「湖の貴婦人」を編集中 (節単位)

=== Nimue ===
The most important of Malory's Lady of the Lake characters is sometimes referred to by her title and sometimes referred to by name, today best known as Nimue (Caxton's print variant), which was rendered Nynyve in Malory's original Winchester Manuscript. Malory initially describes Nimue (Nynyve) as "one of the damsels of the Lady of the Lake", and repeatedly as both the "Damsel of the Lake" and the "Lady of the Lake", before ultimately calling her the "chief Lady of the Lake" at the end.<ref name=":4" />

[[File:Merlin_and_Vivien_by_G.H._Thomas.png|alt=|left|thumb|[[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)]]

Nimue first appears at the wedding of Arthur and Guinevere, as the young huntress rescued by Pellinore. She then plays an important role in the Arthurian court throughout the story,<ref name="Holbrook" /> performing some of the same actions as the Lady of the Lake of Malory's sources, but with differences. 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="cl2">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|alt=|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)]]
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 [[Bedivere]] just after [[Battle of Camlann|Arthur's final battle]]. Malory's narration then counts the "chief Lady of the Lake" 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 this scene's witness instead of Malory's Bedivere<ref>{{cite book |last1=White |first1=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bHUWDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA297 |title=King Arthur in Legend and History |date=12 February 1998 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781136609831}}</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 she 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>}}