More than 300 years later, the Scottish novelist Walter Scott drew on the legends for inspiration in his 1810 poem titled The Lady of the Lake, a romance story that departs from the original myths and transplants the story to the Scottish Highlands. Later, Nymue becomes one of King Arthur’s key advisers, and it is she who is reunited with the magical weapon when he becomes fatally wounded. In Malory’s version, the unnamed Lady of the Lake gives King Arthur the famed Excalibur sword at a lake in exchange for an unspecified promise he must later fulfill. The title “Lady of the Lake” is thought to refer to two different people in this version, one of whom is called Nymue, who is seen as heroic and characterizes her magical powers as gifts granted to her by God, indicating the growing religious values and concerns of the era. While some of these early texts presented the Lady of the Lake character in a negative light, the 15th-century compilation by English writer Thomas Malory, titled Le Morte d’Arthur, reimagined her as a more positive force. Historians have noted the inconsistencies in her character, as the tales have depicted her both as virtuous and devious, benevolent and malicious, a powerful prophet bestowed with magical powers and a young ingenue who was capable of wisdom. Print Collector/Getty Images-Ann Ronan Picture Library / Heritage Images She’s depicted as caring and motherly, giving Lancelot the advice: “A knight should have two hearts, one as hard and impenetrable as diamond, and the other as soft and pliable as hot wax.” The storyline with Lancelot echoes a German medieval romance written around the late 12th century, where the hero’s childhood and upbringing was guided by a magical water fairy. In a later version, the character appears as an adult woman, and the narrative is dedicated to her role as a foster mother to a young Lancelot, who would later grow up to be one of King Arthur’s heroic knights. In one early version of the story, in which she is depicted as a young woman called Viviane, Merlin becomes besotted with her, although she refuses him until he has taught her all of his magical powers, later using the magic to entrap him in an invisible tower. But her exact role is often ambiguous, conflicting among different versions of the legends. Sometimes referred to by the names Nimue or Vivienne, the character of the Lady of the Lake first appeared in early 13th-century French literature.
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