Editing Lady of the Lake

{{Short description|Enchantress and sorceress in Arthurian legend}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox character
| name = Lady of the Lake <br> (Viviane / Nimue)
| series = [[Matter of Britain]]
| image = The Lady of the Lake by Speed Lancelot.jpg
| caption = The Lady of the Lake in [[Lancelot Speed]]'s illustration for [[James Thomas Knowles (1831–1908)|James Thomas Knowles]]' ''The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights'' (1912)
| first = [[Vulgate Cycle]]
| based_on = [[#Names and origins|Disputed origins]], earlier and unnamed versions of the character in ''[[Lanzelet]]'' and ''[[Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart|Lancelot]]''
| occupation = [[Magician (fantasy)|Enchantress]]
| title = Lady of the Lake
| species = [[Fairy]] or human
| significant_other = [[Merlin]], sometimes others
| spouse = [[Pelleas]]
| children = [[Bors]], [[Lancelot]], [[Sir Lionel|Lionel]] (all adopted)
| family = Dyonas (father)
| home = [[#Lake|Lake]], [[Brocéliande]], [[Avalon]]
}}
The '''Lady of the Lake''' ({{langx|fr|Dame du Lac, Demoiselle du Lac}}, {{langx|cy|Arglwyddes y Llyn}}, {{langx|kw|Arlodhes an Lynn}}, {{langx|br|Itron al Lenn}}, {{langx|it|Dama del Lago}}) is a title used by multiple characters in the [[Matter of Britain]], the body of medieval literature and mythology associated with the legend of [[King Arthur]]. As either actually [[fairy]] or fairy-like yet human enchantresses, they play important roles in various stories, notably by providing Arthur with the sword [[Excalibur]], eliminating the wizard [[Merlin]], raising the knight [[Lancelot]] after the death of [[King Ban|his father]], and helping to take the dying Arthur to [[Avalon]] after [[Battle of Camlann|his final battle]]. Different Ladies 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 members of a hierarchical group, while some texts also give this title to either [[Morgan le Fay|Morgan]] or [[Morgause|her sister]].<ref>"Morgan is also later said to be either a sister or the Lady herself. Descriptions of [the Lady] as a fairy queen are also similar to Geoffrey's depiction of Morgan on the Isle of Avalon to whom Arthur is taken to be healed after Camlan." {{Cite book |last=Sullivan |first=Tony |title=King Arthur: Man or Myth |year=2020 |pages=172}}</ref>

==Names and origins==
[[File:Arthur-Pyle The Lady of ye Lake.JPG|thumb|left|Nimue in [[Howard Pyle]]'s ''[[The Story of King Arthur and His Knights]]'' (1903)]]

Today, the Lady of the Lake is best known as the character called either '''Nimue''', or several scribal variants<ref>Christopher Bruce (1999) ''The Arthurian Name Dictionary''. In manuscript form, the letters ''u, n, v'' (written ''ıı'') are all easily confounded, as is ''m'' with any of them plus the vowel ''i'' (all written ''ııı'') or any two of them with ''im'' or ''mi'' (all written ''ıııı'').</ref> of '''Ninianne''' and '''Viviane'''. French and foreign medieval authors and copyists since the early 13th century produced various forms of the latter two, including: '''Nymenche''' (in addition to Ninianne / '''Ninienne''') in the [[Vulgate Cycle|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 Cycle|Post-Vulgate]] ''Merlin'' ('''Niviana''' in the Spanish ''Baladro del Sage Merlin''); and '''Nimiane''' / '''Niniame''' and '''Vivian''' / '''Vivien''' in ''[[Of Arthour and of Merlin|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).<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fGAoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT82|title=Merlin: Priest of Nature|last=Markale|first=Jean|date=1995|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1620554500|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nitze|first=William A.|date=1954|title=An Arthurian Crux: Viviane or Niniane?|journal=Romance Philology|volume=7|issue=4|pages=326–330|issn=0035-8002|jstor=44938600}}</ref> According to Lucy Paton, the most primitive French form of this name might have been Niniane.<ref name=":3">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/studiesinfairym00patogoog|title=Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance|first=Lucy Allen|last=Paton|publisher=Boston, Ginn & Co.|via=Internet Archive|year=1903}}</ref> Danielle Quéruel of the [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]] explains:

{{Quote box|align=center|[[Fairies]] are one of the most important elements of Arthurian fantasy. They are supernatural beings of Celtic origin, often [[femme fatale|fatal women]], whose figures are an extension of the [[nymph]]s and [[goddess]]es of antiquity. Knights searching for adventures meet these women with strange powers in the dark and deep forests but also in the castles that stand on their roads. Beneficial or malicious, they often hide their nature under the guise of a [[damsel in distress|virgin in distress]] in order to test the bravery and virtue of the knights.

Among these fairies, Viviane plays a prominent role. The Lady of the Lake, called Niniène or Niniane in medieval texts, embodies the traditional water fairy. It is she who spirits away the newborn [[Lancelot]] to keep him and raises him in her domain of the Lake, sheltered from the world. Once he is knighted, she will always keep an eye on her protégé, whom she will save several times from madness.<ref name=bnf>{{cite web | url=https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/litterature/moyen-age-1/ed6c3713-b2d5-4b94-8cac-a35fbd9471b1-mythe-arthurien/article/7d53e82f-301c-4d97-8f62-99d5ceb3a6d4-monde-fee | title=Le monde des fées }}</ref>}}

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 English ''[[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<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mangle|first=Josh|date=2018|title=Echoes of Legend: Magic as the Bridge Between a Pagan Past and a Christian Future in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur|url=https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/graduatetheses/84|journal=Graduate Theses}}</ref>) and '''Nenyve''' in the [[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.<ref name=Holbrook/> Nimue is also sometimes rendered by modern authors and artists as either '''Nimuë''' or '''Nimüe''' (the forms introduced in the 19th century through [[Tennyson]]'s poem "Enid and Nimuë: The True and the False"<ref>{{cite web | url=http://arthurian-studies.bangor.ac.uk/exhibition/rochester/55.php | title=Enid and Nimuë: The True and the False &#124; Malory and his Followers &#124; Bangor University }}</ref> and [[Edward Burne-Jones|Burne-Jones]]' painting ''Merlin and Nimüe'',<ref>{{cite web | url=https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/image/328e595d-45a5-46cd-94d8-269dfd8322b0-merlin-et-nimue | title=Merlin et Nimüe }}</ref>), or '''Nimueh'''.

[[File:Edward Burne-Jones Witches Tree (Flower Book).png|thumb|Viviane with Merlin in ''Witches' Tree'' by [[Edward Burne-Jones]] (1905)]]

Arthurian scholar A. O. H. Jarman, following suggestions first made in the 19th&nbsp;century, proposed that the name Viviane used in French Arthurian romances, was ultimately derived from (and a corruption of) the [[Welsh language|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 literature|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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Jarman, A.O.H. |year=1969 |section=A note on the possible Welsh derivation of Viviane |title=Gallica: Essays Presented to J. Heywood Thomas |place=Cardiff, UK |pages=1–12}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Jarman, A.O.H. |date=1954–1956 |title=Hwimleian, Chwibleian |journal=Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies |volume=16 |pages=72–76}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Ford, Patrick K. |year=1976 |section=The death of Merlin in the chronicle of Elis Gruffudd |title=Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies |volume=7 |pages=379–390, esp.&nbsp;381 |publisher=University of California Press}}</ref> Others have linked the name Nymenche with the [[Irish mythology]]'s figure [[Niamh (mythology)|Niamh]] (an [[otherworld]]ly woman from the legend of [[Tír na nÓg]]),<ref>{{cite book |first=Jean |last=Markale |date=June 1, 1995 |title=Merlin: Priest of Nature |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9781620554500 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fGAoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT83 |via=Google Books}}</ref> and the name Niniane with the [[Welsh mythology]]'s figure [[Rhiannon]] (another otherworldly woman of a Celtic myth),<ref>{{cite web |author=Rhys, John |date=15 April 1891 |title=Studies in the Arthurian Legend |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Clarendon Press |page=284 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hHw6AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA284 |via=Google Books}}</ref> or, as a feminine form of the masculine name Ninian, with the likes of the 5th-century (male) saint [[Ninian]] and the river [[Ninian (river)|Ninian]].<ref name=":1"/><ref>{{cite book |first=Jean |last=Markale |date=1 June 1995 |title=Merlin: Priest of Nature |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9781620554500 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fGAoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT84 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

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<ref>{{cite web |title=The Legend and Legacy of the Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach |date=August 17, 2017 |series=Folklore of the Welsh Lakes |website=folklorethursday.com |url=https://folklorethursday.com/regional-folklore/folklore-welsh-lakes-legend-legacy-lady-llyn-y-fan-fach/}}</ref>), the Celtic water goddess Covianna (worshipped in the [[Romano-British]] times as [[Coventina]]),<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0VkoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT29 | title=The Chalice of Magdalene: The Search for the Cup That Held the Blood of Christ | isbn=9781591438779 | last1=Phillips | first1=Graham | date=30 January 2004 | publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=How Netflix's ''Cursed'' twists the ancient Arthurian stories of Nimue, the Lady of the Lake |first=Adrienne |last=Westenfeld |date=July 17, 2020 |magazine=Esquire |url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a33336609/who-is-nimue-cursed-netflix-lady-of-the-lake-legend/}}</ref> and the Irish goddess of the underworld Bé Finn ([[Bébinn]], mother of the hero [[Fráech]]).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RFHlAAAAMAAJ|title=SELIM: Journal of the Spanish Society for Mediaeval English Language and Literature/revista de la Sociedad Española de Lengua Y Literatura Inglesa Medieval|date=4 February 1991|publisher=Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de Oviedo|via=Google Books}}</ref> It has been also noted how the [[North Caucasus|North Caucasian]] goddess Satana ([[Satanaya]]) from the [[Nart sagas]] is both associated with water and helps the [[Scythia]]n hero [[Batraz]] gain his magic sword.<ref>{{cite book |first1=C. Scott |last1=Littleton |first2=Linda A. |last2=Malcor|date=August 18, 2000 |title=From Scythia to Camelot: A radical reassessment of the legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the Holy Grail |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9780815335665 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x9v0FaIgEFEC&pg=PA168 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Possible literary prototypes include two characters from [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s ''[[Vita Merlini]]'': Merlin's one-time wife [[Gwendolen|Guendoloena]] and Merlin's half-sister [[Gwenddydd|Ganieda]].<ref name=ladies/> Another possibility involves [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]], the Roman goddess of hunt and nature,<ref name=":2"/> a direct or spiritual descent from whom is actually explicitly attributed to Viviane within some French prose narratives, in which she is arguably even serving as Diana's [[avatar]].<ref name=bnf/> It has also been speculated that the name Viviane may be a derivative form of Diana (French ''Diane'').<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SyRt_1b3fo0C&pg=PA150 | title=The Evolution of Arthurian Romance I }}</ref>

The [[Greek mythology|mythical Greek]] sea nymph [[Thetis]], mother of the hero [[Achilles]], similarly provides her son with magical weapons.<ref>{{cite book |first=Graham |last=Anderson |date=March 1, 2004 |title=King Arthur in Antiquity |publisher=Routledge |isbn=1134372019 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c45_AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT206 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Like the Lady of the Lake, Thetis is a water spirit who raises the greatest warrior of her time. Thetis' husband is named [[Peleus]], while in some tales the Lady of the Lake has the knight [[Pelleas]] as her lover; Thetis also uses magic to make her son invulnerable, similar to how Lancelot receives a ring that protects him from evil magic.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WLQ4AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA643 | title=The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and General Literature | year=1893 }}</ref> The Greek myth may therefore have inspired or influenced the Arthurian legend, especially since ''[[The Iliad]]'' involving Thetis was well known across the former Roman Empire and among the medieval writers dealing with Celtic myths and lore. The Roman fort [[Aballava]], known to the post-Roman Britons as Avalana and today seen by some as the location of the historical [[Avalon]], had been also curiously dedicated the Roman water goddess [[Dea Latis]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nBWeBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT108|title=A Brief History of King Arthur|first=Mike|last=Ashley|date=7 February 2013|publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=9781472107657 |via=Google Books}}</ref> [[Laurence Gardner]] interpreted the supposed (as attributed by medieval authors) 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 (associated with the mothers [[Elaine (legend)|of Lancelot]], [[Igraine|of Arthur]], and [[Morgause|of Gawain]]) would thus become known as the 'Ladies of the Lake'.<ref>{{cite book |first=Mike |last=Ashley |date=September 1, 2011 |title=The Mammoth Book of King Arthur |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |isbn=9781780333557 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0yeBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT360 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

[[Chrétien de Troyes]]'s French ''[[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 Franco-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''<ref>{{cite book |last=von&nbsp;Zatzikhoven |first=Ulrich |author-link=Ulrich von Zatzikhoven |date=1845 |title=Lanzelet: Eine Erzählung |editor=Hahn, K.A. |language=goh |place=Frankfurt am Main, DE |publisher=Druck und Verlag von Heinrich Ludwig Brönner |page=116 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6bZbAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA116}}</ref>).<ref>{{cite journal |author=Tatlock, J.S.P. |year=1943 |title=Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Vita Merlini'' |journal=Speculum |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=265–287 |doi=10.2307/2853704 |jstor=2853704 |s2cid=162813388 }}</ref> The [[fairy queen]] character and her paradise island in ''Lanzelet'' are reminiscent of Morgen ([[Morgan le Fay|Morgan]]) of the Island of Avallon in Geoffrey's work.<ref>{{cite journal |last = Loomis |first = Roger S. |year = 1945 |title = Morgain la Fee and the Celtic goddesses |journal = Speculum |volume = 20 |issue = 2 |pages = 183–203 |jstor = 2854594 |doi = 10.2307/2854594 |s2cid = 161308783}}</ref> Furthermore, the fairy from ''Lanzelet'' has a son whose name Mabuz is an [[Anglo-Norman language|Anglo-Norman]] form of [[Mabon ap Modron|Mabon]], son of Morgan's early Welsh counterpart [[Modron]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=Chris |last1=Barber |first2=David |last2=Pykitt |date=January 15, 1997 |title=Journey to Avalon: The final discovery of King Arthur |publisher=Weiser Books |isbn=9781578630240 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zkcY3BalVb4C&pg=PA224 |via=Google Books}}</ref> According to [[Roger Sherman Loomis]], "it seems almost certain" that Morgan and the Lady of the Lake have originally began as one character in the legend.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MyWvBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT238|title=Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance|first=Roger Sherman|last=Loomis|date=30 August 2005|publisher=Chicago Review Press|isbn=9781613732106 |via=Google Books}}</ref> In a related hypothesis, the early Myrddyn tradition could have merged with the fairy lover motif popular in medieval stories, and such role would later split into Merlin's two fairy mistresses, one of them 'good' and the other 'bad'.<ref name=ladies/>

==Character evolution==
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Iconic motifs and their sources
|-
! Select element or episode !! Earliest text
|-
|A fairy lady has raised and magically aids [[Lancelot]].
|''[[Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart]]'' (c. 1177)
|-
|A water fairy queen abducts and raises the young Lancelot as a great knight.
|''[[Lanzelet]]'' (after 1194) <small>(translation from an unknown earlier source)</small>
|-
|Introducing the concept and name of the Lady of the Lake. After rescuing and rising Lancelot, she sends him to the court of [[King Arthur]], and later aids him during his knight-errant adventures and in his romance with [[Guinevere]].
|[[Lancelot-Grail|Vulgate ''Lancelot'']] (c. 1215)
|-
|The Lady of the Lake is retrospectively identified as the fairy Viviane (Niniane), introduced as a young teenage noble (with supernatural ancient origins) from [[Brittany|Little Britain]]. She captures the wizard [[Merlin]], using the very magic that he himself taught her out of his love for her, almost always unrequited.
|[[Lancelot-Grail|Vulgate ''Merlin Continuation'']] (before 1235)
|-
|Another Lady of the Lake gives the sword [[Excalibur]] to Arthur and is later killed by [[Sir Balin|Balin]]. Viviane cruelly kills Merlin out of her hatred of him. Afterwards, she begins to aid Arthur and protects him from his wicked sister [[Morgan le Fay|Morgan]].
|[[Post-Vulgate Cycle|Post-Vulgate ''Merlin Continuation'']] (after 1235)
|-
|The author [[Thomas Malory|Malory]]'s redefinition of Viviane as Nimue (Nynyve), the "chief Lady of the Lake", who marries [[Pelleas]] and in the end accompanies Morgan in taking Arthur to [[Avalon]].
|''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' (1485)
|-
|The author [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]] splitting the evil Vivien back from Malory's Nimue while keeping the latter as a separate character, a development that influenced modern portrayals.
|"Vivien" (1859) in ''[[Idylls of the King]]''
|}

According to Maureen Fries, "more beneficent splittings-off from [Morgan's] original role emerge in the several Ladies of the Lake who later develop from her archetype: literally watered-down from Morgan (whose name indicates her origins in the greater body of water, the sea)." She wrote about this "fluid figure, always at least double and usually multiple in her manifestations": {{clear}}

{{Quotebox|align=center|Obviously the Lady has been retailored to represent the (mostly) nurturing side of the split mother-image, as Morgan has become the (mostly) devouring side. A combination of these split images appears in the figure of Nimue (also called Niniane and Viviane), who first serves as a devourer and then as a restorer of Arthurian males. Like her [Excalibur giver] sister-avatar, she is called the Lady of the Lake. In a borrowing from Morgan's career, she has the besotted Merlin teach her his magic, but without yielding to him sexually. Shutting Merlin away in a cave, she deprives the male Arthurians of their counselor and reveals her own cunning ambition. But Nimue then becomes the devoted and influential friend of Arthurian society: she saves the King and his knights from Morgan's death-dealing [...] and emerges as one of the three (or more, depending on the work) queens who bear the King away to Avalon. This last function allies her, of course, with her original—Morgan le Fay.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tRZclHHtLLkC&pg=PA71 | title=Arthurian Women | isbn=978-0-415-92889-2 | last1=Fenster | first1=Thelma S. | date=2000 | publisher=Psychology Press }}</ref>}}

== 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}}

{{multiple image
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| image1 = W. Otway Cannell 2 Merlin and Vivienne.jpg
| image2 = Merlin And Vivien by Speed Lancelot.jpg
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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>

== Lake ==
[[File:Tryfan and Llyn Ogwen - geograph.org.uk - 1264952.jpg|thumb|left|[[Llyn Ogwen]] as seen from the slopes of [[Pen yr Ole Wen]] in 2008]]

A number of locations are traditionally associated with the Lady of the Lake's abode.<ref name="gulgasht">{{cite magazine |title=A literary walk in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park |date=24 September 2014 |magazine=The Great Outdoors |others=Shields, Damian (photographer) |url=http://www.tgomagazine.co.uk/news/loch-lomond-and-the-trossachs-a-literary-walk-in-the-park |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140925190513/http://www.gulgasht.com/europe/literary-walk-loch-lomond-trossachs-national-park.html |archive-date=September 25, 2014 }}</ref> Such places within Great Britain include the lakes [[Dozmary Pool]]<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fairbairn |first1=Neil |last2=Cyprien |first2=Michael |year=1983 |title=A Traveller's Guide to the Kingdoms of Arthur |publisher=Historical Times |isbn=978-0237456566 |language=en |url=https://archive.org/details/travellersguidet00fair |url-access=registration}}</ref> and [[The Loe]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Collyer |first=Peter |year=2003 |title=Encompassing Britain: Painting at the Points of the Compass |publisher=Adlard Coles Nautical |isbn=978-1904050025 |language=en}}</ref> in Cornwall, the lakes [[Llyn Llydaw]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Phillips |first=Graham |year=2016 |title=The Lost Tomb of King Arthur: The search for Camelot and the isle of Avalon |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1591437581 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mVkoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT65}}</ref> and [[Llyn Ogwen]]<ref name=":0"/> in Snowdonia, [[River Brue]]'s area of Pomparles Bridge<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bord |first1=Janet |last2=Bord |first2=Colin |year=1995 |title=The Enchanted Land: Myths and legends of Britain's landscape |publisher=Thorsons |isbn=978-1855384071|language=en}}</ref> in Somerset, and the lake [[Beeswing, Dumfries and Galloway|Loch Arthur]]<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Begg |first1=Ean C. M. |last2=Rich |first2=Deike |year=1991 |title=On the Trail of Merlin: A Guide to the Celtic Mystery Tradition |publisher=Aquarian |isbn=978-0850309393|language=en}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Château & lac de Comper - site légendaire Brocéliande |website=Destination Brocéliande en Bretagne |url=https://www.broceliande-vacances.com/decouvrir/incontournables/foret-broceliande/legendes/sites-legendaires-arthuriens/chateau-lac-comper/}}</ref> 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]] (the "Bois en Val" of the book).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://issuu.com/histoiredanjou/docs/article_lancelot_beaufort_lescahiersdubaugeois|title=La légende de Lancelot du Lac en Anjou|author=Georges Conrad|website=issuu.com|date=2 April 2012 }}</ref>
{{clear}}

== Modern culture ==
{{multiple image
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| caption1 = "O master, do you love my tender rhyme?" Viviane and Merlin in [[Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale]]s' illustration for [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]]'s ''[[Idylls of the King]]'' (1913)
| caption2 = An original story of Percival defeating the evil Vivien (then sparing her life after she pleads mercy) in Howard Pyle's 1905 illustration for ''[[The Story of the Champions of the Round Table]]'': <small>"Therefore he cried out with a loud voice and seized the enchantress by her long golden hair, and drew her so violently forward that she fell down upon her knees."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/storyofchampions00pyle/page/296|title=The Story of the Champions of the Round Table|last=Pyle|first=Howard|date=1905|publisher=New York : Scribner|others=New York Public Library}}</ref></small>
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}}

[[Walter Scott]] wrote an influential poem, ''[[The Lady of the Lake (poem)|The Lady of the Lake]]'', in 1810, drawing on the romance of the legend, but with an entirely different story set around [[Loch Katrine]] in the [[Trossachs]] of Scotland. Scott's material furnished subject matter for ''[[La donna del lago]]'', an 1819 opera by [[Gioachino Rossini]]. [[Franz Schubert]] set [[Seven songs from Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake|seven songs from Walter Scott's ''Lady of the Lake'']], including the three "Ellen songs" ("Ellens Gesang I",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.schubertline.co.uk/Scorchshop/cgi-bin/showscore.pl?e1a.sco |title=Ellens Gesang I |publisher=Schubertline.co.uk |access-date=2013-11-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131229080021/http://www.schubertline.co.uk/Scorchshop/cgi-bin/showscore.pl?e1a.sco |archive-date=2013-12-29 }}</ref> "Ellens Gesang II",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.schubertline.co.uk/Scorchshop/cgi-bin/showscore.pl?e2b.sco |title=Ellens Gesang II |publisher=Schubertline.co.uk |access-date=2013-11-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131229080019/http://www.schubertline.co.uk/Scorchshop/cgi-bin/showscore.pl?e2b.sco |archive-date=2013-12-29 }}</ref> and "Ellens Gesang III"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.greatscores.com/p/song/sheetmusic/1004045 |title=Ellens Gesang III |publisher=Greatscores.com |access-date=2013-11-15}}</ref>), although Schubert's music to [[Ave Maria (Schubert)|Ellen's third song]] has become far more famous in its later adaptation, known as "Ave Maria".

[[William Wordsworth]]'s 1831 poem, ''The Egyptian Maid or The Romance of the Water-Lily'' features the Lady of the Lake Nina, who, inverting Nimue's role in Malory, brings Merlin out of his cave and back to Arthur's court.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jWi5EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA284|title=Arthurian Literature XXXVIII|first1=Kevin S.|last1=Whetter|first2=Megan G.|last2=Leitch|date=4 April 2023|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|isbn=9781843846475 |via=Google Books}}</ref> [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]] adapted several stories of the Lady of the Lake for his 1859–1885 poetic cycle ''[[Idylls of the King]]''. He splits her into two characters: Viviane is a [[Circe]]-like deceitful villain and an associate of [[King Mark]] and Mordred who ensnares Merlin, while the Lady of the Lake is a [[guardian angel]] style benevolent figure who raises Lancelot and gives Arthur his sword.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_sHPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA41|title=Essays on Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King|first=Harold|last=Littledale|date=14 March 1893|publisher=Macmillan|via=Google Books}}</ref>

The full French name of the [[University of Notre Dame]], founded in 1842, is ''Notre Dame du Lac''. This is translated as "Our Lady of the Lake", making reference to [[Mary, mother of Jesus]] as the Lady of the Lake in a fusion between Arthurian legend and French Catholicism.<ref>{{cite web|last1=M. Rible|title=A Comparison of Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance|url=https://web.stanford.edu/class/engl165b/rible.htm|website=web.stanford.edu|access-date=27 Nov 2014}}</ref>

===Popular culture===
{{Overly detailed|section|date=December 2022}}
{{Split section|Lady of the Lake in popular culture|date=December 2022}}

Twentieth- and 21st-century authors of Arthurian fiction adapt the legend of the Lady of the Lake in various ways, sometimes using two or more bearers of this title while others choose to emphasize a single character. Typically influenced by Thomas Malory's telling of the story, fantasy writers tend to give their version of Merlin a sorcerous female enemy, usually either Nimue, Morgan (often perceived as more plausible in this role due to her established enmity with Arthur in much of the legend), or Morgan's sister [[Morgause]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CpWNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA249|title=Merlin: A Casebook|first=Peter H.|last=Goodrich|date=June 5, 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135583408|via=Google Books}}</ref> Various characters of the Lady (or Ladies) of the Lake appear in many works, including poems, novels, films, television series, stage productions, comics, and games. Though her identity may change, her role as a significant figure in the lives of Arthur and Merlin usually remains consistent. Some examples of such works are listed below.

* Nimue appears in [[T. H. White]]'s book series ''[[The Once and Future King]]'' as a water nymph and Merlin's enchantress. True to the legend she traps Merlin in a cave, but White's Merlyn does not convey it as negative, and even refers to it as a holiday. They thus disappear together near the beginning of ''[[The Ill-Made Knight]]'' (1940), however Merlyn later returns in ''[[The Book of Merlyn]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EC8aSASe0CgC&pg=PA145|title=T.H. White's The Once and Future King|first=Elisabeth|last=Brewer|date=August 5, 1993|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=9780859913935|via=Google Books}}</ref>
* Nineue ferch Afallach, "Tennyson's Vivien",<ref>"The characters of the novel" in the various editions of the novel, including London: Macdonald, 1951, p. xvii.</ref> is a fairy enchantress in [[John Cowper Powys]]'s novel ''[[Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages]]'' (1951). In Welsh mythology, [[Modron]] ("divine mother") was a daughter of [[Afallach|Avallach]]; she was derived from the [[Gaulish]] goddess [[Dea Matrona|Matrona]] and may have been the prototype of Morgan. The novel ends with the protagonist Porius saving the wizard [[Myrddin Wyllt|Myrddin]] (the story's Merlin figure<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CpWNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA251|title=Merlin: A Casebook|first=Peter H.|last=Goodrich|date=14 June 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135583408 |via=Google Books}}</ref>) from his entombment by Nineue on the summit of [[Snowdon]], Wales' highest mountain.
*The 1960 musical ''[[Camelot (musical)|Camelot]]'' includes the character Nimue who has a song called "Follow Me" performed in Act I. In the play, Nimue, a beautiful water nymph, has come to draw Merlyn into her cave for an eternal sleep. He begs Nimue for answers, as he has forgotten if he has warned Arthur about Lancelot and Mordred, before his memories fade permanently and he is led away. She does not appear in the [[Camelot (film)|film adaptation]], but "Follow Me" is echoed in the notably similar "Come with Me" sung by the Lady of the Lake for [[Galahad]] in the later musical ''[[Spamalot]]'' (2005).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s34fEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA164|title=From Camelot to Spamalot: Musical Retellings of Arthurian Legend on Stage and Screen|first=Megan|last=Woller|date=August 5, 2021|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-751102-2|via=Google Books}}</ref>
*The Lady of the Lake is satirized off-screen in the 1975 comedy film ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'', in which late 20th century notions are inserted into a mythic tale for comical effect. In a famous scene, a peasant named Dennis says, "Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony." Arthurian scholar [[N. J. Higham]] described this iconic dialogue line as ever "immortal" in 2005.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FxxqcoVa7b8C&pg=PT466|title=King Arthur: Myth-Making and History|first=N. J.|last=Higham|date=July 5, 2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781134614288|via=Google Books}}</ref>
*In the [[DC Comics Universe]], Vivienne is the Lady of the Lake. Nimue is the good [[Madame Xanadu]] (introduced in 1978), her youngest sister, and their middle sister is the evil [[Morgaine le Fey (DC Comics)|Morgaine le Fey]] (given name Morgana); their surname is Inwudu. The Lady of the Lake has appeared in ''[[Hellblazer]]'', ''[[Aquaman]]'', and her sister's own series. In the 1983 DC Comics series ''[[Camelot 3000]]'', an unrelated Lady of the Lake is referred to as Nyneve, depicted as a woman with a beautiful body but wearing a mask, who is sent to confront the heroes of Camelot. When Nyneve removes the mask, Merlin, upon seeing her face, is unable to resist her and departs, thus removing him from Morgan's path. Later, when he escapes her control, it is revealed that her only facial feature is a gigantic mouth with a long serpentine tongue, ''[[vagina dentata]]'' style,<ref name=pat>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-SrbrxjSiW8C&pg=PA32|title=Popular Arthurian Traditions|first=Sally K.|last=Slocum|date=August 5, 1992|publisher=Popular Press|isbn=9780879725624|via=Google Books}}</ref> which Merlin turns against her.
*[[Mary Stewart (novelist)|Mary Stewart]]'s 1979 novel ''[[The Last Enchantment]]'' in her ''Arthurian Saga'' series radically recasts the story of Merlin and Niniane (Nimue), completely removing the aspect of malicious seduction and treachery dominant in the traditional version; it is the witch Morgause, the mother of Mordred (with Mordred notably undergoing a similarly revisionist treatment as Nimue<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-xK_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA175|title=Women and Arthurian Literature: Seizing the Sword|first=Marion|last=Wynne-Davies|date=July 27, 2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781349244539|via=Google Books}}</ref>), who takes Nimue's traditional role and then continues as the chief villain.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hf6zAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA432|title=The New Arthurian Encyclopedia: New edition|first1=Norris J.|last1=Lacy|first2=Geoffrey|last2=Ashe|first3=Sandra Ness|last3=Ihle|first4=Marianne E.|last4=Kalinke|first5=Raymond H.|last5=Thompson|date=September 5, 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136606335|via=Google Books}}</ref> In this depiction, after she saves him from being poisoned by Morgause, Merlin takes Niniane on as an apprentice, with her at first disguised as a boy named Ninian, and willingly teaches her his magic, which he had refused to Morgause.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mlf9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT188|title=The Book of Merlin: Magic, Legend and History|first=John|last=Matthews|date=September 15, 2020|publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited|isbn=9781445699219|via=Google Books}}</ref> When her identity as a woman is discovered, they fall in love despite their age difference. Their love is peaceful and idyllic; even when Nimue marries Pelleas, this is not a betrayal of Merlin.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CpnvVMiQIvwC&pg=PA46|title=Silk and Potatoes: Contemporary Arthurian Fantasy|first=Adam|last=Roberts|date=August 5, 1998|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=9042003065|via=Google Books}}</ref> As Merlin gives her the secrets of his power and how to control it, he seems to lose them himself, which he does not mind. In a depleted, weakened condition, he falls into a coma, and is believed to be dead. Nimue has him buried within his "crystal cave", from which he escapes after a few weeks, through a combination of chance luck and ingenious planning, and travels incognito to let Arthur know he is still alive and can help him against Morgause and Morgan. Nimue takes Merlin's place as the court enchanter, while Merlin retires to the crystal cave and lives a quiet and happy life as a hermit. Niniane takes his place and role to the degree she even proclaims "I am Merlin", thus creating a 'Nimue-Merlin' character.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6LBFCZY-ml8C&pg=PA308|title=Arthurian Writers: A Biographical Encyclopedia|first1=Laura C.|last1=Lambdin|first2=Robert T.|last2=Lambdin|date=August 5, 2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313346828|via=Google Books}}</ref>
*In [[John Boorman|John Boorman's]] 1981 film ''[[Excalibur (film)|Excalibur]]'', an uncredited actress plays the Lady of Lake, twice holding up the fabled sword, once for Merlin to give to [[Uther Pendragon]], and once to return to Arthur.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C8fB8p6crY| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211113/2C8fB8p6crY| archive-date=2021-11-13 | url-status=live|title=Excalibur (1981) - The Lady of the Lake Scene (3/10) {{!}} Movieclips|website=YouTube|date=January 28, 2019|access-date=August 5, 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Separately, the film's Morgana ([[Helen Mirren]]) takes on other parts of the traditional Lady of the Lake story,<ref name=pat/><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bhmFAUHjrV4C&pg=PA24|title=The Infernal Return: The Recurrence of the Primordial in Films of the Reaction Years, 1977-1983|first=Rodney|last=Farnsworth|date=August 5, 2002|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780275974817|via=Google Books}}</ref> learning the occult arts from Merlin and ultimately trapping him with his own powerful "Charm of Making", the magic of shapeshifting.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m1fnIk1_j3MC&pg=PA11|title=The Cinema of John Boorman|first=Brian|last=Hoyle|date=August 5, 2012|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780810883956|via=Google Books}}</ref>
*[[Marion Zimmer Bradley]]'s 1983 novel ''[[The Mists of Avalon]]'', a feminist retelling of the legend, expands on the tradition of multiple Ladies, with Viviane, Niniane and Nimue all being separate characters.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0fXSWMyVa0sC&pg=PA16|title=Humanities|date=August 5, 1986|publisher=National Endowment for the Humanities|via=Google Books}}</ref> Furthermore, in Bradley's works, both the 'Lady of the Lake' and the 'Merlin' are names of offices in the [[Ancient Celtic religion|Celtic pagan]] hierarchy: the Lady of the Lake is the title of the ruling priestess of Avalon, and the Merlin is a [[druid]] who has pledged his life to the protection of Britain. Various tragic characters assume the title of the Lady of the Lake, including Viviane, the initial High Priestess of Avalon, Arthur's aunt, and Lancelot's mother who ends up killed by Balin (here as her other son Balan's foster-brother); Niniane, [[Taliesin]]'s daughter and yet another of Arthur's half-sisters who reluctantly becomes the Lady of the Lake after Viviane is slain and becomes Mordred's lover until he kills her; the main protagonist and narrator Morgaine (Morgan), portrayed similar as in the medieval romances but more sympathetically; and Nimue, a sympathetic and tragic young priestess who falls in love with the Merlin but is duty bound by Morgaine to seduce and lure him to his death &ndash; following which she drowns herself. Their ancestors (the previous priestesses of Avalon and, before that, of [[Atlantis]]) are subjects of Bradley's extended ''Avalon'' universe novels, among them the direct prequel ''[[Lady of Avalon]]'' (1997), the third part of which follows the young Viviane. A 2001 [[The Mists of Avalon (miniseries)|television adaptation of ''The Mists of Avalon'']] starred [[Anjelica Huston]] as Viviane, and [[Julianna Margulies]] and [[Tamsin Egerton]] as Morgaine.
*In his Christian-themed 1987–1999 book series ''[[The Pendragon Cycle]]'', [[Stephen Lawhead]] takes up the figure of the Lady of the Lake under a different name: the Faery princess Charis, daughter of Avallach, the king of Atlantis and later of Avalon. Married to the Breton prince Taliesin, she gives birth to Merlin. After Taliesin's death, Charis takes care of Merlin at Lake [[Logres]], hence her name "Lady of the Lake". She is the protagonist and narrator of the first book in the cycle, ''Taliesin''. The traditional figure of Nimue belongs to Charis' shapeshifting evil sister Morgian (Morgan),<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vCaxCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|title=Fantasy Fiction and Welsh Myth: Tales of Belonging|first=Kath|last=Filmer-Davies|date=December 13, 1996|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781349249916|via=Google Books}}</ref> the main antagonist through the entire series, including the modern-day-set ''Avalon: The Return of King Arthur''.
*In [[Bernard Cornwell]]'s 1995–1997 novel series ''[[The Warlord Chronicles]]'', more historically grounded and realistic than usual treatments of Arthurian legend, Nimue is an Irish orphan adopted by the British druid Merlin. She is a prominent character in the books, being a childhood friend of, a major love interest for, and finally an adversary to the series' main protagonist, Arthur's warrior [[Derfel Cadarn]]. She begins as Merlin's most adept priestess and lover, but as she grows ever more brutal and fanatical, by the time of the final novel she turns against him and imprisons him, torturing him to reveal the last of his magical secrets in her desperate obsession to bring back the Old Gods of Britain at any price. Eventually, she brings Merlin to total madness before ultimately sacrificing him to their lost gods, whose return she believes would rid the island of the Saxons and the Christians alike. As Nimue believes the key to her goal is to sacrifice [[King Arthur's family|Gwydre]], Arthur's son with Guinevere using Excalibur (as she already did with [[Gawain]]), Derfel's final act of casting the sword away is not to return it to her but to hide it from her forever. [[Stephen Thomas Knight]], commenting on Cornwell's vicious Nimue, with her tunnel-vision ruthlessness, vindicativeness, and frequent use of prolonged torture, opined the "pro-Celtic quasi-historian" author "links her to the Saxons as part of her hostility to decent people, including Merlin."<ref name=rm/> Symbolically, both Nimue and the hypocritical [[Samson of Dol|Bishop Sansum]], representing the Christian side of the books' major theme of the danger of religious extremism, remain still alive as the story comes to the end.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OHsRAQAAMAAJ|title=Arthuriana|date=August 5, 1999|publisher=Southern Methodist University|via=Google Books}}</ref> Nimue is due to be portrayed by Ellie James in the upcoming television adaptation ''[[The Winter King (TV series)|The Winter King]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/celebs-tv/winter-king-nimue-actress-doctor-8208999|title=Doctor Who actress is Cornwall's 'Lady of the Lake' in Winter King|first=Shannon|last=Brown|date=4 March 2023|website=CornwallLive}}</ref>
*In the 1995–1996 animated series ''[[Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders]]'', the name of the first season's antagonist Lady Kale (voiced by [[Corinne Orr]]), an evil twin sister of the Queen of Avalon and a former student of Merlin who magically imprisons him,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-k6mg3zM24QC&pg=PA326|title=King Arthur in America|last1=Lupack|first1=Alan|last2=Lupack|first2=Barbara Tepa|date=2001|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|language=en|isbn=978-0859916301}}</ref> was created as an anagram of Lady of the Lake.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EWQsAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA103|title=Arthurian Animation: A Study of Cartoon Camelots on Film and Television|last=Salda|first=Michael N.|date=2013|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0786474684|language=en}}</ref> Lady Kale seeks to steal Merlin's magic so she can rule Avalon forever, later working together with the also evil Morgana. However, a good character of the Lady of the Lake (called the Spirit of Avalon in an alternate version ''Starla and the Jewel Riders'') herself briefly appears during the second seasons's finale in the eponymous episode "Lady of the Lake" ("Spirit of Avalon") to help Princess Gwenevere and Merlin defeat Lady Kale and Morgana.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7eQLAQAAMAAJ|title=Television Cartoon Shows: The shows, M-Z|first=Hal|last=Erickson|date=14 March 2005|publisher=McFarland & Company|isbn=9780786422562 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
*In the 1998 television miniseries ''[[Merlin (miniseries)|Merlin]]'', the characters of the Lady of the Lake ([[Miranda Richardson]]) and Nimue ([[Isabella Rossellini]]) are separated, with the former being a goddess-like beneficent fae who is the twin sister of the evil [[Queen Mab]], and the latter being a noblewoman damsel in distress with no supernatural powers who is the object of Merlin's affections.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=syUkCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA49|title=Cinema Arthuriana: Twenty Essays, rev. ed.|first=Kevin J.|last=Harty|date=May 7, 2015|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476608440|via=Google Books}}</ref> In the motif evoking [[Edwin Arlington Robinson]]'s 1917 poem ''[[Merlin (Robinson)|Merlin]]'',<ref name=rm>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OrbkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA295|title=Refashioning Myth: Poetic Transformations and Metamorphoses|first1=David|last1=McInnis|first2=Eric|last2=Parisot|first3=Jessica|last3=Wilkinson|date=May 15, 2020|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=9781527551534|via=Google Books}}</ref> Nimue and Merlin live together in another world until he leaves in order to help Arthur; in the end, however, Merlin returns to her and makes them both young again with the last of his magic. In the 2006 pseudo-sequel ''[[Merlin's Apprentice]]'', Miranda Richardson reprises her role as the Lady of the Lake, as the only returning cast member aside of Merlin's [[Sam Neill]],<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k8XJ6UcCumYC&pg=PA65|title=Movies Made for Television: 2005-2009|first=Alvin H.|last=Marill|date=October 11, 2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810876590|via=Google Books}}</ref> though she portrays a much different characterization: the Lady is the main antagonist seeking to destroy Camelot. It also depicts Merlin's sleep in the cave; as he slept, the Lady used her magic to conceive a son with Merlin and then enchanted him to sleep for 50 years.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X8iXDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA63|title=The Sorcerer's Apprentice: An Anthology of Magical Tales|first=Jack|last=Zipes|date=9 July 2019|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691191423 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m6GHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA163|title=Arthur: God and Hero in Avalon|first=Christopher|last=Fee|date=15 November 2018|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=9781789140248 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
*In the 2005–2009 television series ''[[Kaamelott]]'', the Lady of the Lake ([[Audrey Fleurot]]) is an angel sent to help King Arthur progress in the quest for the [[Grail]]. Upending the established connections, the series' Lancelot not only never interacts with the Lady but cannot even see her.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zHyfBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA189|title=Arthurian Literature XXXI|first1=Elizabeth|last1=Archibald|first2=David F.|last2=Johnson|date=November 20, 2014|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=9781843843863|via=Google Books}}</ref>
*The 2008–2012 television series ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' also features two characters based on the Lady of the Lake. Nimueh ([[Michelle Ryan]]) serves as the primary antagonist of the show's [[Merlin (series 1)|first season]], which includes the episode titled "The Mark of Nimueh". The character has no connection to Merlin beyond his opposition to her plans, and her only connection to a lake is her use of a location called the Isle of the Blessed ([[Thomas Wentworth Higginson]]'s 19th-century name for Avalon<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j0gm-u82HHsC|title=Medievalism in North America|isbn=9780859914178|via=books.google.com|last1=Verduin|first1=Kathleen|year=1994|publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref>). She ends up killed by Merlin in a showdown on her Isle of Nimueh in the season's last episode, "Le Morte d'Arthur".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00g43r6|title=BBC One - Merlin, Series 1, Le Morte d'Arthur|website=BBC}}</ref> The ninth episode of [[Merlin (series 2)|the second season]] is titled "The Lady of the Lake", wherein a sorceress named [[Freya]] ([[Laura Donnelly]]) dies and vows to repay Merlin for his kindness to her.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p1msk|title=BBC One - Merlin, Series 2, The Lady of the Lake|website=BBC}}</ref> In [[Merlin (series 3)|the third season]] finale, Freya, now a water spirit, returns Excalibur to Merlin so that he can give it to Prince Arthur Pendragon.
*Nimue, the Blood Queen, appears as one of the primary antagonists in the ''[[Hellboy]]'' comic book series by [[Mike Mignola]], influenced by the classic comics series ''[[Prince Valiant|Prince]] Valiant.''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mMpxEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT640|title=The Arthurian World|first1=Victoria|last1=Coldham-Fussell|first2=Miriam|last2=Edlich-Muth|first3=Renée|last3=Ward|date=30 June 2022|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781000522105 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Here she was introduced in 2008 as a witch who was driven mad after the powers she acquired from Merlin, gave her knowledge of the Ogdru Jahad, prompting the witches of Britain to dismember her and seal her away underground. Resurrected in the present day by Arthur's last descendant, Hellboy, she assumes the mantle of the Irish triple war goddess [[the Morrígan]] and assembles an army of legendary and folkloric beings to eradicate mankind, only to stopped by Hellboy at the cost of his own life. Although having been turned into an evil creature trying to destroy the word, Nimue still had a human part "that hated and feared what she had become."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ygO5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA132|title=Monstrous Imaginaries: The Legacy of Romanticism in Comics|first=Maaheen|last=Ahmed|date=29 November 2019|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=9781496825308 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
**She is portrayed by [[Milla Jovovich]] as the main antagonist in the 2019 film adaptation ''[[Hellboy (2019 film)|Hellboy]]''. Just when massing a plague throughout London, Nimue was thwarted and dismembered by Arthur with his Excalibur before her pieces were separately concealed. After Gruagach recovered all her pieces, Nimue is resurrected for revenge and seeks Hellboy to create the apocalypse. Later in the climax, she betrays and kills Gruagach, and then [[Trevor Bruttenholm|Trevor]] to enrage Hellboy to pull Excalibur from Arthur's tomb and releases all demons throughout England]. However, Alice Monaghan channels Trevor's spirit to encourage Hellboy, who decapitated Nimue, and send her and all demons back into hell.
*Nimue is featured in the 2010s television series ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]]'' in which Arthurian characters live in the land inhabited by other fairy tale characters. She appears as a secondary antagonist in the first half of [[Once Upon a Time (season 5)|Season 5]], portrayed by [[Caroline Ford (actress)|Caroline Ford]]. She is introduced in the eponymous episode "Nimue" when, fleeing from Vortigan who sacked and burned her village, she meets Merlin and they fall in love; with Merlin being immortal, Nimue drinks from the [[Holy Grail]] so they can be together forever.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-once-upon-a-time-recap-nimue-20151108-story.html|title='Once Upon a Time' recap: the origins of Merlin, Excalibur and the Dark One|date=November 9, 2015|website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> Afterwards, she kills Vortigan, which darkens her magic and turns her into the very first Dark One. Nimue breaks Excalibur but Merlin cannot bring himself to kill her and ends up being trapped in a tree.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://screenrant.com/best-arthur-pendragon-merlin-portrayals-movies-tv-shows-ranked/|title=10 Best Portrayals Of King Arthur & Merlin In TV & Movies|date=April 14, 2021|website=ScreenRant}}</ref> At some point, Nimue dies but she manages to live on in all of the following Dark Ones, appearing to them as a vision. She forms an alliance with [[Captain Hook]], manipulating him into casting the Dark Curse and reviving her and the Dark Ones, and then leads a Dark One invasion in Storybrooke, which ultimately leads to her demise at the hands of Hook, who betrays her to redeem himself and destroy her and the Dark Ones forever using Excalibur.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/characters-who-died-once-upon-a-time-910959/|title=Everyone Who's Died on 'Once Upon a Time'|first1=Alyse|last1=Whitney|website=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|date=July 15, 2016}}</ref> The separate character of the Lady of the Lake is referenced as Lancelot's mother, but she never appears; even the episode titled "The Lady of the Lake" does not feature her and its title instead refers to [[Prince Charming]]'s mother.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.avclub.com/once-upon-a-time-lady-of-the-lake-1798174608|title=Once Upon A Time: "Lady Of The Lake"|date=15 October 2012|website=The A.V. Club}}</ref>
*The 2017 film ''[[King Arthur: Legend of the Sword]]'' features the Lady of the Lake ([[Jacqui Ainsley]]) bound Excalibur to the Pendragon bloodline after Merlin used it to destroy the Mage Tower and appears to catch the sword underwater after Arthur throws it into the lake in shame at his failures; she pulls Arthur underwater and motivates him to fight Vortigern before returning the sword to him. This good Lady of the Lake has her mirror image in the film's monstrous character "Syren"<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/king-arthur-legend-of-the-sword-hits-the-reset-button-on-arthurian-legend/2017/05/11/5460c910-34bd-11e7-b412-62beef8121f7_story.html |title='King Arthur: Legend of the Sword' hits the reset button on Arthurian legend |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2017-05-11 |accessdate=2021-11-23}}</ref> that replaces the two dragons in the film's revision of the legend of Vortigern's Tower.
*In the 2020 television series ''[[Cursed (2020 TV series)|Cursed]]'', a feminist re-imagining of the Arthurian legend based on an illustrated novel of the same title,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bleedingcool.com/comics/frank-miller-calls-cursed-his-feminist-retelling-of-the-king-arthur-myth/|title=Frank Miller Calls "Cursed" His Feminist Retelling of the King Arthur Myth|first=Rich|last=Johnston|date=June 30, 2019|website=Bleeding Cool News And Rumors}}</ref> Nimue is the protagonist, portrayed by [[Katherine Langford]] in the adaptation. Writer and showrunner [[Tom Wheeler (writer)|Tom Wheeler]] said he was inspired by "this really evocative image of this young woman’s hand reaching out of this lake and offering the sword to Arthur, so that image is what captivated us. And it's a really mysterious, magical, sad image, and it begged all of these questions: Why is she giving the sword to Arthur? What was their relationship? Why him? Why does she have the sword?"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/cursed-netflix-season-1-explained-1303763/|title='Cursed' on Netflix: Inside the Reimagined King Arthur Legend's Violent First Season|first1=Josh|last1=Wigler|website=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|date=July 20, 2020}}</ref> (Contrary to Wheeler's stated belief, it is not Nimue who gives the sword in Malory's unrevised telling.) In ''Cursed'', before becoming the Lady of the Lake, Nimue, also known as the "Wolf-Blood Witch", is a young woman coming into her [[Fairy|Fey]] abilities, but whilst her home was ravaged by the Christian fanatics called the Red Paladins she is sent on a mission by her dying mother to deliver "The Sword of Power" (Excalibur but never named) to Merlin. Taking great liberties from the source materials, ''Cursed'''s Lancelot (known until the finale as only "The Weeping Monk") is already adult when Nimue first meets him and is for most part just one of her enemies, Merlin is revealed to be her father, and she is instead Arthur's love interest. The story of ''Cursed'' ends abruptly when Nimue is shot with arrows by a nun named Iris (an original character with no counterpart in the legend) and falls with the sword into a body of water, where she (or her spirit, as her exact fate is left unexplained) will guard the sword until "a true king rises to claim it."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2551282/netflixs-cursed-ending-what-happens-to-katherine-langfords-nimue-and-what-we-still-dont-know|title=Netflix's Cursed Ending: What Happens To Katherine Langford's Nimue And What We Still Don't Know|date=July 31, 2020|website=CINEMABLEND}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/cursed-ending-explained/|title=Cursed Ending Explained|date=July 17, 2020|website=Den of Geek}}</ref> Albeit the TV series adapted the entire original book, it was supposed to continue in the canceled second season.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ew.com/tv/cursed-canceled-at-netflix-after-one-season/|title=Katherine Langford fantasy series 'Cursed' canceled at Netflix after one season|author=Tyler Aquilina|date=July 9, 2021|website=EW.com}}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Grendel's mother]]
*[[Llyn y Fan Fach]]
*[[Yeshe Tsogyal]]
{{Clear}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/theme/lady-of-the-lake.html The Lady of the Lake] and [https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/theme/vivien.html Vivien] at The Camelot Project

{{Arthurian Legend}}
{{Fairies}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Arthurian characters]]
[[Category:British poems]]
[[Category:Diana (mythology)]]
[[Category:Fairies]]
[[Category:Female characters in literature]]
[[Category:Female characters in television]]
[[Category:Female legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Fictional characters who use magic]]
[[Category:Fictional lords and ladies]]
[[Category:Mary Magdalene]]
[[Category:Mythological queens]]
[[Category:Supernatural legends]]
[[Category:Thetis]]