Elaine of Astolat is the maiden who dies of unrequited love for Lancelot and floats in a barge to Camelot with a letter for Lancelot clutched in her lifeless hand. She appears in Malory and in Tennyson's idyll of "Lancelot and Elaine." The figure of Elaine in the barge became one of the most popular Victorian images.
Guinevere is said to be the daughter of Leodegrance of Cameliard in late medieval romance. She marries Arthur and then has a love affair with Lancelot which causes the downfall of Camelot. The Welsh Triads speak of "Arthur's Three Great Queens," all named Gwenhwyfar (Triad 56) and name Gwenhwyfar as "more faithless" than the three faithless wives of the Island of Britain (Triad 80). One of the earliest Arthurian stories is about the abduction of Guinevere by Meleagant (or Melyagaunce or Melwas). The story is told in The Life of St. Gildas (c. 1130) by Caradoc of Llancarfan and in the Welsh "Dialogue of Melwas and Gwenhwyfar." It is the subject of the earliest known Arthurian sculpture on the archivolt of the Porta della Pescheria on the Modena Cathedral. The story of the abduction is the central action in Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot and appears in Malory. Tennyson presents Guinevere as a sinner who was "spoilt the purpose" of Arthur's life. Nevertheless, Tennyson does bring Guinevere and other female characters to the fore, as does one of his contemporaries, William Morris. In his poem "The Defence of Guenevere," Morris is the first to give the Queen her own voice, thus beginning a tradition that is continued in Sara Teasdale's poem "Guenevere," Dorothy Parker's "Guinevere at Her Fireside," and Wendy Mnookin's collection Guenever Speaks, as well as in many contemporary novels told from Guinevere's point of view, such as Parke Godwin's Beloved Exile and Persia Wooley's Guinevere trilogy.
The Lady of the Lake in popular conception is the high priestess of an older religion and the woman who gave Arthur Excalibur and then took it back when Bedivere threw it back into the lake. She is also said to have intervened when Morgan Le Fay gave Excalibur to Accolon, who tried to kill the king with it.
Many traditions, chief among them Marion Zimmer Bradley, say the Lady was responsible for educating Lancelot. Bradley also presents the Lady, whom she names Viviane, as the high priestess of a very old religion, centered in Avalon. She is known by many names, including Vivien and Nimue; she is also said to be the one who locked Merlin away with his own spell.
Morgan le Fay is, in Malory's Morte d'Arthur, Arthur's half sister, the daughter of Arthur's mother Igraine and her first husband, the Duke of Cornwall. She is also presented as an adversary of Arthur's: she gives Excalibur to her lover Accolon so he can use it against Arthur (a story retold in Madison J. Cawein's poem "Accolon of Gaul") and, when that plot fails, she steals the scabbard of Excalibur which protects Arthur and throws it into a lake. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight she is presented as the instigator of the Green Knight's visit to Arthur's court, partly motivated by her desire to frighten Guinevere. Her enmity towards Guinevere has its origin in the Vulgate Lancelot, where Morgan is having an affair with Guiomar, Guinevere's cousin, and Guinevere puts an end to it. Despite the motif of Morgan's enmity towards Arthur and Guinevere, she is also presented as one of the women who takes Arthur in a barge to Avalon to be healed. This view of Morgan as healer has its roots in the earliest accounts of her and perhaps to her origin in Celtic mythology. In the Vita Merlini (c. 1150) Morgan is said to be the first of nine sisters who rule The Fortunate Isle or the Isle of Apples and is presented as a healer as well as a shape-changer. It is to this island that Arthur is brought (though Morgan awaits him and heals him rather than actually fetching him herself). Morgan proclaims that she can heal Arthur if he stays with her for a long time. Morgan is also said to be the wife of King Uriens and the mother of Yvain or Ywain. Morgan rarely appears in post-medieval works--until the twentieth century when there is a renewed interest in her character. Sometimes she is conflated with Morgause and made to be the mother of Mordred, as is the case in John Boorman's movie Excalibur and a number of modern novels. Fay Sampson has made her the central figure in five novels. One of the most interesting modern portrayals of Morgan appears in Thomas Berger's Arthur Rex where, after a life devoted to evil, she decides to become a nun because of her belief that "corruption were sooner brought amongst humankind by the forces of virtue." Morgan actually does become a defender of good in modern stories like Roger Zelazny's "The Last Defender of Camelot" and Sanders Anne Laubenthal's Excalibur.
Morgause was the half-sister of Arthur who married Lot. She was the mother of Gawain, Gaheris, Agravain, Gareth, and Mordred. According to the Enfaces Gawain, Lot was her page with whom she had an intrigue, as a result of which Gawain was born. In Malory she is Lot's queen who, as the result of an amatory encounter with Arthur (who did not know they were related), gave birth to Mordred. Morgause was slain by her son Gaheris who found her in a relationship with Lamorak, whose father, Pellinore, had slain Lot.
Morgause does not seem to have been the original name of this character. In Geoffrey, the wife of Lot is called Anna, sister to Arthur. In De Ortu Waluuanii the part taken by Morgause in the Enfaces Gauvain is assigned to Anna; and the name Morgause itself seems to be in origin a territorial designation rather than a personal name, for in Diu Crone Gawain's mother is called Orcades or Morchades, which seems to be taken from the Orkneys (in Latin: Orcades), the name of one of Lot's kingdoms, and Morchades seems to be a variant form of Morgause.
Vivien, sometimes called Nineve, Nimue, Niniane, etc., is best known as the woman who seals Merlin in a cave or a tree. Despite foreseeing his fate, Merlin is unable to prevent being captivated and captured by the woman Richard Wilbur has called "a creature to bewitch a sorcerer." Vivien is an ambiguous character. In Malory, for example, even though Nyneve, who is one of the Ladies of the Lake, deprives Arthur of Merlin's service, she rescues him twice, first by saving him from Accolon who has been given Excalibur by Morgan le Fay to use against Arthur, and then by preventing him from donning the destructive cloak sent to him by Morgan. She also uses her enchantments to punish Ettarde for her mistreatment of Pelleas. In the end she and Pelleas "lovede togedyrs duryng their lyfe." The character is ambiguous even in her earliest appearances. In the French Vulgate Estoire de Merlin, she loves the enchanter and seals him in a beautiful tower, magically constructed, so that she can keep him always for herself. She visits him regularly and grants her love to him. In the continuation to the Vulgate Merlin, known as the Suite du Merlin, the relationship is very different. When Merlin shows her a tomb of two lovers, magically sealed, she enchants him and has him cast into the tomb on top of the two lovers, whereupon she reseals the tomb and Merlin dies a slow death. Tennyson turns Vivien into the epitome of evil. Though borrowing much from Tennyson, Edwin Arlington Robinson, in the poem, Merlin, makes Merlin's "captivity" voluntary, and his Vivian is less of an enchantress than an interesting woman whom Merlin truly loves.
Igraine comes from the Welsh name Eigyr. She was the mother of Arthur and the daughter of Amlawdd. She married Gorlois, by whom she had a number of daughters. (This husband is sometimes called Hoel.) Uther Pendragon had a relationship with her while he was under a spell which made him resemble her husband. That night Igraine conceived Arthur.
Later, after the battle when Gorlois was dead, Uther married Igraine. She never did see Arthur after he was first born, however, as he was given by Merlin to Sir Ector to raise as his son.
There was another Igraine in the Vulgate Merlin who was the sister of Arthur.
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