Lancelot: King Ban's Son of Benoic

Sir Lancelot of the Lake appears out of nowhere in “Le Morte d’Arthur” yet Mallory must have been aware of the story of his early life. The “Prose Lancelot,” written two centuries earlier, dealt with where Lancelot came from, who his mother and father were, how the Lady of the Lake abducted the baby Lancelot and how he become a knight in King Arthur’s court. But aside from Sir Lancelot’s battles and his relationship with Queen Guinevere there is not much in either of those prime sources tha...