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#queen guinevere – @fuckyeaharthuriana on Tumblr
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Arthurian Legends

@fuckyeaharthuriana / fuckyeaharthuriana.tumblr.com

👑 A blog about arthurian legends, from books to tv shows and more! I enjoy making lists, Mordred, finding rare arthurian media, Kay and reading and collecting arthuriana.
🏰 Maintaining this blog since 2010.
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Do you have any reading recommendations for books or other media about Guinevere? I'm writing a screenplay retelling arthurian canon from her perspective, and I've been able to find a lot of material, but not really much about her side of the story...

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Hello! If you mean arthurian canon as in older texts, unfortunately there is not much about Guinevere. The only stuff is the classic “marry Arthur, loves Lancelot” (and the whole betrayal and fire) from Malory’s Morte d’Arthur (and some extra scenes and expanded stuff in the whole Lancelot Grail and Post lancelot Grail, like the poisoned apple + murder accusation against Guinevere).

You might find something slightly different in Geoffrey of Monmouth (where it might be implied that Guinevere and Mordred conspired together, or at least, she married him voluntarily) and the Welsh triads where we see that Arthur was actually married with three different Guineveres and that Guinevere and her sister (Gwenhwyfach) did not like each others:

TRIAD 56

Arthur’s Three Great Queens:Gwennhwyfar daughter of (Cywryd) Gwent,and Gwenhwyfar daughter of (Gwythyr) son of Greidiawl, and Gwenhwyfar daughter of (G)ogfran the Giant.

TRIAD 53

Three Harmful Blows of the Island of Britain:The first of them Matholwch the Irishman struck upon Branwen daughter of Llyr;The second Gwenhwyfach struck upon Gwenhwyfar: and for that cause there took place afterwards the Action of the Battle of Camlan;And the third Golydan the Poet struck upon Cadwaladr the Blessed.

In general, specific characters’ sides of the stories (especially female characters) can be found in modern novels, but I am not sure if this is the kind of reading you’d want to write your screenplay! In case, there are four trilogies about Guinevere: Persia Wolley’s one (my favourite), Sharan Newman, Lavinia Collins and Rosalind Miles. Joan Wolf’s Road to Avalon has also an interesting Guinevere and so does Parke Godwin’s novel Firelord (and Bernard Cornwell’s series).

But in general, I find the best part of some arthurian characters the fact that they have these fixed points, and the rest is trying to adapt the feelings and personality of the character around them!

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