Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings.   For this week’s Femme Fatale Friday, we will be looking at why Guinevere is truly the ultimate May Queen!   As I have worked with the energy of the May Queens more and more deeply, I have come to view Guinevere as the ultimate May Queen, and in this post, I will explain why.

Over the years, I have come to see that the three most commonly discussed Welsh Celtic May Queens, Blodeuwedd, Guinevere, and Rhiannon, hold the whole of the energy of Beltane in different ways.   Blodeuwedd holds the energy of the space between the Vernal Equinox and Beltane, holding both the Flower Maiden of the Spring Equinox and the deeply Sexual Lover energy of Beltane.   Rhiannon holds the energy of the space between Beltane and Midsummer, holding both the deeply Sexual Lover energy of Beltane and the Solar Energy of Midsummer.   That leaves Guinevere (or in the Welsh Gwenhywfar) in the center holding the Sexual Lover and Sovereignty of the May Queen, who has made the marriage to the King (in her case, Arthur) on behalf of the Land to cement his rulership!    Guinevere holds the resonance of Beltane assuredly, without such a deeply felt connection to either of the holidays on each side of Beltane season. 

Make no mistake that Guinevere has always been a Faery Queen of Avalon, having been chosen as the wife of Arthur to cement his Kingship and cement the alliances between the Faerylands of the Otherworld and the human world that Arthur ruled.   We can even see this as a compact between the Fae and humans, which has been discussed by different spiritual writers over the years (like Wendy Berg), but it must be remembered that while we have all of the keys to Guinevere’s nature as a Faery Queen in her legends, the connection between Guinevere and a Fae human compact is more of an experiential (UPG) of the writers.   That being said, I have come to be given the context that this information is accurate through my working with Guinevere, I just wanted to be clear that these notions are not found directly in folklore!   I would even hazard a guess to say that part of the reason why Guinevere is never fully allowed to be with her Faery Knight lover (whoever he is in a given telling) is because she is meant to bless the human King with Divinity (making him the Once and Future King), truly blessing Arthur with his own form of God-hood and Immortality.    

Even Guinevere’s name gives us context into her nature as a Faery Queen.   Whatever the variant of her name’s spelling along the timeline of Arthurian legends, we see some very similar themes in the meaning of her name.   The Welsh Gwenhwyfar means ‘White Phantom’ or ‘White Fay’ as Gwen means white with the suffix meaning Phantom or Fay.   Other various meanings of her name could be ‘The White or Fair Enchantress’, ‘White, Fair, and Holy’, ‘Magical Being’, or even ‘White Shoulders’.   I must also state that the Welsh word for Venus is Gwener, which is also the word for Friday (appropriate as Friday is the day of Venus).   This connection between Gwener and Gwenhwyfar gives us a very obvious connection between Guinevere and the Celtic Venus!   

Beyond all of that meaning of the names, Guinevere is always shown as ‘going a-Maying’, which shows an incredibly obvious connection between Guinevere and Beltane celebrations, even in the later and most Christianized versions of the legends.   I have always pointed this out, as it is a very important connection to make when discussing Guinevere and her May Queen status.   This connection the Nature, Fertility, Sexuality, and the Blooming Time was never taken away from her!   

I want to finish with a look at some of Guinevere’s many lovers over the centuries of Arthurian legends, as Lover Goddess Energy is so connected with Beltane.   Obviously, Lancelot is her most commonly discussed lover, becoming an Arthurian staple after Chretien de Troyes.   However, she does have many other Knightly Lovers across her various legends.   Kay is often put in this place (where again this would be a deep betrayal of Arthur, with Kay most often described as an adoptive brother from when Arthur was raised by Kay’s parents in childhood).    There are even versions where it is Gawain, Guiomar (who leaves Morgan for her), Lanval (an attempted seduction where Guinvere is refused), Claris, Yder, and in modern writings, some authors favor Bedivere, and in some versions, we have Guinevere agreeing to leave Arthur to marry Mordred willingly!   It must be noted that when we look at Yder, who is on this list, he has another name in the Welsh Arthurian Romances.   There he is called Edern ap Nudd, brother of Gwyn ap Nudd!   This reveals a clear connection between Guinevere and Otherworldly Lovers.   Yder (especially as Edern ap Nudd) is connected to the Faery God Gwyn ap Nudd, Kay was a powerful protector of Arthur in childhood (maybe a Faery Knight himself, but that link is difficult to make), Gawain was the chosen successor of Arthur after being tested by Morgan le Fay and the Green Knight (a Knight blessed by the Fae), Bedivere is tasked with returning Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake, and even Lancelot has a major Otherworldly connection.   After all, Lancelot was raised by the Lady of the Lake, which is why he is named Lancelot du Lac (French for of the Lake)!   Guinevere’s love for Otherworldly men can be seen as her desire to be true to her own Faery Queen Goddess origins, but she sadly does not get to be happy with her Otherworldly Faery Knight Lover.   This is a common theme amongst many Faery Queens, as Blodeuwedd also cannot be with her true love, and Creiddylad is endlessly fought over by Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwythyr ap Greidawl every Beltane until the end of time.   As a sidenote, this makes Creiddylad another obvious and iconic example of a Welsh May Queen and Goddess of Seasonal Sovereignty!    Guinevere’s often maligned portrayal in later Arthurian legends is truly much more complex when we dig into the complexity of her portrayals across the legends and her connection to Beltane.   Guinevere is truly a Sovereignty Goddess and Faery Queen of May,  and I most definitely honor her as such!

I hope you have enjoyed this look at Guinevere as the ultimate May Queen.   What version of Guinevere’s legend is your favorite?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a lovely artwork of Guinevere.   I found the art on https://study.com/academy/lesson/who-was-guinevere-character-stories-quiz.html.    

LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries 

Further Reading

• The Once and Future Queen: Guinevere in Arthurian Legend by Nicole Evelina
• The Mabinogion translated by Sioned Davies
• The Lay of Marie de France
• Arthurian Romances by Chretien de Troyes
• Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
• The Sacred Sex Rites of Ishtar by Annie Dieu-Le-Veut
• Red Tree, White Tree by Wendy Berg