Lady of the Lake Vivien

(Arthur Legend)

Who was the Lady of the Lake?

Who was the mysterious woman who not only gave King Arthur his magical sword
Excalibur, but kidnapped Sir Lancelot as a child only later to cure him of his madness? The
Lady of the Lake may have been a Celtic goddess in origin, perhaps even related to
the Gwagged Annwn, the lake ferries in modern Welsh folklore. According to Ulrich, a fairy
raised Sir Lancelot from birth and was the mother of Mabuz, identical to the Celtic
god Mabon. There are several “Ladies of the Lake” mentioned throughout Arthurian Legend,
with even Morgan Le Fay being named as one of them, in particular as she is one of the
maidens on the barg that takes King Arthur to the mystical Isle of Avalon.
Vivien may very well have been the true Lady of the Lake that is talked about in most
Arthurian legends and stories. Vivien, sometimes called Nineve, Nimue, or Niniane is best
known as the woman who sealed Merlin in a cave or a tree and put him under a spell. Richard
Wilbur referred to Vivien as “a creature to bewitch a sorcerer”, and even though Merlin could
foretell and foresee his captivity, he was unable to stop it or overcome his enchantment with
Vivien. In Sir Thomas Mallory’s book Le Morte D’Arthur, Nyneve, another of the ladies of
the lake, deprives King Arthur of Merlin’s services, but then rescues him twice later on. The
first rescue is from Accolon, who has been given Excalibur Morgan Le Fay to use against the
King. The second rescue is her coming to the aid of Merlin and preventing his wearing of
the destructive cloak that Morgan Le Fay sent to him to wear.
Who was the mysterious woman who not only gave King Arthur his magical sword
Excalibur, but kidnapped Lancelot as a child only later to cure him of his madness?
The Lady of the Lake’s character is super ambiguous, even in her most early appearances in
the legends and stories. 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 would visit him regularly and ended up giving 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.
Alfred Lord Tennyson turns Vivien into the personification of evil. 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. So, who is the Lady of
the Lake or Vivien? Was she good, evil or a bit of both? Perhaps she was a combination of
many imaginative tales, and came to be popularized as one of the primary characters of the
Arthurian legends.

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