King Lot - Romance

Romance

The early romances, such those of Chrétien de Troyes, often refer to Lot, but he rarely receives more than a mention in connection to his more famous son Gawain. In some romances Lot's wife is called Morcades, a name which Roger Sherman Loomis argued was a variant of Morgan le Fay.

Chretien's hero Yvain is identified in Welsh sources with Owain, son of Urien, the supposed father of Kentigern. An article by J. C. Lozac'hmeur identifies similarities between Chrétien's tale and that of Kentigern. In the romance Owain travels from Carlisle to marry the lady of "Landuc" or the daughter of "Duke Landuc": in one manuscript she is named as "Laudine". It has been proposed that both of these names again derive from a form of "Lothian" and that Chrétien was drawing upon an unknown source that resembled the saint's legend and the Breton lai Desiré. The history of Urien, Owein and Kentigern refers to events among the Men of the North that took place up to a century after the timeframe generally associated with a historical Arthur, but the romance, influenced by Geoffrey as well as the saint's tale, has ended up with both a King Lot and an eponymous princess' father.

Lot takes a more prominent role in the later cyclical narratives. Probably due to his earlier association with Norway, in these works he is king not only of Lothian, but Orkney as well. In the Lancelot-Grail, after Uther Pendragon weds Igraine, he marries her daughters from her first marriage off to his political allies. Her oldest daughter, here named Morgause, is married off to King Lot; they have five sons, Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, Gareth, and Mordred (whose biological father, unbeknown to Lot, is actually Arthur). Later, when Arthur comes to power, Lot at first opposes him, and with his brothers and several other Brythonic kings, raises an army against him. It is only after Arthur defeats the coalition at Bedegraine and helps them fend off the Saxons that Lot becomes Arthur's ally.

The Post-Vulgate Cycle offers a different version of Lot's story. As in the Lancelot-Grail Lot opposes Arthur until the defeat at Bedegraine. Afterwards, however, Arthur hears a prophecy that a child born on May Day will destroy him. He gathers up all noble babies born around that time, including his own bastard son Mordred, and puts them on a ship where they all seemingly perish. The incensed Lot joins Arthur's enemy Rience and resumes his campaign against the king. In the ensuing battle he is killed by King Pellinore, leading to a long feud between their families. This version of Lot's story was taken up by Thomas Malory in his English work Le Morte d'Arthur, and has subsequently appeared in a number of modern Arthurian works.