King Ban first appeared by this name in the Lancelot propre part of the 13th-century French Vulgate Cycle as the ruler of the realm in France named Benoic [fr] (Bénoïc; alternatively Benewic, Benoich, Benoit, Benuic, Benwick) and father of Sir Lancelot and Sir Hector de Maris, as well as brother of King Bors.
His castle is located in the middle of a marsh reputed to be impregnable, but the neighboring lord, King Claudas of the Wasteland, manages to set it on fire.
"[2] That is, the Vulgate author has misread and misconstrued the Old French benoit (='blessed') to be the name of a non-existent realm Benoic - of which he deduces King B(r)an to have been the ruler.
[3] As professors Loomis and Helaine Newstead have demonstrated, there is a tendency for individual figures from Celtic 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 also Fisher King) and probable deity, Brân, whose exploits are recounted in Branwen ferch Llŷr (see also Llŷr), the second of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi.
[4][5] Newstead wrote: "The evidence concerning Ban, though it survives in obscure and refractory forms, nevertheless preserves connections with Baudemaguz, Brangor, Bron and Corbenic.