The Lady of the Lake is the name of several related characters who play integral parts in the Arthurian legend. These characters’ roles include giving King Arthur his sword Excalibur, taking the dying king to Avalon after the Battle of Camlann[citation needed], enchanting Merlin, and raising Lancelot after the death of his father. Different writers and copyists give her name variously as Nimue, Viviane, Elaine, Niniane, Nyneve, Nimueh and other variations.
Origins
The Lady of the Lake’s origins are probably ancient and pagan, like Morgan le Fay’s, and she and Morgan may have ultimately derived from the same tradition. The first mention of Avalon, a magical island with which the Lady and Morgan are frequently associated, is in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae; Geoffrey says Arthur’s sword Caliburn was forged there, and says Arthur was taken to the isle after his battle with Mordred to have his wounds healed.
Chrétien de Troyes mentions in his romance Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart that Lancelot had been raised by a water fae who gave him a magic-resisting ring. Lancelot’s life with the Lady of the Lake is detailed in the German Lanzelet by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven and the Prose Lancelot Proper, which was later expanded into the Lancelot-Grail Cycle. There, the Lady of the Lake fosters the infant Lancelot after his father Ban has been killed fighting against his enemy Claudas. It has been suggested that these three works are derived from a lost tradition of Lancelot[citation needed], which is perhaps best preserved in Ulrich’s version.
The character has some similarities to the sea nymph Thetis of Greek mythology. Like the Lady of the Lake, Thetis is an aquatic spirit who raises the greatest warrior of her time (in this case, her son Achilles). Thetis’ husband is Peleus, while the Lady of the Lake takes the knight Pelleas as her lover in some versions. Thetis uses magic to make her son invulnerable to harm and later gives him a shield and armor forged by the god Hephaestus, while the Arthurian character gives Lancelot a ring that protects him from all magic and delivers Excalibur to King Arthur. The Greek theme may have influenced or originated the tradition; the epic poem Iliad which features Thetis was popular both with the Romans, who occupied and colonized Great Britain and Brittany, and with the medieval scholars who wrote down the Celtic myths and oral traditions. The Lady of the Lake’s guise as a water fay also makes her somewhat similar to Melusine.
Water symbolism…a female character associated with water…that Stonehenge in Lake Michigan…