Elaine of Astolat (), also known as Elayne of Ascolat and other variants of the name, is a figure in Arthurian legend. She is a lady from the castle of Astolat who dies of her unrequited love for Sir Lancelot. Well-known versions of her story appear in Sir Thomas Malory's 1485 book Le Morte d'Arthur, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's mid-19th-century Idylls of the King, and Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shalott". She should not be confused with Elaine of Corbenic, the mother of Galahad by Lancelot. Legend The possible original version of the story appeared in the early 13th-century French prose romance Mort Artu, in which the Lady of Escalot (Demoiselle d'Escalot) dies of unrequited love for Lancelot and drifts down a river to Camelot in a boat. In the 14th-century English poem Stanzaic Morte Arthur, she is known as the Maid of Ascolot. Thomas Malory's 15th-century compilation of Arthurian tales, Le Morte d'Arthur, include the story. Another version is told in the 13th-century Italian short story La Damigella di Scalot (No. LXXXII in the collection Il Novellino: Le ciento novelle antike). Two of Tennyson's famous and influential poems, both titled "The Lady of Shalott" (1832 and 1842), were later inspired by the Italian variant. Le Morte d'Arthur In Malory's telling, Elaine's episode begins when her father Bernard, the lord of Astolat (William Caxton's misread of Malory's original Ascolat), organises a tournament attended by King Arthur and his knights. Sir Lancelot was not originally planning to attend, he is persuaded otherwise and visits Bernard and his two sons before the tournament. While Lancelot is in her family's household, Elaine becomes enamoured of him and begs him to wear her token at the coming tournament. Explaining that Queen Guinevere would be at the tournament, he consents to wear the token but says that he will have to fight in disguise so as not to be recognized. He asks Bernard if he can leave his recognizable shield with him and borrow another. Bernard agrees and lends him the plain-white shield of Sir Torre, Elaine's brother. Lancelot goes on to win the jousting tournament, still in disguise, fighting against King Arthur's party and beating forty of them in the tournament. He does, however, receive an injury to his side from Sir Bors' lance, and is carried off the field by Elaine's other brother, Sir Lavaine, to the hermit Sir Baudwin's cave (Baudwin being a