Lancelot and the Lord of the Distant Isles, or the "Book of Galehaut" Retold

Plot introduction

Unlike other retellings or translations of the Old French sources, this novel seeks to retell the central love-drama in such a way as to restore its complexity and emotional depth for the modern reader.

Plot summary

The anonymous author of the Prose Lancelot—the massive section of the Old French Vulgate Cycle devoted to Lancelot—expanded the Arthur-Guenevere-Lancelot love triangle into a rectangle, adding a figure named Galehaut, Lord of the Distant Isles, a powerful political and military foe to Arthur and a rival to Guenevere for the love of Lancelot. The Old French account is an extraordinary tale, related with an understanding of human desires and aspirations unprecedented in its depth and richness. For love of Lancelot, Galehaut surrenders his political ambitions, voluntarily submitting to the rule of Arthur; the same reason leads him to facilitate the rapprochement of Lancelot and the Queen. The invincible Lord of the Distant Isles, who had seemed destined to conquer the world, becomes a paragon of love-inspired self-sacrifice.

Characters in Lancelot and the Lord of the Distant Isles, or the "Book of Galehaut" Retold

Galehaut — Galehaut of Surluse (or Galehault of Surluse) and the Long Isles, was a highly significant character in the story of the love of Launcelot and Guinevere. An ambitious, towering figure, he emerged from obscurity to challenge King Arthur for possession of his entire realm. Only through the intervention of Lancelot — and Galehaut's fascination with the young knight — did Arthur manage to keep his kingdom.

Lancelot — It is certain that tales of the fictional hero Lancelot existed—possibly in Wales—before the twelfth century, when Chrétien de Troyes wrote The Knight of the Cart. In that French verse romance, Lancelot is already in love with Queen Guenevere, and is on his way to rescue her from the evil Maleagant. He has the characteristics which will distinguish him in the early thirteenth-century Prose Lancelot, notably absolute courage and skill in fighting, but the later work moderates the emotional excesses which make Lancelot almost a figure of fun in Chrétien’s tale.

Queen Guenevere — the wife of King Arthur and lover of Lancelot in the Arthurian legend. It was said of Queen Guenevere that everyone who came into her presence was ennobled.

King Arthur — If Arthur did, in fact, exist, he was probably the leader of the native people of Britain, at a time when their lands were being invaded and settled by Saxons and other Germanic groups.

Major themes

In this retelling, two motifs are emphasized: magic and a new understanding of love. The first is embodied in the Lady of the Lake; the second in Galehaut, the Lord of the Distant Isles.

References to actual history, geography and current science

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References in other works

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