Editing Lady of the Lake (section)

===Lancelot's guardian===
{{Further|Lancelot}}

[[File:BnF, Manuscrits, Français 114 fol. 352.png|thumb|The Lady of the Lake finds Lancelot at [[Tintagel Castle]] to cure his madness, caused by [[Morgan le Fay|Morgan the fairy]] sending him a dream vision of Guinevere's infidelity to him. [[Evrard d'Espinques]]' illumination of the [[Lancelot-Grail|Vulgate ''Lancelot'']] ([[BNF fr. 113–116|BNF fr. 114 f. 352]], c. 1475)]]

Following her early appearances in the 12th-century poems of [[Chrétien de Troyes|Chrétien]] and [[Ulrich von Zatzikhoven|Ulrich]], the Lady of the Lake began being featured by this title in the French [[chivalric romance]] prose by the 13th century. As a [[fairy godmother]]-type [[foster mother]] of the hero Lancelot, she inherits the role of an unnamed aquatic (sea) [[fairy queen]], her prototype found in Ulrich's ''[[Lanzelet]]''. Ulrich uses the [[changeling]] part of the fairy abduction lore for the background of Lancelot as having been swapped him with her son Mabuz.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TfFj4UsVJuoC&pg=PA72|title=King Arthur: Dark Age Warrior and Mythic Hero|isbn=9781404213647|last1=Matthews|first1=John|date=15 January 2008|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group }}</ref> However, the figure of Lancelot's supernatural foster mother has no offspring of her own in any of the later texts.

She does not appear in person in Chrétien's ''[[Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart|Lancelot]]''. The text only has her mentioned briefly as an unnamed (referred to as just "lady" by Lancelot when he calls upon her) fairy "who had cared for him in his infancy" and continues to aid Lancelot remotely, through a [[magic ring]] given by her to him.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nlKLEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT343 | title=Four Arthurian Romances | date=15 September 2022 }}</ref> There is no connection to water here.

In the [[Lancelot-Grail]] (Vulgate) prose cycle, loosely based on Chrétien, the Lady resides in an [[otherworld]]ly enchanted realm, the entry to which is disguised as an illusion of a lake (the [[Post-Vulgate Cycle|Post-Vulgate]] explains it as Merlin's work<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FY3P_DUGTyAC&pg=PA55|title=Arthurian Literature XXV|last1=Archibald|first1=Elizabeth|last2=Johnson|first2=David F.|date=2008|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=978-1843841715|language=en}}</ref>). There, she raises Lancelot from his infancy having stolen him from [[Elaine (legend)|his mother]] following the death of his father, [[King Ban]]. She teaches Lancelot arts and writing, infusing him with wisdom and courage, and overseeing his training to become an unsurpassed warrior. She also rears his orphaned cousins [[Sir Lionel|Lionel]] and [[Bors#Sir Bors the Younger|Bors]] after having her sorcerous damsel Saraïde (later called Celise<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cTY44q6n0MgC&pg=PA47 | title=Lancelot-Grail: Lancelot, pt. I | isbn=978-1-84384-226-2 | last1=Lacy | first1=Norris J. | date=2010 | publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref>) rescue them from King [[Claudas]]. All this takes her only a few years in the human world. Afterwards, she sends off the adolescent Lancelot to [[King Arthur]]'s court as the nameless White Knight, due to her own affinity with this color (wearing white is a common attribute of faery women in Arthurian legend<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=upagEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT162 | title=Artorius: The Real King Arthur | isbn=978-1-3981-1216-2 | last1=Malcor | first1=Linda A. | last2=Matthews | first2=John | date=15 December 2022 | publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited }}</ref>).

Through much of the Prose ''Lancelot Propre'', the Lady keeps aiding Lancelot in various ways during his early adventures to become a famed knight and discover his true identity, usually acting through her maidens serving as her agents and messengers. She gives him her magical gifts, including a magic ring of protection against enchantments in a manner similar in that to his fairy protectoress in Chrétien's poem (the same of another of her magic rings also grants Lancelot's lover Queen [[Guinevere]] immunity from [[Morgan le Fay|Morgan]]'s power in the Italian ''Prophéties de Merlin''). Later on, she also works to actively encourage Lancelot and Guinevere's relationship and its consummation. That includes sending Guinevere a symbolically illustrated magic shield, the crack in which closes up after the queen finally spends her first night with Lancelot. She furthermore personally arrives to restore Lancelot to sanity during some of his recurring periods of madness, on one occasion using the above-mentioned shield to heal his mind.