For today’s post, I have decided to do a countdown of my top five favorite women of Arthurian Legend. This type of countdown will be likely no surprise to my regular readers, but I felt it would be a fun little post to do today!
Number 5: Igraine
~Igraine was the mother of Arthur and Morgan. She is an interesting figure who has her roots in Avalon. In some modern tellings, she was the sister of magical figures like the Lady of the Lake!
Number 4: Nimue (or Vivienne)
~Nimue is the Lady of the Lake. She was the foster mother of Lancelot and the one who gave the sword Excalibur to Arthur in the legends. In many tellings, she acts as an advisor and protector of Arthur.
Number 3: Isolde
~Isolde was an Irish Princess who fell in love with the Knight Tristan but was promised in marriage to King Mark of Cornwall. This love triangle would end in tragedy, with the death of Tristan, Isolde, or both. In a romantic twist, there is a legend that they were buried next to one another with two trees grown together above them.
Number 2: Guinevere
~Guinevere was the Queen of Arthur and the lover of Lancelot in the Arthurian legends. Everyone knows her as the treacherous Queen, but she was also a Faery woman and sovereignty figure common in Celtic lore!
Number 1: Morgana le Fay
~It is obvious that no other figure could be number one! Morgan was the great Enchantress of Arthurian lore who has been slowly but surely demonized within folklore and literature for about fifteen hundred years. She began as a Goddess and was slowly demoted to Faery Queen and later just a wicked Sorceress!
~I hope that you have enjoyed this countdown. Did I mention your favorite Arthurian woman? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
White Rose of Avalon 
Why does Nimue have two names? Other than, I’m guessing, a distinguishing between British and French, maybe?
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That is one reason. There are also multiple Ladies of the Lake in some versions. Many scholars think that each version of the Lady of the Lake are simply reflexes of Morgan herself! It’s all very interesting.
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Sounds it. That makes sense. There’s a school of thought in Asatru which has it that Frigga/Freyja are consubstantial or hypostatic.
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Exactly! This is very similar.
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Guinevere could potentially have been up to three characters on the list.
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That’s true
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