Powerful Witches or Weak Damsels
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powerful role from the medieval source material. Originally, the Lady of the
Lake, in her various incarnations since there was more than* one character
fulfilling that role, even in the same text in some cases, could be very active in a
very positive way, more than simply lying under the water and occasionally
taking action. Anne Bertholot, for example, has traced the character’s
development over time and shown that in the French sources she often appears
as a goddess Diana-type, and in the Post-Vulgate Suite she even creates a place
for herself of “her own place and people from then on, without having to submit
to masculine authority” (98). In many of the texts she appears in, however, the
Lady of the Lake’s most controversial act is to dispose of Merlin; however, this
is mitigated by the fact that “By assuming Merlin’s function of supernatural
advisor at Arthur’s court, Niviene [one of the many versions of her name]
justifies her acts and becomes respectable” (98). In later actions, the Lady of the
Lake establishes her power in Le Morte d ’Arthur, as Amy S. Kaufman notes,
after Guenevere has been acc