The Lady of the Lake is a figure surrounded by much mystery and mystique. Her role in the Arthurian legends varies from one storyteller to another, but I think the Lady of the Lake was an Amazon – at least at heart.

Who was she, this mysterious woman so often the subject of art and myth? She’s known as the Lady of the Lake, La Dame Du Lac. Growing up, I was familiar with the most popularized version of the Arthurian legends, Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur - read the translation in university. This is the version that many of the modern tales and movies are based on. To me, the Lady of the Lake was always linked with Arthur and was this almost indifferent magical being both revered and feared.

But earlier texts portray a much different character. In fact, Malory’s portrayal of the Lady of the Lake would seem to be an aberration of the legends.

The Lady of the Lake is seen in 3 general roles across surviving texts and manuscripts: guardian of Lancelot, opponent of Morgan Le Fay, and consort/betrayer of Merlin. She’s known by a number of different names, which makes sense since so many different writers have contributed to the bulk of the Arthurian myth. Some writers name La Dame Du Lac, others do not, but her many names include: a fée ( fey) – a fairy, a sea-fairy, the evil Viviane or Niniane who betray Merlin, or the magic-embued Nimué as Malory called her. Perhaps my favorite reference is ‘she who was never without a sword.’ But she’s more than just a fairy.

The Lady of the Lake’s origins belong to the pre-Christian tales of the Arthurian canon. She doesn’t appear in any of the grail stories, but not many of the traditional Arthurian female characters (Morgan Le Fay, Guinevere) make more than a brief appearance.

Malcor and Littleton write: “The manuscripts in which her story appears were composed in regions that were directly influenced by Celtic, Teutonic, Roman, and Scythian traditions…the subsequent fusion of the Northeastern Iranian and Celtic traditions resulted in the polar opposition of the Scythian-influenced Dame Du Lac and the more Celtic Morgan Le Fay.” (p169 From Scythia To Camelot)

The Lady of the Lake is usually portrayed as wearing white, she rides a white horse or mule, and her court of young maidens also wear white. Her messengers are young women. She’s connected with the Greek Artemis, the Scythian Diana, and the Ossetian Satana. She rides with her maidens, hunts in the forest, bathes in lakes and rivers, and is known to have fierce animosity towards other women.

She’s the benefactress of Lancelot, having rescued him after his father’s death. She protects Lancelot, is said to have trained him for war, withholds his name from him, and gifts him with many magical items including a ring that will break enchantments. She’s a magical creature, often given foresight which she can act upon. She rarely leaves her own lands, connected in many traditions with Elysium – the afterlife, a place classically associated with the color white.

Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur has Arthur receiving the magical Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake after his sword is damaged. Some tales have her receiving the sword after Arthur’s death, or retrieving it from the lake.

More recently, Lord Alfred Tennyson wrote The Lady of the Lake, dividing the characters of Nimué and the Lady of the Lake in his poems Idylls Of The King. Sir Walter Scott’s poem The Lady Of The Lake inspired the opera by Rossini La Donna del Lago in the early 1800′s. Lerner and Loewe’s musical Camelot (featured at Stratford’s Shakespeare Festival Theatre in 2011) shows Nimué as a beautiful figure who lures Merlin away with a song.

She’s captured men’s imaginations across the ages, as the Amazons have. She takes lovers, but likes the appearance of being chaste. She rides, hunts, wields swords, tempts and traps men, and defies kings. She surrounds herself with a court of women (though later texts have men in her court). She’s both the embodiment of female sensuality and power, and at the same time a cautionary tale of women left to their own. She definitely sounds very Amazon-like to me – perhaps this explains the enduring fascination with her character? Read more about the Amazons.

What do you think? Does she remind you of an Amazon? How does La Dame Du Lac appear in stories you’re familiar with?

Lisa

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