King Solomon’s Ambiguous Wife in the Queste del Saint Graal

Abstract

Solomon’s wife is one of the most ambiguous female characters introduced in the anonymous French Queste del Saint Graal, an early-thirteenth-century Arthurian romance. She appears in an account that relates the prehistory of the Ship of Solomon and that is embedded in the Grail quest narrative. Subsequent versions of the narrative, such as Thomas Malory’s “Tale of the Sankgreal,” transform her into an “evil,” sinful wife. This paper explores the representation of Solomon’s wife in two late medieval illuminated manuscripts of the Lancelot-