Madame Xanadu is a comic book mystic published by DC Comics. The character is identified with Nimue, the sorceress from Arthurian mythology made popular by Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.
Madame Xanadu as depicted in promotional art for Day of Vengeance #1 (June 2005). Art by Walt Simonson.
Doorway to Nightmare #1
Madame Xanadu #1 (1981) cover, art by Michael Kaluta.
The Lady of the Lake is a name or a title used by several either fairy or fairy-like but human enchantresses in the Matter of Britain, the body of medieval literature and mythology associated with the legend of King Arthur. She plays several important roles in many stories, including providing Arthur with the sword Excalibur, eliminating Merlin, raising Lancelot after the death of his father, and helping to take the dying Arthur to Avalon. Different sorceresses known as the Lady of the Lake appear concurrently as separate characters in some versions of the legend since at least the Post-Vulgate Cycle and consequently the seminal Le Morte d'Arthur, with the latter describing them as a hierarchical group, while some texts also give this title to either Morgan or her sister.
The Lady of the Lake in Lancelot Speed's illustration for James Thomas Knowles' The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights (1912)
Nimue in Howard Pyle's The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903)
Merlin and Vivienne, Otway McCannell's illustration for Lewis Spence's Legends and Romances of Brittany (1917)
"Waving her hands and uttering the charm, [she] presently enclosed him fast within the tree." Lancelot Speed's illustration for James Thomas Knowles' The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights (1912)