Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

GUENEVERE (Lat. Guanhumara; Welsh, Gw...

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 670 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

GUENEVERE (See also:Lat. Guanhumara; Welsh, Gwenhwyfar; 0. Eng. Gaynore) , in Arthurian See also:romance the wife of See also:King See also:Arthur. See also:Geoffrey of See also:Monmouth, who calls her Guanhunmara, makes her a See also:Roman See also:lady, but the See also:general tradition is that she was of Cornish See also:birth and daughter to King Leodegrance. See also:Wace, who, while translating Geoffrey, evidently knew, and used, popular tradition, combines these two, asserting that she was of Roman parentage on the See also:mother's See also:side, but See also:cousin to Cador of See also:Cornwall by whom she was brought up. The tradition See also:relating to Guenevere is decidedly confused and demands further study. The Welsh triads know no fewer than three Gwenhwyfars; Giraldus Cambrensis, relating the See also:discovery of the royal tombs at See also:Glastonbury, speaks of the See also:body found as that of Arthur's second wife; the See also:prose See also:Merlin gives Guenevere a See also:bastard See also:half-See also:sister of the same name, who strongly resembles her; and the See also:Lancelot relates how this lady, trading on the likeness, persuaded Arthur that she was the true daughter of Leodegrance, and the See also:queen the bastard interloper. This See also:episode of the false Guenevere is very perplexing. To the See also:majority of See also:English readers Guenevere is best known in connexion with her liaison with Lancelot, a See also:story which, in the hands of See also:Malory and See also:Tennyson, has assumed a See also:form widely different from the See also:original conception, and at once more picturesque and more convincing. In the See also:French romances Lancelot is a See also:late addition to the Arthurian See also:cycle, his birth is not recorded till See also:long after the See also:marriage of Arthur and Guenevere, and he is at least twenty years the junior of the queen. The relations between them are of the most conventional and courtly See also:character, and are entirely lacking in the genuine dramatic See also:passion which marks the love story of See also:Tristan and Iseult.

The Lancelot-Guenevere romance took form and shape in the artificial See also:

atmosphere encouraged by such patronesses of literature as Eleanor of See also:Aquitaine and her daughter See also:Marie, Comtesse de See also:Champagne (for whom Chretien de See also:Troyes wrote his See also:Chevalier de la Charrette), and reflects the See also:low social morality of a See also:time when love between See also:husband and wife was declared impossible. But though Guenevere has changed her See also:lover, the tradition of her infidelity is of much earlier date and formed a See also:part of the See also:primitive Arthurian See also:legend. Who the original lover was is doubtful; the Vita Gildae relates how she was carried off by Melwas, king of Aestiva Regis, to Glastonbury, whither Arthur, at the See also:head of an See also:army, pursued the ravisher. A fragment of a Welsh poem seems to confirm this tradition, which certainly lies at the See also:root of her later See also:abduction by Meleagaunt. In the Lanzelet of See also:Ulrich von Zatzikhoven the abductor is Falerin. The story in these forms represents an other-See also:world abduction. A curious fragment of Welsh dialogues, printed by See also:Professor Rhys in his Studies on the Arthurian Legend, appears to represent See also:Kay as the abductor, In the pseudo-See also:Chronicles and the romances based upon them the abductor is Mordred, and in the chronicles there is no doubt that the lady was no unwilling victim. On the final defeat of Mordred she retires to a nunnery, takes the See also:veil, and is no more heard of. Wace says emphatically Ne fu oie ne veue, Ne fu trovee, ne seue See also:Por la vergogne del mesfait Et del pecie qu ele avoit fait (r1. 13627-30). See also:Layamon, who in his See also:translation of Wace treats his original much as Wace treated Geoffrey, says that there was a tradition that she had drowned herself, and that her memory and that of Mordred were hateful in every See also:land, so that none would offer See also:prayer for their souls. On the other See also:hand certain romances, e.g. the See also:Perceval, give her an excellent character..

The truth is probably that the tradition of his wife's See also:

adultery and treachery was a genuine part of the Arthurian story, which, neglected fot a time, was brought again into prominence by the social conditions of the courts for which the later romances were composed;, and it is in this later and conventionalized form that the See also:tale has become See also:familiar to us (see also LANCELOT). See Studies on the Arthurian Legend by Professor Rhys; The Legend of See also:Sir Lancelot, See also:Grimm Library, xii., Jessie L. See also:Weston; Der Karrenritter, ed. Professor Foerster. (J. L.

End of Article: GUENEVERE (Lat. Guanhumara; Welsh, Gwenhwyfar; 0. Eng. Gaynore)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES 		[next]
GUENON (from the French, = one who grimaces, hence ...

Site © 2006 - Net Industries