- Source: La Damigella di Scalot
La Damigella di Scalot is a thirteenth-century Italian romance novellina, i.e. a very short story, included in the collection Il Novellino: Le ciento novelle antike (Novellino. The hundred ancient tales) as the 82nd tale. It tells the story of the unrequited love of the titular Lady of Scalot for Sir Lancelot and the subsequent death of the lady by lovesickness.
The character of the Lady of Scalot is based on the Arthurian legend of Elaine of Astolat. British Romantic poet Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote a poem on the same topic titled "The Lady of Shalott", a lyrical ballad which sets the story on an island in the river "flowing down to Camelot". It adds the element of a mysterious curse by fear of which she never leaves her fortress and passes the time by weaving a tapestry of "shadows" seen through her mirror.
