Sir Lancelot of the Lake, as it is related by the older chronicles, was
the son of Ban, King of Benoit, in Brittany. Flying from his castle,
then straitly besieged, the fugitive king saw it in flames, and soon
after expired with grief. His queen, Helen, fruitlessly attempting to
save his life, abandoned for a while her infant son Lancelot. Returning,
she discovered him in the arms of the nymph Vivian, the mistress of
Merlin, who on her approach sprung with the child into a deep lake and
disappeared. This lake is held by some to be the lake Linius, a wide
insular water near the sea-coast, in the regions of Linius or "The
Lake;" now called Martin Mere or _Mar-tain-moir,_ "a water like the
sea."

The nymph educated the infant at her court, fabulously said to have been
held in the subterraneous caverns of this lake, and from hence he was
styled Lancelot du Lac.

At the age of eighteen the fairy conveyed him to the camp of King
Arthur, who was then waging a fierce and exterminating warfare with the
Saxons. Here the young warrior was invested with the badge of
knighthood. His person, accomplishments, and unparalleled bravery,
having won the heart of many a fair dame in this splendid abode of
chivalry and romance, his name and renown filled the land, where he was
throughout acknowledged as chief of "The Knights of the Round Table."

The name of Lancelot is derived from history, and is an appellation
truly British, signifying royalty, _Lanc_ being the Celtic term for a
spear, and _lod_ or _lot_ implying a people. Hence the name of
Lancelot's shire, or Lancashire. From the foregoing it is supposed that
he resided in the region of Linius, and that he was the monarch of these