Introducing... Queen Guinevere

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first-ever episode of my new weekly podcast, Camelot Chat! I’m your hostess, Shannon Watson, and today, we’ll be talking about the early origins of Queen Guinevere of Arthurian legend.

First, I’ll give you a little background on myself. Since 1990, I have been researching the history behind the Arthurian legends. Using multiple disciplines–etymology, the study of language; history, literature, archaeology, geology, theology, military history, geography, and more–I have compiled extensive knowledge of the not-so-dark period known as the Dark Ages, or Early Middle Ages.

A year ago, I published the first in a series of twelve historical fiction novels based in Arthurian legend. The series is called The Annals of Anavere. The first book is The Wanderer and the Wolves; and it is available for purchase on Amazon, on my website, and on several other platforms. Check the description below for the links.

So far, I have written two more books in this series. The second of these, The Shieldmaid and the Cross, is currently in copyediting. I hope to have it out in 2027.

Scholars hold conflicting beliefs about when and where the Arthurian legends were set. Three main theories fall within the boundaries of the United Kingdom. One: The stories are entirely mythological. Two: The legends are primarily set in southern England, the Summer Country, and Wales, in the early fifth century. And three: The action takes place in northern England and what is now Borders, Scotland, in the mid-to-late fifth and early sixth centuries.

My belief about the Arthurian setting is a combo-platter. While acknowledging the tremendous interweaving of myth through the Arthurian legends over the past sixteen-hundred years, I believe they were set primarily in the fifth century and in the north. And I believe they were based on fact.

Further, my research reveals a sort of geographic shrinking: the legends increasingly appear as more of a territorial dispute. After all, it is a terrific undertaking to transport one army, let alone many, overland; and they did not have Brit Rail in those days. The ground in the rainy UK is often muddy, if not outright marshy; and with the removal of the Roman administration circa 410 AD, most of the trained and experienced bridge-builders and contractors left Britain. Archaeology shows that roads, bridges, and fortresses were beginning to fall into disrepair in Arthur’s time.

Marching all over the British Isles to fight was not an option. Arthur and his ilk would have had to pick their battles.

That said, the lady known as Guinevere first showed up in Arthurian legend in the Middle Welsh manuscript of the Mabinogion in the tale of Culhwch and Olwen. This is the earliest mention of her, and she is here called Gwenhwyfar. In this tale, the queen is only a possession, a thing that belongs to the king, Arthur, however much he “prizes” her.

It is important to remember that this story was written down in the Early Middle Ages, when women were losing much of the autonomy and authority they had earlier enjoyed. This medieval description of a once-powerful queen amply demonstrates the way in which historical fiction can be a reflection of the writer and her times, as much as of her subject.

The next time Guinevere shows up in literature, it is even later in the day. 1136, to be exact. This time, she is described by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Brittonum, A History of the Kings of Britain. Here, he calls her Guenhuuara, or Guanhuamara.

Geoffrey has a bit more to say of Guinevere than the Mabinogion did. He describes her as one would a Roman matrona, or lady, saying she is a great beauty, of noble Roman descent, and raised or educated by Duke Cador of Cornwall, who was a kinsman of Arthur. In fact, according to my research, Cador was Arthur’s stepbrother. But that’s a story for another day.

These works appear to be the predecessors of an onslaught of Arthurian literature, which proliferated in the Middle Ages and continues right down to the present day. The renowned Arthurian scholar, Norma Lorre Goodrich, suggested that some sort of annals of the king–or queen–resurfaced in Scotland at this early age, copies of which were distributed from one end of Europe to the other, for we find Arthurian tales turning up in places as far-flung as Germany and Spain, Ireland and France.

These stories include many more details of Queen Guinevere, her life, her looks, her family, and her doomed marriages. (Yes, I said marriages! Plural)!

Embedded also in these stories are cultural hints at who she might really have been, her function in life and at court, and how much power she may have wielded in her time. That tracks, as it was stipulated in Guinevere’s marriage contract that she would write the annals of her king, Arthur, who appears to have been illiterate, a common condition for the war-oriented men of his day.

Over the next month, I will explore some of these additional details about Guinevere–saving some for my own Annals of Anavere series, of course!–and discuss the hidden meanings concealed in the ancient words.

In next week’s episode, for instance, we will examine the various translations of Guinevere’s names. What does Guinevere mean? What else was she called? Why did she have so many names? And what might the meanings of those names tell us about the queen’s place in the real-world landscape of Dark Age Scotland?

Until then: People who read live in many worlds. Books are the surest portals to those other worlds. So, keep living, keep reading, and keep dreaming... till we meet again.