「湖の貴婦人」を編集中 (節単位)

== 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 mentioned in this version.

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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| 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 in which Merlin falls in love with her, typically unrequited. 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> As a result of their usually final encounter, Merlin almost always either dies or at very least is never seen again.

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> 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> In the Post-Vulgate ''Merlin'', Viviane later protects Arthur from Morgan through her magical interventions.

According to her backstory in the 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 low relief at [[Two 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'', either this Lady of the Lake personally or one of her damsels (her identity is unclear, as, despite her explicit connection with the Excalibur episode, the woman is not actually identified as the "Lady of the Lake" in this scene<ref name=":4" />) comes to King Arthur's court, where she is suddenly attacked and beheaded by [[Sir Balin]]. It comes 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 relatively early in the Post-Vulgate ''Merlin Continuation'', during the time when Merlin is still at Arthur's side and prior to the introduction of the young Viviane in the same part of the cycle. Modern retellings, however, usually make this Lady of the Lake the same character as Viviane, while also omitting the Balin episode.

===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">Larrington, Carolyne. ''King Arthur's Enchantresses: Morgan and Her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition.'' I. B. Tauris, 2006.</ref> 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>