Queen Guinevere

Probably the most famous female character from Arthurian legend, Guinevere is known as the adulterous wife of Arthur, who betrayed him by laying with his best friend and loyal knight, Lancelot. However, there is more to Guinevere’s story and this tale of betrayal that we know today is not even the original tale.

 

In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, Guinevere was actually seduced by Mordred when he rebelled against King Arthur. It was not until later, in a French retelling of the story, that we see the first mention of Guinevere having an affair with Lancelot, which caused the death of Arthur and ultimately the fall of Camelot. This relationship was the main focus of Guinevere’s story in Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, which is what we, today, use as the main source for the Arthurian legend.

 

In Welsh tradition, there are at least three versions of Guinevere as Arthur’s wife and in some stories she has sisters; in one Welsh folktale she even has an evil twin! The German version of the story gives Guinevere two sisters, one of whom is a Queen of another land and the other becomes a love interest for Gawain. There are various family members mentioned in the varying tales, but one to note is a cousin for Guinevere named Guiomar, who was an early love interest for Morgan le Fay.

 

In most tales, Guinevere is childless, but in one version, where she willingly wed Mordred, she had two sons. The dying Arthur commanded the children to be killed, but he spared Guinevere’s life.

 

I would highly recommend reading the original tales of Arthurian legend but as a quick version:

The first mention of Guinevere was in Monmouth’s account, which depicted her as the daughter of a noble Roman family (on her mother’s side). She was left as Regent by Arthur, under the care of his nephew, Mordred, when he went to Rome to speak with the leader of the Romans. During his absence, Guinevere was seduced by Mordred and married him and Mordred proclaimed himself King. When Arthur returned, he battled his nephew, leading to catastrophe for Camelot.

 

In a 12th century Anglo-Norman account, the tale is entirely different. Guinevere is depicted as a vindictive woman who plots Arthur’s death when he refuses her seductions. In this tale Arthur’s true love was Morgan le Fay, a fairy Princess, who punished Guinevere by magically blinding her.

In another account, Guinevere wielded magical powers of her own.

 

As I have mentioned, there are many versions of the story, some which depict Guinevere and Arthur as being in love, some where she is an adulteress with Lancelot, some where she is kidnapped and Arthur searches for her for a year, and then there are others that are just a tad too gory for me to write about right now.. (look up Ly Myreur des Histors by Jean d’Outremeuse and you’ll see what I mean!)

 

Basically, there is way too much about this mythical lady than I can put here, but I highly recommend doing some further reading on Guinevere as her tale is extremely interesting! Most TV shows and films go for what we think of as the traditional tale, but have a read up and you’ll see just how many variations of this story there are.