Fortune is so variant, and the wheel so movable

“Fortune is so variant, and the wheel so movable” is Sir Launcelot’s concise statement of the instability of worldly fortune. Spoken as he prepares to depart the realm in disgrace, it turns his personal reversal into a reflection on how quickly honour and power can give way to loss.

The Phrase in Context

Sir Launcelot speaks while leaving the king and Joyous Gard by sea. He sighs and weeps, lamenting that the Christian realm he loved has banished him undeservedly and without cause. The phrase comes within that lament: his fortunes have changed, and the honour he once possessed no longer secures his place at court.

The Wheel of Fortune

To explain the reversal, Sir Launcelot recalls the old chronicles of Hector, Troilus, and Alexander the Great. At the height of their power, he says, they fell to the lowest state; his own fall follows the same pattern. The image of a movable wheel makes rank and renown seem subject to change rather than permanently possessed.

Honour and Departure

The reflection does not erase Sir Launcelot’s sense of his former standing. He maintains that he and his kin increased the honour of the Round Table more than anyone else, even as he accepts that he must leave. He also insists that he can live on his lands and warns Sir Gawaine that if Gawaine comes to make war on him and charges him with treason or felony, he will answer. The phrase thus accompanies a change from celebrated service to exile, while the speaker continues to assert his dignity and readiness to defend himself.