Elaine, also known under many other names and identified as the "Grail Maiden" or the "Grail Bearer",''Arthurian Women''. www.timelessmyths.com. Jimmy Joe, 1999. is a character from

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffr ...

. In the Arthurian

chivalric romance As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of high medieval and early modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalri ...

tradition from the

Vulgate Cycle The ''Lancelot-Grail Cycle'', also known as the Vulgate Cycle or the Pseudo-Map Cycle, is an early 13th-century French Arthurian literary cycle consisting of interconnected prose episodes of chivalric romance originally written in Old French. T ...

, she is the mother of

Galahad Galahad (), sometimes referred to as Galeas () or Galath (), among other versions of his name (originally ''Galaad'', ''Galaaz'', or ''Galaaus''), is a knight of King Arthur's Round Table and one of the three achievers of the Holy Grail in Ar ...

by Lancelot, whose repeated rape by her results in his descent into madness. She should not be confused with Elaine of Astolat, a different woman who too fell in love with Lancelot.

Names and origins

She is variably known as Elaine (''Elayne'', ''Helaine'', ''Oisine'') or Elizabeth (''Eliabel'', ''Elizabel'', ''Elizabet'', ''Heliabel'', ''Helizabel''), and is also concurrently called Amite (''Amide'', ''Amides'', ''Anite'', ''Aude'', ''Enite''). Her character seems to have been derived from the earlier (and later separate) figure of Percival's sister, and possibly also from that of Arthur's sister. The name "Amite" may furthermore link her to Amice from '' Meraugis de Portlesguez''.

Legend

She first appears in the Prose ''Lancelot'', a part of the

, as an incredibly beautiful woman named Heliabel but known as Amite (in one spelling variant of these names). Her first significant action is showing the

Holy Grail The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...

to the near-perfect knight, Sir

Lancelot Lancelot du Lac (French for Lancelot of the Lake), alternatively written as Launcelot and other variants, is a popular character in the Matter of Britain, Arthurian legend's chivalric romance tradition. He is typically depicted as King Arthu ...

. In the version as told by

Thomas Malory Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources. The most popular version of ''Le Morte d'A ...

in ''

Le Morte d'Arthur ' (originally written as '; Anglo-Norman French for "The Death of Arthur") is a 15th-century Middle English prose reworking by Sir Thomas Malory of tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and the Knights of the ...

'', based on the later ''Queste'' part of the Vulgate Cycle, Lady Elaine's father, King Pelles of the Grail castle Corbenic (''Corbenek'', ''Corbin'', etc.), knew that Lancelot would have a son with Elaine, and that that child would be

, "the most noblest icknight in the world".Malory, p. 288. Moreover, Pelles claims that Galahad will lead a "foreign country...out of danger" and "achieve...the Holy Grail".Malory, p. 283. However, it has been noted that in older manuscripts Elaine is not named as Pelles' daughter, but merely named alongside the latter. The two figures apparently got mixed up by Malory due to a scribal error in his source. The sorceress

Morgan le Fay Morgan le Fay (; Welsh language, Welsh and Cornish language, Cornish: Morgen; with ''le Fay'' being garbled French language, French ''la Fée'', thus meaning 'Morgan the Fairy'), alternatively known as Morgan , Morgain /e Morgant Mor ...

is jealous of Elaine's beauty, and magically traps her in a boiling bath. After Lancelot rescues her, Elaine falls in love with him, only to find he is already in love with

Queen Guinevere Guinevere ( ; ; , ), also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First mentioned in literature in the early 12th cent ...

and would not knowingly sleep with another woman. In order to seduce Lancelot, Elaine goes to the sorceress Dame Brusen for help. Dame Brusen gives Lancelot wine and Elaine a ring of Guinevere's in order to trick Lancelot into thinking Elaine is Guinevere. The next morning, Lancelot is distraught to discover that the woman he slept with was not Guinevere. He draws his sword and threatens to kill Elaine, but she tells him that she is pregnant with Galahad and he agrees not to kill her, but instead kisses her. Lancelot departs, and Elaine remains in her father's castle and gives birth to Galahad. Thereafter, Elaine comes to a feast at

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

's court. Lancelot ignores her when he sees her, making her sad because she loves him. She complains of this to Brusen, who tells her that she will, as Malory tells, "undertake that this night he

ancelot Ancelot is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Jacques-François Ancelot (1794–1854), French dramatist and litterateur *Virginie Ancelot (1792–1875), French painter, writer, and playwright {{Short pages monitor