Elaine the fair, Elaine the loveable, Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat, High in her chamber up a tower to the east Guarded the sacred shield of Lancelot; - Tennyson, Idylls of the King
Lady Elaine of Astolat (a common mistake misspelling of "Ascolat"[1]) or Elaine the Fair is a maiden daughter of the lord of Astolat (Ascolat, Escalot). She falls in unrequited love with Sir Lancelot, leading to her death of sorrow. In modern times, she is also often known as "The Lady of Shalott" after the eponymous poem.
She is a lady from the castle of Astolat who dies of her unrequited love for Sir Lancelot. Well-known versions of her story appear in Sir Thomas Malory's 1485 book Le Morte d'Arthur, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's mid-19th-century Idylls of the King, and Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shalott". She should not be confused with Elaine of Corbenic, the mother of Galahad by Lancelot.
The Curse of the Lady of Shalott
A woman cursed to live in isolation weaves a magical tapestry, seeing the world only through reflections. When she glimpses Sir Lancelot, she leaves her tower, bringing about her doom.
Archetype: The Sacrifice of the Seer * Explores the tension between isolation and human connection, as well as the cost of pursuing beauty and love.
Symbolism: * The Mirror: The limited, mediated way we perceive reality. * Her Death: The cost of defying fate.
Alfred Lord Tennyson: ‘The Lady of Shalott’ his wonderful narrative poem in rhyming verses of 1832 (revised in 1842); and ‘Lancelot and Elaine’ from ‘Idylls of the King’ written between 1842 and 1848 - a re-telling in blank verse of Malory’s ‘Le Mort d’Arthur.’
‘Elaine the Fair, Elaine the Lovable,
Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat,
High in her chamber up a tower to the east
Guarded the sacred shield of Lancelot;
Which first she placed where morning’s earliest ray
Might strike it and awake her with the gleam;
Then fearing rust or soilure fashion’d for it
A case of silk, and braided thereupon
All the devices blazon’d on the shield
In their own tinct, and added, of her wit,
A border fantasy of branch and flower
And yellow-throated nestling in the nest.’
