In
Historia Regum Britanniae, Lot is one of three brothers, each of whom rules a part of northern Britain: Lot rules Lodonesia and is the lord of
Carlisle, while his brothers
Urien (the father of Owain, both generally reckoned historical kings of
Rheged) and Angusel rule over Mureif (
Moray) and
Scotland, respectively. Lot is first mentioned as a
vassal to
Uther Pendragon in the wars against
Octa, the
Saxon king of
Kent. When Uther falls ill, he marries his daughter to Lot and entrusts the couple with control of the kingdom. Lot and Anna have two sons, Gawain and
Mordred. When Arthur becomes king, he helps Lot and his brothers regain their territories, which have fallen to the Saxons. Lot later leads one of Arthur's armies in his war against Emperor
Lucius of Rome. In the wake of Geoffrey, Lot entered into Welsh Arthurian tradition under the name Lleu or Llew. His wife in Welsh literature is Arthur's sister
Gwyar, mother of Gwalchmei (Gawain). Early Arthurian works of
chivalric romance, such as those of
Chrétien de Troyes, often refer to Lot, but he rarely receives more than a mention in connection to his son Gawain.
De Ortu Waluuanii and
Les Enfances Gauvain tell of how the teenage Lot fell in love with Uther Pendragon's young daughter Anna while serving as her
page. The story takes place during the time when he was a royal hostage at the court of Uther after the first British conquest of Norway. German stories by
Wolfram von Eschenbach and
Der Pleier give Gawain a brother, Beacurs (Beatus), and several sisters, including Cundrie (Gundrie), Itonje (Itoni), and Soredamor (Surdamur), born from Arthur's sister named Sangive or Seife. Some works, such as
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, feature Lot as a member of Arthur's court. In the
Alliterative Morte Arthure and the Didot
Perceval, Lot dies in Arthur's final battle against Mordred. Lot takes a more prominent role in the cyclical narratives of the early 13th century. In these works he is the king of Lothian and Orkney, probably due to his earlier association with Norway. Beginning with the
Prose Tristan, the
Post-Vulgate Cycle offered a different version of Lot's story. As in the
Lancelot-Grail cycle, Lot opposes Arthur until his defeat at Bedegraine. Afterward, Arthur hears a prophecy that a child born on
May Day is destined to destroy him. Arthur gathers up all babies born around that time, including his own
illegitimate son, Mordred, and puts them on a rudderless boat that sinks, and the children are believed to have all died. Lot, who believed Mordred to be one of his own sons, joins Arthur's enemy King
Rience and resumes his campaign against Arthur. Eventually, he is killed in battle by King
Pellinore enabled by the intervention of
Merlin. Lot's death sparks a long
blood feud between their families, leading to the revenge killings of Pellinore and most of his sons, as well as the murder of Lot's wife. and has appeared in a number of modern Arthurian works. While Lot's realm is often placed south of
Hadrian's Wall in the post-Roman Lothian, Scottish late-medieval chronicles, including
Hector Boece's
Historia Gentis Scotorum, cast him as both king of the
Picts and a Pict himself. This association has carried on to some works of modern Arthurian legend. ==See also==