King Ban

Ban of Benoic largely corresponds to the other versions of the father of Lancelot. These include Pant of Gen[n]ewis in the German Lanzelet, Haud of Schuwake in the English Sir Lancelot du Lake, and Domolot of Lokva in the Belarusian ''''. Ban's kingdom of Benoic is located at the border between Armorican Brittany and Gaul. With his wife Queen Elaine (Élaine, a sister of King Bors' wife Evaine), King Ban begets the future great knight Lancelot (birth name Galahad, Galaad). Affected by Merlin's conniving magic, Ban sleeps with the Lady de Maris (Dame des Mares), who becomes unfaithfully pregnant by Ban, while she is married to Hector de Maris (Hector des Mares, Ector), and she thus give birth to Lancelot's half-brother and later one of his closest companions and followers. In the Suite du Merlin (a continuation of the Lancelot-Grail Cycle's Vulgate Merlin beyond the Merlin Propre of de Boron), King Ban and his brother King Bors are allied with the young King Arthur in campaigns in the insular Britain (i.e., fighting rebel barons). Later, King Ban is seen wielding a named sword called ("Fury, Wrathful"). In the Prose Lancelot, his border castle of Trebe is located in the middle of a marsh reputed to be impregnable, but the neighboring lord, King Claudas of the Terre Deserte, manages to set it on fire. Ban escapes with his wife and their infant son but, overwhelmed by the disaster, promptly dies of grief. At this moment, the infant Lancelot is taken by the Lady of the Lake to her abode, where he is later joined by Bors' sons Lionel and Bors (the younger). When the children grow up and become Knights of the Round Table, they aid Arthur in finally defeating Claudas and reclaiming their fathers' lands. The war between King Ban and Claudas may recall the early medieval struggle of the Bretons against the invading Franks, although the most complete version found in the Lancelot-Grail more closely resembles the contemporary rivalry between King Philip II of France and the Anglo-French House of Plantagenet. ==Possible origin in Welsh myth==

According to Roger Sherman Loomis, "Ban is usually called Ban of Benoic, easily accounted for as a misunderstanding of Bran le Benoit, an exact translation of the Welsh Bendigeid Bran, or 'Bran the Blessed'." That is, the Vulgate author has misread and misconstrued the Old French benoit (='blessed') to be the name of a non-existent realm Benoic - of which he deduces King B(r)an to have been the ruler. The name Ban de Benoic/Benewic is also found in mutated form as Pant von Genewis (scribal error where initial 'B' misread as 'G') in another early Arthurian text treating of the hero Lancelot, namely the Lanzelet of Ulrich von Zatzikhoven. As professors Loomis and Helaine Newstead have demonstrated, there is a tendency for individual figures from Celtic mythology to yield multiple characters in Arthurian romances and this process is apparent in the number of Arthurian characters whose names and/or attributes can be traced back to the gigantic king (see also Fisher King) and probable deity, Brân, whose exploits are recounted in Branwen ferch Llŷr (see also Llŷr), the second of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. Newstead wrote: "The evidence concerning Ban, though it survives in obscure and refractory forms, nevertheless preserves connections with Baudemaguz, Brangor, Bron and Corbenic." Loomis believed one of the authors of the Vulgate Lancelot preserved the memory of two figures from Welsh myth through their relation to Welsh toponyms: if it be accepted that the character of King Ban is indeed derived (as noted above) from Brân the Blessed, it follows that the Kingdom of King Ban is to be equated with the 'Land of Brân', which in Welsh designates the northeast of Wales. Abutting on the 'Land of Brân' was the 'Retreat of Gwri' (now known as the Wirral peninsula). Loomis suggested that the name Bohours de Gannes given to the brother of King Ban / Brân in the Vulgate text is part scribal error ('Bohours' for an original, 'Gwri'-derived 'Gohours') and part geographical rationalization (substitution of 'Gannes' for 'Galles', i.e. of 'Gaul' for 'Wales'). ==Modern culture==

Ban appears in Bernard Cornwell's The Warlord Chronicles, as the king of the Brythonic-Celtic kingdom of Benoic, in Armorica, and the father of Lancelot and Galahad. Cornwell places Ban's capital, Ynys Trebes, at Mont-Saint-Michel. Ban is depicted as extremely erudite, speaking "British, Latin, Greek, and some small Arabic." However, his preoccupation with poetry and learning above military concerns leaves his city vulnerable to the siege and eventual sacking by the Franks. Ban is depicted as the "Fox Sin of Greed", a member of the titular group of knights, in Nakaba Suzuki's 2012 manga The Seven Deadly Sins. In the series, Ban has a very youthful appearance, due to being immortal after having drunk from the Fountain of Youth. He eventually has a child named Lancelot at the end of the series. • Algernon Charles Swinburne's 1915 poem "King Ban" that "describes the flight of Lancelot's father and mother from King Claudas, whose forces are taking over their lands. Arthur is mentioned as having become too ensnared by female beauty to come to the aid of his ally." • Wilfred Rowland Childe's 1947 poem "The Exile of King Ban" in which he "expresses a desire to give up his crown and enter Ablamor (here described as an old, fairy, angel city)." == Explanatory notes ==

;(Primary sources) • • , Vol. 1 (text); Vol. 2 (text); Vol. 3? Preface, outline, pp. i–cclxvi and Index, glossary pp. 703–776 (IArchive) • • • • • • • ;(Secondary sources) • • • •