The legend behind the name
Who was Sir Lancelot? The knight
The knight behind the Budapest tavern: where Lancelot comes from, who wrote him first, and why a Hungarian restaurant borrows an Arthurian name.
Book your table at Sir Lancelot ↗A knight from romance, not from history
Lancelot du Lac, Lancelot of the Lake, is a character in Arthurian romance. He is King Arthur's close companion, one of the greatest Knights of the Round Table, and the secret lover of Queen Guinevere. He is a figure of story rather than a documented historical person. The restaurant that borrows his name in Budapest links its title to the Wikipedia article on this fictional knight, which tells you which tradition the evening is playing with.
Where he first appears
His earliest known appearance is in Chrétien de Troyes' poem Erec and Enide, from around 1170, where his name stands third on a list of knights at Arthur's court. Chrétien later made him the hero of Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, the first datable romance centred on him, which turns on his courtly love for Guinevere. The German poem Lanzelet by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, dated no earlier than 1194, tells a Lancelot story without that love at its centre.
The Lady of the Lake
In the stories, a fairy enchantress called the Lady of the Lake carries the infant Lancelot away and raises him in her enchanted realm, which is where his epithet comes from. In Chrétien's version she is unnamed. Later she equips him with enchanted items and cures him when he goes mad.
Round Table and downfall
He joins the Round Table after freeing Gawain in the Dolorous Tower episode. His devotion to Guinevere is the heart of his story: in Chrétien's poem he rescues her from the villain Meleagant, and their affair later causes a civil war that ends Arthur's kingdom. In the early 13th century the Vulgate Cycle gave him a family and many adventures, and in the late 15th century Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur presented him as the best knight of all.
Lancelot and the Grail
A later romance, Perlesvaus, written around 1200 to 1210, is the first to record Lancelot's involvement in the quest for the Grail. By then the story had grown far beyond Chrétien. Around 1320 a Middle Dutch Lancelot Compilation added a new Lancelot romance, which shows how widely the legend travelled. The knight on the tavern sign is a composite of all these tellings, French, German, Dutch and English. That is a long way from the courtly lover of Chrétien's poem, and it shows how far the character travelled.
The best knight of all
In the late 15th century Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur made Lancelot the best knight, a shift from the earlier English tradition, which had centred on Gawain. That is why most visitors recognise Lancelot first. If you read one book before the dinner, make it Malory, but you do not need to: nothing about the evening depends on knowing the stories.
Why a Budapest tavern uses the name
The name is shorthand for chivalry: swords, castles, feasts and a code of honour. It is French and English in origin, not Hungarian, so the tavern's use of it is a branding choice rather than a claim about Hungarian history. For a medieval dinner show that is enough. Guests need a recognisable knight to hang the evening on, and Lancelot is the one most people have heard of.
What it means for your night
Do not expect Arthurian storytelling on the floor. The booking promises a medieval dinner with swordsmen, jugglers and belly dancers, not a retelling of the legend. The hall, the candles and the costumes are the theme. If you want the real medieval history of the city, spend a different day at the castle district; this guide and the one on medieval Hungary will help you plan it.
Read next: Medieval Hungary around Budapest
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