Editing Lady of the Lake (section)

== Legend ==
===Lancelot's guardian===
{{Further|Lancelot}}

[[File:BnF, Manuscrits, Français 114 fol. 352.png|thumb|The Lady of the Lake finds Lancelot at [[Tintagel Castle]] to cure his madness, caused by [[Morgan le Fay|Morgan the fairy]] sending him a dream vision of Guinevere's infidelity to him. [[Evrard d'Espinques]]' illumination of the [[Lancelot-Grail|Vulgate ''Lancelot'']] ([[BNF fr. 113–116|BNF fr. 114 f. 352]], c. 1475)]]

Following her early appearances in the 12th-century poems of [[Chrétien de Troyes|Chrétien]] and [[Ulrich von Zatzikhoven|Ulrich]], the Lady of the Lake began being featured by this title in the French [[chivalric romance]] prose by the 13th century. As a [[fairy godmother]]-type [[foster mother]] of the hero Lancelot, she inherits the role of an unnamed aquatic (sea) [[fairy queen]], her prototype found in Ulrich's ''[[Lanzelet]]''. Ulrich uses the [[changeling]] part of the fairy abduction lore for the background of Lancelot as having been swapped him with her son Mabuz.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TfFj4UsVJuoC&pg=PA72|title=King Arthur: Dark Age Warrior and Mythic Hero|isbn=9781404213647|last1=Matthews|first1=John|date=15 January 2008|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group }}</ref> However, the figure of Lancelot's supernatural foster mother has no offspring of her own in any of the later texts.

She does not appear in person in Chrétien's ''[[Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart|Lancelot]]''. The text only has her mentioned briefly as an unnamed (referred to as just "lady" by Lancelot when he calls upon her) fairy "who had cared for him in his infancy" and continues to aid Lancelot remotely, through a [[magic ring]] given by her to him.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nlKLEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT343 | title=Four Arthurian Romances | date=15 September 2022 }}</ref> There is no connection to water here.

In the [[Lancelot-Grail]] (Vulgate) prose cycle, loosely based on Chrétien, the Lady resides in an [[otherworld]]ly enchanted realm, the entry to which is disguised as an illusion of a lake (the [[Post-Vulgate Cycle|Post-Vulgate]] explains it as Merlin's work<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FY3P_DUGTyAC&pg=PA55|title=Arthurian Literature XXV|last1=Archibald|first1=Elizabeth|last2=Johnson|first2=David F.|date=2008|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=978-1843841715|language=en}}</ref>). There, she raises Lancelot from his infancy having stolen him from [[Elaine (legend)|his mother]] following the death of his father, [[King Ban]]. She teaches 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 [[Sir Lionel|Lionel]] and [[Bors#Sir Bors the Younger|Bors]] after having her sorcerous damsel Saraïde (later called Celise<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cTY44q6n0MgC&pg=PA47 | title=Lancelot-Grail: Lancelot, pt. I | isbn=978-1-84384-226-2 | last1=Lacy | first1=Norris J. | date=2010 | publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref>) 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 this color (wearing white is a common attribute of faery women in Arthurian legend<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=upagEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT162 | title=Artorius: The Real King Arthur | isbn=978-1-3981-1216-2 | last1=Malcor | first1=Linda A. | last2=Matthews | first2=John | date=15 December 2022 | publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited }}</ref>).

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 poem (the same of another of her magic rings also grants Lancelot's lover Queen [[Guinevere]] immunity from [[Morgan le Fay|Morgan]]'s power in the Italian ''Prophéties de Merlin''). Later on, she also works to actively encourage Lancelot and Guinevere's relationship and its consummation. That includes sending Guinevere a symbolically illustrated magic shield, the crack in which closes up after the queen finally spends her first night with Lancelot. She furthermore personally arrives to restore Lancelot to sanity during some of his recurring periods of madness, on one occasion using the above-mentioned shield to heal his mind.

===Merlin's beloved and captor===
{{Further|Merlin}}

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| caption1 = ''Merlin and Vivienne'', [[Otway McCannell]]'s illustration for [[Lewis Spence]]'s ''Legends and Romances of Brittany'' (1917)
| caption2 = "Waving her hands and uttering the charm, [she] presently enclosed him fast within the tree." [[Lancelot Speed]]'s illustration for [[James Thomas Knowles (1831–1908)|James Thomas Knowles]]' ''The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights'' (1912)
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The Vulgate Cycle is first to tell of (depending on the version) either possibly a different or explicitly the same Lady of the Lake in the [[Merlin (Robert de Boron poem)|Prose ''Merlin'']]-derived section. There, she also uses other names, including [[Elaine (legend)|Elaine]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mjsWsH6tKwUC&pg=PA61 | title=Paganism in Arthurian Romance | isbn=9780859914260 | last1=Darrah | first1=John | year=1997 | publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref>

The story takes place before the 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 text 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."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lacy |first=Norris J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cTY44q6n0MgC&pg=PA21 |title=Lancelot-Grail: Lancelot, pt. I |date=2010 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |isbn=978-1843842262 |language=en}}</ref> In an alternative Bristol ''Merlin'' fragment, she resists his seduction with the help of a magic ring during the week they spend together.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/rediscovered-medieval-manuscript-offers-new-twist-on-arthurian-legend-180978705/|title = Rediscovered Medieval Manuscript Offers New Twist on Arthurian Legend}}</ref> The Post-Vulgate revision changes it into Viviane (Ninianne) 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, making him die a long death inside his tomb while taunting him. There, she is proud of how Merlin had never taken her virginity, unlike what happened with his other female students such as Morgan.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T6hBCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA195|title=Transforming Tales: Rewriting Metamorphosis in Medieval French Literature|last=Griffin|first=Miranda|date=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0199686988|language=en}}</ref> In any case, as a result of their usually final encounter Merlin always either dies or at very least is never seen again.

Conversely, the ''Livre d'Artus'', a late alternative (and updated) 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''.<ref name=":2" />

In the ''Prophéties de Merlin'', she then takes [[Tristan]]'s half-brother Meliadus the Younger, also raised by her along with Lancelot, as her actual lover who then convinces her to access Merlin's tomb to record his prophecies while Merlin is still alive.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bruce |first=Christopher W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZFbczeMtYcC&pg=PA353 |title=The Arthurian Name Dictionary |date=1999 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-8153-2865-0 |language=en}}</ref> The ''Lancelot-Grail'', too, has Viviane take a 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]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bruce |first=Christopher W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZFbczeMtYcC&pg=PA79 |title=The Arthurian Name Dictionary |date=August 15, 1999 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9780815328650 |via=Google Books}}</ref> In the Vulgate ''Merlin'', an unnamed lady, possibly Viviane, abortively turns King Brandegorre's son Evadeam into the deformed Dwarf Knight for refusing her love.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harward |first=Vernon J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FmUNEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA102 |title=The Dwarfs of Arthurian Romance and Celtic Tradition |date=2024-06-11 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-61992-0 |language=en}}</ref>

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]]. According to the Post-Vulgate, she was born in Dionas' domain that included the fairy forests of Briosque ([[Brocéliande]]) and Darnantes,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://broceliande.brecilien.org/Broceliande-dans-le-Lancelot-Graal|title=Brocéliande dans le Lancelot-Graal - Encyclopédie de Brocéliande|website=broceliande.brecilien.org}}</ref> and it was an enchantment of her fairy godmother, [[Diana (mythology)|Diana the Huntress Goddess]], that caused Viviane to be so alluring to Merlin when she first met him there as a young teenager.<ref>Bruce, Christopher, ''The Arthurian Name Dictionary'', Routledge, 1999, p. 145.</ref> The narrator 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]]. Here, she is initially known as the beautiful 15-year-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 of the Lake (''du Lac'') is later raised, at first not knowing his real parentage, by Viviane. Nevertheless, only the narration of the Vulgate Cycle actually makes it clear that its Lady of the Lake (that is Lancelot's adoptive mother) and Viviane are in fact the one and same character in the French romances.<ref name=ladies>Anne Berthelot, "Merlin and the Ladies of the Lake". ''Merlin: A Casebook'' (2004).</ref> Viviane is also only 12 when she meets Merlin in the Forest of Briosque in the Vulgate ''Merlin''.

===Giver of Excalibur===
{{Further|Excalibur}}

[[File:Third panel on Frampton Door.JPG|thumb|"The Lady of the Lake", [[George Frampton]]'s feature low relief at [[2 Temple Place]] in London]]

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 the young King Arthur, who is directed and led to her by Merlin. Appearing in her lake, she grants him Excalibur and its special scabbard after his original (also unnamed) sword breaks in the duel against King Pellinore. She is a mysterious character who is evidently neither Morgan nor the Damsel Huntress, but may possibly have a connection to the Lady of Avalon (''Dame d'Avalon'') from the ''Propheties de Merlin''.<ref name=ladies/> Later in the Post-Vulgate ''Suite du Merlin'', this Lady of the Lake is suddenly attacked and 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 variably either her brother or her lover, while he blames her for the death of his mother, who had been burned at the stake) and a dispute over another enchanted sword from Avalon; her body later vanishes.

All this takes place during the time when Merlin is still at Arthur's side and prior to the introduction of the young Viviane in the same branch of the Post-Vulgate Cycle. Modern retellings, however, usually omit the episode of her apparent killing by Balin and at the same time often make her the same character as Viviane.

===''Le Morte d'Arthur''===
{{See also|Le Morte d'Arthur}}

[[File:Ballads of bravery (1877) (14785021975).jpg|thumb|The gift of the sword Excalibur in an illustration for [[George Melville Baker]]'s ''Ballads of Bravery'' (1877)|alt=]]

In Thomas Malory's ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', a 15th-century compilation of Arthurian stories that is often considered definitive in much of the world today, 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 in need of a sword (the original sword-from-the-stone having been recently broken in battle), he sees an arm extending from the surface of the water holding a sword. Arthur, informed by Merlin that the Lady can grant him the sword, requests the sword from the Lady and is granted permission to go out upon the lake and take it if he promises to fulfill any request from her later, to which he agrees. Later, when the Lady comes to [[Camelot]] to hold Arthur to his promise, 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 "Launcelot" Lancelot) to go after Balin to avenge this disgrace by killing him.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mksn538zTs8C&pg=PA19|title=King Arthur and His Knights: Selected Tales|first1=Sir Thomas|last1=Malory|first2=Thomas|last2=Malory|date=September 7, 1975|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-501905-6|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jd-dCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18|title=The Knights of the Round Table|last=Mersey|first=Daniel|date=2015|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1472806178|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K_iEKXz501MC&pg=PA223|title=Knighthood in the Morte Darthur|last=Kennedy|first=Beverly|date=1992|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=978-0859913546|language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Merlin and Vivien by G.H. Thomas.png|thumb|left|[[George Housman Thomas]]' illustration for ''The Story of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table'', adapted from ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' by James Thomas Knowles (1862)|alt=]]

The second Lady of the Lake is sometimes referred to by her title and sometimes referred to by name, today best known as Nimue (rendered Nynyve in Malory's original Winchester Manuscript of ''Le Morte''). Malory does not use Nimue's name for the Lady of the Lake associated with Lancelot, who remains unnamed as well, described as only "one of the ladies of the lake", and she may thus be considered a third one.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Addenda on Malory's Minor Characters|author=Wilson, Robert H.|year=1956|journal=The Journal of English and Germanic Philology|volume=55|issue=4|pages=563–587|jstor = 27706826}}</ref> It is also possible that Malory had only access to the ''Suite du Merlin'' part of the Post-Vulgate Cycle as a relevant source.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Evolution of Middle English Romance|year=2018|publisher = Boydell & Brewer|doi=10.2307/j.ctv1ntgs3|jstor = j.ctv1ntgs3|isbn = 9781787443341|s2cid=240036798|editor1-last = Archibald|editor1-first = Elizabeth|editor2-last = Leitch|editor2-first = Megan G|editor3-last = Saunders|editor3-first = Corinne}}</ref>

Nimue, whom Malory describes as the "chief Lady of the Lake", plays a pivotal role in the Arthurian court throughout his story.<ref name=Holbrook>Holbrook, S. E. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2849785 "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.</ref> 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.<ref name=cl>Larrington, Carolyne. ''King Arthur's Enchantresses: Morgan and Her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition.'' I. B. Tauris, 2006.</ref> 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.<ref name=Holbrook/>

[[File:Look! - said the Lady Nimue - ye ought to be sore ashamed to be the death of such a knight!.png|thumb|"'Look!', said the Lady Nimue, 'Ye ought to be sore ashamed to be the death of such a knight!'" [[William Henry Margetson]]'s illustration for Janet MacDonald Clark's ''Legends of King Arthur and His Knights'' (1914)|alt=]]

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|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."

[[File:Cutler King Arthur Passing.jpg|thumb|''The Passing of Arthur'' in [[Andrew Lang]]'s ''Stories of King Arthur and His Knights'' (1904)]]

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 [[Battle of Camlann|Arthur's final battle]]. Malory's narration then counts Nimue among the magical queens who arrive in a black boat with Morgan (in the original account in the Vulgate Cycle's ''Mort Artu'', the chief lady in the boat, seen holding hands with Morgan and calling for Arthur, is not recognised by [[Girflet]] who is the scene's witness instead of Malory's Bedivere<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bHUWDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA297 | title=King Arthur in Legend and History | isbn=9781136609831 | last1=White | first1=Richard | date=12 February 1998 | publisher=Routledge }}</ref>). Together, they bear the mortally wounded Arthur away to Avalon.

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.<ref>Hodges, Kenneth. “Swords and Sorceresses: The Chivalry of Malory's Nyneve.” ''Arthuriana'' 12.2 (2002): 18. JSTOR. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.</ref> Nevertheless, Nimue's character is often seen as still very ambiguous by other scholars. As summarized by Amy S. Kaufman: 

{{Quote block|Though Nynyve is sometimes friendly to Arthur and his knights, she is equally liable to act in her own interest. She can be also selfish, ruthless, desiring, and capricious. She has been identified as a deceptive and anti-patriarchal equally as often as she has been cast as a benevolent aid to Arthur's court, or even the literary descendant of protective goddesses."<ref>{{Cite journal|title=The Law of the Lake: Malory's Sovereign Lady|author=Kaufman, Amy S.|year=2007|journal=Arthuriana|volume=17|issue=3|pages=56–73|doi = 10.1353/art.2007.0036|jstor = 27870845|s2cid = 154046024}}</ref>}}

===Other identities and relations===
In some cases, it is uncertain whether Morgan and the Lady of the Lake are identical or separate characters.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4bZ3HqdHutMC&pg=PA93|title=King Arthur in Antiquity|first=Graham|last=Anderson|date=March 18, 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781134372027|via=Google Books}}</ref> [[Richard Cavendish (occult writer)|Richard Cavendish]] wrote: "It may be that the two sides of Morgan's nature separated into two different characters and that the Lady of the Lake is an aspect of Morgan herself. If so, the two fays represent the two aspects [...] fertile and destructive, motherly and murderous, loving and cruel."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cavendish |first=Richard |title=King Arthur and the Grail: The Arthurian Legends and Their Meaning |publisher=Wedienfled and Nicholson |year=1978 |location=London |pages=123}}</ref>

According to [[Anne Berthelot]], Morgan herself should be considered "''the'' Lady of the Lake", as compared to the "upstart magician" Viviane in the French prose cycles.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fJaNAgAAQBAJ|title=Merlin: A Casebook|last=Goodrich|first=Peter H.|date=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1135583392|language=en}}</ref> 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 called Nimiane (Ninniane).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3gaBAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA379|title=The Arthurian Name Dictionary|first=Christopher W.|last=Bruce|date=December 7, 1998|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136755385|via=Google Books}}</ref> Morgan is also depicted as a fairy from a lake (with an underwater and invisible castle that can be accessed only with a guide water dragon) in the Italian tale ''Cantari del Falso Scudo'',<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.openedition.org/ugaeditions/21100 | isbn=9782377472970 | title=Cantari arthuriens : Romances italiennes du xive siècle | chapter=Cantari del falso scudo Qui s'incominciano i cantari del Falso Scudo | series=Moyen Âge européen | date=20 May 2021 | pages=117–157 | publisher=UGA Éditions }}</ref> and as a former student of her fellow fairy Viviana in the French romance ''Claris et Laris''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/porney-claris-and-laris | title=Claris and Laris &#124; Robbins Library Digital Projects }}</ref>

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 the Fairy (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).<ref name=cl/> 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 magical shield to Guinevere in an act recast as having malicious intent.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N489DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT223|title = Cultures courtoises en mouvement|isbn = 9782760627109|last1 = Arseneau|first1 = Isabelle|last2 = Gingras|first2 = Francis|date = 11 October 2011| publisher=Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal }}</ref> The Lady is also described as Morgan's sister in some other Italian texts, such as the 13th-century poem ''Pulzella Gaia''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.classicitaliani.it/trecento/pulzella_gaia.htm|date=July 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180708145842/http://www.classicitaliani.it/trecento/pulzella_gaia.htm|archive-date=2018-07-08 |title=Pulzella Gaia}}</ref> [[Mike Ashley (writer)|Mike Ashley]] identified Viviane with one of Arthur's other sisters, the otherwise obscure [[Elaine (legend)#Elaine of Garlot|Elaine]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0yeBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT460|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 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 [the Lady] of the Lake (''Sébil[l]e [la Dame] du Lac'', named as such due to her residence of the Castle of the Lake later known as the Red Castle), who is depicted as an ancestor of Arthur himself from her union with King Alexander ([[Alexander the Great]]).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_5eRDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA184|title=Roman de toute chevalerie: Reading Alexander Romance in Late Medieval England|first=Charles Russell|last=Stone|date=7 March 2019|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=9781487501891 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jG0bAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA69|title=The Tragedy of Knighthood: Origins of the Tannhäuser-legend|first=J. M.|last=Clifton-Everest|date=15 March 1979|publisher=Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature|isbn=9780950595535 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CYZRAQAAIAAJ|title=The Sibyl: Prophetess of Antiquity and Medieval Fay|first1=William Lewis|last1=Kinter|first2=Joseph R.|last2=Keller|date=15 March 1967|publisher=Dorrance|via=Google Books}}</ref> The later Lady of the Lake who raises Lancelot is also mentioned in ''Perceforest'', where both hers and Merlin's ancestry lines are derived from the ancient Fairy Morgane (''Morg[u]ane la Faee'' / ''la Fée'', living in a castle on the Isle of Zeeland). Here, their shared ancestors have been born from an illicit love between her beautiful daughter Morg[u]anette and Passelion, an amorous young human protégé of the mischievous spirit [[Zephyrus|Zephir]], hundreds years earlier when Morgane cursed them so that one of their descendants would one day kill the other.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dr_0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA32|title=The Fairy Mythology|first=Thomas|last=Keightley|date=1 August 2020|publisher=BoD – Books on Demand|isbn=9783752388435 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_gc1P52bToC&pg=PA484|title=Perceforest: The Prehistory of King Arthur's Britain|date=15 March 2011|publisher=DS Brewer|isbn=9781843842620 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_HwcwFTpbIsC&pg=PA1252|title=Le roman de Perceforest|first=Gilles|last=Roussineau|date=15 March 1987|publisher=Librairie Droz|isbn=9782600026116 |via=Google Books}}</ref>