The Arthurian Legends

The Arthurian legend is mainly known for the love triangles, but many of them have sad or tragic endings. One of the most well known and famous love triangles is among King Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot. Another love triangle many people know is the one between Uther, Igraine, and Gorlois. There is also a love triangle that isn’t as popular as the other two, but is still well known. That love triangle is between King Mark, Iseult, and Tristan. In many of love triangles, there is always a tragedy. In this case, all three of the triangles have a tragedy. There are many versions of love triangles with different variations of a certain tragedy. The tragedy could be a death of a member in the triangle or pain from a heartbreak.
In the Arthurian
In this triangle, Arthur falls in love with Guinevere and they get married. They lived happily married for a couple of years. Soon, Lancelot, one of the greatest knights of the Round Table and Arthur’s best friend, slowly started to fall in love with Guinevere. They eventually became courtly lovers and had an affair without Arthur knowing. Over time, King Arthur started to be suspicious of them. One day, Mordred gathered some knights to prove to King Arthur that Guinevere was cheating. The knights caught them, Lancelot.ran away, but they seized Guinevere. King Arthur sentenced her to be burned at the stake, but Lancelot tried to save her. “‘I know, my dear. I did not want to come here today. I love you, and I love Arthur -- but the day is past when I can be content to be his captain of horse and --’ His voice broke. ‘And the champion of the Queen’” (Bradley 563). Lancelot is saying goodbye to his lover because he knows that they cannot be together. Lancelot was one of Arthur’s loyal knights and it would have been a great betrayal if he were to have a relationship with his wife. King Arthur soon died after the affair between Lancelot and Guinevere, and Mordred’s betrayal to King Arthur. After finding out about Arthur’s death, Guinevere decides to become a nun. After the destruction of the Round Table, Guinevere blames it on her and Lancelot’s affair. Lancelot then retires to become a hermit. After a while, Lancelot gets a dream that shows him Guinevere dying. He decides to go visit her, but when he gets to her, he finds her dead. Lancelot was about half an hour late from finding her alive. A while after the king and queen’s death, Lancelot’s health starts to fail. Lancelot soon dies six weeks after being upset with the death of his beloved King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. The events in this story make this love triangle one of the biggest tragedies because of the deaths of all the