Lady of the Lake

The Lady of the Lake (french: Dame du Lac, Demoiselle du Lac, cy, Arglwyddes y Llyn, kw, Arloedhes an Lynn, br, Itron al Lenn, it, Dama del Lago) is a name or a title used by several either fairy or fairy-like but human enchantresses in the Matter of Britain, the body of medieval literature and mythology associated with the legend of King Arthur. They play pivotal roles in many stories, including providing Arthur with the sword Excalibur, eliminating Merlin, raising Lancelot after the death of his father, and helping to take the dying Arthur to Avalon. Different sorceresses known as the Lady of the Lake appear concurrently as separate characters in some versions of the legend since at least the Post-Vulgate Cycle and consequently the seminal ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', with the latter describing them as a hierarchical group, while some texts also give this title to either Morgan or her sister.

Name

Today, the Lady of the Lake is best known as either Nimue, or several scribal variants of Ninianne and Viviane. Medieval authors and copyists produced various forms of the latter, including: Nymenche (in addition to Ninianne / Ninienne) in the Vulgate ''Lancelot''; Nim ''i''ane and Ui ''n/ui''ane (in addition to Viviane) in the Vulgate ''Merlin'' (Niniane in the version ''Livre d'Artus''); Nin ''i''eve / Nivene / Niviène / Nivienne and Vivienne in the Post-Vulgate ''Merlin'' (Niviana in the Spanish ''Baladro del Sage Merlin''); and Nimiane / Niniame and Vivian / Vivien in '' Arthour and Merlin'' and Henry Lovelich's ''Merlin''. Further variations of these include alternate spellings with the letter ''i'' written as ''y'', such as in the cases of Nymanne (Nimanne as in Michel le Noir's ''Merlin'') and Nynyane (Niniane).

According to Lucy Paton, the most primitive French form of this name might have been Niniane. The much later form Nimue, in which the letter ''e'' can be written as ''ë'' or ''é'', was invented and popularized by Thomas Malory through his 15th-century ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' and itself has several variations: her name appears as Nymue, Nyneue, Nyneve and Nynyue in William Caxton's print edition, but it had been rather Nynyve (used predominantly) and Nenyve in Malory's original Winchester Manuscript. Even though 'Nymue' (with the ''m'') appears only in the Caxton text, the modernized and standardized 'Nimue' is now the most common form of the name of Malory's character, as Caxton's edition was the only version of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' published until 1947. Nimue is also sometimes rendered by modern writers as Nimuë since Tennyson's 19th-century poem by the same title.

Origins

Arthurian scholar A.O.H. Jarman, following suggestions first made in the 19th century, proposed that the name "Viviane" used in French Arthurian romances were ultimately derived from (and a corruption of) the Welsh word ''chwyfleian'' (also spelled ''hwimleian'' and ''chwibleian'' in medieval Welsh sources), meaning "a wanderer of pallid countenance", which was originally applied as an epithet to the famous prototype of Merlin, a prophetic "wild man" figure Myrddin Wyllt in medieval Welsh poetry. Due to the relative obscurity of the word, it was misunderstood as "fair wanton maiden" and taken to be the name of Myrddin's female captor. Others have linked the name "Nymenche" with the Irish mythology's figure Niamh (an otherworldly woman from the legend of Tír na nÓg), and the name "Niniane" with the Welsh mythology's figure Rhiannon (another otherworldly woman of a Celtic myth), or, as a feminine form of "Ninian", with the likes of the 5th-century saint Ninian and the river Ninian.

Further theories connect her to the Welsh lake fairies known as the Gwragedd Annwn (including a Lady of the Lake unrelated to the legend of Arthur), the Romano-British water goddess Coventina (Covienna), and the North Caucasian Satanaya (Satana) from the Nart sagas: associated with water, Satana helps the Scythian hero Batraz gain his magic sword. Possible prototypes include characters from Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Vita Merlini'', Merlin's one-time wife Guendoloena, and his sister Ganieda. Another possibility is Diana, the Roman goddess of hunt and nature, the spiritual descent from whom is actually explicitly stated within the French prose narratives; also the mythical Greek sea nymph Thetis, mother of the great hero Achilles who similarly provides Achilles with magical weapons. Laurence Gardner interpreted the Arthurian romances' stated Biblical origins of Lancelot's bloodline by noting the belief about Jesus' purported wife Mary Magdalene's later life in Gaul (today's France) and her death at Aquae Sextiae; he identified her descendant as the 6th century Comtess of Avallon named Viviane del Acqs ("of the water"), whose three daughters (respectively the mothers of Lancelot, of Arthur, and of Gawain) would thus evolve into being known as the ‘Ladies of the Lake’.

Chrétien de Troyes's '' Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart'', the first known story featuring Lancelot as a prominent character, was also the first to mention his upbringing by a fairy in a lake. If it is accepted that the French-German '' Lanzelet'' by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven contains elements of a more primitive version of this tale than Chrétien's, the infant Lancelot was spirited away to a lake by a water fairy (''merfeine'' in Old High German) known as the Lady of the Sea and then raised in her Land of Maidens (''Meide lant''). The fairy queen character and her paradise island in ''Lanzelet'' are reminiscent of Morgen (Morgan) of the Island of Avallon ( Avalon) in Geoffrey's work. Furthermore, the fairy from ''Lanzelet'' has a son named Mabuz, an Anglo-Norman form of the name of Mabon, the son of Morgan's early Welsh counterpart, and reputed prototype, Modron.

Medieval literature

Lancelot's guardian

Following the above mentioned works of Chrétien and Ulrich, the Lady of the Lake began appearing by this title in the French chivalric romance prose by the early 13th century. As a fairy godmother-type foster mother of the hero Lancelot, she inherits the role of an unnamed aquatic fairy queen, her prototype from 12th-century poetry. While Ulrich's ''Lanzelet'' uses the changeling part of the fairy abduction lore in regards to Mabuz and Lancelot, the Lady has no offspring of her own in Chrétien's and later versions.

In the Lancelot-Grail (Vulgate) prose cycle, the Lady resides in an otherworldly enchanted realm, the entry to which is disguised as an illusion of a lake (the Post-Vulgate notes it as Merlin's work). There, she raises Lancelot from his infancy following the death of his father King Ban, teaching Lancelot arts and writing, infusing him with wisdom and courage, and overseeing his training to become an unsurpassed warrior. She also rears his orphaned cousins Lionel and Bors after having her sorcerous damsel Seraide (Saraïde, later called Celise) rescue them from King Claudas. All this takes her only a few years in the human world. Afterwards, she sends off the adolescent Lancelot to King Arthur's court as the nameless White Knight, due to her own affinity with the color white.

Through much of the Prose ''Lancelot Propre'', the Lady keeps aiding Lancelot in various ways during his early adventures to become a famed knight and discover his true identity, usually acting through her maidens serving as her agents and messengers. She gives him her magical gifts, including a magic ring of protection against enchantments in a manner similar in that to his fairy protectoress in Chrétien's version (the same of another of her magic rings also grants Lancelot's lover Queen Guinevere immunity from Morgan's power in the ''Prophéties de Merlin''). Later she also works to actively encourage Lancelot and Guinevere's relationship and its consummation (this includes sending Guinevere a symbolically illustrated magic shield, the crack in which closes up after the queen finally spends her first night with Lancelot), and furthermore personally arrives to restore Lancelot to sanity during some of his recurring fits of madness.

Merlin's beloved

The Vulgate Cycle is first to tell of either a different or the same Lady of the Lake in the Prose ''Merlin''-derived section. It takes place before its main Vulgate ''Lancelot'' section but was written later, linking her with the disappearance of Merlin from the romance tradition of Arthurian legend. She is given the name Viviane (or similar) and a human origin, although she is still being called a fairy. In the Vulgate ''Merlin'', Viviane refuses to give Merlin (who at this time is already old but appears to her in the guise of a handsome young man) her love until he has taught her all his secrets, after which she uses her power to seal him by making him sleep forever. The Post-Vulgate revision changes it into Viviane causing Merlin's death out of her hatred and fear of him. Though Merlin knows beforehand that this will happen due to his power of foresight, he is unable to counteract her because of the 'truth' this ability of foresight holds. He decides to do nothing for his situation other than to continue to teach her his secrets until she takes the opportunity to get rid of him.

Consequently, she entraps and entombs her unresisting mentor within a tree, in a hole underneath a large stone, or inside a cave, depending on the version of this story as it is told in the different texts. In the ''Prophéties de Merlin'', for instance, Viviane is especially cruel in the way she disposes of Merlin and then takes Tristan's brother Meliadus the Younger as her actual lover. There she is proud of how Merlin had never taken her virginity, unlike what happened with his other female students such as Morgan. The Prose ''Lancelot'' explains this by a spell she put "on her groin which, as long as it lasted, prevented anyone from deflowering her and having relations with her." The ''Lancelot'' too has Viviane leave Merlin for another lover, in this case the evil king Brandin of the Isles, whom she teaches some magic that he then applies to his terrible castle Dolorous Gard; in the Vulgate ''Merlin'', an incognito Viviane abortively turns King Brandegorre's son Evadeam into the deformed Dwarf Knight for refusing her love. Conversely, the ''Livre d'Artus'', a late variant of the Prose ''Lancelot'', shows a completely peaceful scene taking place under a blooming hawthorn tree where Merlin is lovingly put to sleep by Viviane, as it is required by his destined fate that she has learned of. He then wakes up inside an impossibly high and indestructible tower, invisible from the outside, where she will come to meet him there almost every day or night (a motif reminiscent of Ganieda's visits of Merlin's house in an earlier version of his life as described by Geoffrey in ''Vita Merlini''). In any case, as a result of their usually final encounter Merlin almost always either dies or is never seen again by anyone else. Only in the recently found, alternative Bristol ''Merlin'' fragment, she resists his seduction with the help of a magic ring during the week they spend together; this particular text ends with him reuniting with Arthur.

According to her backstory in the chronologically later (but happening earlier plotwise) Vulgate ''Merlin'', Viviane was a daughter of the knight Dionas (''Dyonas'') and a niece of the Duke of Burgundy. She was born in Dionas' domain of Briosque near the forest Brocéliande, and it was an enchantment of her fairy godmother Diana the Huntress Goddess that caused Viviane to be so alluring to Merlin when she first met him there as a young teenager. The Vulgate ''Lancelot'' informs the reader that, back "in the time of Virgil", Diana had been a Queen of Sicily that was considered a goddess by her subjects. The Post-Vulgate ''Suite de Merlin'' describes how Viviane was born and lived in a magnificent castle at the foot of a mountain in Brittany as a daughter of the King of Northumbria. She is initially known as the beautiful 12-years-old Damsel Huntress (''Damoiselle Cacheresse'') in her introductory episode, in which she serves the role of a damsel in distress in the adventure of the three knights separately sent by Merlin to rescue her from kidnapping; the quest is soon completed by King Pellinore who tracks down and kills her abductor. The Post-Vulgate rewrite also describes how Diana had killed her partner Faunus to be with a man named Felix, but then she was herself killed by her lover at that lake, which came to be called the Lake of Diana (''Lac Diane''). This is presumably the place where Lancelot du Lac ("of the Lake") is later raised, at first not knowing his real parentage, by Viviane. Nevertheless, in the French romances only the narration of the Vulgate ''Lancelot'' actually makes it clear that its Lady of the Lake and Viviane are in fact the one and same character.Anne Berthelot, "Merlin and the Ladies of the Lake". ''Merlin: A Casebook'' (2004).

Excalibur giver

Another, unnamed Lady of the Lake appears in the Post-Vulgate tradition to bestow the magic sword Excalibur from Avalon to Arthur in a now iconic scene. She is presented as a mysterious early benefactor of King Arthur, who is directed and led to her by Merlin, granting him Excalibur and its special scabbard after his original (also unnamed) sword is damaged in the fight against King Pellinore. This takes place during the time when Merlin is still at Arthur's side and prior to the introduction of Viviane in the same story.

Later in the Post-Vulgate ''Suite du Merlin'', this Lady of the Lake is suddenly beheaded at King Arthur's court by Sir Balin as a result of a kin feud between them (she blames Balin for the death of her brother, while he blames her for the death of his mother, who had been burned at the stake) and a dispute over another enchanted sword; her body later vanishes. Modern retellings, however, often make her the same character as Viviane and usually omit that episode.

Other identities and relations

In some cases, it is uncertain whether Morgan and the Lady of the Lake are identical or separate characters. According to Anne Berthelot, Morgan herself is "''the'' Lady of the Lake", as compared to the "upstart magician" Viviane, in the French prose cycles. The 13th/14th-century English poem '' Of Arthour and of Merlin'' explicitly gives the role of Lady of the Lake to Morgan, explaining her association with the name "Nimiane" by just having her residing near a town by called Nimiane (Ninniane).

The 15th-century Italian prose '' La Tavola Ritonda'' (''The Round Table'') makes the Lady a daughter of Uther Pendragon and thus a sister to both Morgan (Fata Morgana) and Arthur. Here she is a character mischievous to the extent that her own brother Arthur swears to burn her at the stake (as he also threatens to do with Morgan). This version of her briefly kidnaps Lancelot when he is an adult (along with Guinevere and Tristan and Isolde), a motif usually associated with Morgan; here it is also Morgan herself who sends the shield to Guinevere in an act recast as having malicious intent. The Lady is also described as Morgan's sister in some other Italian texts, such as the 13th-century poem ''Pulzella Gaia''.

In the 14th-century French prose romance ''Perceforest'', a lengthy romance prequel to the Arthurian legend, the figures of the Lady of the Lake and of the enchantress Sebile have been merged to create the character of Sebile of the Castle of the Lake, an ancestor of Arthur. The Lady of the Lake who raises Lancelot is also mentioned in ''Perceforest'', deriving her ancestry line from the descendants of an ancient fairy named Morgane, whose own source of power was the deity Zephir.

''Le Morte d'Arthur''

In Thomas Malory's 15th-century compilation of Arthurian stories, the first Lady of the Lake remains unnamed besides this epithet. When the young King Arthur, accompanied by his mentor Merlin, comes to her lake, she holds the replacement Excalibur (the original sword-from-the-stone having been recently broken in battle) out of the water and offers it to Arthur if he promises to fulfill any request from her later, to which he agrees. Later, when the Lady comes to Camelot to receive her end of the bargain, she asks for the head of Sir Balin the Savage, whom she blames for her brother's death. However, Arthur refuses this request. Instead it is Balin, claiming that "by enchantment and sorcery she has been the destroyer of many good knights", who swiftly decapitates her with his own magic sword (a cursed blade that had been stolen by him from a mysterious lady from Avalon just a moment earlier) in front of Arthur and then sends off his squire with her severed head, much to the distress and shame of the king under whose protection she should have been there. Arthur gives the Lady a rich burial, has her slayer banished despite Merlin telling him Balin would become Arthur's greatest knight, and gives his permission for Sir Launcenor of Ireland (an Irish prince similarly named but entirely unrelated to Malory's Lancelot written as Launcelot, who is not yet introduced in the story) to go after Balin to avenge this disgrace by killing him.

Nimue (Nyneve)

The second Lady of the Lake is sometimes referred to by her title and sometimes referred to by name, Nimue (Nynyve in Malory's original Winchester Manuscript). Nimue, whom Malory describes as the "chief Lady of the Lake", plays a pivotal role in the Arthurian court throughout his story.Holbrook, S. E
"Nymue, the Chief Lady of the Lake, in Malory's Le Morte D’arthur."
''Speculum'' 53.4 (1978): 761–777. JSTOR. NCSU University Libraries, Raleigh, NC. 15 March 2009. The first time the character named Nimue appears is at the wedding of Arthur and Guinevere, as the young huntress rescued by Pellinore. She then proceeds to perform some of the same actions as the Lady of the Lake of his sources but is different in some ways. For instance, in the Post-Vulgate ''Suite du Merlin'', Malory's source for the earlier parts of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', the Lady of the Lake traps Merlin in a tomb, which results in his death. She does this out of cruelty and a hatred of Merlin.Larrington, Carolyne. ''King Arthur's Enchantresses: Morgan and Her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition.'' I. B. Tauris, 2006. In ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', on the other hand, Nimue is still the one to trap Merlin, but Malory gives her a sympathetic reason: Merlin falls in love with her and will not leave her alone; Malory gives no indication that Nimue loves him back. Eventually, since she cannot free herself of him otherwise, she decides to trap him under rock and makes sure he cannot escape. She is tired of his sexual advances, and afraid of his power as "a devil's son", so she does not have much of a choice but to ultimately get rid of him.

After enchanting Merlin, Malory's Nimue replaces him as Arthur's magician aide and trusted adviser. When Arthur himself is in need in Malory's text, some incarnation of the Lady of the Lake, or her magic, or her agent, reaches out to help him. For instance, she saves Arthur from a magical attempt on his life made by his sister Morgan le Fay and from the death at the hands of Morgan's lover Accolon as in the Post-Vulgate, and together with Tristan frees Arthur from the lustful sorceress Annowre in a motif taken from the Prose ''Tristan''. In Malory's version, Brandin of the Isles, renamed Brian (Bryan), is Nimue's evil cousin rather than her paramour. Nimue instead becomes the lover and eventually wife of Pelleas, a gentle young knight whom she then also puts under her protection so "that he was never slain by her days."

In an analysis by Kenneth Hodges, Nimue appears through the story as the chivalric code changes, hinting to the reader that something new will happen in order to help the author achieve the wanted interpretation of the Arthurian legend: each time the Lady reappears in ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', it is at a pivotal moment of the episode, establishing the importance of her character within Arthurian literature, as she transcends any notoriety attached to her character by aiding Arthur and other knights to succeed in their endeavors, subtly helping sway the court in the right direction. According to Hodges, when Malory was looking at other texts to find inspiration, he chose the best aspects of all the other Lady of the Lake characters, making her pragmatic, compassionate, clever, and strong-willed. However, Nimue's character is often seen as still very ambiguous by other scholars. As summarized by Amy S. Kaufman,

Malory does not use Nimue's name for the Lady of the Lake associated with Lancelot, who remains unnamed as well and may be considered a third one (it is possible that Malory had only access to the ''Suite du Merlin'' part of the Post-Vulgate Cycle as a relevant source). In the end, a female hand emerging from a lake reclaims Excalibur in a miraculous scene when the sword is thrown into the water by Sir Bedivere just after Arthur's final battle. The narration then counts Nimue among the magical queens who arrive in a black boat with Morgan. Together, they bear the mortally wounded Arthur away to Avalon. (In the original account in the Vulgate Cycle's ''Mort Artu'', the chief lady in the boat, holding hands with Morgan and calling for Arthur, is not recognised by Girflet who here is this scene's witness instead of Bedivere.)

The Lady's lake

A number of locations are traditionally associated with the Lady of the Lake's abode. Such places within Great Britain include the lakes Dozmary Pool and The Loe in Cornwall, the lakes Llyn Llydaw and Llyn Ogwen in Snowdonia, River Brue's area of Pomparles Bridge in Somerset, and the lake Loch Arthur in Scotland.

In France, Viviane is also connected with Brittany's Paimpont forest, often identified as the Arthurian enchanted forest of Brocéliande, where her lake (that is, the Lake of Diana) is said to be located at the castle Château de Comper. The oldest localization of the Lake is in the ''Lancelot en prose'', written around 1230: the place where Lancelot is raised is described there as to the north of Trèves-Cunault, on the Loire, in the middle of the (now extinct) forest of Beaufort-en-Vallée

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