Il Chevalier Mesfais (The Knight who Sinned)

The looks on the faces of everyone who noticed the Haut Prince working as a squire--priceless!

Sorry, the latest chapter is still stuck in moderation queue.  I'll apply for contributor status so this doesn't happen again =(

Sorry, the latest chapter is still stuck in moderation queue.  I'll apply for contributor status so this doesn't happen again =(

Since Lancelot only left the lake because of Merlin, that means Merlin caused all the tragedies later to happen. Nice job breaking it, Merlin.

 

This is a really interesting story and I've enjoyed it a lot.

Still his fault for giving into the his lust and having a affair with Guinevere. He was supposed to be the perfect knight, upholding his morals and whatnot. Though, out of all the things, courting the wife of your lord is a big no no.

thanks for the chapter, and I love the notes you add, both on the chapter, and on the comments.

"Sir, said Sir Launcelot, my name is Le Chevaler Mal Fet, that is to say the knight that hath trespassed."  Book XII, Chapter 6, Le Morte d'Arthur.

Lancelot's original name is Galahad de Benoic (Benwick).  Elaine names her son after the father, as you will see.  In the original texts (the ones that TH White did his thesis on), Lancelot calls himself (in old French, Il Chevalier Mesfais), or updated to modern French, Le Chevalier Malfait, which is most accurately translated as the Knight who Trespassed, trespassed being the old English term for sinned (as in the prayer Our Father).  The old English text Le Mort d'Arthur explains this (I'll look up the chapter for you all sometime).  White himself played on the words in French a little, twisted it to mean "the Ill Made Knight," (mal= bad, evil, fait = done, deed, but also means made)and made Lancelot ugly for plot reasons.

For texts, I would really recommend the Lancelot-Grail Companion or Lancelot of the Lake, both are translated from the original old French,  I liked them a lot better than Le Mort D'Arthur.  I'm a bit of a stickler for research, but as this goes along I hope to explain all of this to the modern reader in the level of detail I have in my head anyways.  Chapter 2(a) is a tribute to the Lady of Shalott.  

Thanks to all of you for reading (this will update every other week, I can only finish a page a day or so) and leaving me comments.  I will try and answer any questions you may have =)

This is terribly interesting, but uneducated as I am in the arthurian legend, I don't think I can appreciate this comic fully. Any suggestions for books about it? I only know of Le Morte d'Arthur

The title and description are an odd mix.  It's an interesting departure from original Arthurian stuff, also drawing on and warping T.H. White's "Once and Future King".  In "The Once and Future King", "le chevalier mal fet" (meaning "the ill-made knight") was Lancelot, and on the surface at least there wasn't any deep meaning to it, he called himself that because he was ugly--although what with his whole adultery thing and other moral ambiguities about him, you could maybe bring some symbolism in if you wanted to.  Not that he wasn't basically a good guy--but flawed, mortal, all that, sure.

Meanwhile Galahad was not a knight who sinned--in both T.H. White and old sources like Morte d'Arthur, he was pure and holy to the point of being annoying and boring, and indeed never seemed to have any doubts, internal conflicts, or personal entanglements.  That's probably why most of the stories are about other people even though Galahad was supposed to be so awesome.  So this story is about a different Galahad, presumably one more worth writing a story about than the mythic one.

Since Lancelot only left the lake because of Merlin, that means Merlin caused all the tragedies later to happen. Nice job breaking it, Merlin.

This is a really interesting story and I've enjoyed it a lot.