Lavaine
Arthurian knight, devoted companion of Sir Launcelot, attested across 42 citations in Le Morte d'Arthur.
Sir Lavaine is a knight of the Arthurian court whose story is told entirely through his relationship with Sir Launcelot in the later books of Le Morte d'Arthur. He first appears at the Winchester tournament, where he rides alongside the disguised Launcelot, bearing a shield of silver with "a bend or" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. X). When Launcelot enters the field incognito against the knights of King Arthur's court, Lavaine fights at his side, smiting down Sir Bellangere and pressing into the thickest of the combat as "the good knight" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. XI).
The intensity of Lavaine's devotion becomes clear after the tournament, when Launcelot is grievously wounded by a truncheon lodged in his side. It is Lavaine who bears him from the field, and when Launcelot asks him to draw out the broken spear-shaft, Lavaine hesitates: "O mine own lord, I would fain do that might please you, but I dread me sore an I pull out the truncheon that ye shall be in peril of death" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. XII). He pulls it nonetheless, and the blood bursts out "nigh a pint at once." Lavaine then carries the stricken knight to a hermitage, beating on the gate with his spear-butt, crying for entry "for Jesu's sake" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. XII).
Through the seasons that follow, Lavaine rises steadily in reputation. After a winter of jousting, he earns such worship "that he was nobly renowned among many knights of the Table Round," and men deem he should be made a knight of the Table Round at the next Pentecost (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. XX-XXI). He later fights in the crisis surrounding Queen Guenever's accusation by Sir Meliagrance, offering to take the field on Launcelot's behalf when the champion cannot be found (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. IX).
Lavaine's narrative arc traces a single trajectory from squire-like companion to independent knight, but the texture of his role shifts across the episodes. In the early tournament scenes, he functions as Launcelot's second -- capable in battle but defined by proximity to the greater knight. The Gesta Danorum passage describes him fighting at Launcelot's side and earning the epithet "the good and gentle knight" from Sir Bors (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. XXIII), but his combat achievements are always narrated in relation to Launcelot's.
The wound-tending episode at the hermitage is where Lavaine's character acquires independent depth. His dialogue reveals genuine anguish -- "Alas, what shall I do?" -- followed by practical competence as he draws the truncheon and hauls the bleeding knight onto his horse (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. XII). This is not heroic combat but unglamorous nursing, and Malory gives it sustained attention.
The relationship between Lavaine and his sister Elaine, the Fair Maid of Astolat, adds another dimension. When Elaine begs leave to seek Launcelot, she frames it in terms of both loves: she will "never stint till that I find him and my brother, Sir Lavaine" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. XIV). Lavaine later defends his sister's honor with quiet conviction, declaring "I dare make good she is a clean maiden as for my lord Sir Launcelot," and adding that his own devotion to Launcelot is of the same unshakeable kind: "sithen I first saw my lord Sir Launcelot, I could never depart from him" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. XIX).
By the final episodes, Lavaine has earned his independence. He marries Dame Felelolie, Sir Urre's sister, receiving a barony from King Arthur (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. XIII). In the wars that follow, he and Sir Urre urge Launcelot to fight without restraint: "we see ye forbear and spare, and that doth much harm" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XX, Ch. XIII).
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition