Ban of Benoic/ˈbæn/ (Old French:Ban de Bénoïc) is a character inArthurian legend. King Ban first appeared by this name in theLancelot propre part of the 13th-century FrenchVulgate Cycle as the ruler of the realm in France namedBenoic [fr] (Bénoïc; alternatively Benewic, Benoich, Benoit, Benuic, Benwick) and father of SirLancelot and SirHector de Maris, as well as brother ofKing Bors. Ban of Benoic largely corresponds to the other versions of the father of Lancelot, including Pant of Gen[n]ewis in the GermanLanzelet, Haud of Schuwake in the EnglishSir Lancelot du Lake, and Domolot of Lokva in the BelarusianPovest' o Tryshchane [be].
Ban's kingdom of Benoic is located at the border betweenArmoricanBrittany andGaul. With his wifeQueen Elaine (Élaine, a sister ofKing Bors' wife Evaine), King Ban begets the future great knightLancelot (birth name Galahad,Galaad). Thanks to Merlin's magic,[1] he sleeps with the Lady de Maris (Dame des Mares), who becomes illegitimately pregnant withHector de Maris (Hector des Mares), Lancelot's half-brother and later one of his closest companions and followers.
In theSuite du Merlin, King Ban is shown campaigning in insularBritain in support of the youngKing Arthur. In theProseLancelot, his border castle of Trebe is located in the middle of a marsh reputed to be impregnable, but the neighboring lord,King Claudas of the Terre Deserte, manages to set it on fire. Ban escapes with his wife and their infant son but, overwhelmed by the disaster, promptly dies of grief. At this moment, the infant Lancelot is taken by theLady of the Lake to her abode, where he is later joined by Bors the Elder's sonsLionel andBors the Younger. When the children grow up and become Knights of theRound Table, they aid Arthur in finally defeating Claudas and reclaiming their fathers' lands. The war between King Ban and Claudas may recall the early medieval struggle of theBretons against the invadingFranks, although the most complete version found in theLancelot-Grail more closely resembles the contemporaryrivalry between KingPhilip II of France and the Anglo-FrenchHouse of Plantagenet.
According toRoger Sherman Loomis, "Ban is usually called Ban of Benoic, easily accounted for as a misunderstanding ofBran le Benoit, an exact translation of the WelshBendigeid Bran, or'Bran the Blessed'."[2] That is, the Vulgate author has misread and misconstrued theOld Frenchbenoit (='blessed') to be the name of a non-existent realm Benoic - of which he deduces King B(r)an to have been the ruler. The name Ban de Benoic/Benewic is also found in mutated form as Pant von Genewis (scribal error where initial 'B' misread as 'G') in another early Arthurian text treating of the hero Lancelot, namely theLanzelet ofUlrich von Zatzikhoven.[3]
As professors Loomis andHelaine Newstead have demonstrated, there is a tendency for individual figures fromCeltic mythology to yield multiple characters in Arthurian romances and this process is apparent in the number of Arthurian characters whose names and/or attributes can be traced back to the gigantic king (see alsoFisher King) and probable deity, Brân, whose exploits are recounted inBranwen ferch Llŷr (see alsoLlŷr), the second of theFour Branches of the Mabinogi.[4][5] Newstead wrote: "The evidence concerning Ban, though it survives in obscure and refractory forms, nevertheless preserves connections withBaudemaguz, Brangor,Bron andCorbenic."[4]
Loomis believed one of the authors of the VulgateLancelot preserved the memory of two figures from Welsh myth through their relation to Welshtoponyms: if it be accepted that the character of King Ban is indeed derived (as noted above) from Brân the Blessed, it follows that the Kingdom of King Ban is to be equated with the 'Land of Brân', which in Welsh designates the northeast ofWales. Abutting on the 'Land of Brân' was the 'Retreat ofGwri' (now known as theWirral peninsula). Loomis suggested that the name Bohours de Gannes given to the brother of King Ban / Brân in the Vulgate text is part scribal error ('Bohours' for an original, 'Gwri'-derived 'Gohours') and part geographical rationalization (substitution of 'Gannes' for 'Galles', i.e. of 'Gaul' for 'Wales').[2]
Ban appears in Bernard Cornwell'sThe Warlord Chronicles, as the king of theBrythonic-Celtic kingdom of Benoic, inArmorica, and the father ofLancelot andGalahad. Cornwell places Ban’s capital, Ynys Trebes, atMont-Saint-Michel. Ban is depicted as extremely erudite, speaking "British [Brythonic], Latin, Greek, and some small Arabic." However, his preoccupation with poetry and learning above military concerns leaves his city vulnerable to attack by theFranks.
Ban is depicted as the "Fox Sin ofGreed", a member of the titular group of knights, inNakaba Suzuki's 2012 mangaThe Seven Deadly Sins. In the series, Ban is tall, with spiky white hair and a very youthful appearance, due to being immortal after having drunk from the Fountain of Youth.[6] He eventually has a child named Lancelot at the end of the series.