Note 79 — Chapter III · GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH AND THE CHRONICLERS

I have italicised the words “noble Roman family” here, because this “Roman” descent of Guinevere would seem not to have been derived from a Welsh source. In the Triads we read of a Guinevere who is described as “the daughter of Ogrvan the Giant” (see ante, p. 53). She is, apparently, the one among “the three Guineveres” who is best known to Welsh tradition as the wife of Arthur. She is mentioned both in a poem by the famous Welsh poet of the fourteenth century, Dafydd ap Gwilym—referring to her adventure with Melwas—and in an old Welsh rhyme, which gives her a somewhat disreputable character (see Rhys, Arthurian Legend, Chap. III.).