Elaine

Elaine, character of Arthurian legend, first portrayed in Le Morte Darthur (1485) by Sir Thomas Malory. In Malory’s sprawling work, Elaine (or Elayne) is the name of five women with overlapping identities. The best known and most cited of these is Elaine Le Blank, known as the Fair Maid of Astolat, who falls in love with Lancelot, provokes Guinevere’s jealousy, and eventually dies of love for the knight. Elayne the Fair, or Sans Pere (“the...