Thank you all for continuing this little journey through Arthurian legend.
Today we’re going to talk about Morgan le Fay, and this is a tough one for me, because Morgan is genuinely my favorite character in Arthurian lore, and I feel like her story is never given the attention or nuance it deserves.
I think the interesting thing about really delving into Arthurian legend is you really begin to understand the complexity of folklore, and how stories grow and become something different over time.
But the challenge with Arthurian lore is that we want it to be wedded to history, but it’s not. It’s a weird amalgamation of imaginary figures from the post-Roman era and the High Middle Ages that we romanticize. We can try to be historically accurate, but Arthur and Merlin are only potentially real people. Morgan is a watered-down version of a Celtic goddess, and most of the other characters are purely fictional.
I guess what I’m saying is, with so many different versions of the story and real history complicating things, the best we can do with Arthurian legend is tell our best version of the story, which I endeavor to do here.
I don’t particularly think Morgan le Fay is a villain, mostly because when a bunch of men (especially men who are monks) write about women, they tend to get it wrong (and make it weirdly sexual). But, I’ll leave it up to you, dear reader, to decide.
It’s hard to know where to begin with Morgan le Fay.
She’s been portrayed as a goddess, a fairy, a seductress, a witch queen, or some combination of the above. In most versions of the story, she’s a villain, hell-bent on destroying Arthur’s life or exacting revenge on Guinevere and Lancelot.
But, I’ve always found it hard to see Morgan as a villain instead of a victim.
Consider what we already know from our Merlin story the other day:
Merlin orchestrated the rape of Morgan’s mother, Lady Igraine, by Uther Pendragon because he had a vision that foretold that the son of Uther and Igraine would be the One True King. That same night, her father, who had been lured into battle with Pendragon as a distraction, was killed.
Her father was barely in the ground when Lady Igraine agreed to marry Uther Pendragon and become his queen. She and her elder sister, Morgause, were forced to leave their lives behind in Cornwall, only to find there was no place for them in their mother’s new life. Morgause was quickly married off, and Morgan, who was too young and too difficult, was sent away from the palace to live in a nunnery.
And depending on which version of the story you hear, Igraine was willing to let Arthur go as well, to either be raised in secret in the countryside or to go off with Merlin and prepare for his future.
Igraine gave away each and every one of her children to serve her husband’s purposes, and while perhaps she had no choice in the matter or even earnestly believed Pendragon was doing what he thought was best for each child, Morgan would never know her mother’s motivations or regrets, because she never saw her mother again, once she was sent away.
She would also be forced to continuously hear about her mother’s great happiness—about how Uther Pendragon was moved by the deepest passion to marry the widowed Lady Igraine the moment he set eyes on her, sweeping her off her feet, and into a love match for the ages.
Morgan would eventually learn the extent of Uther’s involvement in the death of her father, and the deception concocted by Merlin to conceive Arthur, but she would never know if her mother knew what had been done to her. If her mother ever discovered Uther’s deception, she didn’t appear to be bothered by it. Queen Igraine was ever faithful and devoted to her husband until her death.
So, it would make sense that Morgan was bitter and angry that she turned to sorcery as a way to exert some sort of control. And that she wanted some sort of revenge on the man who stole her home, her family, and her freedom.
And I guess this is going to get a bit philosophical, but what I find so compelling about Morgan’s story, aside from the fact she was unfairly maligned, is that it asks us to further question the idea of prophecy and divination.
In many versions of the story, Morgan is one of the main antagonists, but in every version of Arthur’s story, Morgan is the one who saves him in the end, taking him to either Avalon or the fairy realm so he can be healed after the Battle of Camlann.
Yet, despite the critical role Morgan eventually plays, Merlin never sees Morgan in his visions. Nor does the wizard, known for being an excellent tactician who was always ten steps ahead, ever stop to consider what might come from treating people not tied to his visions as expendable.
Maybe it was because Morgan was a woman, and women weren’t considered people back in the day and thus he never considered it was possible she or Morgause could be angry enough to threaten Arthur’s rule. Or perhaps Merlin really believed he was powerful enough to manipulate fate to his will.
The problem though with prophecy, as The xx so eloquently puts it in “On Hold”, is the stars and the charts and the cards make sense only when we want them to.
Divination is not a concrete art; not just because the future is mutable, but because divination is merely someone trying to interpret what they see, and unfortunately people are fallible and sometimes only see what they want to see.
Now, I know that was a lot of pontificating and you came here for a story.
But, before we get down to brass tacks, I must once again remind everyone that there is no one definitive version of the story of King Arthur, so I will be pulling from different versions to tell what I think is the best version of Morgan le Fay’s story.
With that being said, let me tell you the story of Morgan le Fay, or as she was once known, Morgan of Tintagel.
Morgan le Fay, as portrayed by beautiful gothic queen, Eva Green (Camelot, 2011)
Since we know how our story begins, let’s start with Morgan’s arrival in the Court of King Uther Pendragon:
After the death of her father, Gorlois, and her mother’s rather speedy remarriage to King Uther, Morgan and her elder sister, Morgause, were told they would be leaving their ancestral home on the coast of Cornwall, and moving to Pendragon Castle in the North of England.
And while this might seem innocuous, it would have been a significant cultural change for the two sisters.
You see, Pendragon’s reign would have been during a time known as the Sub-Roman period of Britain (approximately 410 to 600-ish A.D.), which began with the Roman Empire withdrawing from Britain (or the Roman province of Britannia) and culminated in the development of a new Anglo-Saxon cultural identity, as various Germanic groups began to settle around England.
What’s most important about this period concerning our story is that Uther Pendragon would have been king only a few decades after the Roman Empire departed Britain, meaning British culture was still heavily influenced by the Romans, and this included the Roman religion, which, as of 313 AD, was Christianity.
Uther Pendragon was a Christian King, and while some versions of the story portrayed him as a very half-hearted Christian; he is always portrayed as a man with a deep hatred of magic-users, and under his rule, those who practiced magic were put to death.
Sometimes this is portrayed as a general ban on practicing magic in his kingdom, while in other versions of the tale, Uther is relentless in hunting down anyone even assumed to be using magic, such as the Druids.
(I’m sure you’re wondering why Merlin, the greatest sorcerer of the age, was exempt from this persecution, all I can say is the rules did not apply when they benefited Uther.)
Why is this important to Morgan’s story?
Well, Cornwall was not impacted as harshly by Roman influence. Christianity had been introduced to the people of Cornwall by Roman soldiers and merchants, but though there were a few small pockets of Christian missionaries and communities, Christianity didn’t really pop off in Cornwall until 500 A.D.
So, while Morgan would have had some exposure to Christianity, she would have grown up in an area where paganism was openly practiced and the “old ways” of leaving offerings and sacrifices were very much still upheld. This meant that Morgan was not only being forced to leave the only home she’d ever known; she was being forced to abandon her entire belief system and convert to Christianity to become a part of the Pendragon family.
But, as Morgan would soon find, Uther had no real intention of playing father figure to her and Morgause.
Morgause, who was of marriageable age, was quickly shipped off to Orkney for a political marriage to the much older King Lot.
Morgan was still too young to be wed but was old enough to see the writing on the wall. She knew the minute she started bleeding, Pendragon would ship her off to marry some old king in a far-off land. So, she decided the only course of action was to become unmarriable.
She did everything she could to seem wild and ungovernable, and eventually, Uther grew tired of his wife’s feral child and decided if no one would marry her, she could be married to God. And Igraine, who was more focused on the infant she’d recently given birth to, had no objection to her youngest daughter being sent away.
And so, Morgan, still just a child herself, was shipped off to a nunnery.
While it was not as bad as being a child bride to some old man, it was still a punishment. Pendragon had trapped her in a place where she would be forced to pray and worship the Christian god and lead a quiet life with little to no connection to the outside world.
It was not the life she would have chosen for herself, but fortunately for her, fate had other plans in store.
Morgan used her time at the convent to embark on a course of rigorous study. She discovered that while the sisters read little else besides the Bible; the convent stored a rather large collection of books for the Church.
Pendragon could trap her in this small, isolated corner of the world, but he could not stop her mind from wandering or the connection she had to the Drowned World. She became an expert in the healing arts. She taught herself about what herbs could heal and which could kill, how to map the stars, and even found a few books on sorcery.
And more importantly, Morgan found her way to the Otherworld.
If you’ll remember from our Merlin story, the Otherworld is an important part of Arthurian lore.
The Otherworld, sometimes referred to as the Drowned World, is the Celtic equivalent of the Underworld, but it’s also a space where supernatural entities dwell. However, unlike the Underworld, the Otherworld is not as challenging to enter.
It was believed someone could stumble into the Otherworld accidentally, as there were portals that existed between the two worlds. Some said you could jump into a pond or river and end up on the other side, others claimed you needed to enter a physical doorway or entrance of some kind, and some believed the Otherworld could be reached by sailing blindly into the middle of nowhere (which is how the Grail Quest begins).
But, the doors to the Otherworld do not open for everyone.
In particular, it seems that those connected to Arthur’s bloodline like Morgan and Sir Gawain (son of Arthur’s half-sister, Morgause, and her husband, King Lot of Orkney), are able to access these portals more easily, but it also appears that those who join the Knights of the Roundtable, though not as connected, still consistently brush up against this Otherworld.
Now, we don’t know exactly when Morgan first stumbles upon the Otherworld, but we do know she begins to change by proximity and becomes more fae-like in appearance. Her eyes became a bright green, and her features grew lovelier and otherworldly. She learned more about magic and the power of the old gods, and by the time Uther Pendragon died, she was accomplished enough to manipulate the natural world.
But, she was still trapped in a convent, and there was only so much she could learn from books and fairies.
This is why, when her half-brother, the new king, asked if she would return to Camelot, she immediately agreed. She didn’t have any particular desire for courtly life, but living in Camelot would put her in proximity to one of the greatest sorcerers who ever lived.
Now, there are several versions of the story that insist Morgan seduced her way into an apprenticeship under Merlin, but those versions of the story were written by men who seemed to forget that Merlin coordinated the rape of her mother, which resulted in the death of her father and the banishment of Morgan and her sister.
It seems far more likely that Merlin, ever calculating, was impressed by Morgan’s incredible aptitude for sorcery and imagined she could be a useful tool in securing Arthur’s reign (and you obviously wouldn’t want to scare a useful tool away by being a creepy old man).
Morgan did train under Merlin for a time, but her freedom would be short-lived.
It’s hard to fully understand the schism between Morgan and Arthur, partially, because it challenges our view of Arthur as a fully good and deserving king.
Though Arthur and Morgan did not grow up together (Morgan was potentially there when he was a baby, but that would have been it), they were fond of each other and eager to reestablish some sort of familial bond. But, Morgan was different than her brother; Arthur had trained his whole life to become king, whereas Morgan had spent her life feverishly studying a world she was no longer a part of and learning about a separate world only a few could access.
She was clever and outspoken, and sometimes far more politically astute than Arthur. But, her real crime was taking up too much of Merlin’s time.
And you have to keep in mind that Arthur was the “Chosen One”, so it was more than mere jealousy when Morgan showed potential political ambition and an aptitude for magic that impressed even Merlin.
It was perhaps unfair to assume his sister would try and take his throne or amass too much political power, but in his defense, he didn’t really know his sister. She was kind and affectionate to him, but she’d also been sent away while he was a baby. He was aware of his father’s capacity for cruelty, but there was still a chance that there was good reason for keeping Morgan far from court.
So, Arthur decided the best course of action would be to redirect Morgan’s time by finding her a husband.
Morgan was not wholly opposed to this idea, after all, the poor girl did grow up in a nunnery and was probably eager to be with someone besides Jesus. But, she did indicate that if she must be wed, she would prefer to marry Sir Lancelot.
Now, there are versions of the story that make Morgan out to be weirdly sexually obsessed with Lancelot, but I think it’s important to remember Morgan is very isolated, even in Camelot. She spends her days (and likely many nights during the “witching hour”) learning from Merlin and helping him with things like wards and divination.
We don’t know much about Lancelot and Morgan’s relationship at court, but outside of Merlin and Arthur, it seems that Lancelot was one of the few people who wasn’t scared of Morgan and her affinity for magic. More importantly, he was someone her brother trusted deeply and could vouch for, which likely made him more appealing than some strange prince from a foreign land.
But, Arthur was not a fan of this idea.
It’s important to note that Arthur and Lancelot were still on good terms at this point, as Arthur still had no idea that Lancelot was potentially having an affair with his wife. But, Lancelot was his right-hand man and incredibly popular. A marriage between the two would put Morgan within close proximity to power and give her significant influence at court.
The other problem was Lancelot’s “purity” was a big thing for Camelot. A lot of important quests, especially holy ones like the Grail, required virgins who were pure of body and spirit. To lose Lancelot would be a tough blow, as it was incredibly challenging to find nice knights willing to stay virgins.
So, unfortunately, Arthur didn’t see Morgan’s request as earnest; he saw it as proof of a potentially dangerous ambition and an attempt to undermine him.
He decided it wouldn’t be enough to marry Morgan off; he needed to teach her a lesson and show her where her place was. So, Arthur secured an alliance with the kingdom of Rheged by arranging a political marriage between his sister and King Urien of Gorre, but he was not completely unkind; he did not send his sister away.
Instead, Arthur invited Urien to join his court as a Knight of the Roundtable and forced his sister to become one of Guinevere’s ladies in waiting.
Morgan was shocked by her brother’s treatment of her. She’d been a loving and dutiful sister since her return home and had done nothing but support her brother. And yet, how different was this than what his father had done to Morgause years earlier?
Was Arthur no different than the man she hated? Was he simply cruel for cruelty’s sake or was she merely another pawn in the game he and Merlin were playing?
But, this was beyond sending a child away to a nunnery; she was bound to a man she did not love, forced to give up autonomy over her own body and perform her “wifely duties”, and to bear a child she did not want. Morgan began to truly despise her brother, and surprisingly she found consolation and true companionship in Queen Guinevere.
We don’t know much about Guinevere’s relationship with Morgan prior to this new arrangement, but we are led to understand that Guinevere and Morgan grew close after spending time together. Morgan was not treated as a lady-in-waiting, but rather as a best friend and dear sister. The two wore matching rings and were inseparable for a time.
Perhaps it was because it was easy to bond over a shared disappointment of being forced into roles they never wanted, and perhaps Guinevere was lonely too, but whatever had brought them together was not enough to maintain the bond once Guinevere discovered Morgan was having an affair.
Sometime after the birth of her child, a young night by the name of Guiomar arrived at Camelot, eager to join Arthur’s retinue. He was young, handsome, and kind. He was also cousin to Queen Guinevere, but Morgan didn’t care because she was in love.
However, Morgan and Guiomar were too wrapped up in the throes of young love to realize they were indiscreet. They flirted openly to the point there were whispers, and threw caution to the wind, fumbling around in dark corners of the castle.
Guinevere had been suspicious of her cousin’s interest in the married woman, but did not believe any of the court gossip was true until, one day, she walked in on the pair in a compromising position, which put the Queen in a difficult position.
The rumors surrounding Morgan already reflected poorly on Guinevere and if it got out that one of her ladies was behaving in such a manner, it would be even worse, especially if the man in question was the Queen’s cousin.
Guinevere was worried. There was a possibility Arthur would see Guiomar as the villain here, seducing and trying to ruin his half-sister as a power play. Arthur would be angry with Morgan for breaking her vows, but Guiomar had taken an oath to Arthur to remain loyal and uphold the chivalric code.
Guiomar had broken both vows.
So, Guinevere did what she thought would be best for everyone in this situation, and decided to deal with it on her own. She forced Guiomar to end the affair and banished him from Camelot. And then she told Morgan what she had done to protect all of them, and chastised her for putting her in such a position.
Regardless of Guinevere’s good intentions, Morgan saw her interference as a profound act of betrayal. Guiomar was the only small solace she had at court, and just like everything else in her life, he was taken away and she was to blame.
Guinevere knew how unhappy she was in her marriage, and how miserable she had been after being forced to stop her studies. What kind of friend—what kind of sister would tear the only consolation you had away without giving you a chance or a choice?
Now, I’m going to pause the story for a moment to complicate things.
According to how the story is often told, this would be the part where after the two had their falling out, Morgan stumbles upon Guinevere in a compromising position with none other than Sir Lancelot. This discovery leads to Morgan leaving Camelot and dedicating her life to becoming a Rita Repulsa-esque character who pops up constantly to bother Arthur and his knights and trick Lancelot into sleeping with her.
In some versions, she’s after Lancelot simply to get back at Guinevere for Guiomar, and in others, it’s implied she has some sort of uncontrollable sexual obsession with the French knight.
And honestly, it all feels reductive.
You’re telling me a woman that devoted her life to serious study and arcane magic would actually dedicate the rest of her life to being a B-tier villain who tricks men with her boobs?
I have a similar issue with Guinevere’s arc as well.
As a Pisces, I do like the more “romantic” idea that Guinevere was defying fate by loving Lancelot, but as I’ve been delving into Arthurian lore more closely, I’ve found that, much like Morgan, Guinevere is often unfairly maligned and painted as a shitty queen or a vapid slut.
And that’s weird, right?
Even though she might not have chosen Arthur, it seems unfair to assume she would be unfaithful or generally unfeeling towards her people.
More to the point, even in the stories where Lancelot saves her from being executed, he doesn’t actually come back for her. Guinevere either ends up trapped by Mordred, runs away to join a convent, or some combination of the two. She never rides off into the sunset with Lancelot, which we have to admit is a bit odd if the two were really star-crossed lovers.
So, we have Guinevere characterized as a shallow, selfish woman, unable to stay faithful to her husband, and Morgan the overly sexualized villain, willing to burn down the world over a man or a beef.
But, I guess we can’t expect much in the way of female character development (or dimension) when it comes to a bunch of stories written by men.
So, we’re going to break a little with tradition and give both of these women a better arc, because that’s the beauty of Arthurian legend; it’s all fanfiction in the end.
Now, let us continue with our tale…
Morgan was upset with Guinevere, but more than anything she was upset with herself. She had let yet another Pendragon trap her, but this time she hadn’t even tried to rattle the bars of her cage.
She had no desire to be a wife or a mother or a dutiful sister; she wanted power. So, under the cover of darkness, Morgan fled Camelot and swore to herself that she would never allow herself to be imprisoned by anyone again.
So, she found Merlin once again and begged to become his apprentice once again. To her surprise, Merlin agreed to keep her apprenticeship a secret.
It’s possible Merlin believed she could still be shaped into a tool for Arthur, but I have often wondered if Merlin was more intrigued by Morgan’s power and her connection to the Otherworld.
See, we often forget that Merlin is not exactly the hero of this story and tends to be rather self-serving. It’s not necessarily that he didn’t believe in Camelot; it’s that self-preservation and proximity to power was a bit more important. And Morgan had power, far more than he could ever hope to wield, but she also had access to the Otherworld, which meant she had access to Avalon.
There are lots of reasons to want to go to the enchanted Isle of Avalon, but one in particular: the island’s apples, which supposedly had mythical healing properties that could bring a man back from the brink of death.
If that sounds strangely familiar, it might be because you were obsessed with mythology as a child, and there is a similar legend of a secret, mythical apple orchard in Norse mythology guarded by the goddess Iðunn.
In Norse myth, Iðunn guards a sacred orchard that contains apples with powerful magical properties the gods consume to retain their youth and power. These apples cannot grant permanent immortality, but they can heal the body and provide a “taste” of immortality.
But, interestingly enough, Iðunn wasn’t the only god with magical apples.
There is also a Celtic sea god known as Manannán mac Lir, a guardian of the Otherworld who rules over Tír na nÓg and Emhain Abhlach (also known as The Isle of Apples) where golden apples with magical properties grew.
However, unlike Iðunn’s apples which grant youth and vigor, Manannán’s golden apples put those who consume them into an enchanted sleep. Knowing how Arthur’s story ends, it’s quite possible that Avalon is not merely a Christianized version of Emhain Abhlach, but rather a blend of Celtic and Germanic pagan lore, but we’ll get to that later.
Now, why would Merlin want access to the Otherworld and Avalon in particular?
Well, potential magical fruit aside, the Otherworld contained all manner of mythical objects with untold power like Excalibur or the Grail, which would likely come in handy, as it was around this time that Merlin began to see visions of the May Day child that would be Arthur’s undoing.
Arthur had no direct heir, and while the chain of succession would put Morgause’s sons, Gawain and Agravain, in line for the throne, Merlin did not foresee them outliving Arthur, which meant he needed a backup plan—another kingmaker.
So, Merlin made the mistake of taking Morgan into his confidence. He taught her the craft, but he also attempted to seduce her, offering her a place at his side if she helped him shape the future.
Morgan was uninterested in the promises of a dusty old wizard, but she knew that Merlin was a source of information, not just about magic but about her brother too. So, she bided her time, shyly flirting and demurring to the creepy old man, and began to learn more about Merlin’s various prophecies and manipulations, including his hand in her father’s death, Arthur’s conception, and Uther Pendragon becoming her step-father.
You might be wondering why Merlin would reveal all of this to Morgan, but you must remember that Merlin’s downfall was that he truly believed he saw everything and was clever enough to manipulate the future. He never saw Morgan as a threat, only a beguiling assistant and a means to an end.
Now, it’s at this point in most versions that Morgan parts ways with Merlin, and becomes somewhat of a Rita Repulsa-esque character, constantly appearing to set some creature loose or foil the Knights’ plans. And it’s also at this point I must remind everyone that these were stories told by men who feared women with any form of education or sexual agency.
And yes, Morgan did have her fun with the knights, but she was interested in more than a little chaos; she was out for revenge against every man who made her life a living hell. But, in fairness, what would her life have been without Uther and Arthur Pendragon—without Merlin?
She could have still been at Tintagel with her mother and sister, and her father would still be alive. She would never have been forced into a nunnery or marriage and motherhood.
What could she have been if men had not determined the course of her life?
But, there was one more reason for revenge.
While Morgan was off training with Merlin, Arthur’s knights had killed her sister, Morgause.
Parting with Merlin wasn’t the easiest task per se, but Morgan had been working on a plan ever since Merlin had revealed the depths he had gone to in order to put Arthur on the throne.
Killing him wasn’t enough though, the punishment needed to fit the crime.
So, Morgan sought out someone more powerful than she, who would be sympathetic to her plight, and paid a visit to Nimue, The Lady of the Lake.
After spending months listening to Merlin’s endless chatter, Morgan had gleaned that Nimue and the wizard were not on the best of terms. Merlin didn’t quite seem to know the meaning of “no means no” and had aggressively pursued the fae enchantress to the point she was forced to return to the Otherworld, out of fear Merlin would take her by force.
Morgan appealed to Nimue and told her of Merlin’s crimes against her family. She expressed how dangerous he was and how he was already planning on starting another terrible cycle once Arthur was dead.
And just as Morgan had hoped, Nimue was entirely sympathetic. She agreed that Merlin needed to be stopped, and the two plotted a deception that would seal Merlin off from the world of men forever.
Nimue would lure him to her lake by pretending she was finally ready to succumb to his advances and become his lover, and as soon as he let his guard down, Nimue would spring her trap, forever imprisoning the wizard in a sleepless state beneath the earth.
With Merlin’s fate quite literally sealed, Morgan played a long game and began to expose the cracks in Camelot’s perfect facade.
Now, if you remember our Merlin story, you’ll recall there were two major grievances the people would eventually have with Arthur: the first was the May Day Massacre when he “accidentally” killed a bunch of babies and the second was the fact he was always away on a quest. Morgan capitalized upon the latter, popping up to torment Arthur and his knights whenever possible, and while she was usually “bested” in the end, she effectively dragged out their missions, sometimes by months, effectively increasing the people’s frustration with their king.
She also began to target Lancelot, and while many stories frame this as a sexual obsession; it’s important to remember that Lancelot was Arthur’s closest companion and had always been framed by Merlin as someone integral to Camelot, who could play a role its downfall, if he was not carefully managed.
Now, there are different variations of how the grand finale plays out, but at some point, Morgan discovers her sister, Morgause, has been killed by her own sons.
It’s a bit of a messy story, but Morgause’s husband, King Lot, was killed in battle by one of the Knights of the Roundtable, King Pellinore, and her children, Gawain and Agravain, decided they needed to take justice into their own hands, killing Pellinore as retribution for their father.
Obviously, this leads to a bit of a blood feud between families, which causes more than a few problems for Arthur.
If all this wasn’t bad enough, Gawain and Agravain discovered their mother had been having an affair with Pellinore’s son, Sir Lamorak, by quite literally walking on in them doing the deed. In a fit of rage, Agravain beheaded his own mother, and the brothers cast off their mother’s body, refusing her the burial she rightfully deserved as a queen.
Morgan knew that under these circumstances, she couldn’t appeal to her nephews for help. But, through a little scrying, she discovered all was not lost. Morgause had another child—a child that supposedly died in the May Day Massacre. A boy whose parentage would prove he was the King’s heir, who could easily be primed for revenge.
And as luck would have it, the child, Mordred, was already deep within the enemy’s camp, serving as one of Arthur’s knights.
So, Arthur was growing unpopular, and there was growing concern over the line of succession. There was still no heir, and Arthur’s nephew, Sir Gawain, the eldest of Morgause’s, was a likely but unpopular choice, given the whole blood feud/mom murder.
There was honestly very little Morgan needed to do in order to set things in motion. Once she’d appeared to Mordred and revealed her connection to him, he needed little encouragement to realize the injustice that had been done to him. After all, his own father had tried to kill him, and he was being denied his rightful inheritance as the natural son of the king.
And as a parting gift for her nephew, Morgan gave him a single match that could send everything up in flames: she told him that he could set everything in motion by making it appear that Guinevere was having an affair with Lancelot.
Maybe it was petty to involve Guinevere, but maybe Guinevere should have been a better friend all those years ago.
Typically, this is the point where Morgan’s involvement ends, and she spends the rest of the story quietly watching her brother’s legacy burn.
Mordred takes care to publicly reveal Guinevere’s “unfaithfulness”, contriving a situation where he and other knights come upon Lancelot entering Guinevere’s private chambers at an inappropriate time. Perhaps Lancelot and Guinevere really did have a thing, but as we know from Morgan’s situation long ago, all that really matters is how the situation is perceived.
We know Arthur had no desire to punish Guinevere, and it’s likely he didn’t even believe the story in the first place, but word of her unfaithfulness had spread quickly, and coupled with the speculation around why she was unable to produce an heir, people began to believe her barrenness was punishment from God for her infidelity.
Arthur was left with no choice, but to publicly punish both Lancelot and Guinevere for their deception; however, his attempt at retribution was lukewarm at best.
He had a few lesser knights attempt to round up Lancelot, who was easily able to kill the men and flee, and he arranged for a very public, but very under-guarded execution for his wife, in the hopes that Lancelot would do the right thing and rescue her.
And Arthur was right to have faith in his friend because Lancelot managed to show up just in time to save Guinevere from a fiery fate at the stake, but though the rescue was successful, Lancelot killed several more Knights of the Roundtable attempting to escape again.
The loss was anticipated (Lancelot was one of the greatest warriors who ever lived), but Arthur was not prepared for the pressure that came from his men (led by Mordred) to pursue Lancelot and force him to pay for killing his fellow knights. Mordred and his followers bade Arthur not to let Lancelot get away with shaming him a second time in front of his subjects.
And with all eyes now upon him, Arthur was forced to relent and gather a group of knights to pursue Lancelot.
Still believing Mordred to be trustworthy, Arthur leaves Guinevere in his care and asks him to stand in as Regent while Arthur and his men set out for France.
With Arthur gone for the foreseeable future, Mordred used this opportunity to make Guinevere a proposal: if she wished to avoid the stake upon Arthur’s return, she must marry Mordred and help him ascend the throne. At first, Guinevere refuses, but as the weeks go by with no Arthur in sight and the public cries for her execution slowly increasing, she sees there are no other options and relents, accepting Mordred’s proposal.
After several months, Mordred makes his final move and declares to the kingdom he has received word that King Arthur has died. He reveals himself as the son of Arthur and Queen Morgause, and declares himself to be the true king of prophecy, as he is the son of a Pendragon king and the daughter of Queen Igraine.
And strangely, people seem to have no issue with this, but I suppose in a monarchy with limited options, where you are not pleased with the rule of the current king, a bastard product of incest is possibly the best you can do.
(In fairness to Mordred though, all vengeance aside, he seemed to be a pretty decent king.)
After nearly a year of chasing Lancelot across nearly the entire country of France, Arthur and his knights returned to Britain (somewhat disgraced) to find Mordred upon his throne and Guinevere, not in the dungeon where they’d left her, seated beside him and still wearing her crown.
And thus, the fated final battle at Camlann was set in motion, but you might be wondering what happened to Morgan.
At first, Morgan enjoyed her ringside seat to the downfall of her brother’s kingdom, but as the weary, weakened Arthur barely blocked Mordred’s blows, Morgan began to pity her brother. He seemed so old now and tired, nothing like the man she’d known all those years ago.
And in that moment, her need for vengeance died. She’d spent so long blaming him and his father for her misfortunes that she’d forgotten who started this mess.
Arthur was not blameless, but like his father before him, he believed that Merlin would never lead him astray and that everything he did, no matter how misguided, was for some greater good. He was told he was chosen by God, and so he acted like a man who believed he was guided by divinity, and maybe that was the problem all along.
Arthur believed he was infallible because a man told him he was something more than a man, but that old man had lied and her brother was paying the price.
So, in the end, after the final blows were struck and both Arthur and Mordred lay dying, Morgan appeared before her brother, the only family she had left in the world, and embraced him for the last time, before disappearing into the night with his body.
They sailed together across the inky black waves towards Avalon, and Morgan apologized to her little brother—not for what she’d done (he deserved that), but for failing to rid them all of Merlin sooner.
And in his final moments of consciousness, Arthur apologized to his sister for failing to see that she had been hurt by those she had trusted in life.
There are some that say, in a final act of kindness, Morgan did not let her brother die but rather fed him one of the enchanted apples of Avalon, so he would sleep and be healed.
It is believed that somewhere on that mythical island, Morgan hid her brother’s body somewhere, so that one day he might wake again, and have a second chance at uniting his people.
Many have sought out Arthur’s tomb, but no one has ever found the resting place of the One True King. Maybe you’ll be lucky.
Though, I have a funny feeling the way to Avalon, might not be so far away from a certain castle on the coast of Cornwall—near the ancestral home of a family that could see and enter the Otherworld.
A place that Morgan always knew as home.
And that’s all she wrote folks…for now.
Resources:
A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World 3000 B.C. - 1603 A.D. by Simon Schama
Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance by Roger Sherman Loomis
Different Phases/Faces of Morgan le Fay: The Changing Image of the Sorceress in Arthurian Literature by Elke Dalecky
Folklore of West and Mid-Wales by Jonathan Ceredig Davies
From The Lady to The Tramp: The Decline of Morgan le Fay in Medieval Romance by Maureen Fries
Goddess Dethroned: The Evolution of Morgan le Fay by Dax Donald Carver
History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth
Lancelot-Grail: The Story of Merlin by Norris J. Lacy
Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory
Magic in Merlin's Realm: A History of Occult Politics in Britain by Francis Young
Masks of the Dark Goddess in Arthurian Literature: Origin and Evolution of Morgan le Fay by John Christopher Shearer
Merlin or the Early History of King Arthur: A Prose Romance (about 1450-1460 A.D.) by David William Nash and John Stuart Stuart-Glennie
Malory’s Morgan le Fay: The Danger of Unrestrained Feminine Power by MaryLynn Saul
Origins of Arthurian Romances: Early Sources for the Legends of Tristan, the Grail and the Abduction of the Queen by Flint F. Johnson
Pagan Portals: Manannán mac Lir by: Morgan Daimler
Preiddeu Annwn (The Spoils of Annwn) from the Book of Taliesin
Roman de Brut by Wace
The Arthur of the Welsh: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature by Rachel Bromwich, A.O.H. Jarman, and Brynley F. Roberts
The Character of King Arthur in Medieval Literature by Rosemary Morris
The Lancelot-Grail Project: Text Editions
The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturlson
The Welsh Triads by Siân Echard
'Wichecraft & Vilaine': Morgan le Fay in Medieval Arthurian Literature by Zoë Enstone