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The Lady of the Lake

The Lady of the Lake

Visioni interdisciplinari Gentes, anno I numero 1 - dicembre 2014 The collection of a number of other works written by such Massimo Ciavolella diversebled in theauthors first ashalf Geoffrey of the thirteenth of Monmouth century. whose It isHi a- Department of Italian, University of California storia Regum Britanniae of 1138 was then expanded Los Angeles (UCLA) U.S.A. by Wace in Norman French and Layamon in English; Keywords: letteratura, leggenda medievale, cultura occidentale individual tales of various Arthurian heroes, as found for example in the romances of Chretien de Troyes; and incomplete works such as Robert de Boron’s Mer- In the collective imagination of the ancient Greek and lin. One lengthy section of the Vulgate cycle is called Roman worlds the sea occupies a central position: the prose-, which tells the story of the futu- Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, generation re paladin’s childhood, his coming to ’s and fertility is born of sea-foam; the highlight of the court, and his love for . Lancelot is the son Iliad is when the Trojans see the sails of the Greek of of Benwick, a province in France. The King

attacked by his neighbor, King , but when he result;fleet disappear Odysseus on and the his horizon, companions and believe are compelled that the is forced to flee his lands with his wife and son when siege to their city is finally over, with catastrophic - to wander for ten years on the sea for having blinded en puts the child down near a lake and runs to her Polyphemus, the son of the sea god Poseidon; Jason husband,sees his city but in when flames she he returns collapses for andthe dies.child, The he isque no and his companions undertake a sea voyage on the longer there. He has been kidnapped by a fey, a . ship Argo in search of the Golden Fleece; in the Aeneid “The lady who took Lancelot, whose name is Niniane the Roman poet Vergil tells of the sea-faring adventu- – the text tells us – is a fairy, by which is meant a wo- res of Aeneas, the Trojan hero and mythical founder man with a knowledge of magic.” Niniane is, of course, of Rome. And I could go on and on. another name for Viviane and for , the queen of By the Middle Ages the sea loses some of its allure, : a good fey or a bad fey, according to the text replaced by inlets, rivers, and especially lakes. In nor- we read. The tale Lancelot thern French and English mythologies, lakes are mur- three stages that will lead him to his destiny, that is to ky, mysterious places inhabited by water nymphs, fai- say his initiation. In order torecounts gain entry is the into first Arthur’s of the ries, and powerful queens, whose actions are closely court, the Lady of the Lake must teach the young child tied to the political and social life of the time, some for to become a knight; however, Lancelot’s emblematic the sake of good, some for good forsaken. One of the space is not the land of his father -- where a young most important, appealing, and compellingly endu- man could prove his prowess and his mettle -- but the Otherwordly Kingdom in which the Lady of the Lake of the Lady of the Lake, the mythical queen of Avalon ring figures associated with a watery kingdom is that has raised him. who will raise Sir Lancelot and give to King Arthur the His weapons also attest his supernatural origins, magical sword, . since it is the Lady of the Lake who gives them to him. The birth of the Lady of the Lake is almost certainly The text insists on the color of the other world, white, ancient and pagan, and is usually referred to by va- the color of innocence and purity: The Lady is dres- riations on the names Nimue or Vivienne. The name sed in white, Lancelot is always called “li blans che- Nimue is probably related to Mneme, the shortened valiers” or “li chevaliers au blanches armes.” Those form of Mnemosyne, one of the nine water-nymph weapons are no mere ornaments; they are presented Muses of Greek and Roman mythology who furnished as an essential attribute of the youth, and it is throu- weapons – as does the Lady of the Lake – to Perseus, gh them that he must win his knighthood. In provi- the beheader of the Gorgon Medusa. Vivienne is thou- ding Lancelot with those very weapons, the Lady of ght to derive from the Celtic form Vi-Vianna, derived the Lake contravenes King Arthur’s authority, for it is from Co-Vianna, a variant of the ubiquitous Celtic wa- the King himself who is to bestow the title of knight ter-goddess, Coventina. Water deities were common by dressing him with new weapons. Later the Lady of in Celtic mythology, and offerings of weapons and the Lake will send Lancelot three shields, all made of valuable objects in rivers and lakes were extremely common. Even today these practices continue; howe- bendy; the second has two bendies; and the third has ver, the weapons are thrown into wishing wells, whe- three.silver. TheThese pattern shields of alsothe firstbelong is ato diagonal the other stripe world, or re the Lady of the Lake is called “Lady Luck”! having as colors (tinctures) “argent” and “gules,” that The background stories for Arthurian material -- is to say silver and red, and magic powers – they dou- and, thus, for the Lady of the Lake -- are seen in the ble, triple and quadruple the strength of the one who so-called French Vulgate, a prose compilation assem- holds them. Worthwhile noting is the fact that when 36 Gentes, anno I numero 1 - dicembre 2014 Visioni interdisciplinari

Lancelot is knighted, he does not join Arthur’s Round the Lake who, in the so-called post-Vulgate , by Table. After having received the king’s knighthood, he raising her arm up from the waters of her lake gives refuses to be girdled with a sword. Arthur the sword that she calls “Excalibur, that is as to But let us return to the Lady of the Lake. True, she say as Cut-steel.” Many of you are acquainted with the took the young child, but only when he was left wi- story, and at this point I am sure you are thinking: Yes, thout land or kingdom, and was poor and orphaned. but what about King Arthur and the sword in the sto- Yet, it is precisely because of this that she does, in fact, ne? Wasn’t Excalibur set in a stone, and Arthur, as the invest a positive role, as she herself says: «jel nori en legitimate King, the only one who could pull it from ses grans povertés, la ou il perdi son pere et sa mere the stone? Yes, this is another version of the legend or, as other legends tell us, there were two swords. First and foremost though, the sword is the ultimate et fis tant a l’aide1» de(Micha Dieu 1982:que il fu459). biax vallés et grans: symbol of the power of the king, and it is loaded with etIt puis is not l’amenai to pull Lancelota cort et awayfis tant from vers his le court roi Artu that qu’il she symbolic meaning. The Lady of the Lake speaks: takesle fist himchevalier to the Other World under the waters of the lake, but to give him the ideal formation of the perfect The sword which the knight has belted on has two knight. sharp edges, and not without reason. Of all the arms, When Lancelot is eighteen years old, the Lady of the the sword is the most honorable and the most no- Lake explains to him the history of : the ori- ble; the one, which has the most dignity, for you, can gin, weapons, and role of the knight. It is important harm with it in three ways. You can thrust and kill by to stress the fact that the author placed such an im- stabbing with the point, and you can cut right and portant encomium in the mouth of such a character. left with the two edges. The two edges signify that It is at that moment when she decides it is time for the knight should be a servant to our Lord and to His Lancelot to leave the lake, and brings him to King Ar- people: and that one edge of the sword should strike thur’s court to leave him there. She does not, however, those who are enemies of Our Lord and despisers abandon him: the fairy-nurse now becomes the fairy- of His faith: and the other should take vengeance on godmother, who intervenes when Lancelot needs her, those who are destroyers of the human company, either in person, or through one of her fairy helpers, that is those who take from one another, who kill as when he is a prisoner of the enchantress Camille or one another. Such should be the strength of the two when, after the episode of the Valley with no Return, obedience, for it stabs, and nothing so stabs the he- the Lady of the Lake cures him of his madness. Being art,edges, not but loss the of pointland oris different.of wealth, The as being point forced signifies to madhe is meantfirst imprisoned being excluded and then from freed court by society, Morgue it meand- within the limits of the forest and the monstrous cre- obey.These (qtd. words in Dean are meant1993: 13)for Lancelot, but the same aturesant being inhabiting excluded it. from By releasingthe court, himand beingfrom hisconfined mad- can be said for Arthur, whose sword is the symbol of ness, the Lady of the Lake returns him to his former his reign over . It is with this sword that he place within court society. wishes to kill Lancelot, who has betrayed him with his Her role in the Arthurian cycle, however, is not only wife Guinevere; however, after a three-month siege of that of raising Lancelot du Lac and preparing him to Lancelot’s castle, the Joyous Guard – before the love become a knight -- regretfully, time does not permit between it had been called me to discuss the Lady of the Lake’s role in the blos- the Sad Guard-- mortally wounds Arthur in battle. As soming love between Lancelot and Guinevere; in exal- he feels the shadow of death shift over him, he com- ting courtly love and, through their passion, thereby illustrate the most important courtly values: love and Table, and one of Arthur’s chief advisers (in other ver- chivalry -- she also has a fundamental role in the story sionsmands Sir Griflet, one is of the the one first who Knights is asked of tothe do Round it) to of King Arthur. In Sir ’s La Morte Darthur, Nenyve – fails to do it twice, since he believes that so great a one of the spellings of Nimue – enters the male domi- throw Excalibur back into the enchanted lake. Griflet- nated political sphere whenever she feels that her gui- plies with the wounded King’s request and throws the dance is warranted. As an advocate of feudal chivalry, swordweapon into should the lake,not be a handwasted. emerges When fromhe finally the water com she is a protector not just of chivalric virtues, but also to grab it, and disappears with it under the surface. of King Arthur, her chosen sovereign. It is the Lady of When Arthur hears that the Lady of the Lake has re-

See also Boiven 1984: 18-25. 1 37 Visioni interdisciplinari Gentes, anno I numero 1 - dicembre 2014

Sapkowsky wrote a novel The Lady of the Lake imme-

Suddenlytaken the asword barge that appears, she had on givenboard him,are thehe realizesLady of Spanish, and Lithuanian. The Lady of the Lake has ap- thethat Lake his lifewith has three finally other run his course,all dressed and in he black, dies. peareddiately translatedin 92 stories in Czech,of Marvel French, comics; Russian, Excalibur German, was the color of mourning, to take his corpse to his resting a very successful movie, and the BBC TV serial Merlin, place, the isle of Avalon. devoted several episodes to our Lady. One of the best Some say that King Arthur was in fact still alive and that he was cured by the Lady of the lake and her White-Rock lake, another in Lake Huron; and I could handmaids, and that he still lives there, waiting for goDallas on forlegends another is that half the hour Lady talking of the about Lake stillcontempo lives in- the right time to come back to save England. rary renditions of the Arthur’s cycle and the Lady of The pristine waters of that mysterious lake (some of the Lake. the stories tell us that it was the lake of the ancient I will end my paper in Los Angeles, city of eternal spring and visual invention, and where I live and tea- of the Lake, King Arthur, Guinevere, Sir Lancelot still ch, because our city also has a Lady – Nuestra Reina de livegoddess on through ) literaturestill create and magic the visualtoday, arts:and thepainting Lady Los Angeles – more commonly known as the “Lady of the Lake”. Standing some four meters high at the edge just to mention a few), comic strips, cinema and tele- of Echo Park Lake, this Lady overlooks and protects vision.(William Sir Morris, Walter Dante Scott’s Gabriel long poem Rossetti, “The Gustave Lady of Doré the Lake” narrates the struggle between King James V and the Arthurian Nimue or Viviane: the Virgin Mary, the protectorthe City of of Angels: the kingdom it is the of ultimate God on reconfigurationearth – at least for of the Arthurian cycle, just like Gioacchino Rossini’s those who believe in her. operathe powerful The Lady “clan of the Douglas,” Lake, whose and has libretto little isto taken do with di- rectly from ’s poem. Raymond Chandler’s The Lady in the Lake is a thriller set near Los Angeles, Works Cited yet several references to the cycle are embedded in the text. Alfred Tennyson adopted several stories of Boiven J. M., La Dame du Lac, Morgane et , the Lady of the Lake for his poetic cycle “The Idylls “Médiévale”, 3, 3, 1984, pp. 18-25. of the King.” In 1983 publi- The Lady of the Lake in Arthurian Legend, shed a very long (873 pages) and very successful no- Lewinson, The Edwin Mellen Press, 1993. DeanMicha C., A. (a cura di), Lancelot vel, , in which the stories of King 1982. Arthur are related from the point of view of the fe- , Paris-Gèneve, Droz, male characters. In 1999 the Polish novelist Andrzej

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