Queen Guinevere - Blog Posts

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My angst senses are tingling! This is such a cool role reversal idea!!

foaming at the mouth at evil arthur because of that one fanart sebehdndbgs obsessed:

morgana and arthur swap roles. Morgana ruled as queen with gwen at her side to honor uther’s legacy and arthur doing absolutely everything to tear the kingdom apart.

arthur went rogue for all the hypocrisy and lies of uther reign. He was furious about his mother, the final straw when he saw just how much his other half sacrificed himself for him and then when he saw his father driving excalibur into his heart.

Morgana keeping everything in order so the kingdom wont fall apart in the lost of their two kings. because this will be the kingdom that brings the golden age.

arthur despises it. Every single person who spouts about destiny and prophecies. a child cruelly treated just because he’s the one who’ll bring arthur’s end. His heart ache. He made an oath to bring ruin to camelot with excalibur on his side.

The Superpowers of Queen Guinevere

(a compliment for my Superhuman Knights post)

Giantess/Superhuman Strength (and Size) - British Folk Myths/Welsh Lore

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Sorcery/Prophecy - De Ortuu Waluuanii/Enfances Gauvain

Preternatural Hair - Knight of the Cart

Ageless Beauty - Vulgate Cycle

...so, writers, where is my Muscle Witch Rapunzel-type Queen?

Amusingly, these funfacts give a solid reason why Morgan needs something like the Green Knight to assassinate Guinevere, particularly the giantess thing from Welsh Myth: Morgan doesn't stand a chance against Guinevere face-to-face.

Bonus Attributes:

Wisdom and Graciousness

Conte du Graal/Perceval - Gawain's description

Vulgate Cycle - Merlin's description

Vulgate Cycle - Guinevere being compared to the God-blessed Grail Maiden

The Queen's Knights

(Give Gwen back her warriors!)

A few variants of Guinevere's name and my thoughts on them:

Velivera--sounds like you'd put it in a soap, but still mellifluous.

Jennifer--the name of half the women of my mother's generation; sounds less epic than it might once have because it's used too frequently.

Guanhamara--pretty, if a little difficult; reminds me of the character from Chronicles of the Red King.

Gwenhwyfar--the Welsh option, one of the classics.

Vanora--sounds like a pretty normal fantasy name; does not sound like Guinevere.

Ginevra--also sounds fairly normal; a little more recognizable.

Guendoloena--and her less assuming relative Gwendolen; this is also Merlin's wife's name (Geoffrey of Monmouth thought it was a good wife name, apparently).

Gaynour--I like the sound, but it would be mocked mercilessly in a modern middle school.

Guilalmier--I like it. Not as classic, maybe, but charming enough.

Wenneuereia--"Can you spell that one more time, please?" I had to check Wikipedia for the spelling of this one.

Ntzenebra--from The Old Knight, the only surviving Arthurian romance in Greek. Very cool.

G(ui/we)n(n)(i)ev(i)(e)r(e)--the closest thing we have to a standard formula of the name is this. You can add some letters or you can take away some letters, and the vibes will change, but it will still be the same in essence and pretty recognizable, unlike...

Winlogee--the coup de grâce. My feelings on this one are complicated, but I feel it can speak for itself.

In a fairer world Guinevere would have done the job and we would have the rescue romance we deserve

I normally don't like Tennyson's narrative around the female characters due to his framing of them being the source of all the faults in Camelot.

But there's a part of this story that often catches my attention and its Guinevere's rejection of Arthur:

Like, I can't help but dig idea that Guinevere rejects Arthur because of his virtue. As if his holy character actively irritates her.

If I was writing, I would take it further and outright imply Guinevere is some kind of demonic being. If Tennyson can get away with turning Arthur into a mysterious, divine entity that Merlin found instead of being born of Uther's misdeeds, then I don't see why I can't apply that to Gwen.

Welsh Myth already provides the idea of Guinevere as a Fae/Giantess so I would just present her as a "Reverse Persephone" -

Guinevere is actually a mysterious girl who came up from the "Kingdom beneath the Earth", "a daughter of a Colossus of Old" and is reared as ward of one of Arthur's vassals. Arthur, being taken by her beauty, took her as his wife. "And so, the Worthiest and Most Righteous King on Earth married a she-devil, the fairest of all her race, and made her his Queen."

The reason she finds Arthur repulsive is because she's a "primal spirit" who was born deep underground and can't stand the presence of someone so "Heavenly", so divorced from "the touch of the Earth". Camelot falls into "sinfulness" because Guinevere is in fact a physical avatar of all Materialism and Worldly Values, both good and bad.

And instead of Guinevere repenting of her actions, I would just take a cue from E.A. Robinson and have Gwen reject Arthur to the very end:

And if Arthur and Guinevere ever meet again, Guinevere could go as far as threaten to eat Arthur - "as is the habit of my kind, says the Queen" - especially if Arthur starts posturing about his (Victorian) morals and being chaste for her.

If there was a way to present Guinevere as a proper Anti-heroine or compelling villainess without the usual sexism/misogyny, this is how I would do it.

She's not so much an actively evil force as she is simply incompatible with the "Blameless" Arthur and indeed, the marriage's eventual failure was inevitable.

But for a time, while the marriage endured, Camelot was the place where the Spiritual and Material meet as fellows and prosperity ensued.

Obscure Arthurian text which everyone should read #2: The Awntyrs off Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne

The name is a bit misleading, since Gawain and Guinevere (here referred to as Dame Gaynour) feature more in the story. The first part concerns their lakeside encounter with the terrifying ghost of Guinevere’s mother, who bemoans her fate, gives Guinevere advice, and doles out prophecies of doom, predicting the death of Gawain and the fall of Camelot to Mordred. The second part is about a fight between Gawain and Galeron, which is more mundane in subject but suggests some of the factors which will make the ghost’s prophecies come to pass.

I think this will forever be one of the most beautiful and heartwarming quotes I'll ever see. It not only captures Guinevere's genuine, unconditional love for Lancelot but knowing who Lancelot is and how he feels for her, this must've made his poor heart beat like a drum 😭 I'm so sappy when it comes to them. They're messy and complex but they're something so, so beautiful.