The ILL-Made knight

Chapters 1-4

It starts to talk about the conversation King Arthur had with Lancelot. He said he watched Lancelot play games and would like for him to be apart of his round table of knights who fight for justice not strength. Lancelot has a dream about being tied up and forced to ride a donkey. When he comes to a well he goes to drink it but it sinks away from him. He is described as very ugly and ape looking. Lancelot later becomes King Arthur's best knight. There is a description of the armoury and how there is fighting equipment and barrels for the knights. T. H White compares things in the armoury to today. for example certain pads the knights wear would be like football pads that professionals use. Lancelot was to stay there for three years training and learning how to be a knight. After the first year he could be promoted to pel quintain (fighting against a stake in the ground). Then his last stage he would be allowed to have combat with his brothers or cousins having very strict rules. Knights get compared to divers because of the heavy equipment and having to learn about the force of gravity. Lancelot loves the idea that Arthur has because he wants Arthur to love him and he also wants to be able to make a miracle happen. Uncle Dap is the only one who is taking Lancelot serious. Merlyn goes to speak to Lancelot and tells him he will be the greatest knight and he will get his true love in thirty years. He also asks Lancelot to be part of the 150 knights of the round table. Lancelot decides to go to England and him and his Uncle Dap sale the English channel. Lancelot is sad because he is mad that Gawaine got knighted first and that King Arthur is married making Lancelot jealous. Lancelot sees a black knight and they start to joust. He then finds out it was King Arthur. He gets knighted and meets Queen Guenever. Arthur tells Lancelot that Gawaine killed a women but its not his fault its Morgause's because she never spent time with her kids or raised them right. Then Lancelto learns that Pellinor killed King Lot of Orkney. Arthur gives Lancelot a jerfalcon. In Camelot people went hawking in the fields. Queen Guenever is suppose to be kind to Lancelot and she takes to him very well.

Chapter 5-8

Guenever and Sir Lancelot start to fall in love. Arthur had heard about this so he takes Lancelot to the Roman war with him so he is separated from the queen. The battle goes on and Sir Lancelot and King Arthur kill a lot of enemies and perform great battles. They realize that the queen shall not come between them. The king and queen kiss while Lancelot is there and he believes that she would come between them so he asks to leave. Sir Lancelot asks the king if he can go on a quest. Sir Carados and Sir Tarquine were two Celts who believed in having ruling by force and no system of government. Sir Lancelot sees a knight on a horse. He notices it is Sir Carados and he has taken Gawine prisoner. Lancelot challenges the knight to a battle and the winner gets Gawine. Lancelot beats Sir Carados by having him thrown under his horse's feet and struck off his head. Lancelot goes to sleep with his cousin Sir Lionel. Lionel gets taken prisoner to Sir Tarquine's castle. Morgan Le Fay comes along and puts a spell on Lancelot so that he sleeps for 6 more hours giving them time to bring him to there place and make him choose one of them to like. He awakes and a women tells him she will help him in the morning. Then Morgan Le Fay comes in with her three sisters and tells him to pick one of them but he refuses. The damsel comes back and wants Lancelot to fight for her father, King Bagdemagus in a tournament. He agrees to if she will let him free. While he is sleeping a man sits on him and they don't know each other so they get into a fight. Lancelot does good at the tournament and then he wants to find his cousin. He finds a maiden and asks if she knows where his cousin might be. She tells him she will lead him to Sir Tarquine's castle. They both fight it out till death because Tarquine wont yield to Lancelot for killing his brother. Sir Lancelot wins the battle. The women he did the favor for told him he should get a mistress. Lancelot doesn't want the because he loves the Queen. He comes across a hawk in the trees and a lady asks him to help her get it down. He climbs up the tree and fins out it was a trick and the ladies husband wants to kill Sir Lancelot. Lancelot jumps out of the tree and kills the man. Lancelot sees a guy chasing a women trying to kill her. He goes to stop the whole thing and the knight kills his wife. Lancelot goes to kill the knight but he yields so Lancelot because of chivalry he must take him as a prisoner. Lancelot make all the captives kneel to Queen Guenever.

Chapters 9-12

Queen Guenever is surprised by all the knights saying they will serve her and they were captured by Sir Lancelot. Arthur thinks that Lancelot did this for him when really it was for the Queen. Then Sir Lancelot starts to ask about Orkneys and might for right. Arthur explains that everything is going wrong. Morgause is falling in love with any man because Lot is dead, people are making everything out to be a competition instead of fairness, and everything is crashing down. Arthur wishes he never made any of this happen. Lancelot talks to his uncle Dap because he is in love with Guenever but he is christian so he knows he can not do anyhting with her. Lancelot has low self esteem and his uncle thinks he should just go talk to the queen and see what she would like to do. Lancelot goes on another quest to King Pelles haunted castle. There is a village where the people ask Sir Lancelot to save a girl from boiling water because only the best knight can do it. He walks in and gives the girl his hand and the curse is undone and the girl is free. king Pelles thanks Lancelot for saving his daughter and asks him to stay; Lancelot starts to drink a lot of wine and talks with the butler. He gets tricked into thinking that queen Guenever is near . He wakes up in the morning to Elaine and now his virginity is gone to a women who tricked him. He is so mad that he wants to leave and never see her again.

chapters 13-16

There is a part about having the seventh sense of knowledge and how middle aged people seem to know it and the young don't. Lancelots father is about to be attacked and king Arthur asks him to stay to watch over Guenever. They talk about each other's life and fight. He tells the queen that he had dreams but he would give them all up for her and that he is acting selfish but he loves her. King Arthur returns after winning the battle and soon everyone hears Elaine gave birth to a son, named Galaha, which was Lancelot's name. The queen gets so upset at Lancelot and doesn't believe his story about getting drunk and tricked. After the queen cries and soon they both start to kiss. Elaine wants to go on an expedition to take Lancelot from the queen because she loves him even though Lancelot doesn't love her. It talks about Guenever not really sensing what is happening to well and that she may be jealous of Lancelot and Elaine's bay. The king knew about his wife and Lancelot but he did not want to think about it so he hoped it wasn't happening. If he were to ask his wife he knew she would say yes because she can not lie. Jenny Quenever the queen, talks to Sir Lancelot about the baby coming and tells him maybe he should marry her because the two of them could never get married. Then she tells him not to make love to her until after Elaine is gone because he might find a way to love and marry her.

chapters 17-20

Elaine arrives to Camelot, where she is greeted by the queen. The queen tells Lancelot that he is not to make love to Elaine or be in the room with her at night or everything between the two is over. Sir Lancelot finally goes to see his son and he is gratefully and puts his finger in the babies hand, then Elaine throws herself at him and Lancelot leaves the room. The queen has Elaine and Lancelot go to her room the next morning because when the queen sent for him he was not there. She called him a traitor and wouldn't believe Elaine tricked him. Lancelot gets mad and jumps out the window. The queen tells Elaine that she loved Sir Lancelot and Elaine asks the queen why she had to ruin things when she already has a husband. It is two years later and King Pelles and Sir Bliant are talking about Lancelot and his death. King Pelles said that Lancelot ran and ran until he got gored by a boar last Christmas. Sir Bliant tells a story of how a mad man showed up one day with a sword. He went to fight as self defense but the man hit him first, ran up to where his wife was sleeping, took all the blankets and wrapped up, then went to bed. After the handcuffed him and kept him for a year and a half making him stronger and healthier. One day two knights come for Sir Bliant and they starts hitting him, the mad man sees this and breaks off his chains. He runs out and saves Sir Bliant. After several months boar hounds come and leave a horse and spear so the mad grabs them and rides off. A knight witnessed the boar give Sir Lancelot a wound that was unrecoverable. A mad man runs through the village where King pelles lives and goes for the castle. He is wounded and hurt so they take him in. He will not say if her is Sir Lancelot so they keep him locked up in a pigeon house and after a while they let him go free.

Chapter 21-24

A man shows up and sleeps near the well. Elaine goes out to see this man and recognizes him as Sir Lancelot. They go to take care of him and he awakens three times. The third time he awakes he asks how he got there. Elaine tells him he was a mad man and he asks if many people saw him like this and he admits he has been acting like a fool. He tells Elaine he can not marry her because he does not love her but he will stay with her if it makes her happy. They move in with Sir Bliant but nobody else knows he is Sir Lancelot because they don't want people to want him back at the court. Elaine wants him to have tournaments and hawking like he use to and his shield may be called "the chevalier mal fet", which stands for the ill-starred knight (the knight with a curse on him). Sir Castor approaches the Ill-Made Knight and asks if he is really Sir Lancelot and swears he wont tell anyone. A tournament goes on and Lancelot beats everyone. Then a knight shows up and wants to fight the Ill-Made Knight. After the battle he admits he is Sir Lancelot. Then finds out that his brother Ector is one of the knights and that the queen sent people to look for him. They ask him to come back but Lancelot has good morels and says that she loves him and is kind and he can not betray her. Then he says he loves Elaine. Uncle Dap comes and Elaine realizes that Sir Lancelot is going to leave so he promises he will come back to her and puts on his old armour and leaves.

Chapters 25-28

Lancelot has been away for 15 years everyone has stayed the same but older. More water has flown into Camelot and things like the meseals take place. The year 1000 is excpected to be the end of the world and there is much chaos. It then talks about how bread plates went to better plates, people ate with clean and not bloody hands, wine was being served, and many changes were happening. Gareth comes to king Arthur's court and runs away from his mother Morgause. Mordred her last son goes to Arthur's court like his brother. Morgause hates Arthur and all her sons are in his court. Since Pellinore killed Lot Gawine's father Gawaine killed King Pellinore. Arthur made the Round table to stop Anarchy but he realizes he made rights by force not rights by rights. Gareth tells the king that Agravaine killed there mother because she was sleeping with King Pellinore's son Lamorak. Then he said all three of his brother surrounded Lamorak and killed him too. Mordred and Gawaine knelled to the king but he told them to go and he would meet with them later. Arthur tells Lancelot thinking is a curse and that Merlyn thought the round table was a good idea so they need to take a next step. He explains hes wants right not might but he made the table using right by might. He explains to the Queen and Lancelot that there is nothing left for the knights to fight for so they go off killing people. Then he says that there is no world left for the knights to use up there might so he wants to make them match against the spirit. He wants the might of knights to be for god and not for people. They think a crusade might take peoples mind of might for people and make them do it for spirits. Then King Pelles wants Arthur to knight his own son in Abbey. Lancelot was away two years and there hunt for holy grail didn't turn out well. They didn't find it and half the knights were missing and assumed dead. Gawaine tells Arthur that Galahad is making people kneel before him and knighting people at the age of 18. He met a priest who told him that he was wrong for man slaughtering.

Chapters 29-32

Sir Lionel returns to the castle mad at her brother Bors because of all his morals. His brother has trials, the first being saving a lady but not killing the man he saved her from. Next was about Lionel and he had to choose to save him or a maiden. His brother chose the maiden which made Lionel mad so he tried to kill his brother. The third trial was his brother was suppose to sleep with a lady and if he didn't she would die. Bors did not want to sin and sleep with her so the lady and her friends jumped off the highest part of the castle. The fourth trial was when Lionel went to the chapel to kill his brother. A hermit covered his brothers body to protect him and Lionel killed the hermit. Then he killed another person and went back for his brother. He says Bors prayed and god cam between them burned the shields and they started laughing and made up. Sir Aglovale returns. He is the son of king pellinore and he wants revenge on the Orkneys for killing his dad. He informs the king his mother has died and the king says sorry and that he doesn't think killing the Orkneys is a good idea because it will create a big feud. He tells a story about his brother and goign into a magical boat with Bors. Then Galahad and Aglovale's sister get on a boat with them. She was on a boat with spindles. Then they left and came across an old man who wanted to die in Galahad's hands. They reached Carlisle and a women with measles needed to be save and only by making his sister bleed that could work. So she agreed but died. Lancelot is missing and there are so many rumors about his death. Lancelot returns but wants to go to bed. Uncle Dap told the king that the holy grail was found and they arrives in Babylon. Bors was to return but Galahad and Percivale were never to return back. He goes to eat with the kind and queen still in love with Guenever. He asks them if they would like to hear about the holy grail. Lancelot explains to them that he didn't understand much till being on the boat with silence and god. He said that his son gave him a hit while fighting and he saw a women who said " god be with thee, best knight of the world" and she was speaking to his son. He tells about how he couldnt get int the chappel doors so he went to sleep and a knight took away all his armour but he could not wake up. He said he had another dream that he jousted with that knight and got his armour back. Then he saw fighitng between black and white knights he joined the black because it looked weaker but got taken prisoner and beaten. He went to the river where he had gotten knocked down by the knight and realized that he should put all his victory and fighting aside and got in the water and thanked god for his adventure.

Chapters 33-36

Lancelot tells them about entering a ship that had a dead women in it and a letter in her hand. Then his son came and he kisses his son's sword and asked for his blessing. They road in the boat together for a long time and a white knight came for Galahad. So Lancelot kissed his son and asked him to pray for him. The boat to him to a castle where there were two lions. He drew his sword but then a hand touched him and he realized that he had to believe in god and the lions never hurt him. He sees a chapel with the knights inside and the grail but he isn't allowed to go in. There is a description of the tub while the queen takes a bath and the personality of the queen is described as "real". She did good things and bad, but she was childless. She became unpopular, thought to kill a knight, and was not religious. Lancelot tries to explain to her that they can't go back to the old ways because of the grail and god. He offers to convert Gunever to try and make things better. There relationship got worse and one day the queen asked him to leave for a month or two while they stay friends. He says that if she would like they can start everything over when he gets back. The queen wants to be a host and knows that Gawaine loves fruit so she has apples there. A relative of sir Pellinor. Sir Pine poisons the apples. Patrick a knight ate the apple that was intended for Gawaine. They accused the queen and unless she finds a knight to fight for her she will die. Lancelot isn't there because she sent him on a quest so nobody is fighting for her.

Chapters 37-40

Sir Bors offers to fight if they can't find Sir Lancelot. He has a hard time picking between god or Guenever but he goes under disguise to fight Sir Mardor. He knocks him down twice and Sir Mardon gives in and Lancelot spares his life as long as the queen isn't written about on Patricks grave. The king asks him to take off his helm so they can see who it is and they find out it is Sir Lancelot and they are happy. He knows he cannot love the queen because it is not right but she still wants him. There is a tournament but the queen doesn't want Lancelot to go because he will be with Elaine and Guenever doesn't want that. Then she changes her mind and tells him to go. He promises her he will come back but when he gets to Crobin Elaine meets him and tells him he will be staying with her for good now. He wears a token from Elaine during his fight and he gets an aarow in the rib. Elaine nurses him back to health. The queen gets mad because she hears about Lancelot wearing the token and thinks Lancelot is a traitor. Elaine thinks they can be together forever but Sir Lancelot wants to talk to her. When he returns the Queen calls hima liar and says that he made everything up. Then Elaine kills herself and floats down the river in barge. The queen got mad at Lancelot for not making her happy and showing her kindness.

chapters 41-45

Lancelot gets shot in the butt wiht an aarow by a lady on accident. Lancelot takes place in a tournament while him and the king were not getting along. Lacnelot took care of all the Orkneys accept Gareth. The queen goes out with her knights Lancelot being left out on purpose. Sir Meliagrance knows that the queens knights are unarmed and that Lancelot isn't with them. They attack woudning all of the queens knights and taking her as a priosner. She agrees as long as thye take care of the woudned knights. Secretly she slips her ring and a note to give to Lancelot. Lancelot goes to save her but Sir Meliagrance sets an ambush. That doesn't stop Lancelot and Sir Meliagrance gives in and lets the queen go. Lancelot cuts his hand gettign into the queens room and in the morning Sir Meliagrance notices it and knows someone slept with the queen. Lancelot says he will fight a battle about this matter and Sir Meliagrance says ok but until the battle lets be friends. He gives Lancelot a tour of the castle and Lancelot falls into a trap which leads him to the dungeon. Then Sir Meliagrance tells the queen that Lancelot rode ahead. The next mornign they go to fight eachother but Sir Meliagrance gives in. Lancelot says he will take all his armour off his left side, use no shield, and tie his left hand behind his back so they agree. Lancelot wins having Meliagrance dragged out of the fiels behind a horse. There is a description of the indian summer and the workers. Sir Urre needed to find the best knight so a feast took place at Carlisle. He thinks about all the things he ahs done and how he is a bad person. Lancelot does not want to prove he can do this he proves over and over he is the greatest kinght. The king commands him to help so he does. After everyone starts to cheer but Lancelot sits there crying.

Thoughts/Reflection

The first four chapters had to do a lot with Lancelot and him becomming a knight, then through the whole book he is liek the most important character adn everyoen depends on him. I think it would be hard to be him having everyone knowing how good you are suppose to be and having to live up to high expectations. I couldn't believe that Guenever and Lancelot fell on love. When Lancelot brought back all the knights for the Queen i don;t know why the king thought they might be for him or maybe he was just hoping. I don't like Elaine because she used and tricked Lancelot when he wanted to be loyal and stay a virgin. If i was Guenever I would have been wicked mad at Lancelot to ebcause she was in love with him and now he is having a baby with someone else. It isn't all his fault but he was the one who drank a lot, I was so susprised when Lancelot ran off and know saw him for two years. Then they start talking about a mad man and i could enver picture Lancelot being like that. I love the chapters where Arthur tells Lancelot that the round table was a bad idea because he used might to make it. It shows he can realize when he does stuff wrong and that he will do a lot of things to fix it. I thing goign on a quest was a good idea to look for the holy grail. I feel bad because Lancelot did not make it but he realizes why during his dreams. I think his dreams were srong and very helpful for him to figure out what he has done wrong. I think by Elaine killing herself was her only option unless she wants to be lonely, because her son is gone and never comming back and Lancelot doesn't love her. I think Lancelot was crying after he helped out because he doesn't wnat to be the hero who does everything , who fihgts and kills, he just wants to be a good person and realize the real miracles he always wanted to make happen.