The Lost Princess of Camelot

[browngirl]

While researching for my yuletide story, which is set in the Arthurian romances, I discovered Princess Gwenhwyvach, aka Guinevak (in Masefield's cycle of poems, my main source, she's called Gwenivach). She's not commonly known (Tigerlily, my resident Arthurian expert, had never heard of her); she functions as Mordred's Lady MacBeth equivalent, motivated by her dislike/rivalry/hatred of Guenevere.her older sister.

The Wikipedia says of the sisters, "As Rachael Bromwich notes, the name Gwenhwyvach may have derived from 'Gwenhwy-fach', or 'Gwen the Lesser', in contrast to 'Gwenhwy-fawr', 'Gwen the Great'." That gave me a plotbunny.

The plotbunny is:

When Guenevere's mother bears her second daughter she dies in childbirth. The attendants ask her what to name her new baby daughter, but with her dying breath she says "Gwen," looking towards her older daughter, who is an older child or a young teenager. So they name the new little princess Guenevach, Gwen the Littler, as opposed to Guenevere, Gwen the Bigger. For at least awhile Guenevere resents her little sister for 'killing' their mother; for all her life, Guenevach resents her older sister for resenting her and for having their shared name first. This sibling resentment grows into the fabled slap that leads to the battle of Camlann.

Pity this won't fit into my Yuletide assignment.

So, there being a few books about King Arthur around, has anyone written this plot already?

Comments

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

Oooohhhh. That sounds *wonderful*. If you do decide to write it one day, let me know, so I can read it upon its first unveiling. :)

Gessi

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen anything using that, and there's surprisingly little using the two, or three, Gs.

I did stuff with the two Guineveres with Elenn/Emer (that's why they have such similar names) in the Sulien books, especially the second one, largely out of Bromwich as above, and the bizarre Wace story about Gwynhwyfach taking her sister's place (because they look identical -- in case you don't know it, it's a Helen-in-Egypt story, essentially, in which bad G does everything bad while good G is a prisoner elsewhere) but also from the comment that the difference between rape and adultery depends on the woman having a point of view, when it's all male POVs then it's all the woman/chattel being harmed, and in that story G is raped by Medraut, while Lancelot/adultery comes into the story with Marie de France writing her female-slanted versions. So I was contrasting the sisters all the way down the line there.

There are actually, as you'd expect in something Celtic, three Guineveres. There's one triad that gives them all different fathers and different fates. I'd look it up for you if I had Bromwich rather than just the memory and promise of Bromwich. Bromwich is probably in your university library. Said triad is near the beginning, and anyway you can use the index. But no, ah-ha, I've just thought that it must be in Coe and Young, and lo, indeed it is in Coe and Young (I can't tell you how essential Coe and Young is if you're doing anything Celtic Arthurian, I can't recommend it enough) so here you go:

Arthur's Three Great Queens:
Gwynhwyfar daughter of Cywryd Gwent
and Gwynhwyfar daughter of Uther ap Greidiawl,
and Gwynhwyfar daughter of Ogfran the Giant

In English they give the middle one as (Gwythyr), the brackets meaning they changed something, so I looked and in the Welsh it's Ythyr, which is Uther... now isn't that interesting, considering the mad obsession with sororal incest around Arthur, and how I wish I had Bromwich to look up Greidiawl -- diawl means devil.

Mary Stewart has two Gs, IIRC, one of them dying in childbirth.

Coe and Young, blessings on their heads, on the same page also quote Arthur's three mistresses and the three unrestrained ravagings of the Island of Britain, the Three Unrestricted Guests of Arthur's Court, and the Three Peers, the last of whom is Drystan ap March, poor sod.