There is perhaps no more famous character in British legend than that of King Arthur. For centuries, people have been reading tales of King Arthur and his knight’s exploits. Of all the characters that appear in these legends, Arthur’s wife, Guinevere, supposed queen of England, is perhaps the least well-fleshed out. She is sometimes portrayed as a loyal, loving wife tempted away from her husband, and other times portrayed as treacherous and untrustworthy. Guinevere’s character changes from writer to writer, which leaves us with one question, who was Guinevere, really?
Who was Guinevere in the Arthurian Tales?
Guinevere’s depiction can vary greatly from tale to tale, but some things stay fairly static. She is always depicted as King Arthur’s wife, who has a bad habit of being kidnapped by his various enemies. Today, she is seen as an early example of the ‘ damsel in distress ’ trope that has been so common for centuries.
She is also commonly depicted as being disloyal to Arthur in some way. Later works tried to flesh her out, adding the story of her affair with King Arthur’s most beloved knight, Lancelot. This affair ultimately leads to Arthur’s (and Camelot’s) fall in most of the later versions of the legend.
Knight and Lady, probably Sir Lancelot and Guinevere. 1902 painting by Wilhelm List ( Public Domain )
The Origin of Guinevere
The earliest mention of Guinevere is in Geoffrey Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain . This book laid out the basics of the…
