Lile of Avalon, Lile of Avelion, Lile of Avilion
Called “the great lady Lile of Avelion”. This enigmatic person may have been an enchantress. Avelion is almost certainly Avilion or Avalon, suggesting religion, mysticism, magic, and benevolence; yet Lady Lile helped the damsel “Malvis”, whom Merlin characterized as wicked. Perhaps in this case Lile, although good, mistakenly helped the wrong side – the Round Table heroes were often enough guilty of helping the wrong side, through siding with the first party who appealed to them, or unquestioningly taking the part of any woman against any man.
Lile would not have been a Lady of the Lake, for Lancelot’s Lady of the Lake, Viviane, was in France. Lile was the mysterious lady from Avalon who brought to Arthur’s court a sword that only Balin could draw from its scabbard. When he had done so, she asked him to return it. When he refused, she foretold it would bring about his destruction and kill his dearest friend.
The first English Lady of the Lake came to demand the heads of Balin and the very damsel whom Lile had helped, and the second English Lady of the Lake was Nimue. I’m going with Phyllis Ann Karr’s treatment with Lile in the notes as a person because in Malory she does seem definitely a person, not a personification, even though she remains an offstake figure. My opinion, however, is that this mysterious dame came into being when some scribe or translator mistook the French for “the island of Avalon” (l’ile d’Avilion) for a personal name.
See also
Balin’s Sword | The Legend of King Arthur