Annowre (Elergia)

Annowre/Elergia appears as a literary figure within Arthurian romance rather than a mythic progenitor: in the narratives she is presented as a powerful female practitioner of sorcery who emerges in episodes of Arthur's reign. In La Tavola Ritonda she is introduced as the daughter of Lady Escorducarla of Avalon who takes up residence in the marvelous castle Grande Disio (Great Desire); in Malory and Prose Tristan variants she is a sorceress of North Wales or an unnamed woman who beguiles Arthur. The texts do not provide a genealogical origin beyond these narrative contexts.

Medieval sources give sparse and variable physical description. La Tavola Ritonda calls Elergia "the young and lustful daughter" of Escorducarla and locates her in a richly ornamented castle (Grande Disio) decorated with erotic imagery; otherwise bodily features are not sustained across accounts. A consistent dramatic motif is her capture and decapitation: narratives record her head severed and borne as a trophy (Malory: Nimue hangs Annowre's head by the hair to her saddle; Tavola Ritonda and Prose Tristan: the head is brought to Camelot).

Across traditions Annowre/Elergia enchants and beguiles a great king. In La Tavola Ritonda and Prose Tristan she slips an enchanted ring on Arthur's finger that causes him to fall in love with her and forget Guinevere for months; in Malory she entices Arthur to a tower in the Perilous Forest where he is forced into deadly encounters and she plots his death. She possesses or inhabits an enchanted dwelling (Grande Disio / a perilous tower) that isolates and bewilders victims, and she can call on armed supporters (brothers or knights) to defend her and attempt violence when capture is imminent. Ultimately she is overthrown by intervention from the Lady of the Lake's agents and by knightly force.