Guinevere - Guinevere's Character

Guinevere's Character

In one of the Welsh Triads (Trioedd Ynys Prydein, no. 56), there were three Gwenhwyfars who were married to King Arthur; the first was the daughter of Cywryd of Gwent, the second of Gwythyr ap Greidawl, and the third of (G)ogrfan Gawr ("the Giant"),). In a variant of another Welsh Triad (Trioedd Ynys Prydein, no. 54), there is only one Gwenhwyfar mentioned, the daughter of Gogfran Gawr. In two other Triads (Trioedd Ynys Prydein, no. 53, 84), mention is made of Gwenhwyfar's contention with her sister Gwenhwyfach, which was believed to be the cause of the Battle of Camlann. In the Welsh Romance Culhwch ac Olwen, she is mentioned along side of her sister Gwenhwyfach. In Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, she is one of the great beauties of Britain, descended from a noble Roman family and educated under duke Cador of Cornwall. There was once a popular folk rhyme known in Wales concerning Gwenhwyfar:

Gwenhwyfar ferch Ogrfan Gawr

Drwg yn fechabm gwaeth yn fawr.

Gwenhwyfar, daughter of Ogrfan Gawr

Bad when little, worse when great.

In non-Welsh medieval Romance, she is the daughter of King Leodegrance, and is betrothed to Arthur early in his career, while he is garnering support. When Lancelot arrives later, she is instantly smitten, and they soon consummate the adultery that will bring about Arthur's fall. However, Arthur is not aware of their relationship or adultery for quite a while, until at a feast when he realizes that neither Lancelot nor Guinevere is there. Their affair is exposed by two of King Lot's sons, Agravain and Mordred, and Lancelot flees for his life while Arthur reluctantly sentences his queen to burn at the stake. Knowing Lancelot and his family will try to stop the execution, Arthur sends many of his knights to defend the pyre, though Gawain refuses to participate. Lancelot arrives and rescues the queen, and in the course of the battle Gawain's brothers Gaheris and Gareth are killed, sending Gawain into a rage so great that he pressures Arthur into war with Lancelot. When Arthur goes to France to fight Lancelot, he leaves Guinevere in the care of Mordred, who plots to marry the queen himself and take Arthur's throne. In some versions Guinevere assents to Mordred's proposal, but in others, she hides in the Tower of London and then takes refuge in a convent. Hearing of the treachery, Arthur returns to Britain and slays Mordred at Camlann, but his wounds are so severe that he is taken to the isle of Avalon. Guinevere meets Lancelot one last time, then returns to the convent where she spends the remainder of her life.

Guinevere is childless in most stories, two exceptions being the Perlesvaus and the Alliterative Morte Arthure. In the former, the character Mordred is apparently Arthur's illegitimate son in other works.

In the latter, Guinevere willingly becomes Mordred's consort and bears him two sons, though all of this is implied rather than stated in the text. There are mentions of Arthur's sons in the Welsh Triads, though their exact parentage isn't clear. Other family relations are equally obscure; a half-sister and a brother play the antagonists in the Lancelot-Grail and the German romance Diu Crône respectively, but neither character is mentioned elsewhere. Welsh tradition remembers the queen's sister Gwenhyvach and records the enmity between them. While later literature almost always names Leodegrance as Guinevere's father, her mother is usually unmentioned, though she is sometimes said to be dead. Such is the case in the Middle English romance The Awntyrs off Arthure (The Adventures of Arthur), in which the ghost of Guinevere's mother appears to her daughter and Gawain in Inglewood Forest. Other works name cousins of note, though these do not usually appear in more than one place.

Guinevere has been portrayed as everything from a weak and opportunistic traitor to a fatally flawed but noble and virtuous gentlewoman. In Chrétien's Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, she is praised for her intelligence, friendliness, and gentility, while in Marie de France's Lanval (and Thomas Chestre's Middle English version, Sir Launfal), she is a vindictive adulteress, disliked by the protagonist and all well-bred knights. The early chronicles tend to portray her inauspiciously or hardly at all, while later authors used her good and bad qualities to construct a deeper character who plays a larger role. The works of Chrétien were some of the first to elaborate on the character Guinevere beyond simply the wife of Arthur. This is likely due to his audience at the time, the court of Marie de Champagne, which was composed of courtly ladies who played highly social roles.