The Prose Lancelot’s Galehot, Malory’s Lavain, and the Queering of Late Medieval Literature

Abstract: This article adds two Arthurian characterizations to Queer Criticisms emerging analysis of homoeroticism in late medieval literature: Galehot, from the 13th-century Prose Lancelot , and Malory’s Lavain, from the story of Elaine le Blanke, the Fair Maid of Astolat. Both are altogether anomalous figures for the virulently homophobic late Middle Ages: positively represented men who love other men; and Galehot is one of the great homoerotic portraits of medieval literature.