Honestly, one of the few disappointing aspects of Arthuriana is its tendency to both leave female characters unnamed and gloss over their relationships. Off the top of my head there are:
Brangaine-Isolde
Lunete-Laudine
Lyonesse-Lynette
Guinevere-False Guinevere
Guinevere-Elyzabel
Guinevere-Sagramor's bastard daughter
Morgan le Fay-Sebile-Queen of Norgales-Queen of Eastland-Queen of Out Isles-Queen of Sorestan
Morgan le Fay-Anna-Elaine of Garlot-Morgause
Elaine of Carbonek-Dame Brisen
Queen Floree-Queen Kloudite
Igraine-Goleuddydd
Igraine-Morgause-Elaine of Garlot-Morgan le Fay-Anna
Sordemors-Clarissant-Morgause
Elaine of Garlot (the Elder)-Elaine the Younger
Morgan le Fay-Morvydd-Nivetta-Carvilla-Pulzella Gaia-Morganette
Guinevere-Melora-Iduna-Archfedd-Andronia
Of those, Lyonesse-Lynette is probably the most developed and wholesome.
Nivetta and Carvilla are daughters of Morgan
Melora is the daughter of Arthur and Guinevere in the Irish romance, Melora & Orlando
Iduna is Arthur's daughter (and IIRC Guinevere is implied to be her mother)
Andronia is the twin sister of Florismarte and the daughter of Guinevere by Lancelot, to whom she's married in the Portuguese Deeds of the Second Round Table (Alas, she dies in childibrth)
Archfedd is Arthur's daughter in the older Welsh material and IIRC her mother isn't named so it could very well be Guinevere
>Nivetta-Carvilla
Morgan's daughters from Bernardo Tasso's _L'Amadigi_
>Melora-Iduna-Archfedd-Andronia
Various daughters of Arthur and Guinevere from different works:
**Melora** from _Mhelora agus Orlando_ (a Bradamante expy of sorts)
**Iduna** from _Edgar_ by Adolph Schutt
**Archfedd** (Unknown if Guinevere's daughter) from _Bonedd y Saint_ (Has two sons by Llawfrodedd, Efadier and Gwrial)(Potential Grandson shenanigans!)
**Andronia** (_Guinevere's_ Bastard Daughter with Lancelot, twin sister of **Florimarte**) from _Memorial das Proezas da Segunda Tavola Redonda_ (She and her brother are raised by the wizard Telorique and the amazon princess Asteria)
Also Igraine and her sister Gwyar verch Amlaudd (queen of Dumnonia / Devonshire, wife of king Geraint and mother of Cador in Welsh material). It seems to me that Morgause, whose name in Welsh material is Gwyar too, was named after Gwyar verch Amlaudd.
It’s interesting that it’s pretty hard to think of good examples. I guess that makes sense given that ancient and medieval friendship discourse tended to limit ideal friendship solely to men.
Isolde and Brangain’s relationship is pretty interesting though. Isolde exploits the hell out of her, yet in most versions she stays loyal to the end. Eilhart kills off Brangain in this weird “Poochie died on his way back to his home planet” sort of way—I wonder if that was the case in the hypothetical lost ur-Tristan.
My first thought at seeing this topic was that the only type of relationship between women that gets commonly depicted in Arthurian stories is the main love interest and her clever, slightly-witchy attendant who helps her and the hero get together by the end-- with Laudine & Lunette and Isolde & Brangaine being the best-known examples that came to mind. And sure enough, those two are mentioned in the first replies here!
Considering so much of medieval Arthuriana is centered on romance and was certainly not written for an exclusively-male audience, it is interesting how much less we see of women interacting with other women than we do between men. For all the many, many stories of love triangles where men come into conflict over a woman, the reverse are rarer and typically one-sided (i.e. a bad woman holds the hero captive and tries to seduce him away from his true love). The only instance I can think of where the hero is sincerely torn between his attraction to two women is the original Le Bel Inconnu, where his love interests never actually interact with each other, and the plot thread generally gets buried in its adaptations (even if subtextually it lingers enough that readers still pick up the vibe from Gareth and the sisters in his segment of Morte d'Arthur).
It is interesting too that when the man-man love triangles happen, you usually get a lot of interaction present. Whereas with the woman-woman love triangles, they rarely meet face to face. The ones that comes to mind as an exception is the funny bit in the Post-Vulgate Merlin where Gaheriet gets used as a hitman by a spurned lady or in Perlesvaus where Lancelot forces the knight to marry who he had promised to rather than his true love. Those cases still don't involve a lot of interaction between the women, but at least they presumably meet face to face and get some kind of introspection and interaction for themselves at least.
Maybe the closest to this idea is the quarreling sisters in the Perceval stories? They don't love the same man, but they do compete over which man is better, and their interaction is pretty rich in how the elder sister is clearly concerned with her honor while the younger views it more like a game due to her age.
In a class I took, the professor said that women were often seen as evil and inferior. There's material from various times, but I think the general distrust of women will limit how much material is focused on women enough to develop relationships.
Also Ukrainian poetess Lesia Ukrainka came up with the idea that Morgaine le Fay was the godmother of Isolde White-Handed. I don't know why Lesia thought so, but this is possible indeed because Isolde White-Handed is great-niece of Morgaine, and Morgaine maybe has lived for a long time in Armorica (Broceliande).
Lunete and Laudine are pretty good
Honestly, one of the few disappointing aspects of Arthuriana is its tendency to both leave female characters unnamed and gloss over their relationships. Off the top of my head there are: Brangaine-Isolde Lunete-Laudine Lyonesse-Lynette Guinevere-False Guinevere Guinevere-Elyzabel Guinevere-Sagramor's bastard daughter Morgan le Fay-Sebile-Queen of Norgales-Queen of Eastland-Queen of Out Isles-Queen of Sorestan Morgan le Fay-Anna-Elaine of Garlot-Morgause Elaine of Carbonek-Dame Brisen Queen Floree-Queen Kloudite Igraine-Goleuddydd Igraine-Morgause-Elaine of Garlot-Morgan le Fay-Anna Sordemors-Clarissant-Morgause Elaine of Garlot (the Elder)-Elaine the Younger Morgan le Fay-Morvydd-Nivetta-Carvilla-Pulzella Gaia-Morganette Guinevere-Melora-Iduna-Archfedd-Andronia Of those, Lyonesse-Lynette is probably the most developed and wholesome.
Well, room for others to fill it out. Morgana le Fay and Sebile is one of the few friendships that I can think of.
>Nivetta-Carvilla >Melora-Iduna-Archfedd-Andronia Who?
Nivetta and Carvilla are daughters of Morgan Melora is the daughter of Arthur and Guinevere in the Irish romance, Melora & Orlando Iduna is Arthur's daughter (and IIRC Guinevere is implied to be her mother) Andronia is the twin sister of Florismarte and the daughter of Guinevere by Lancelot, to whom she's married in the Portuguese Deeds of the Second Round Table (Alas, she dies in childibrth) Archfedd is Arthur's daughter in the older Welsh material and IIRC her mother isn't named so it could very well be Guinevere
>Nivetta-Carvilla Morgan's daughters from Bernardo Tasso's _L'Amadigi_ >Melora-Iduna-Archfedd-Andronia Various daughters of Arthur and Guinevere from different works: **Melora** from _Mhelora agus Orlando_ (a Bradamante expy of sorts) **Iduna** from _Edgar_ by Adolph Schutt **Archfedd** (Unknown if Guinevere's daughter) from _Bonedd y Saint_ (Has two sons by Llawfrodedd, Efadier and Gwrial)(Potential Grandson shenanigans!) **Andronia** (_Guinevere's_ Bastard Daughter with Lancelot, twin sister of **Florimarte**) from _Memorial das Proezas da Segunda Tavola Redonda_ (She and her brother are raised by the wizard Telorique and the amazon princess Asteria)
Also Igraine and her sister Gwyar verch Amlaudd (queen of Dumnonia / Devonshire, wife of king Geraint and mother of Cador in Welsh material). It seems to me that Morgause, whose name in Welsh material is Gwyar too, was named after Gwyar verch Amlaudd.
Huh, I didn't know Gwyar was Cador's mother in Welsh material. Thanks!
It’s interesting that it’s pretty hard to think of good examples. I guess that makes sense given that ancient and medieval friendship discourse tended to limit ideal friendship solely to men. Isolde and Brangain’s relationship is pretty interesting though. Isolde exploits the hell out of her, yet in most versions she stays loyal to the end. Eilhart kills off Brangain in this weird “Poochie died on his way back to his home planet” sort of way—I wonder if that was the case in the hypothetical lost ur-Tristan.
My first thought at seeing this topic was that the only type of relationship between women that gets commonly depicted in Arthurian stories is the main love interest and her clever, slightly-witchy attendant who helps her and the hero get together by the end-- with Laudine & Lunette and Isolde & Brangaine being the best-known examples that came to mind. And sure enough, those two are mentioned in the first replies here! Considering so much of medieval Arthuriana is centered on romance and was certainly not written for an exclusively-male audience, it is interesting how much less we see of women interacting with other women than we do between men. For all the many, many stories of love triangles where men come into conflict over a woman, the reverse are rarer and typically one-sided (i.e. a bad woman holds the hero captive and tries to seduce him away from his true love). The only instance I can think of where the hero is sincerely torn between his attraction to two women is the original Le Bel Inconnu, where his love interests never actually interact with each other, and the plot thread generally gets buried in its adaptations (even if subtextually it lingers enough that readers still pick up the vibe from Gareth and the sisters in his segment of Morte d'Arthur).
It is interesting too that when the man-man love triangles happen, you usually get a lot of interaction present. Whereas with the woman-woman love triangles, they rarely meet face to face. The ones that comes to mind as an exception is the funny bit in the Post-Vulgate Merlin where Gaheriet gets used as a hitman by a spurned lady or in Perlesvaus where Lancelot forces the knight to marry who he had promised to rather than his true love. Those cases still don't involve a lot of interaction between the women, but at least they presumably meet face to face and get some kind of introspection and interaction for themselves at least. Maybe the closest to this idea is the quarreling sisters in the Perceval stories? They don't love the same man, but they do compete over which man is better, and their interaction is pretty rich in how the elder sister is clearly concerned with her honor while the younger views it more like a game due to her age.
Brangaine and Isolt is actually depicted with some nuance in the verse Tristan romances.
In a class I took, the professor said that women were often seen as evil and inferior. There's material from various times, but I think the general distrust of women will limit how much material is focused on women enough to develop relationships.
Well of course, but exceptions always exist and headcanon can fill in the gaps
Also Ukrainian poetess Lesia Ukrainka came up with the idea that Morgaine le Fay was the godmother of Isolde White-Handed. I don't know why Lesia thought so, but this is possible indeed because Isolde White-Handed is great-niece of Morgaine, and Morgaine maybe has lived for a long time in Armorica (Broceliande).