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Lancelot And the Lord of the Distant Isles

This story of the passionate, adulterous, tragic love of Lancelot and Guinevere is at once the perfect expression of 'courtly love' and its inversion. Lancelot, the heroic stranger in King Arthur's court, sacrifices all in service of his king, and yet also falls in love with Arthur's queen, the most beautiful woman in Britain. That this spotless knight, who repeatedly saves Arthur and his world from destruction, should be the fateful underminer of the king's self-confidence and, ultimately, a terrible weapon in the hands of Arthur's great adversary Galehaut, is a contradiction that has fascinated the Western mind for hundreds of years. The Arthurian legend that most of us know comes from Malory and The Once and Future King. But there are also several books, including the thirteenth-century Book of Galehaut, which gives a surprising and unfamiliar version. It is a double love story — the tale not only of Lancelot's love for Guinevere, but also the love of Galehaut, the Lord of the Distant Isles, for Lancelot.