Editing Guinevere (section)

==Medieval literature==
===Family relations===
[[File:Arthur-Pyle The Lady Guinevere.JPG|thumb|upright|''Lady Guinevere'', [[Howard Pyle]]'s illustration for ''[[The Story of King Arthur and His Knights]]'' (1903)|alt=]]

In one of the [[Welsh Triads]] (''{{lang|cy|Trioedd Ynys Prydein}}'', no. 56), the 13th-century series of texts based on the earlier oral tales of the bards of Wales, there are three Gwenhwyfars married to [[King Arthur]]. The first is the daughter of Cywryd of Gwent, the second of [[Gwythyr ap Greidawl]] (a supernatural figure), and the third of {{not a typo|(G)ogrfan}} Gawr ("the Giant").<ref>Bromwich 2006, p. 154.</ref> In a variant of another Welsh Triad (''{{lang|cy|Trioedd Ynys Prydein}}'', no. 54), only the daughter of Gogfran Gawr is mentioned. There was once a popular folk rhyme known in Wales concerning Gwenhwyfar: "''Gwenhwyfar ferch Ogrfan Gawr / Drwg yn fechan, gwaeth yn fawr'' (Gwenhwyfar, daughter of Ogrfan Gawr / Bad when little, worse when great)."<ref>John Rhys, ''Studies in the Arthurian Legend'', Clarendon Press, 1891, p. 49.</ref> An echo of the giantess-Guinevere tradition appears in local folklore regarding the Queen's Crag boulder at [[Simonburn]] in England.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3CtEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA344 | title=Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne | date=1880 }}</ref>

The earliest datable mention of Guinevere (as Guenhuvara, with numerous spelling variations in the surviving manuscripts) is in Geoffrey's ''Historia'', written c. 1136. It relates that Guinevere, described as one of the great beauties of Britain, was educated under [[Cador]], [[Duke of Cornwall]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Baron Hallam Tennyson Tennyson|first=Baron Alfred Tennyson Tennyson|title=Works of Tennyson, Volume 5|year=1908|page=506|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sSZHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA506}}</ref> The other chronicles typically have Cador as her guardian and sometimes relative. According to Wace, who calls Cador an [[earl]], Guinevere was descended from a [[equites|noble Roman family]] on her mother's side; Layamon too describes her as of Roman descent, as well as being related to Cador.<ref name=kac>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLx7w5IzCDMC&pg=PA101 | title=King Arthur's Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition | isbn=978-1-61599-066-5 | last1=Tichelaar | first1=Tyler R. | date=31 January 2010 | publisher=Loving Healing Press }}</ref>  Much later English chroniclers, [[Thomas Gray]] in ''[[Scalacronica]]'' and [[John Stow]] in ''The Chronicles of England'', both identify Cador as her cousin and an unnamed King of [[Biscay]] (the historical Basque country) as her father.<ref name=kac/>

Welsh tradition remembers the queen's sister [[Gwenhwyfach]] and records the enmity between them. Two Triads (''{{lang|cy|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<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HEoeCwAAQBAJ&pg=PR15|title=Lancelot and Guinevere: A Casebook|first=Lori J.|last=Walters|date=3 December 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317721550 |via=Google Books}}</ref>), 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]].

Guinevere is childless in most stories.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QQTVR53IJo0C&pg=PA29|title=Lancelot and Guinevere: A Casebook|first=Lori|last=Walters|date=21 March 1996|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780815306535 |via=Google Books}}</ref> The few exceptions to that include Arthur's son named Loholt or Ilinot in ''[[Perlesvaus]]'' and ''[[Parzival]]'' (first mentioned in ''[[Erec and Enide]]'').<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/arthurianfiction0000medi/page/37|title=Arthurian fiction : an annotated bibliography|first=Cindy|last=Mediavilla|date=21 March 1999|publisher=Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> In the Alliterative ''Morte Arthure'', Guinevere willingly becomes [[Mordred]]'s consort and bears him two sons, although the dying Arthur commands her and Mordred's infant children to be secretly killed and their bodies tossed into the sea (Guinevere herself, who unlike Mordred seems to show little care for the safety of their children,<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v7GDBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA144 | title=Malory's Anatomy of Chivalry: Characterization in the Morte Darthur | isbn=978-1-61147-779-5 | last1=Rovang | first1=Paul | date=5 November 2014 | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}</ref> is spared and forgiven by Arthur). There are mentions of Arthur's sons in the Welsh Triads, though their exact parentage is not clear. The possibly medieval tale of ''[[King Arthur and King Cornwall]]'' has the latter having a daughter with Guinevere. Besides the issue of her biological children, or lack thereof, Guinevere also raises the illegitimate daughter of [[Sagramore]] and Senehaut in the ''[[Lancelot-Grail|Livre d'Artus]]''.

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 romances 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 Awntyrs off Arthure|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 (Arthurian legend)|Guiomar]], an early lover of Arthur's half-sister [[Morgan le Fay|Morgan]] in several French romances; other cousins of Guinevere include her confidante Elyzabel (Elibel) and Morgan's knight Carrant (or Garaunt,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZFbczeMtYcC&pg=PA131|title=The Arthurian Name Dictionary|isbn=9780815328650 |last1=Bruce |first1=Christopher W. |year=1999 |publisher=Taylor & Francis }}</ref> apparently [[Geraint]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0yeBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT473|title=The Mammoth Book of King Arthur|first=Mike|last=Ashley|date=1 September 2011|publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=9781780333557 |via=Google Books}}</ref>). In ''Perlesvaus'', after the death of Guinevere, her relative King {{not a typo|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.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xEsCWEYFfkC&pg=PA524 | title=Sources of the Grail: An Anthology | isbn=9780940262867 | last1=Matthews | first1=John | year=1997 | publisher=SteinerBooks }}</ref> In ''[[Perceforest]]'', the different daughters of Lyonnel of Glat (the greatest knight of the ancient Britain) and Queen Blanche of the Forest of Marvels (also known as Blanchete, daughter of the Maimed King and the Fairy Queen) are distant ancestors of both Guinevere and [[Lancelot]], as well of as [[Tristan]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ogYk78vHmAgC&pg=PA192 | title=Postcolonial Fictions in the Roman de Perceforest: Cultural Identities and Hybridities | isbn=978-1-84384-104-3 | last1=Huot | first1=Sylvia | date=2007 | publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref>

===Portrayals===
{{multiple image
| width = 220
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| image1 = Guinevere with Enid and Vivien.png
| image2 = William Morris Guinevere and Iseult - cartoon for stained glass 1862.jpg
| footer =
| direction = vertical
| caption1 = Guinevere with [[Enide|Enid]] and [[Lady of the Lake|Vivien]] by George and [[Louis Rhead]] (1898)
| caption2 = Guinevere and [[Iseult]] by [[William Morris]] (1862)
}}

In Geoffrey's ''Historia'', Arthur leaves her as a [[regent]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0yeBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT225|title = The Mammoth Book of King Arthur|isbn = 9781780333557|last1 = Ashley|first1 = Mike|date = September 2011| publisher=Little, Brown Book }}</ref> in the care of his nephew Modredus (Mordred) when he crosses over to Europe to go to war with the Roman leader [[Lucius Tiberius]]. While her husband is absent, Guinevere is seduced to betray Arthur and marry Mordredus ("in violation of her first marriage, had wickedly married him"<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5twmEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT253|title=Britain in the Age of Arthur: A Military History|first=Ilkka|last=Syvänne|date=19 February 2020|publisher=Pen and Sword|isbn=978-1-4738-9522-5 |via=Google Books}}</ref>), who declares himself king and takes Arthur's throne. Consequently, Arthur returns to Britain and fights Modredus at the fatal Battle of Camlann.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wilentz|first=Abigail|title=Relationship Devotional: 365 Lessons to Love & Learn|year=2009|publisher=Sterling|isbn=978-1-4027-5577-4|page=215|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qr4IyCUeCiMC&pg=PA215}}</ref> Wace's chronicle ''[[Roman de Brut]]'' (''Geste des Bretons'') makes Mordred's love for Guinevere the very motive of his rebellion.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7M6vuneJGSEC&pg=PA35|title=The Alliterative Morte Arthure: A Reassessment of the Poem|first=Karl Heinz|last=Göller|date=5 March 1981|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=9780859910750 |via=Google Books}}</ref> In the later romance Alliterative ''Morte Arthure'', Guinevere is a traitoress who secretly plots her husband's death while pretending to be his devoted and caring wife.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LfLWAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT103|title=The Betrayal of Arthur|first=Sara|last=Douglass|date=1 October 2013|publisher=Momentum|via=Google Books}}</ref>

Early texts tend to portray her barely or hardly at all. One of them is ''Culhwch and Olwen'', in which she is mentioned as Arthur's wife Gwenhwyfar and listed among his most prized possessions,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3cHdQC1cXLEC&pg=PA400|title=The Celts: History, Life, and Culture|first1=John T.|last1=Koch|first2=Antone|last2=Minard|date=1 April 2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781598849646 |via=Google Books}}</ref> but little more is said about her.<ref>Christopher W. Bruce (2013). ''The Arthurian Name Dictionary''. p. 243. Routledge.</ref> It can not be securely dated; one recent assessment of the language by linguist Simon Rodway places it in the second half of the 12th century.<ref>Rodway, Simon, ''Dating Medieval Welsh Literature: Evidence from the Verbal System''. CMCS Publications, Aberystwyth, 2013, pp. 16, 168–70.</ref> The works of Chrétien de Troyes were some of the first to elaborate on the character Guinevere beyond simply the wife of Arthur. This was likely due to Chrétien's audience at the time, the court of [[Marie of France, Countess of Champagne|Marie, Countess of Champagne]], which was composed of courtly ladies who played highly social roles.<ref>Noble 1972, pp. 524–35.</ref>

Later authors use her good and bad qualities to construct a deeper character who plays a larger role in the stories. In Chrétien's ''[[Yvain, the Knight of the Lion]]'', for instance, she is praised for her intelligence, friendliness, and gentility. On the other hand, in [[Marie de France]]'s probably late-12th-century [[Anglo-Norman language|Anglo-Norman]] poem ''[[Lanval]]'' (and [[Thomas Chestre]]'s later [[Middle English]] version, ''[[Sir Launfal]]''), Guinevere is a viciously vindictive [[Adultery|adulteress]] and temptress who plots the titular protagonist's death after failing to seduce him. She ends up punished when she is magically blinded by his secret true love from [[Avalon]], the fairy princess Lady Tryamour (identified by some as the figure of Morgan<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-IY-zIn5VHUC&pg=PT58|title=Morgan le Fay, Shapeshifter|last=Hebert|first=Jill M.|year=2013|publisher=Springer|language=en|isbn=978-1137022653}}</ref>). Guinevere herself wields magical powers in ''[[De Ortu Waluuanii|The Rise of Gawain, Nephew of Arthur]]''. The Alliterative ''Morte Arthure'' has Guinevere commit the greatest treason<ref>{{cite web | url=https://childrenofarthur.wordpress.com/tag/king-arthurs-incest/ | title=King Arthur's incest }}</ref> by giving Arthur's sword kept in her possession to her lover Mordred in order to be used against her husband. Throughout most of Malory's ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', a late-medieval compilation highly influential for a common perception of Guinevere and many other characters today, she figures as "a conventional lady of [chivalric] romance, imperious, jealous, and demanding, with an occasional trait such as the sense of humor," until she acquires more depth and undergoes major changes to her character at the end of the book, arguably (in the words of [[Derek Brewer]]), becoming "the most fascinating, exasperating, and human of all medieval heroines."<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27869451 | jstor=27869451 | title=Malory's Guenevere: 'A Woman Who Had Grown a Soul' | last1=Kennedy | first1=Edward Donald | journal=Arthuriana | date=1999 | volume=9 | issue=2 | pages=37–45 | doi=10.1353/art.1999.0079 }}</ref>

Such varied tellings may be radically different in not just their depictions of Guinevere but also the manners of her demise. In the Italian 15th-century romance ''[[La Tavola Ritonda]]'', Guinevere drops dead from grief upon learning of her husband's fate after Lancelot rescues her from the siege by Arthur's slayer Mordred. In ''Perlesvaus'', it is [[Sir Kay|Kay]]'s murder of her son Loholt that causes Guinevere to die of anguish; she is then buried in Avalon, together with her son's severed head. Alternatively, in what Arthurian scholars [[Geoffrey Ashe]] and [[Norris J. Lacy]] call one of "strange episodes"<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GYWrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA96|title=The Arthurian Handbook: Second Edition|last1=Lacy|first1=Norris J.|last2=Ashe|first2=Geoffrey|last3=Mancoff|first3=Debra N.|date=2014|publisher=Routledge|language=en|isbn=978-1317777434}}</ref> of ''Ly Myreur des Histors'', a romanticized historical/legendary work by Belgian author [[Jean d'Outremeuse]], Guinevere is a wicked queen who rules with the victorious Mordred until she is killed by Lancelot, here the last of the [[Knights of the Round Table]]; her corpse is then entombed with the captured Mordred who eats it before starving to death. [[Layamon's Brut|Layamon's ''Brut'']] ({{circa|1200}}) features a prophetic dream sequence in which Arthur himself hacks Guinevere to pieces after beheading Mordred.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7M6vuneJGSEC&pg=PA40|title=The Alliterative Morte Arthure: A Reassessment of the Poem|last=Göller|first=Karl Heinz|date=1981|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=978-0859910750|language=en}}</ref> Historically, the bones of Guinevere were claimed to have been found buried alongside those of Arthur (described as "his second wife" on their grave stone as reported by [[Gerald of Wales]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.medievalists.net/2018/09/the-discovery-of-king-arthur-and-guinevere-at-glastonbury-abbey/|title=The Discovery of King Arthur and Guinevere at Glastonbury Abbey|date=9 September 2018}}</ref>) during the exhumation of their purported graves by the monks of [[Glastonbury Abbey]] in 1091.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f899xH_quaMC&pg=PA147|title=Celtic Culture: A-Celti|date=21 March 2006|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781851094400 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

=== Abduction stories ===

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Story types and their earliest known sources 
|-
! Abductor !! Rescuer  !! Text
|-
|[[Maleagant|Melwas]] <small>(unclear, includes rape)</small>
|[[Gildas]] <small>(negotiated)</small>
|''Vita Gildae''
|-
|Prince [[Maleagant]] <small>(out of unrequited love)</small>
|[[Lancelot]] <small>(in a duel)</small>
|''[[Lancelot, le Chevalier de la Charette]]''
|-
|King Valerin twice <small>(claiming to be her rightful husband)</small>
|Lancelot <small>(in a duel)</small> <br> Arthur <small>(aided by Lancelot, Malduc, and others)</small>
|''[[Lanzelet]]''
|-
|Gotegrim <small>(to [[honor killing|honor kill]] her for infidelity)</small>
|[[Gawain]] <small>(in a duel)</small>
|''[[Diu Crône]]''
|-
|Brun de Morois <small>(motivated by love)</small>
|Durmart
|''[[Durmart le Gallois]]''
|-
|King [[Urien]] <small>(as a war prisoner)</small>
|Gawain
|''Livre d'Artus''
|-
|Conspiracy of the [[Gwenhwyfach|False Guinevere]] <small>(to replace her on the wedding night)</small>
|Abduction failed<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C8RKJhpaJ5sC&pg=PA194|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend|first1=Elizabeth|last1=Archibald|first2=Ad|last2=Putter|date=10 September 2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-86059-8 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
|[[Vulgate Cycle|Vulgate]] ''Lancelot''
|-
|King Arthur <small>(to execute her on a false accusation)</small>
|Lancelot <small>(in a [[trial by combat]] duel against [[Mador de la Porte]])</small><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1HhEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA18|title=Medieval French Literature and Law|first=R. Howard|last=Bloch|date=15 November 2023|publisher=Univ of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-33357-4 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
|Vulgate ''Mort Artu''
|-
|King Arthur and his loyalists <small>(to execute her for treason)</small>
|Lancelot and his followers <small>(in battle)</small>
|Vulgate ''Mort Artu''
|-
|King [[Mordred]] <small>(to secure power; some versions, including the derived ''[[Alliterative Morte Arthure|Morte Arthure]]'', present the episode as an affair between them)</small>
|Escapes herself <small>(helped by her cousin Labor and others)</small><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SyRt_1b3fo0C&pg=RA1-PA376|title=The Evolution of Arthurian Romance i|publisher=Slatkine|via=Google Books}}</ref>
|Vulgate ''Mort Artu''
|-
|King Eugenius of Scotland <small>(as a war trophy)</small><ref name=scot>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLx7w5IzCDMC&pg=PA88|title=King Arthur's Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition|first=Tyler R.|last=Tichelaar|date=31 January 2010|publisher=Loving Healing Press|isbn=978-1-61599-066-5 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
|None
|''Historia Gentis Scotorum''
|}

A major and long-running Arthurian story trope features Guinevere being kidnapped and then tells of her rescue by either her husband or her lover. Welsh cleric and author [[Caradoc of Llancarfan]], who wrote his ''[[Gildas|Life of Gildas]]'' sometime between 1130 and 1150,<ref>{{cite web|url= https://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/1150-Caradoc-LifeofGildas.asp|title= Caradoc of Llangarfan: The Life of Gildas|website= Fordham University Medieval Sourcebook|publisher= Fordham University|access-date= 9 April 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150906061946/https://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/1150-Caradoc-LifeofGildas.asp|archive-date= 6 September 2015|url-status= dead}}</ref> recounts her being taken and raped (''violatam et raptam'') by [[Maleagant|Melwas]], king of the "Summer Country" (''Aestiva Regio'', perhaps meaning [[Somerset]]), and held prisoner at his stronghold at [[Glastonbury]]. The story states that Arthur (depicted there as a tyrannical ruler) spent a year searching for her and assembling an army to storm Melwas' fort when Gildas negotiates a peaceful resolution and reunites husband and wife.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZFbczeMtYcC&pg=PA355|title=The Arthurian Name Dictionary|first=Christopher W.|last=Bruce|date=21 March 1999|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780815328650 |via=Google Books}}</ref> The 14th-century Welsh poet [[Dafydd ap Gwilym]] alludes to it in one of his poems, calling her Ogfran the Giant's daughter.<ref name=mw/> It is also the subject of the obscure Welsh poem "The Dialogue of Melwas and Gwenhwyfar" that exists only in two late copies.<ref name=mw>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DV2uBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA52|title=Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature|first=Oliver James|last=Padel|date=30 May 2013|publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn=978-0-7083-2658-9 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

[[File:Ambito di wiligelmo, porta della pescheria, 02 ciclo di artù 03,1.jpg|thumb|"Winlogee" depicted on the Italian [[Modena Cathedral|Modena Archivolt]] (c. 1120–1240)]]

The Melwas story seems to be related to an [[Old Irish]] abduction motif called the {{lang|sga|aithed}} in which a mysterious stranger kidnaps a married woman and takes her to his home; the husband of the woman then rescues her against insurmountable odds.<ref>Kibler, William W., ''The Romance of Arthur'', New York & London, Garland Publishing, Inc. 1994 p. 121.</ref> A seemingly related account was carved into the [[Modena Cathedral#Archivolt|archivolt of Modena Cathedral]] in Italy, which most likely predates that telling (as well as any other known written account of Guinevere in Arthurian legend). Here, Artus de Bretania and Isdernus approach a tower in which Mardoc is holding '''Winlogee''', while on the other side Carrado (most likely Caradoc) fights Galvagin (Gawain) as the knights Galvariun and Che (Kay) approach. Isdernus is most certainly an incarnation of Yder ([[Edern ap Nudd]]), a Celtic hero whose name appears in ''Culhwch and Olwen''. Yeder is actually Guinevere's lover in a nearly-forgotten tradition mentioned in [[Béroul]]'s 12th-century ''Tristan''. This is reflected in the later ''[[Romanz du reis Yder|Romance of King Yder]]'', where his lover is Queen Guenloie of Carvain (possibly [[Caerwent]] in Wales<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SyRt_1b3fo0C&pg=RA1-PA221|title=The Evolution of Arthurian Romance i|publisher=Slatkine|via=Google Books}}</ref>).

[[File:Boys King Arthur - N. C. Wyeth - p278.jpg|thumb|left|[[N. C. Wyeth]]'s illustration for ''[[The Boy's King Arthur]]'', abridged from ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' by [[Sidney Lanier]] (1922): "He [Lancelot] rode his way with the Queen unto [[Joyous Gard]]."]]

Chrétien de Troyes tells another version of Guinevere's abduction, this time by Meliagant ([[Maleagant]], derived from Melwas) in the 12th-century ''[[Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart]]''. The abduction sequence is largely a reworking of that recorded in Caradoc's work, but here the queen's rescuer is not Arthur (or Yder) but Lancelot, whose adultery with the queen is dealt with for the first time in this poem. In Chrétien's [[love triangle]] of Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot, the young knight is literally madly in love with the queen.<ref name=bnf/> In his trials, Lancelot accepts shame and dishonor to prove his total submission and devotion to Guinevere,<ref>https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/litterature/moyen-age-1/ed6c3713-b2d5-4b94-8cac-a35fbd9471b1-mythe-arthurien/article/e76ddfb8-96ee-49d0-80ce-be118642b75a-amour-dans-romans-arthuriens</ref> in the end earning the reward of a night of love after rescuing her from the otherworldly land of Gorre. It has been suggested that Chrétien invented their affair to supply Guinevere with a courtly extramarital lover (as requested by his patroness, [[Marie of France, Countess of Champagne|Princess Marie]]); Mordred could not be used as his reputation was beyond saving, and Yder had been forgotten entirely.<ref>{{cite book|last=(de Troyes)|first=Chrétien|title=Lancelot, or, The Knight of the Cart|year=1990|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-1213-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_BkOv2P91UMC&pg=PR9}}</ref> This version has become lastingly popular. Today it is most familiar from its expansion [[#Life in popular tradition|in the prose cycles]], where Lancelot comes to her rescue on more than one occasion.

There are furthermore several other variants of this motif in medieval literature. In Ulrich's ''[[Lanzelet]]'', Valerin, the King of the Tangled Pinewood, claims the right to marry her and attempts to carry her off to his castle in a struggle for power, possibly related to her connections to the fertility and sovereignty of Britain. Lancelot, acting as Guinevere's champion, defeats Valerian and saves her from the plot. However, Valerin later kidnaps Guinevere anyway and places her in a magical sleep inside his castle guarded by dragons; she is rescued by Arthur's party (including Lancelot) with the help of Malduc, wizard of the Misty Lake.<ref>{{Cite book |last=App |first=August Joseph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DojebX3x-i0C&pg=PA14 |title=Lancelot in English Literature, His Rôle and Character |date=1929 |publisher=Ardent Media |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Edmunds |first=Lowell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3S7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA290 |title=Stealing Helen: The Myth of the Abducted Wife in Comparative Perspective |date=2020-04-28 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-20233-4 |language=en}}</ref> In Heinrich's ''Diu Crône'', Guinevere's captor is her own brother Gotegrim, intending to kill her for refusing to marry the fairy knight [[Knights of the Round Table#Osenain|Gasozein]], who falsely<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43485991 | jstor=43485991 | title=An Unlikely Hero: The Rapist-Knight Gasozein in "Diu Crône" | last1=Samples | first1=Susann Therese | journal=Arthuriana | year=2012 | volume=22 | issue=4 | pages=101–119 | doi=10.1353/art.2012.a494786 | s2cid=160239206 }}</ref> claims to be her lover and rightful husband (and who also appears as the young Guinevere's human lover named Gosangos in the ''Livre d'Artus''),<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uNjGNu2w7WcC&pg=PA40 | title=Diu Crône and the Medieval Arthurian Cycle | isbn=9780859916363 | last1=Thomas | first1=Neil | year=2002 | publisher=DS Brewer }}</ref> and her saviour there is Gawain. In ''[[Durmart le Gallois]]'', Guinevere is delivered from her abduction by the eponymous hero, having been abducted by Brun de Morois in a scenario reminiscent that of Valerin but more romantic on Brun's side (who is spared by Gawain and joins Arthur's knights).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rhys |first=Sir John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hHw6AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA68 |title=Studies in the Arthurian Legend |date=1891 |publisher=Clarendon Press |language=en}}</ref> In the ''Livre d'Artus'', she is briefly taken prisoner by [[King Urien]] during his rebellion against Arthur, and her rescuer is again Gawain.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ewTuEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|title=Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance|first=Roger Sherman|last=Loomis|date=30 August 2005|publisher=Chicago Review Press|isbn=978-1-61373-209-0 |via=Google Books}}</ref> 

[[File:Meigle 2 Vanora.jpg|thumb|Meigle stone detail]]

Another version of the narrative is associated in local folklore with [[Meigle]] in Scotland, known for its carved [[Pictish stone]]s. One of the stones, now in the [[Meigle Sculptured Stone Museum]], is said to depict '''Vanora''', the local name for Guinevere.<ref name="HScot"/> She is said to have been abducted by King Modred (Mordred). When she is eventually returned to Arthur, he has her condemned to death for [[infidelity]] and orders that she be torn to pieces by wild beasts, an event said to be shown on Meigle Stone 2 (Queen Venora's Stone).<ref name="HScot"/> This stone was one of two that originally stood near a mound that is identified as Vanora's grave.<ref name="HScot">{{cite web|url=https://www.historicenvironment.scot/|title=Historic Environment Scotland|website=historicenvironment.scot|access-date=22 December 2018}}</ref> Modern scholars interpret the Meigle Stone 2 as a depiction of the Biblical tale of [[Daniel in the lions' den]]. One Scotland-related story takes place in [[Hector Boece]]'s ''Historia Gentis Scotorum'', where Guinevere is taken north by the [[Picts]] following Mordred's and Arthur's deaths at Camlann. She spends the rest of her life as their prisoner, and after her death she is buried at Meigle.<ref name=scot/>

This prominent story in its many versions may be ultimately of early Celtic origin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bromwich |first=Rachel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V2muBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT464 |title=Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain |date=2014-11-15 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78316-147-8 |language=en}}</ref> Medievalist [[Roger Sherman Loomis]] suggested that this recurring motif shows that Guinevere "had inherited the role of a Celtic [[Persephone]]" (a figure from [[Greek mythology]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Loomis|first=Roger Sherman|title=The Development of Arthurian Romance|year=2000|publisher=Dover Publications|isbn=978-0-486-40955-9}}</ref> All of these similar tales of abduction by another suitor – and this allegory includes Lancelot, who saves her when she is condemned by Arthur to [[death by burning|burn at the stake]] for her adultery – are demonstrative of a recurring '[[Hades]]-snatches-Persephone' theme, positing that Guinevere is similar to the [[Celtic Otherworld]] bride [[Étaín]], whom [[Midir]], king of the Underworld, carries off from her earthly life.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thomas|first=Neil|title=Diu Crône and the medieval Arthurian cycle|year=2002|publisher=D.S. Brewer|isbn=978-0-85991-636-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uNjGNu2w7WcC&pg=PA39}}</ref> According to [[Kenneth G. T. Webster]], a scenario such as the one from ''Diu Crône'' may be an echo of a more ancient lore in which Guinevere is "a [[fairy queen]] ravished from her supernatural husband by Arthur of this world and therefore subject to raids which the other world would regard as rescues, but which to the Arthurian world appear as abductions."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/%27Siner+tugende+anegenge+sagen%27:+The+re-writing+of+Arthurian+(hi)story...-a065506636|title='Siner tugende anegenge sagen': The re-writing of Arthurian (hi)story in 'Diu Crone'. – Free Online Library|website=www.thefreelibrary.com}}</ref>

===Life in popular tradition===
{{further|Lancelot}}

{{multiple image
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| caption1 = A scene preceding the kidnapping by [[Maleagant]]: "How Queen Guenever rode a maying into the woods and fields beside [[Westminster]]." [[Arthur Rackham]]'s illustration from ''The Romance of King Arthur'' (1917), abridged from ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' by [[Alfred W. Pollard]]
| caption2 = ''Guinevere Takes Refuge in a Convent'', [[Edmund H. Garrett]]'s illustration for ''Legends of King Arthur and His Court'' (1911)
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The following narrative is largely based on the ''[[Lancelot-Grail]]'' (Vulgate) prose cycle and, consequently, ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' as abridged by Thomas Malory with some of his changes. It tells the story of the forbidden romance of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, initially in accordance to the [[courtly love]] conventions still popular in the early 13th-century France. However, their affair was soon afterwards directly condemned as sinful, especially in the [[Post-Vulgate Cycle]] retelling. Guinevere's role in their relationship in the Vulgate ''Lancelot'' is that of Lancelot's "female lord", just as the [[Lady of the Lake]] is his "female master".<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor = 27870447|title = Guinevere as Lord|last1 = Longley|first1 = Anne P.|journal = Arthuriana|year = 2002|volume = 12|issue = 3|pages = 49–62|doi = 10.1353/art.2002.0074|s2cid = 161075853}}</ref> Regarding her characterisation by Malory, she has been described by modern critics as "jealous, unreasonable, possessive, and headstrong," at least through most of the work before the final book, and some of these traits may be related to her political qualities and actions.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27712477 | jstor=27712477 | last1=Hodges | first1=Kenneth | title=Guinevere's Politics in Malory's "Morte Darthur" | journal=The Journal of English and Germanic Philology | date=2005 | volume=104 | issue=1 | pages=54–79 }}</ref>

{{multiple image
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| image1 = Lancelot and Guinevere - Herbert James Draper.jpg
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| caption1 = ''Lancelot and Guinevere'' by [[Herbert James Draper]] (c. 1890)
| caption2 = Arthur's sister [[Morgan le Fay|Morgan]] shows him the room where Lancelot had painted his relationship with Guinevere. [[Évrard d'Espinques]]' illumination for the [[Lancelot-Grail|Vulgate Cycle]]'s ''La Mort du roi Arthur'' ([[BNF fr. 113–116|BNF fr. 116 f. 688<sup>v</sup>)]]
}}

In the 13th-century French cyclical [[chivalric romance]]s and the later works based on them, including Malory's, Guinevere is the daughter of [[King Leodegrance]] of Carmelide (Cameliard), who had served Arthur's father, [[Uther Pendragon]], and was entrusted with the [[Round Table]] after Uther's death. The newly-crowned King Arthur defends Leodegrance by defeating King [[Rience]], which leads to his first meeting with the young Guinevere. An arranged [[marriage of state]] soon commences, and Arthur receives the Round Table as Guinevere's dowry, having ignored [[Merlin]]'s prophetic advice warning him not to marry her. This version of her legend has her betrothed to Arthur early in his career, while he was garnering support and being pressured to produce an heir (which Guinevere, barren as in most other versions, will fail to deliver). When the mysterious White Knight (Lancelot) arrives from the continent, Guinevere is instantly smitten in their first meeting while the teenage knight himself is stupefied and paralyzed (''esbahis et trespensés'') by her beauty.<ref name=bnf>{{Cite web|url=https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/focus/77f00f63-0679-4f6f-8c83-24a70a965830-lancelot-et-exces-lamour|title=Lancelot et les excès de l'amour|website=BnF Essentiels}}</ref> Lancelot first joins the [[Knights of the Round Table|Queen's Knights]] to serve Guinevere after having been knighted by her. Following Lancelot's early rescue of Guinevere from Maleagant (in ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' this episode only happens much later on) and his admission into the Round Table, and with the Lady of the Lake's and [[Galehaut]]'s assistance, the two then begin an escalating romantic affair that will go on for many years and in the end will inadvertently lead to Arthur's fall.

In the Vulgate Cycle, Lancelot's stepmother Ninianne, the Lady of the Lake, gifts them an identical pair of magic rings of protection against enchantements. In this version, the lovers spend their first night together just as Arthur sleeps with the beautiful [[Saxons|Saxon]] princess named Camille or Gamille (an evil enchantress whom he later continues to love even after she betrays and imprisons him, though it was suggested that he was enchanted<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C8RKJhpaJ5sC&pg=PA193|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend|last1=Archibald|first1=Elizabeth|last2=Putter|first2=Ad|date=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|language=en|isbn=978-0521860598}}</ref>). Arthur is also further unfaithful during the episode of the "[[Gwenhwyfach|False Guinevere]]" (who had Arthur drink a love potion to betray Guinevere), her own twin half-sister (born on the same day but from a different mother) whom Arthur takes as his second wife in a very unpopular bigamous move, even refusing to obey the Pope's order for him not to do it, as Guinevere escapes to live with Lancelot in Galehaut's kingdom of Sorelais. The French prose cyclical authors thus intended to justify Guinevere and Lancelot's adultery by blackening Arthur's reputation and thus making it acceptable and sympathetic for their medieval courtly French audience. Malory's ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', however, portrays Arthur as absolutely faithful to Guinevere, even successfully resisting the forceful advances of the sorceress [[Annowre]] for her sake, except as a victim of a spell in a variant of the "False Guinevere" case. Malory is silent regarding Guinevere's feelings for Arthur but goes so far as to suggest she uses charms or enchantments to win Lancelot's love.

{{multiple image
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| caption1 = ''The Rescue of Guinevere'' by [[William Hatherell]] (1910)
| caption2 = ''Arthur's Tomb'' (''The Last Meeting of Launcelot and Guenevere'') by [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] (1855)
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Lancelot refuses the love of many other ladies, dedicates all his heroic deeds to Guinevere's honor, and sends her the redeemable knights he has defeated in battle and who must appeal to her for forgiveness. On her side, Guinevere is often greatly jealous for Lancelot, especially in the case of [[Elaine of Corbenic]], when her reaction to learning about their relationship (which, unknown to her, by this time has been limited only to him being [[Rape by deception|raped-by-deceit]] by Elaine, including an earlier act of the fathering of [[Galahad]]) causes Lancelot to fall into his longest period of madness (Lancelot's fits of madness caused by his passionate love is a recurring motif in the romance<ref>https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/image/04a410ae-69ce-4699-b1a2-93410603d77b-dame-lac-retrouve-lancelot-et-guerit-sa-folie</ref>), which only Elaine is able to eventually cure with the power of the [[Holy Grail]] itself. The episode is also included in the Post-Vulgate ''Suite du Merlin'', where it instead serves to accent the pathetic and humiliating nature of Lancelot's illicit relationship with the queen.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ywEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA349 | title=The Arthur of the French: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval French and Occitan Literature | date=15 October 2020 | publisher=University of Wales Press | isbn=9781786837431 }}</ref> The greatest danger facing their love comes from Guinevere's sworn enemy and Arthur's half-sister, the enchantress Morgan, who is jealous of her. The "hot and lustful" fairy herself falls in love with Lancelot and kidnaps him several times,<ref name=bnf/> and schemes against the lovers on various other occasions, such as the ring plot.<ref>https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/image/38177547-9571-4ae3-8f60-6cfd4c622e20-cycle-lancelot-graal-iii-roman-lancelot-23</ref> She is sometimes foiled in that by Lancelot, who also defends Guinevere on many other occasions and performs assorted feats of chivalry in her honor.

Malory tells his readers that eventually, after the end of the [[Holy Grail|Grail Quest]], the pair started behaving carelessly in public, stating that "Launcelot began to resort unto the Queene Guinevere again and forget the promise and the perfection that he made in the Quest... and so they loved together more hotter than they did beforehand." They indulged in "privy draughts together" and behaved in such a way that "many in the court spoke of it." Guinevere is charged with adultery on three occasions, including once when she is also accused of sorcery.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-BkgAQAAIAAJ|title=Studies in Malory|last=Spisak|first=James W.|date=1985|publisher=Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University|isbn=978-0918720542|language=en}}</ref> Their now not-so secret affair is finally exposed to Arthur by Morgan,<ref>https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/image/da2333be-8dfb-489e-8ea8-551c763a7574-arthur-decouvrant-peintures</ref> and proven by two of the late [[King Lot]]'s sons, [[Agravain]] and Mordred. Revealed as a betrayer of his king and friend, Lancelot kills several of Arthur's knights and escapes. Incited to defend honour, Arthur reluctantly sentences his wife to be burnt at the stake. Knowing Lancelot and his family would try to stop the execution, the king sends many of his knights to defend the pyre, though Gawain refuses to participate. Lancelot arrives with his kinsmen and followers and rescues the queen. Gawain's unarmed brothers [[Gaheris]] and [[Gareth]] are killed in the battle (among others, including fellow Knights of the Round [[Aglovale]], [[Segwarides]] and [[Sir Tor|Tor]], and originally also Gawain's third brother Agravain), sending Gawain into a rage so great that he pressures Arthur into a direct confrontation with Lancelot.

When Arthur goes after Lancelot to France, he leaves her in the care of Mordred, who plans to marry the queen himself and take Arthur's throne. While in some versions of the legend (like the Alliterative ''Morte Arthure'', which removed French romantic additions) Guinevere assents to Mordred's proposal, in the tales of Lancelot she hides in the [[Tower of London]], where she withstands Mordred's siege, and later takes refuge in a nun [[convent]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://childrenofarthur.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/while-king-arthur-was-away-did-guinevere-with-mordred-play/|title=While King Arthur was Away, Did Guinevere with Mordred Play?|date=19 June 2011|website=Children of Authur|access-date=7 December 2018}}</ref> Hearing of the treachery, Arthur returns to Britain and slays Mordred at Camlann, but his wounds are so severe that he is taken to the isle of Avalon by Morgan. During the civil war, Guinevere is portrayed as a scapegoat for violence without developing her perspective or motivation. However, after Arthur's death, Guinevere retires to a convent in penitence for her infidelity. (Malory was familiar with the [[Fontevraud Abbey|Fontevraud]] daughter house at Nuneaton,<ref>{{cite book | first=Edward | last=Hicks | title=Sir Thomas Malory: His Turbulent Career | publisher=Harvard University Press | publication-place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | year=1928 | pages=25–27}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal| first=Gweneth | last=Whitteridge | title=The Identity of Sir Thomas Malory, Knight-Prisoner | journal=The Review of English Studies | volume=24 | issue=95 | year=1973 | pages=257–265| doi=10.1093/res/XXIV.93.257 }}</ref> and given the royal connections of its sister house at Amesbury, he chose [[Amesbury Priory]] as the monastery to which Guinevere retires as "abbas and rular",<ref>Eugene Vinaver & P.J.C. Field (edd.), ''The Works of Sir Thomas Malory'', Clarendon Press, Oxford, 3rd edition 1990, vol. 3, p. 1249, lines 2–3.</ref> to find her salvation in a life of penance.<ref>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.</ref>) Her contrition is sincere and permanent; Lancelot is unable to sway her to come away with him.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Roberts|first1=Sandye|last2=Jones|first2=Arthur|title=Divine Intervention II: A Guide to Twin Flames, Soul Mates, and Kindred Spirits|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IYKT5aqg65QC&pg=PA52|year=2010|publisher=AuthorHouse|isbn=978-1-4567-1255-6}}</ref> Guinevere meets Lancelot one last time, refusing to kiss him, then returns to the convent. She spends the remainder of her life as an abbess in joyless sorrow, contrasting with her earlier merry nature. Following her death, Lancelot buries her next to Arthur's (real or symbolic) grave. {{clear}}