Nimue (also Niniane, Viviane, Vivien) is of obscure Celtic origin. **The chief Lady of the Lake in the Arthurian cycle — the enchantress who gave King Arthur the sword Excalibur from her lake and received it back when Sir Bedivere threw it to her as Arthur lay dying**. **She seduced and entrapped Merlin in an enchanted oak tree (or stone), ending his role in Arthur's story**. **She fostered Sir Lancelot after his father's death, raising him in her underwater realm** — hence "Lancelot du Lac." **Among the most enduring Celtic-Arthurian figures in Western literature.**
Featured throughout Malory's *Le Morte d'Arthur* and Tennyson's *Idylls of the King*.
Nimue reduces to one — the number of Lady of the Lake.