Literature / Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart

The eponymous knight in the eponymous cart.

Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart (French: Lancelot, le Chevalier de la Charrette) is a Chivalric Romance and part of the Arthurian Legends, written in the High Middle Ages between 1177 and 1181. It was written in Old French in Champagne, France.

While attributed to Chrétien de Troyes, it actually bears the creative fingerprints of 3 people:

1. Countess Marie de Champagne (eldest child of Eleanor Of Aquitaine) invokedcommissioned the story and provided "the material and the treatment of it".
2. Chrétien de Troyes wrote the story at his patroness's request. He wrote the first roughly 6/7 of it, then stopped for unknown reasons.
3. Godefroi de Leigni, Chrétien's clerk, wrote the ending ("finished it from the point where Lancelot was imprisoned in the tower") with Chrétien's consent and approval.

It's best known for being the oldest surviving—and likely the straight-up oldest—story to feature the affair between Lancelot and Guinevere.^note Another Lancelot-themed work from a decade or two later (German Lanzelet by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, circa 1194) has no such relationship, suggesting that it was not part of the established Lancelot lore of the period and was instead a new invention of this story specifically. In the introduction, Chrétien makes a point to credit that to Marie.

Lancelot himself probably predates Chrétien, but those stories have been lost of history.^note If The Knight of the Cart were Lancelot's first big story, it would be odd to build to up such a Canon Character All Along reveal around his identity. You'd also expect a clearer relationship between Cart!Lancelot and Lanzelet!Lancelot. Whoever Lancelot was before, The Knight of the Cart codified the character. Later versions of Lancelot overwhelmingly drawn upon this depiction of him: The Ace, Cloudcuckoolander, and Sleeping with the Boss's Wife. In the words of scholar Matilda Bruckner:

Matilda Bruckner: What existed before Chrétien remains uncertain, but there is no doubt that his version became the starting point for all subsequent tales of Lancelot as the knight whose extraordinary prowess is inextricably linked to his love for Arthur's Queen.

As a Public Domain Story, The Knight of the Cart can be found on Project Gutenberg here and LibriVox here.

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Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart provides examples of:

• Adventure Duo: Lancelot and Gawain are an oddball and a serious person who go on a quest together. Inverted in that the main character is eccentric Lancelot, while levelheaded Gawain is the supporting character.
• Artistic License – Geography: There's the kingdom of Logres (Arthur's land) and the kingdom of Gorre (Bademagu's land). Gorre is real place in the Aquitaine region of France. The real-life location of Logres is less clear, but is generally identified with somewhere in southern England. Britain is an island, so traveling from England to France means crossing the English Channel. In the story, people travel between Logres and Gorre by land (on horse, on foot, and by cart). Part of the weirdness is because the Arthur Legends are fundamentally linked to Britain, but The Knight of the Cart was written in France by a French author for a French audience. There seems to be some Adaptational Location Change going on, but it's incomplete. Perhaps making Arthur not a Brittonic king would be Canon Defilement?
• Attempted Rape: Subverted Trope. On the second night of his journey, Lancelot is staying with a woman who has agreed to host him in exchange for sex. He's super uncomfortable about this but has reluctantly agreed. He goes for a quick walk and comes back to find her naked and pinned to the bed by some other knight. She yells to Lancelot for help. He steps in and defeats the knight. Then more men show up, and just when it's about to be a one-on-many fight... his host suddenly calls the whole thing off. She dismisses the men — apparently the men of her household who she asked to do this. It was apparently a Secret Test of Character.
• Bloodstained Defloration: A very old Gender Inverted take on the imagery. Lancelot and Guinevere consummate their adulterous affair and by the end there's blood on the sheets. But Guinevere isn't a virgin—she's married to Arthur—and Lancelot is the one bleeding. Lancelot climbed through Guinevere's bedroom window to come to her, and removed the iron bars over the window to do this. In the process he injured his finger and started bleeding. Both he and Guinevere were so excited and horny by this point that neither one noticed. They had sex, and he left a little blood on her sheets.
• Canon Character All Along: The narrator conceals Lancelot's identity for the first half of the story, until Guinevere recognizes him and dramatically calls him by name. To a modern reader, this reveal doesn't work because of the Spoiler Title. Even if the title were to be concealed, modern readers would still know who Lancelot is from the beginning because he's now best known for being the knight who loves Guinevere. At the same time, though, Lancelot's fame puts weight behind the twist — someone being Lancelot is a big deal. It's still a satisfying moment, even though it's not surprising. It's unclear how this twist would've landed with the original audience. Since this is the first story to feature his relationship with Guinevere, that part would've been a genuine surprise. The use of this trope implies Lancelot was a well-known character already, but since pre-Cart Lancelot stories have been lost to time, we can't know what his proceeding reputation would have been.
• Chick Magnet: Women who are into Lancelot over the course of the story:
  • Queen Guinevere
  • The horny hostess from night 2 of the journey
  • The jailor's wife when he's held captive
  • All the women watching him win at The Tourney
• Chokepoint Geography: Before the sword-bridge is "the stony passage".
  Host knight: Shall I tell you how bad a place it is to pass? Only one horse can go through at a time; even two men could not pass abreast, and the passage is well guarded and defended.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Lancelot. Ridiculous behavior includes: When he sees Guinevere through a window and then she passes out of sight, he's so distraught he nearly commits suicide. When he finds a lock of her hair, he's so overcome he almost passes out. That said, he's an extremely competent fighter. Badass (if also ridiculous) behavior includes: He's lying in bed at midnight when a lance with a burning pennon (think little flag) shoots from the rafters, nearly skewers him, and sets the bed on fire, Lancelot puts out the fire, throws the lance aside, and goes back to sleep.
• Combat by Champion: Meleagant holds a bunch of Arthur's people captives. His terms for their release are that he and one champion of Arthur's choosing will fight in single combat, winner takes all.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Lancelot is big on showing his enemies mercy. He's also big on obeying the orders of women.
  Woman: Knight, in urgent need I have come from afar to thee to ask a favour, [...] It is the head of the knight whom thou hast just defeated; in truth, thou hast never dealt with such a wicked and faithless man. Thou wilt be committing no sin or wrong, but rather doing a deed of charity, for he is the basest creature that ever was or ever shall be.
  Man: Don't believe her, for she hates me; but by that God who was at once Father and Son, and who chose for His mother her who was His daughter and handmaiden, I beg you to have mercy upon me!
• Conservation of Ninjutsu:
  Lancelot: Come on now, all of you. If there were thirty-seven of you, you would have all the fight you wish, with me so favourably placed; I shall never be overcome by you.
• Courtly Love: The Trope Namer for courtly love is "Études sur les romans de la table ronde: Lancelot du Lac", a 1883 paper by Gaston Paris that's a treatise on the relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere in The Knight of the Cart. This is the Trope Codifier—or at least the Trope Namer thought it was. And in many ways, it is. Most of what we now associate with the trope can be seen here: Lady and Knight; a married woman and an unmarried man; she's his social superior; his exaltation and idealization of her; pining; a quest fueled by his desire to serve her. No task is too great (a quest to rescue her) or too small (an arbitrary request that he loose a tourney), as long as it's for her sake. However, it's an Unbuilt Trope in that it's missing the chaste, unconsummated thing which is often thought of as the defining feature of the trope today (although not part of Paris's original definition). Lancelot and Guinevere do have sex.
• Decoy Protagonist: The knight who initially sets out with the queen is… Kay. Then the knight who sets out after them is… Gawain. Lancelot is the third of Arthur's knights who comes into play, and also the protagonist.
• Depraved Dwarf: Lancelot happens upon a dwarf who offers him information about Guinevere in exchange for the Cool and Unusual Punishment of him riding in a cart. He returns later on to kidnap Lancelot for Meleagant.
• Engagement Challenge: Invoked Trope. Ladies set up The Tourney with the goal and identifying some good knights to marry.
• Enter Stage Window: Lancelot comes to Guinevere's window at night to talk to her. The window is barred with heavy iron bars, but being The Ace he's pretty sure he could move them aside. He slices his finger on the iron, but he doesn't notice right away. His Belated Injury Realization only happens after he's bled on Guinevere's sheets while they had sex.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Meleagant is a dick who abducted Guinevere, but his father Bademagu still loves him. His father pleads for mercy for him when it looks like Lancelot may kill him.
  Bademagu: For I am about to ask you a favour which you should not grant unless you do so willingly. I plainly see that my son is getting the worst of this battle; I do not speak so because of the chagrin I feel, but in order that Lancelot, who has him in his power, may not kill him. Nor ought you to wish to see him killed; not because he has not wronged both you and him, but because I make the request of you: so tell him, please, to stop beating him.
• Faint in Shock: When he comes upon a comb with a few strands of Guinevere's hair in it, Lancelot is so overcome he nearly faints. His traveling companion thinks he's about to fall off his horse. He doesn't quite pass out, though.
• Forbidden Fruit: The first night on Lancelot and Gawain's quest to find Guinevere, they're hosted by a woman who says there's one bed they cannot sleep in. Lancelot insists on sleeping in it.
  Host: These two beds are set up here for the accommodation of your bodies; but in that one yonder no one ever lay who did not merit it: it was not set up to be used by you.
  Lancelot: [...] But whoever may object or disapprove, I intend to lie upon this bed and repose there at my ease.
• Foreshadowing:
  The knight hesitated only for a couple of steps before getting in. Yet, it was unlucky for him that he shrank from the disgrace, and did not jump in at once; for he will later rue his delay.
• The Gadfly: The woman who hosts Lancelot on the second night of his quest is very upfront about her initial interest in him. It seems like she wants a Trickster Girlfriend type relationship with him. Lancelot is disinterested, though, thanks to his Single-Target Sexuality for Guinevere, and so we're left with this woman just sort of trolling him one-sidedly in a way she seems to regard as playful.
  • She has her men-at-arms fake a whole Attempted Rape thing as a Secret Test of Character.
  • When she recognizes Guinevere's hair, she starts laughing. Lancelot asks her why and she initially refuses to tell him, seemingly just because It Amused Me.
    Damsel: Never mind, for I will never tell you.
    Lancelot: Why not?
    Damsel: Because I don't wish to do so.
• Girl in the Tower: In an Hourglass Plot way
  • The front half of the story is about Guinevere being abducted by Meleagant. When Meleagant brought her to Gorre, Bademagu had her "confined that no mortal man has access to her". This is a caring gesture, done specifically to protect Guinevere from Villainous Crush Meleagant. But still, not a classically enjoyable stay.
  • Gender-Inverted Trope. The back third of the story involves Lancelot locked up per Meleagant. After the jailer lets Lancelot out to attend The Tourney, Meleagant has a whole new tower constructed to hold Lancelot, has him walled up inside, with only a single small window for food to be delivered through. He gets rescued by a woman, Meleagant's sister.
• Graceful Loser: When Bademagu and Meleagant in their tower see Lancelot crossing the sword-bridge, Bademagu advises Meleagant to surrender gracefully. He will not win against this man, and surrendering gracefully is the best move for his reputation at this point. Meleagant, being foolish and arrogant, ignores this advice.
  Bademagu: Make peace and be reconciled with him, and deliver the Queen into his hands. Thou shalt gain no glory in battle with him, but rather mayst thou incur great loss. Show thyself to be courteous and sensible, and send the Queen to meet him before he sees thee. Show him honour in this land of thine, and before he asks it, present to him what he has come to seek. Thou knowest well enough that he has come for the Queen Guinevere. Do not act so that people will take thee to be obstinate, foolish, or proud. If this man has entered thy land alone, thou shouldst bear him company, for one gentleman ought not to avoid another, but rather attract him and honour him with courtesy. One receives honour by himself showing it; be sure that the honour will be thine, if thou doest honour and service to him who is plainly the best knight in the world. [...] I advise thee and beg thee to keep the peace. Thou knowest well that the honour will belong to the knight, if he wins the Queen from thee in battle. He would doubtless rather win her in battle than as a gift, for it will thus enhance his fame. It is my opinion that he is seeking her, not to receive her peaceably, but because he wishes to win her by force of arms. So it would be wise on thy part to deprive him of the satisfaction of fighting thee.
• Hair Memento: Lancelot is on a quest to find Guinevere. As he's tracking her, he comes upon a place where she combed out her hair. She left behind her comb with a strand of hair still caught in the tines. Lancelot is so overcome with emotion he nearly faints.
• Ham and Deadpan Duo: Lancelot is ridiculous and dramatic, while Gawain behaves more conventionally. Downplayed in that Gawain isn't deadpan—he's just normal. Lancelot is such a drama llama that a normal person is all the contrast he needs. Lancelot gets in the cart (something considered very eccentric in the story); Gawain follows behind on a horse. Gawain obeys their host who says no one can sleep in the forbidden danger bed; Lancelot insists on sleeping in it. Lancelot sees Guinevere from a window and is so distraught when she passes out of view that he nearly commits suicide; Gawain tells him to pull it together.
• Have a Gay Old Time: The story is originally written in Old French. As a translation convention, Antiquated Linguistics English is used to signify its age. "Damsel" is used as a general term for "woman". It doesn't imply Damsel in Distress. Most of these damsels are competent women handling their own affairs.
• Helping Another Save Face: When Lancelot and the woman he's traveling with come across a lock of Guinevere's hair, Lancelot is so overcome he looks like he's about to Faint in Shock. The woman gets off her horse to help him in case he falls. But he ends up not fainting and is embarrassed by the whole thing. Instead of exampling that she was preparing to catch him, the woman graciously makes up an excuse.
  And the damsel dismounts, and runs as quickly as possible to support and succour him; for she would not have wished for anything to see him fall. When he saw her, he felt ashamed, and said: "Why do you need to bear me aid?" You must not suppose that the damsel told him why; for he would have been ashamed and distressed, and it would have annoyed and troubled him, if she had confessed to him the truth. So she took good care not to tell the truth, but tactfully answered him: "Sire, I dismounted to get the comb; for I was so anxious to hold it in my hand that I could not longer wait."
• Hopeless Suitor: On day three of Lancelot's quest, he's traveling with his hostess from the night before. They run into the knight who has been trying and failing to woo her. Considering how hard this woman came onto Lancelot the night before, this may be a Sleeps with Everyone but You situation.
  Damsel: He loves me, but he is very foolish to do so. In person, and by messenger, he has been long wooing me. But my love is not within his reach, for I would not love him under any consideration, so help me God! I would kill myself rather than bestow my love on him.
• Horse Returns Without Rider: Kay—who is very incompetent—sets out with Guinevere. Soon after a Stealth Escort Mission sets out to follow them. They soon come across his horse, riderless and showing signs of a struggle.
  And as they thus approached the forest, they saw Kay's horse running out; and they recognised him, and saw that both reins of the bridle were broken. The horse was running wild, the stirrup-straps all stained with blood, and the saddle-bow was broken and damaged. Every one was chagrined at this, and they nudged each other and shook their heads.
• Hostage Situation: The premise of the story.
  Meleagant: King Arthur, I hold in captivity knights, ladies, and damsels who belong to thy dominion and household; [...] King, if in thy court there is a single knight in whom thou hast such confidence that thou wouldst dare to entrust to him the Queen that he might escort her after me out into the woods whither I am going, I will promise to await him there, and will surrender to thee all the prisoners whom I hold in exile in my country if he is able to defend the Queen and if he succeeds in bringing her back again.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: There are two bridges into Gorre, the water-bridge and sword-bridge. Lancelot and Gawain split up, each taking one.
  Lancelot: Sire, I am ready to share with you without prejudice: take one of these two routes, and leave the other one to me; take whichever you prefer.
  Gawain: In truth, both of them are hard and dangerous: I am not skilled in making such a choice, and hardly know which of them to take; but it is not right for me to hesitate when you have left the choice to me: I will choose the water-bridge.
  Lancelot: Then I must go uncomplainingly to the sword-bridge, which I agree to do.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Bademagu is a noble king and loving father whose son, Meleagant, is an egocentric would-be-rapist. While Guinevere is held in captivity in his castle, Bademagu hosts her graciously and protects her from being physically harmed by Meleagant. While Meleagant's awful, his father still loves him and does what he can to protect him. It's thanks to this that Meleagant's delusions of martial skill don't get him killed until the end of the story.
• Love Is Like Religion: Lancelot's devotion to Guinevere takes on some trappings of religion.
  • Lancelot finds a lock of Guinevere's hair and spontaneously decides it has magical panacea healing properties. This seems really random unless you know about holy relics. In Catholicism, holy relics are body parts (most commonly bones) of saints. They are treated with awe and reverence, and are often thought to be Artifacts of Power with healing powers. Holy relics were partially big in the Middle Ages, when the story was written. Lancelot is treating Guinevere's hair like a holy relic, and thus implying he regards Guinevere herself as something akin to a saint.
    He lays [the strands] in his bosom near his heart, between the shirt and the flesh. He would not exchange them for a cartload of emeralds and carbuncles, nor does he think that any sore or illness can afflict him now; he holds in contempt essence of pearl, treacle, and the cure for pleurisy; even for St. Martin and St. James he has no need; for he has such confidence in this hair that he requires no other aid.
  • As Lancelot leaves Guinevere's chamber after their night of sex:
    When he leaves the room, he bows and acts precisely as if he were before a shrine; then he goes with a heavy heart.
• Nameless Narrative: Downplayed. There are names in the story, but none of the people Lancelot and Gawain meet along their journey get names. The most conspicuous example is Meleagant's sister who rescues Lancelot and really warrants Nominal Importance, but isn't named. There's some vague sense that everyone with a name is an established character the audience is already familiar with, while those without names are Original Characters.
• Never Sent Any Letters: After Meleagant abducts Lancelot, he sends a fake letter to Gawain and Guinevere in Lancelot's name, saying he's home safe and they should come home too. When they arrive back in Logres and Lancelot's not there, they realize this was a fake.
• No Name Given: Lancelot spends the first half of the story unnamed by the narrator and not telling his name to other characters when asked. When he lifts the lid of the sarcophagus in the church graveyard, an impressed monk asks for his name and he refuses. The woman he's escorting inquires about his name, and he refuses again. When he's hosted on the boarder of Gorre by a family from Logres, "the host began to ask him who he was, and from what land, but he did not inquire about his name." This is all to set up the Canon Character All Along reveal when he reaches Meleagant and Guinevere.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Lancelot rides in a cart one time. For the rest of the story, people he's never even met before have seemingly all heard the gossip and keep bringing it up.
• Only Mostly Dead: When Gawain is finally found, he's in the river near the water-bridge, half-drowned.
  Those who have rescued him do not believe he is alive. For his body was full of water, and until he got rid of it, they did not hear him speak a word. But when his speech and voice and the passageway to his heart are free, and as soon, as what he said could be heard and understood, he tried to speak he inquired at once for the Queen, whether those present had any news of her.
• Paper Cutting: When Lancelot's sleeping in the forbidden bed on the first night of his quest, a lance grazes him thusly.
  And the tip of the lance passed so close to the knight's side that it cut the skin a little, without seriously wounding him.
• Phlebotinum-Handling Requirements: On day three of Lancelot's quest, he comes across a church which has a huge, richly carved marble sarcophagus. In normal terms, it would take seven very strong men to lift its lid. A monk explains it's inscribed with a prophesy that the man who can lift the lid unaided will set free the captives in Gorre. Lancelot lifts the lid.
• Plot Parallel:
  • During the journey, the hostess who tries to strongarm Lancelot into sex has a Hopeless Suitor. This suitor wants to dual Lancelot for her custody, then take her. The suitor talks to his father about it, and his father advises him not to fight Lancelot for her. This parallels when Bademagu likewise has to save Meleagant's ass when he starts an ill-advised fight with Lancelot about the detainment of a woman. Both sons are impetuous and won't heed their fathers.
• Power Dynamics Kink: One basic pillar of their relationship is that Guinevere can ask Lancelot to do anything she wants and he will do it. When she asks him to lose a tourney—a completely arbitrary request that will embarrass him in public—he obeys "like one who is altogether hers." It should be noted, it's not just Guinevere. Lancelot is really into obeying the orders of women in general, even women he just met who are making pretty inappropriate requests, like asking him for sex or to behead a man.
• Prematurely Marked Grave: On day three of Lancelot's quest, he comes across there is a church whose graveyard has future graves for several knights here knows — "Here Gawain is to lie, here Louis, and here Yvain." There's also a huge fancy marble sarcophagus with Phlebotinum-Handling Requirements, and the monk says the man who fulfills its prophecy will be buried in it.
  Lancelot: Of what use are these tombs here?
  Monk: You have already read the inscriptions; if you have understood, you must know what they say, and what is the meaning of the tombs.
• Propping Up Their Patsy: Lancelot came into Guinevere's bedroom last night, first moving aside the iron bars that barred her window and cutting his finger in the process. Both are too horny and distracted to notice his injury, and he bleeds on her sheets a little as they have sex. The next morning after Lancelot has gone back to his own bed, their host sees the blood on Guinevere's sheets and concludes that Kay (known to be injured) was the one in Guinevere's bed last night. Guinevere swears up and down that there was no one in her bed, she just had a nose bleed. Lancelot likewise swears it was not Kay, and goes so far as to volunteer to be the champion in a Trial by Combat to defend Guinevere and Kay's honor.
• Questionable Consent: On the second night of Lancelot's quest, a woman offers to host him for the night in exchange for sex. He reluctantly agrees to it, but this is very much something he does not want to do. Once he agrees, he feels he cannot back out because I Gave My Word. The narrator really lingers on the discomfort and lack of true consent in a Sex for Services situation.
  Is this then an actual force? Yes, virtually so; for he feels that he is in duty bound to take his place by the damsel's side. It is his promise that urges him and dictates his act. So he lies down at once, but like her, he does not remove his shirt.
• Raised by the Supernatural: It's mentioned in passing that Lancelot has a magic ring that was given to him by a fairy lady "who had cared for him in his infancy." That single line is it; its not extrapolated upon. This implies the original audience was already familiar with his backstory and didn't need it re-hashed.
• Rash Promise: Kay wants to be the knight to fight Meleagant. Rather than just asking Arthur for the honor, he immediately jumps to manipulating him into it. Kay tells Arthur that he has suddenly decided he no longer wishes to serve him. Arthur and Guinevere are confused and hurt by this. They beg Kay to stay. Kay agrees to remain in the king's service if they will grant him whatever he demands. They agree. Kay requests that he and Guinevere ride out together to fight Meleagant. Trapped because I Gave My Word, Arthur reluctantly allows it. Lampshaded when Gawain tells Arthur immediately afterwards that it was really dumb of him.
• Robbing the Dead: Lancelot's host in Gorre has five sons. The elder ones are knights, the younger ones just lads. When Lancelot goes into Gorre, he's accompanied by one elder son and one young one. The young lad gets some armor soon enough by looting the body of a dead knight.
  Then the knight at once rode into the fight and jousted with a knight who was approaching him, striking him in the eye with such violence that he knocked him lifeless to the ground. Then the lad dismounts, and taking the dead knight's horse and arms, he arms himself with skill and cleverness. When he was armed, he straightway mounts, taking the shield and the lance, which was heavy, stiff, and decorated, and about his waist he girt a sharp, bright, and flashing sword.
• Serious Business: Carts are a big deal. Specifically we're talking about carts that are used to parade criminals through town for public ridicule before execution. It can also be seen as the Inverted Trope of Virile Stallion—horses are a symbol of manliness, and carts are the opposite. Lancelot views riding in a cart to be terribly shameful and hesitates to do so, though he ultimately is willing to in order to find Guinevere. Later, all sorts of people tell him very bluntly that yes, riding in a cart was super shameful. When Guinevere hears the news she turns it on its head. She is insulted that he hesitated—he should've been instantly willing to debase himself for her.
• Sex for Services: A woman offers to host a traveling Lancelot for the night if and only if he has sex with her. There's a lot of focus on Lancelot's reluctance and the Questionable Consent nature of this. At the last moment the woman lets him out of the deal because he's so visibly uncomfortable.
  Hostess: Sire, my house is prepared for you, if you will accept my hospitality, but you shall find shelter there only on condition that you will lie with me; upon these terms I propose and make the offer.
  Lancelot: Damsel, I thank you for the offer of your house, and esteem it highly, but, if you please, I should be very sorry to lie with you.
• Sex in a Shared Room: When setting up a tryst with Lancelot, Guinevere initially says, "Our bodies cannot be joined, for close beside me in my room lies Kay the seneschal, who is still suffering from his wounds." Then, when she changes her mind and invites him in anyways, she says, "you must wait until I retire to my bed again, so that no harm may come to you, for it would be no joke or jest if the seneschal, who is sleeping here, should wake up on hearing you." When Lancelot comes inside, the narration notes, "First he finds Kay asleep in his bed, then he comes to the bed of the Queen." Kay does sleep through their tryst, and for a moment it seems like all the Kay mentions were for naught. But it's Chekhov's Gun. The next morning, when Meleagant sees blood on Guinevere's sheets, he concludes it was Kay. Not only is Kay injured and is known to have bled on his own sheets last night, but he could've gotten to Guinevere's bed far more easily than anyone else.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Guinevere and Lancelot having sex is unambiguous, but not smutty.
  Their sport is so agreeable and sweet, as they kiss and fondle each other, that in truth such a marvellous joy comes over them as was never heard or known. But their joy will not be revealed by me, for in a story, it has no place. Yet, the most choice and delightful satisfaction was precisely that of which our story must not speak.
• Shout-Out: "Pyramus and Thisbe" from The Metamorphoses by Ovid.
  Lancelot was constrained to do his Lady's will, for he loved more than Pyramus, if that were possible for any man to do.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Lancelot for Guinevere.
  …his heart does not go out to her [his hostess]. She was certainly very fair and winsome, but not every one is pleased and touched by what is fair and winsome. The knight has only one heart, and this one is really no longer his, but has been entrusted to some one else, so that he cannot bestow it elsewhere. Love, which holds all hearts beneath its sway, requires it to be lodged in a single place. All hearts? No, only those which it esteems. And he whom love deigns to control ought to prize himself the more. Love prized his heart so highly that it constrained it in a special manner…
• Stealth Escort Mission: Kay is incompetent and everyone knows it. Gawain tries to protect Guinevere by asking Arthur if he can follow after Kay, and Arthur agrees.
  Gawain: [to Arthur] Sire, you have done a very foolish thing, which causes me great surprise; but if you will take my advice, while they are still near by, I and you will ride after them, and all those who wish to accompany us. For my part, I cannot restrain myself from going in pursuit of them at once. It would not be proper for us not to go after them, at least far enough to learn what is to become of the Queen, and how Kay is going to comport himself.
• Stepping-Stone Sword: The sword-bridge is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
  And the bridge, which spans it, is different from any other bridge; for there never was such a one as this. If any one asks of me the truth, there never was such a bad bridge, nor one whose flooring was so bad. The bridge across the cold stream consisted of a polished, gleaming sword; but the sword was stout and stiff, and was as long as two lances. At each end there was a tree-trunk in which the sword was firmly fixed. No one need fear to fall because of its breaking or bending, for its excellence was such that it could support a great weight. But the two knights who were with the third were much discouraged; for they surmised that two lions or two leopards would be found tied to a great rock at the other end of the bridge.
• Summoning Artifact: Lancelot has a ring from his adoptive fairy mother, and he thinks it can be used to summon her. Except it can't. It likely means summon her POWER, since he later uses the ring to realize the lions are an enchantment.
• Surefooted Barefooter: Invoked when Lancelot must cross a bridge that's literally a giant sword. He decides to crawl across the bridge with bare hands and feet for better grip and dexterity, even though it means getting cut.
  He is going to support himself with his bare hands and feet upon the sword, which was sharper than a scythe, for he had not kept on his feet either sole or upper or hose. But he felt no fear of wounds upon his hands or feet; he preferred to maim himself rather than to fall from the bridge and be plunged in the water from which he could never escape.
• Sword over Head: Lancelot routinely lets people go because he's merciful. Thus, when he beheads Meleagant in the final lines of the story, it's O.O.C. Is Serious Business.
  Lancelot: As God may save me, no one ever sinned so against me that I would not show him mercy once, for God's sake as is right, if he asked it of me in God's name.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Later versions of the mythos credit Guinevere and Lancelot's affair as being part of the ultimate downfall of Camelot, but that's completely absent from this version. The fact that Guinevere is married to Arthur and this is adultery goes almost entirely unremarked upon. Neither Lancelot nor Guinevere talk abut it, think about it, or experience any guilt or conflict about it. There's only one point where the involved characters so much as mention Arthur in relation to the affair, which is at the very end, when Lancelot returns to Camelot, and Guinevere makes a point not to greet him as warmly as she'd like to because Arthur and others are right there watching. Interestingly, calling it a betrayal to Arthur is present in the story… but those lines are given to jerkass Meleagant and dumbass Kay.
  Meleagant: Kay has betrayed King Arthur, his lord, who had such confidence in him that he entrusted to him what he loved most in the world.
  Kay: Let me answer, sire, and I shall exonerate myself. May God have no mercy upon my soul when I leave this world, if I ever lay with my lady! Indeed, I should rather be dead than ever do my lord such an ugly wrong!
  • Ironically, it's almost certainly this laissez-faire treatment of adultery that prompted later writers who disapproved to write Deconstruction Fic where it does have consequences.
• Tag Team Suicide: While searching for Gawain in the countryside of Gorre, Lancelot gets taken captive. The rumor mill turns "Lancelot was seized" into "Lancelot was seized and put to death." Guinevere hears this and is distraught, nearly suicidal. Grieving Lancelot, Guinevere goes two days without eating and drinking. From there springs a rumor she's dying, which becomes a rumor that she's already dead. Lancelot hears this and is Driven to Suicide himself. He's conflicted about it — he's a Christian and shouldn't die "without God's consent" — but nonetheless decides to do it. He tries to hang himself with his belt, but his men save him. Then the lovers both find out the other is living and all is well.
• Take It to the Bridge: There are 2 bridges into the kingdom of Gorre: the water-bridge and the sword-bridge.
  Damsel: It is possible to enter by two very perilous paths and by two very difficult passage-ways. One is called the water-bridge, because the bridge is under water, and there is the same amount of water beneath it as above it, so that the bridge is exactly in the middle; and it is only a foot and a half in width and in thickness. This choice is certainly to be avoided, and yet it is the less dangerous of the two. In addition there are a number of other obstacles of which I will say nothing. The other bridge is still more impracticable and much more perilous, never having been crossed by man. It is just like a sharp sword, and therefore all the people call it "the sword-bridge".
• Team Prima Donna: Kay is incompetent and everyone knows it. Seemingly even Kay himself knows it because rather than simply asking for the quest, he immediately jumps to manipulating and strong-arming Arthur into giving it to him. This implies he knows Arthur would say no if he just asked. When Lancelot first sees Kay in Gorre, Kay's first words are:
  Kay: How thou hast shamed me!
  Lancelot: I? How so? Tell me what disgrace have I brought upon you?
  Kay: A very great disgrace, for thou hast carried out what I could not accomplish, and thou hast done what I could not do.
• Thinking Out Loud:
  • When Guinevere is being taken off to Meleagant by the incompetent Kay, she gripes to herself that this wouldn't be happening if her man Lancelot was here. Oddly, it's mentioned that Count Guinable hears her say this—seemingly setting up a Chekhov's Gun—but then Count Guinable is never mentioned again. This could be because Godefroi, not Chrétien, ended up writing the conclusion of the story.
    Guinevere: [to herself in a low voice] Alas, alas, if you only knew it, I am sure you would never allow me without interference to be led away a step.
  • When Bademagu's daughter arrives at the tower to save Lancelot, she hears him talking to himself, lamenting that Gawain has not come to save him.
• Trail of Blood: Downplayed in that the blood is evidence, but not a trail of evidence. In order to Enter Stage Window, Lancelot has to remove the iron bars over the window of Guinevere's bedchamber. In the process he injures his finger and starts bleeding. Come morning, Meleagant sees the bloody sheet and concludes that Kay (who's known to be bleeding) is the one who was in her bed last night.
• Trial by Combat: Lancelot agrees to serve as Guinevere and Kay's champion in a fight, representing the claim that Kay and Guinevere did not have sex last night. However, the duel itself later gets called off.
• Tsundere: When at last Lancelot reaches Guinevere, she treats him coldly because of the hesitating-before-getting-in-the-cart thing.
• Villainous Crush: Meleagant is attracted to Guinevere. That's part of the reason he's indignant when he thinks she had sex with Kay.
  Meleagant: A fine watch, indeed, has been kept by my father, who is guarding you on my behalf! He has succeeded in keeping you from me, but, in spite of him, Kay the seneschal has looked upon you last night.
• Window Love: Guinevere invites Lancelot to come to her window at night. The window is barred so they can talk, hold hands, and kiss, but nothing more. They do that, but then they want more. Then they decide to Enter Stage Window, making it a Subverted Trope.
  Guinevere: Come through the garden to-night and speak with me at yonder window, when every one inside has gone to sleep. You will not be able to get in: I shall be inside and you outside: to gain entrance will be impossible. I shall be able to touch you only with my lips or hand, but, if you please, I will stay there until morning for love of you. Our bodies cannot be joined, for close beside me in my room lies Kay the seneschal, who is still suffering from his wounds.
• You Owe Me:
  • The woman Lancelot and Gawain meet on the road outside Gorre gives them information about bridges in exchange for owing her a favor later.
    Damsel: Each one of you owes me a favour of my choosing, whenever I may choose to ask it. Take care not to forget that.
  • Lancelot duels and defeats the ford knight. The ford knight's lady asks Lancelot to let him go free in exchange for her owing him.
    Damsel: Set him free at my request, upon condition that when the time comes, I shall do my utmost to repay thee in any way that thou shalt choose.

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