Elaine of Astalot

With Sir Lancelot, you can only figure that Tennyson based his famous poem "Lady of Shallot" on an Arthurian legend. You were right. He did. You just can't recognize it.

In the Arthurian literature she's known as Elaine of Astolat. The story starts at a jousting contest where she meets Sir Lancelot. She asked him to wear her colors, but he said he'd have to do it in disguise to not upset Guinevere. (who said soap opera was a modern phenomenon?) He does really well, taking on King Arthur's knights and such, because he wouldn't be Sir Lancelot if he couldn't beat 50 people in a jousting contest. He finally gets injured so Elaine nurses him back to health in secret so as not uncover his disguise. Sir Lancelot then offers to pay her for her services, and she is insulted because he's to thick-headed to realize she's in love with him.

Elaine Guarding Lancelot's Shield by Louis Rhead

She gives him back his shield that she's been hiding for him (remember he can't be found out or Guinevere will be upset that he's cheating on her while she's cheating on Arthur). He realizes what he's done and leaves.

Elaine dies of heartbreak as any good rejected woman must do, and her father follows her request and puts her in a boat to send her down the Thames to Camelot. She arrives with a lily in one hand and a letter in the other. In the letter she explains the story, and Sir Lancelot, grief-stricken like he usually is in the end of these legends, pays for her funeral and whatnot. She becomes known as Elaine the White, Elaine the Fair, and Lily-maid of Astolat.

No mirror. No curse. Tennyson made up the rest of it. For some unspecified reason in the poem she can't look out the darn window. It seems similar to a mythical Roman punishment like always rolling a heavy rock uphill or filling a bowl of water with only a sieve.

A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

In this verse it seems she knows she can't look out the window and the curse is something to make her look, and therefore the curse is the usual curse to women: Sir Lancelot. He's no good really. Mothers keep your daughters from Lancelot.

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Now as for Tennyson, he left it ambiguous whether the Lady of Shallot looked out the window by accident or on purpose. What do you think?