mad.
• A big complicated love triangle starts between Lancelot, Elaine and Guenever ending with Lancelot running away supposedly being killed by a boar. Turns out Lancelot was not dead and he is found by Elaine and nursed back to health.
• King Pelles gives Lancelot and Elaine a castle to live in and Lancelot hides out for a while being known as Chevalier Mal Fet. Guenever missing her lover sends out messengers to find Lancelot. He was found by his brother and Uncle Dap came to fetch him with all of his armor.
• Lancelot returns to Camelot picking up where he left off with the title of "The best knight in the world". Over the years the table had gone down hill. Arthur had reached his goal of a good civilization but he still had all kinds of "might" and not place to use it for good. With both Arthur and Lancelot's brain together they came up with the quest for the holy grail.
• Galahad comes to Camelot and Lancelot goes with him leaving the table to fall apart again. As knights return from the quest Lancelot is suspected dead again until he returns to Camelot. Word gets around that Galahad, Percivale and Bors had found the holy grail.
• Lancelot feels defeated by his son. He was unable to find the holy grail and his son was called the best knight in the world right in front of his face. This was the turning point in Lancelot's life when he gave himself up to God.
• Guenever feels betrayed by Lancelot as he wants to set things right and end the relationship with her. Guenever being upset and angry asks Lancelot to leave. He respects her and returns back to Elaine.
• After Lancelot left thing changed in Camelot. The table went modern in its dress and lifestyle and Guenever went slightly mad and got herself into a whole mess of feuds and accused of treason.
• Elaine committed suicide as she had nothing to live for anymore. Her son was grown and Lancelot had returned as he promised but only to go back and save Guenever again.
• In conclusion, all of his life Sir Lancelot wanted to perform miracles. It seemed to him that his first miracle being Elaine would be his last as only virgins can perform miracles and Elaine had taken his virginity away from him. He thought his dream had ended and what was there to live for.
• When Sir Urre from Hungary came to be healed by the best knight in the world, Sir Lancelot knew he was being set up for humiliation. He was now a Godly man but the past was the past and you can't change it. He no longer considered himself the best knight in the world and did not think he could perform the healing. God is a wonderful man and he allowed Lancelot to perform the miracle of healing Sir Urre from Hungary.
• The story of Sir Lancelot proves to me that trusting in God is the only way to go!

Reactions/Reflection

• I enjoyed this book probably the most out of the three so far. I really liked Sir Lancelot's character. I learned many lessons from him. Not only that trusting in God is the only way to go but also a lesson about people. The people that you think have it all usually don't. Yes Lancelot was the best knight in the world but he had always hated himself. I think you'll find this common in people today. With all of the teasing and cliches that there are it's hard to be content with who you are and to love yourself for who you are and not who you think you should be.
• I found Guenever's little passage on knowledge of the world very interesting. It was one of those things that I read but didn't quite understand. I think it is like when your parents say you'll understand when you're older or with age comes wisdom. You have to be there to understand.
• There really is no relation between Galahad and Arthur but I took note that they both were unable to know who there true fathers were for a part of their life. Both reasons also being that either the father or the son were trying to hide something. Lancelot was trying to hide from Arthur's court and Uther was trying to hide that he had a son.
• I was happy to know that the revenge between the Orkney's and the Pellinore's had been sought. There was so much unnecessary killing that took place there, all for good reasons but still unnecessary.
• Guenever was not one of my favorite characters. It seemed to me that she was never happy and she was always trying to stir something up. After Elaine came into the picture she was never really happy with Lancelot. She always seemed jealous of either Elaine or God. She also was unfaithful to her husband, granted it wasn't all her fault because Arthur's best friend was not loyal to him either! But still she was unfaithful, and despised Lancelot when he wanted to tell Arthur.
• It seems that no matter who you were if you were involved in this story your life was like a roller coaster; great one minute and depressed the next. This was really shown to me when Arthur summed up the life of the table. "There had been the first feeling, a companionship of youth under which Arthur had launched his grand crusade--the second, of chivalrous rivalry growing staler every year in the greatest court of Europe, until it had nearly turned to feud and empty competition. Then the enthusiasm of the Grail had burned the bad gasses of the air into a short-lived beauty. Now the maturest of the saddest phase had come, in which enthusiasms had been used up for good, and only our famous seventh sense was left to be practised". I believe this could sum up the life of a person.
• I like how T.H. White always compares things to today's world. With the language being the way it is and the plot it is sometimes hard to understand what is going on. Bringing today's world into the story makes it much easier to follow along with what is going on.
• I was almost shocked when Arthur went up against Lancelot in a joust at the end. It made me wonder why? I like the suggestions that White has, maybe it was because Arthur was tired of the struggle of just plain life. In that point in time nothing did seem to be going very well. I find it hard to believe that Lancelot and Arthur stayed friends through everything. There was nothing to hold them together anymore. Guenever was cheating on him, the table was practically in two, Lancelot was insane one day and fine the next. Was this spurt of anger that Arthur had be coming up from all of these years of confusion and hardship?
• I predict that something will happen to Guenever. I don't know what but I think something will happen maybe even between her and Arthur.
• I'm not sure how I feel about the table. Arthur says he has a new idea but will it be a grand success or stumble like this one did?
  

Vocabulary

Interesting Words

• Fforbeshynge
• Perfidy - the quality or state of being faithless or disloyal.
• Unscrupulousness - not acting in strict regard for what is considered right or proper.
• Stultificaiton - to cause to appear or be stupid, foolish, or absurdly illogical.
• Pathos - an emotion of sympathetic pity.
• Ingratiating - to gain favor or favorable acceptance for by deliberate effort.
• Quandary - a state of perplexity or doubt.
• Escutcheon - a defined area on which armorial bearings are displayed and which usually consists of a shield.
• Subterfuge - a deceptive device or stratagem.
• Fort Mayne - a term for the use of force by the strong against the weak.

Words I Did Not Understand Or Know

• Morion - a high-crested helmet with no visor.
• Dovecote - a small compartmented raised house or box for domestic pigeons.
• Hauriant - a heraldic posture used to describe fish.
• Vergescu - the white shield carried by unfledged knights.
• Panache - an ornamental tuft (as of feathers) especially on a helmet.
• Buffet - a blow especially with the hand.
• Prognostications - to foretell from signs or symptoms.
• Sanguine - having the bodily conformation and temperament held characteristic of such predominance and marked by sturdiness, high color, and cheerfulness.