Usually presented as the foremost Knight of the Round Table and as the legendary lover of Guinevere, Lancelot is raised by the Lady of the Lake before joining Arthur's court. His adventures are told in many Arthurian tales, among them "The Knight of the Cart," by Chretien de Troyes, written in the twelfth century, and the early thirteenth-century romance Lancelot du Lac, which circulated in a number of languages throughout the Middle Ages. In Lancelot du Lac, Lancelot is actually knighted by Guinevere; the lovers are brought together by the knight Galehot, and on the night they first sleep together, the pieces of a split shield given Lancelot by the Lady of the Lake miraculously unite. Lancelot often travels in disguise and in several versions of the story spends his early years ignorant of his rightful name (in Lancelot du Lac, he is called "King's Son"), until he learns it through various adventures. He is also the most beautiful and athletic of Arthur's knights, the most skilled warrior and the most valiant. After Arthur's fall in the Last Battle, Lancelot leaves his lands and becomes a hermit devoted to God. According to Malory, after Lancelot dies, his corpse is kept aloft for two weeks (or possibly a month) but maintains its sweet smell, exuding the odor of sanctity more often associated with saints.