Elaine (legend)


Elaine is a name shared by several different female characters in Arthurian legend.

Elaine of Astolat

Elaine of Astolat, also known in some texts as Elaine the Fair or the Fair Maid of Astolat and is a maiden who falls in unrequited love with Sir Lancelot.

Elaine of Benoic

Elaine of Benoic is the wife of King Ban and the mother of Lancelot. She is the sister of Evaine, wife of King Bors of Gaunnes and mother of Sir Lionel and Sir Bors. Her husband dies of grief when his enemy Claudas attacks his city, and Elaine goes to attend to him. She sets the infant Lancelot down, and he is taken by the Lady of the Lake, who raises him. Elaine sees her son for the first time in years just before she dies.

Elaine of Corbenic

Elaine of Corbenic is the daughter of King Pelles and the mother of Sir Galahad by Sir Lancelot. She first appears in the Prose Lancelot, but fully emerges as a character in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur. Her first significant action is showing the Holy Grail to Sir Lancelot.

Elaine of Garlot

Elaine of Garlot is the daughter of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, and Igraine. She is a sister of Morgan le Fay and Morgause and a half-sister of King Arthur. She marries King Nentres of Garlot and has a son named Galeschin, who becomes a Knight of the Round Table, and a daughter named Elaine the Younger.
Considering the actions of her sisters, she is remarkable in that she is otherwise unremarkable. It is assumed she stayed in her own lands and did little to help or hinder any of her siblings.

Elaine of Listenoise

Elaine of Listenoise is the daughter of King Pellinore. She kills herself after the death of her lover Sir Miles of the Laundes.
Some modern authors, such as Marion Zimmer Bradley in The Mists of Avalon, combine or conflate her with Elaine of Corbenic, due to their shared name and the similarity of their fathers' names.

Elaine the Peerless

Elaine the Peerless is the niece of the Lord of the Fens and wife of Persides the Red of the Castle of Gazevilte.

Elaine the Younger

Elaine the Younger is the daughter of Elaine of Garlot and King Nentres, and a niece of King Arthur. In some versions of the legend, she falls in love with Sir Percival. Other versions cast her as a child of King Lot.