It is the first treatment of the Lancelot tradition in German, and contains the earliest known account of the hero's childhood with the Lady of the Lake-like figure in any language.

He claims he translated Lanzelet from a welschez (Middle High German for French, but in this case probably Anglo-Norman) book brought to Germany by Hugo de Morville, one of the Crusaders who replaced Richard the Lionhearted as a hostage when the king had been arrested by Leopold V, Duke of Austria in 1194.

The most notable among these is the absence of the hero's famous love affair with Arthur's wife Guinevere; when Ginover (Guinevere) is abducted by King Valerin it is not Lanzelet who rescues her, and Lanzelet eventually finds love elsewhere with a young princess named Iblis.

It has been suggested that Lancelot, who is mentioned for the first time by Chrétien de Troyes in his first romance Erec and Enide, was originally the hero of a story independent of the adulterous love triangle and perhaps very similar to Ulrich's version.

If this is true, then the adultury facet would have been added either by Chrétien in Knight of the Cart or the source provided him by his patron, Marie de Champagne.

King Ban, Lanzelet’s father, reigns as a tyrant over Genewis, which René Pérennec equates to the Kingdom of Gaunnes.

Lanzelet yearns to know his own name but the fairy refuses to reveal it to him until he has defeated her worst enemy, Iweret.

On his journey, Lanzelet meets a dwarf, who whips him, and then a knight named Johfrit de Liez, who teaches him the rudiments of chivalry.

Lanzelet is thrown in the dungeon before he is brought out onto the battlefield, where he is confronted with a giant, lions and finally Linier, whom he kills.

In the verses leading up to 3474, he fights Walwein, a knight of the Round Table, and wins the tournament in Djofle, but refuses King Arthur's invitation to the court.

The castle holds a strange power that turns the brave who enter it into cowards and vice versa.

Meanwhile, one of the Queen Fairy's messengers makes the women of the court try on an enchanted coat in order to prove their fidelity toward their husbands.

At the end of a tournament in which Lanzelet proves himself very cunning, Walwein, Karjet, Erec and Tristant manage to free him.

The story ends with Lanzelet's return to King Arthur's court, where he chooses to become a Lord in his wife Iblis's kingdom.

After a long and joyful reign, Lanzelet and Iblis die on the same day, and the three kingdoms are shared equally among their three children.