Ban, Launcelot's Father, Malory Text

Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, composed in the middle of the 15th century, and published in 1485 by William Caxton, is the version of the Arthurian legend that became the foundation for most of the treatments of the legend known now -- White's The Once and Future King, for instance, upon which the musical Camelot is based, and Tennyson's Idylls of the King. Malory's work is an amalgamation of several earlier Arthurian texts, including both French and English sources, and adds some original material. The work is readily available in print; an e-version can be found here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080925231822/http://etext.lib.virginia... http://web.archive.org/web/20080825140058/http://etext.lib.virginia... _____________ The following material refers to an amalgamated version of Ban, not to the Malory text alone:

In Arthurian legend, Ban /ˈbæn/ is the King of Benwick or Benoic. He is the father of Sir Lancelot and Sir Hector de Maris, the brother of King Bors, and an early ally of King Arthur.

Ban's wife Elaine is the sister to King Bors' wife Evaine. Together they have Lancelot, but while travelling in Britain in support of Arthur, Ban sleeps with the Lady de Maris, who becomes pregnant with Hector, Lancelot's half-brother. Ban and Bors are eventually killed by their enemy, the Frankish king Claudas, and Lancelot is taken by the Lady of the Lake to her abode, where he is later joined by Bors the Elder's 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' land.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Ban