Gwenivere the Great

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Variants and derivatives of the name Guinevere include Gwen, Gwenesha, Gweness, Gwenessa, Gweneta, Gwenetta, Gwenette, Gweni, Gwenisha, Gwenishia, Gwenita, Gwenite, Gwenitta, Gwenitte, Gwenn, Gwenna, Gwenneta, Gwennete, Gwennetta, Gwennette, Gwennie, Gwenny, Gwenda, Gwinda, Gwynda, Gwynedd, and Gwendolyn. Later writers such as Wace (c. 1110-1174 CE) and Layamon (c. late 12th/early 13th century CE) depict Guinevere as complicit in Mordred's coup, but theirs is the minority view, and most writers suggest she had no choice as she was abducted by Mordred along with the monarchy. The Welsh writer Caradoc of Lancarvan (12th century CE), a colleague of Geoffrey's, gives the first known story of Guinevere's abduction in his Life of Gildas (written c. 1136-1150 CE). Here she is taken by Lord Melvas, King of the Summer Land, and hidden away for over a year while Arthur searches for her. Once he finds her, he prepares to destroy Melvas' kingdom, but Gildas appears before hostilities begin and resolves the conflict peacefully: Guinevere is returned to Arthur and Melvas keeps his kingdom intact. As with Geoffrey, Caradoc gives no details on Guinevere's part in all of this. She remains a static figure with no personality or impact on the plot other than being Arthur's queen whom he must rescue. Chretien de Troyes & Marie de France Gwen’s suspicions of Morgana increase when she sees Morgana with an old woman who is actually Morgause in disguise and when Morgana coldly tells her to get out of her room, to the point that she secretly discovers that Morgana has magic and she tells Gaius of her discovery. This makes Gwen aware that Morgana has turned against Camelot, making her the third person in Camelot after Merlin and Gaius to know of Morgana’s true loyalties ( The Eye of the Phoenix). Arthur sees Gwen meeting Morgana in the woods in secret and he, Merlin, and Gaius conspire to call upon the White Goddess, a source of magic from the Old Religion, to restore her to her old self and undo the enchantment of Morgana's dark magic. They drug her with Belladonna and travel to seek the help of "the Dolma" (Merlin in disguise) at the waters of Dochraid. Gwen wakes from her drugged sleep once they arrive, and tries to escape, telling Arthur that her love for him has all along been a lie to gain power. Arthur, however, reaches Gwen's true heart, and as she remembers, she slowly walks into the water of her own free will. She is reminded of her promise to love him "with all her heart." Once she is in the water, Merlin is able to cast the spell needed to call the White Goddess, and Gwen is restored. The character of Gwen is based on Guinevere, the wife of Arthur and Queen of the Britons, in the Arthurian legends. Guinevere appears in the earliest stories of Arthur as his faithful wife. The Welsh Triad names the three queens of Arthur, all three named Gwenhwyfar. It is widely accepted that the famous Gwenhwyfar of legend is the third one mentioned; she is the "daughter of Gogfran the Giant." Geoffrey of Monmouth portrays Guinevere as a noble lady with a Roman heritage, raised by Duke Cador of Cornwall. The recurring theme of her love affairs, whether by consent or abduction, has many variations. Early stories give Arthur as her rescuer, while later the rescuer is Lancelot.

On Malory's Guinevere, see Peter Korrel, An Arthurian Triangle: A Study of the Origin, Development and Characterization of Arthur, Guinevere and Mordred, Brill, Leiden, 1984; Fiona Tolhurst, The Once and Future Queen: The Development of Guenevere from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Malory, in Bibliographical Bulletin of the International Arthurian Society 50 (1998) 272-308; Sue Ellen Holbrook, Guenevere: the Abbess of Amesbury and the Mark of Reparation in Arthuriana 20: 1 (2010) 25-51. In Arthurian romance, Guinevere is the beautiful but unfaithful queen of Arthur, the legendary king of Britain. She is known especially for her adulterous affair with Arthur’s knight Sir Lancelot. She is the epic Queen of history and chronicle, bounteous of her gifts to the knights of the Round Table, and she is also the tragic heroine of romance, deserving of our pity for having been given in marriage to a man she must respect but cannot love and fated to love a man she cannot marry. (263) Arthur stated that Guinevere always surprised him and said that although he thought he knew everything about her she kept finding new ways to amaze him. This could be one of the reasons why he fell in love with her. Although Gwen was usually kind and gentle she was capable of being aggressive if her friends were in danger and Arthur complimented her on her courage saying that she was a fearless hero ( Lamia).

Sir Lancelot, are you sure on this? Will you abide by the conditions you yourself have set?” asked the King.

In the 1983 DC Comics maxi-series Camelot 3000, Guinevere appears reincarnated in the body of Commander Joan Acton, American-born leader of the United Earth Defense Forces, and is reunited with King Arthur to defend Earth from a race of extraterrestrial invaders. Guinevere is a central character in the 1960 Broadway musical Camelot, in which she was initially portrayed by Julie Andrews and later by Sally Ann Howes. She was also played by Vanessa Redgrave in the 1967 film adaptation, and by Phillipa Soo in the 2023 Broadway revival.Rodway, Simon, Dating Medieval Welsh Literature: Evidence from the Verbal System. CMCS Publications, Aberystwyth, 2013, pp. 16, 168–70. If seen in this light, Guinevere then becomes someone who is striving to fulfil her divine role as representing the goddess of sovereignty. Her relationship with Lancelot is not out of sexual promiscuity, but as a necessity to fulfil her role in the best interests of the land. The problem for her is that as a woman she does love Lancelot and she does love Arthur, and there lies the divine tragedy for she is destined to lose both in the end. Lindahl, C. et. al. Medieval Folklore: A Guide to Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs. Oxford University Press, 2002. Spisak, James W. (1985). Studies in Malory. Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University. ISBN 978-0918720542. Although peace is restored to Camelot, Gwen has to look after Uther for a year as he is still shaken by Morgana’s betrayal. Gwen tells Gaius that she is only doing it for Arthur’s sake and not Uther’s. Meanwhile, Morgana attempts to take revenge on Camelot again by summoning creatures known as the Dorocha and Arthur plans to sacrifice himself to defeat them. Before leaving, he tearfully says goodbye to Uther and comforts Gwen by reminding her of the day he first kissed her. Gwen then goes to Lancelot, telling him to keep Arthur safe and he promises that he will protect Arthur with his life.

Longley, Anne P. (2002). "Guinevere as Lord". Arthuriana. 12 (3): 49–62. doi: 10.1353/art.2002.0074. JSTOR 27870447. S2CID 161075853. Guinevere appears in the 2011 television series Once Upon a Time, played by actress Joana Metrass [ pt]. This version of Guinevere is portrayed with a noticeable Castilian accent. She was stated by production in this adaptation to be Lancelot's true love while being deceived and manipulated into continuing her marriage with Arthur by a "fixing" spell that "fixed" all the problems between the two, inadvertently making her forget her love for Lancelot. Marie and Chretien both present a recognizable individual with specific motivation for her actions. In Marie's story, Guinevere does not love her husband and is bored, so she has affairs with Arthur's knights. In Chretien's tale, Guinevere does seem to care for Arthur but, as with the Tristan and Isolde paradigm, her true love is Arthur's best friend and greatest knight, Lancelot. Guinevere as GoddessWelsh tradition remembers the queen's sister Gwenhwyfach and records the enmity between them. Two Triads ( Trioedd Ynys Prydein, no. 53, 84) mention Gwenhwyfar's contention with her sister, which was believed to be the cause of the disastrous Battle of Camlann. In the Welsh prose Culhwch and Olwen (possibly the first known text featuring Guinevere if indeed correctly dated c. 1100 [13]), Gwenhwyfach is also mentioned alongside Gwenhwyfar, the latter appearing as Guinevere's evil twin in some later prose romances. German romance Diu Crône gives Guinevere two other sisters by their father, King Garlin of Gore: Gawain's love interest Flori and Queen Lenomie of Alexandria. When Morgana is tormented by dreams of Gwen becoming queen, she tries to stop Gwen and Arthur’s romance after encouragement from Morgause. When Morgana suggests it to Arthur, Gwen and Arthur decide to spend a day together away from the city. They have a picnic in the woods, treating each other as equals. When Gwen goes to kiss Arthur, they are interrupted when Uther and Morgana 'coincidentally' come across them during a ride. His Lancelot was popular reading and Marie's inversion of the rescue of a knight by a lady would have resonated with an audience, In Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry, the character of Jennifer/Guinevere is a central figure, gifted with great courage, strength, and love. At first, Gwen was shy and awkward and often found herself in situations she didn’t want to be in or saying things she didn’t mean to say. This usually happened around male characters, particularly Merlin and Arthur. Merlin immediately suggested that despite disliking him as a person Gwen had a crush on Arthur although this was untrue and he teased her about her attraction to "rough, tough save-the-world" types ( The Dragon's Call, Lancelot).

Angel Coulby who plays Gwen has stated in an interview that Gwen has very little interaction with Mordred. As the youngest daughter of one of the few noble households in the Land of Dawn, House Baroque, she studied at the Magic Academy since she was a child, and is extremely talented in magic. The household wanted her to marry into another household with a higher status. Unwilling to be used as a political bargaining chip, Guinevere decided to seek help from her elder brother Lancelot.After the death of Arthur, Guinevere went to a convent, spending the rest of her life in praying Almighty and helping the poor that are in need. She was filled with a lot of guilt for the problems that were caused by the affair between her and Lancelot, so she promised never to meet him again ever in her life. After her death, she chose to be buried near King Arthur and that was fulfilled. It is unclear how Gwen learns of Arthur's death. The second-to-last scene of the finale shows Gwen's coronation as queen regnant of Camelot. Gaius stands at her side as Sir Leon declares, "The king is dead. Long live the queen!" The assembled knights chant "long live the queen" in reply, swearing their allegiance to Gwen and ensuring her smooth inheritance of the kingdom. Ashley, Mike (1 September 2011). The Mammoth Book of King Arthur. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 9781780333557– via Google Books. Gwen first notices Merlin when he stands up to Arthur when he is taunting a servant. When she introduces herself she admits that she thinks Merlin is brave and a real hero, and it is the beginning of a crush that develops over series one. Merlin makes her laugh and she admits that she likes that. At one point, after he was returned from the gates of death, she gave him a kiss. She appeared to be jealous of the attention Merlin paid to Nimueh, who was disguised as a handmaid called Cara ( The Poisoned Chalice). However, Gwen later went on to develop feelings for Lancelot and Arthur. Other relations are equally obscure. A half-sister and a brother named Gotegin play the antagonistic roles in the Vulgate Cycle ( Lancelot–Grail) and Diu Crône respectively, but neither character is mentioned elsewhere (besides the Vulgate-inspired tradition). While later literature almost always named King Leodegrance as Guinevere's father, her mother was usually unmentioned, although she was sometimes said to be dead (this is the case in the Middle English romance The Adventures of Arthur, in which the ghost of Guinevere's mother appears to her and Gawain in Inglewood Forest). Some works name cousins of note, though these too do not usually appear more than once. One of such cousins is Guiomar, an early lover of Morgan le Fay in several French romances; other cousins of Guinevere include her confidante Elyzabel (Elibel) and Morgan's knight Carrant (or Garaunt, [16] apparently Geraint [17]). In Perlesvaus, after the death of Guinevere, her relative King Madaglan(s) d'Oriande is a major villain who invades Arthur's lands trying to force him to abandon Christianity and to marry his sister, Queen Jandree. [18] Portrayals [ edit ] Guinevere Takes Refuge in a Convent, Edmund H. Garrett's illustration for Legends of King Arthur and His Court (1911)