Nymue, the Chief Lady of the Lake, in Malory's Le Morte Darthur

Abstract

THE account of Merlin's disappearance from the world most often repeated is that he was imprisoned by the woman he loved after having taught her all the magic art that she desired to know. All the major versions in medieval literature, except the Vulgate Merlin Sequel, identify the woman in question as the Lady of the Lake,I and all but the Prophecies de Merlin provide another name as well, written with several spellings that seem to be scribal variations of each other.2 It has become convenient to call the Lady of the Lake Niniane as she appears in the Vulgate Lancelot and the Suite du Merlin, Viviane in the Vulgate Sequel, and in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur.3 As the object of Merlin's fatal love the Lady of the Lake has achieved notoriety, but it is necessary to remind readers that she is by no means generally represented in medieval fiction as evil and that her place in Arthurian legend is not confined to being the cause of Merlin's disappearance. Malory's Nymue especially does not fit the label wiley temptress inevitably applied to Merlin's lover, and even more than her counterparts is worth being recognized in the fullness of the roles given her. Although scholars have not been blind to Nymue's presence in Le Morte Darthur, the attention has been incidental. After the last generation of sorting out issues, Malory criticism can now afford, among other things, to peer at Malory's echelon of minor characters as something besides clues to sources, chronology, biography, or unity. Those who appraise Le Morte Darthur for its storytelling should benefit from an ampler acquaintance with Nymue, for she is a sturdy, memorable adjunct in the supporting cast that enriches this work's narrative world. The focus of tte present essay, then, is Nymue, its object to define what she is like, viewed not merely in the