Category: le morte d’arthur

oldshrewsburyian:

I didn’t plan to have a weekly feature about the ladies of Malory, but hey, let’s see how far we can go with this! I’m particularly interested in exploring Guinevere because Malory changes so much about her, and because so much about her has, of course, been changed in receptions and adaptations since.

A short version of the Guineveres Malory was working with: Geoffrey of Monmouth had made her part of the (sub-)Roman elite, chosen by Arthur for her beauty, but also a woman who would betray him sexually and politically, committing adultery with Mordred and setting up as queen in her own right with Mordred at her side. Chrétien de Troyes introduced Lancelot to the mythos, made him Guinevere’s lover instead of Mordred, and made Guinevere the ideal mistress of the courtly romance tradition.

Malory (I argue) gives Guinevere more depth, but at least in her introduction in Book IV, she’s still a bit of an enigma. Arthur is deeply in love with her, and has been for a long time. We don’t know the contexts in which they’ve met before; we just know this. And “there as a man’s heart is set, he will be loath to return,” as Merlin says. Also, and to me poignantly, Arthur loves her because she is valiant, as well as because she is fair. What we do not know is how Guinevere feels about all this. Arthur says that nothing is as welcome to him as she is. She says… nothing. Tennyson, of course, makes much of this.

What we do get, over the course of the comparatively brief Book IV, is Guinevere being given authority within the court, and then claiming such authority herself, as well as taking joint agency with Arthur. At the conclusion of the first quest ordained at the marriage feast, it is Guinevere who makes ordinance concerning Gawaine’s proper recompense. After the second quest, we are told that the king and queen 1) ask Sir Tor to tell them what happened 2) make great joy when he has told them. And at the end of the third quest, we not only get this linking of Arthur and Guinevere, but also Guinevere’s own voice in the court, and not only that, but her speaking openly and frankly. And the oath of all the knights of the Table Round includes a version of the ordinance she laid on Sir Gawaine. 

So we are shown (not told) that Guinevere becomes Arthur’s active partner in presiding over the affairs of the court, and that she seems to adapt to it readily and well. We know that she is valiant. Merlin has told Arthur that “Lancelot should love her, and she him again.” But this is not foreknowledge that Guinevere has. So what does she make of this new community, her new power, her new husband? 

…Part of me has maybe not shaken off the version of King Arthur I had when I was 5 (Blanche Winder’s) in which Guinevere was joyful as well as beautiful and loved.