Guinevere is from the Welsh Gwenhwyfar — gwen (white, fair, blessed) + hwyfar (smooth, soft, phantom). **The legendary queen of King Arthur of Britain and lover of Sir Lancelot — among the most enduring figures in Western romance**. **Her affair with Lancelot, exposed by Sir Mordred, brought down the fellowship of the Round Table and triggered the final war that destroyed Camelot**. **First named in the 12th-century *Historia Regum Britanniae* of Geoffrey of Monmouth, given full character by Chrétien de Troyes in *Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart* (c. 1180)**, and central to Malory's *Le Morte d'Arthur* (1485).
Subject of T. H. White's *The Once and Future King* (1958) and countless film adaptations.
Guinevere reduces to five — the number of Arthur's queen.