Morgause
Matter of Britain character
Based onAnna and possibly Gwyar, others
In-universe information
OccupationPrincess, queen
FamilyIgraine and Gorlois (parents), Arthur, Morgan, Elaine (siblings)
SpouseLot
Significant otherLamorak
ChildrenGawain, Agravain, Gaheris, Gareth, Mordred
RelativesKing Arthur's family

The Queen of Orkney, today best known as Morgause /mɔːrˈɡeɪz/ and also known as Morgawse and other spellings and names, is a character in Arthurian legend in which she is the mother of Gawain and Mordred, both key players in the story of King Arthur and his downfall. In early texts, Mordred's father is her husband, King Lot of Orkney, with whom she may also have various other children. In later versions, including the seminal Le Morte d'Arthur, Mordred is the offspring of Arthur's accidental incest with Morgause, his estranged half-sister.[Notes 1] There, she is furthermore a sister of Morgan le Fay, as well as the mother of Gareth, Agravain, and Gaheris, the last of whom murders her.

Medieval literature

Character history and counterparts

The corresponding character in Geoffrey of Monmouth's early-12th-century Norman-Welsh chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae is named Anna who is depicted as the sole daughter of Uther Pendragon and his wife Igraine, thus making her Arthur's full (younger) sister. She is the wife of King Lot and the mother of brothers Gawain and Mordred, but Geoffrey says very little about her otherwise. This was later elaborated in the romance De Ortu Waluuanii, telling how the teenage Lot fell in a mutual love with the also young Anna while serving as her page when he was a royal hostage at the court of Uther. In Layamon's English Brut, Anna and Lot are said (in Merlin's prophecy) to have seven children in all yet Mordred remains Gawain's only brother. Wace's Norman chronicle Roman de Brut calls her Queen of Scotland and mother of Gawain, but does not mention either hers or Gawain's relation to Mordred (described only as Arthur's nephew). According to John Fordun's 14th-century Scottish chronicle Chronica Gentis Scotorum, Anna and consequently her and Lot's son Mordred were the rightful heirs to the throne as Arthur was merely Uther's bastard son. This motif is followed in the later Scottish chronicle tradition as well. In Hector Boece's Historia Gentis Scotorum, for instance, the wife of Loth, King of the Picts, is Arthur's aunt (not sister) Anna later called Cristina, who is also depicted as the rightful heir of Uther.

The mother of Gawain's Welsh forerunner, Gwalchmei ap Gwyar (in later Welsh Arthurian literature, Gawain is considered synonymous with the native champion Gwalchmei), is thought to be Gwyar. Gwyar (meaning "gore"[2] or "spilled blood/bloodshed"[3]) is likely the name of Gwalchmei's mother, rather than his father as is the standard in the Welsh Triads.[4] (Matronyms were sometimes used in Wales, as in the case of Math fab Mathonwy and Gwydion fab Dôn, and were also fairly common in early Ireland.[4]) Gwyar is indeed named as a female, a daughter of Amlawdd Wledig in one version of the hagiographical genealogy Bonedd y Saint. The 14th-century fragment Birth of Arthur substitutes Gwyar for Geoffrey's Anna as Gwalchmei's mother.[5] Some Welsh adaptations of the Historia Regum Britanniae ("Welsh Bruts") such as the Brut Tysilio explicitly identify Anna with Gwyar, using both of these names simultaneously for the wife of Lleu (Lot).[6] Other sources do not follow this substitution, however, indicating that Gwyar and Anna originated independently.[7] The Birth of Arthur further gives Anna her first husband, Emyr Llydaw (Budic II of Brittany), king of Armorica, by whom she is the mother of Howel (Hoel),[8] and furthermore gives her three daughters by Lleu in addition to the sons Gwalchmei and Medrawd (Mordred).

In Alain Bouchart's Breton Grande Croniques de Bretagne, "Anna or Emine"[9] is Uther's eldest child who there also marries Budic and births Hoel. In Wolfram von Eschenbach's romance Parzival, Anna is replaced by Sangîve, who is first wed by Uther to a knight named Florant before her later marriage to Lot. Another German poet, Der Pleier, calls the mother of Gawain Seifê, wife of King Lot, but also names the mother of Gaheris as Anthonje, Arthur's other sister and the wife of King of Gritenland. There and in other early works, in addition to Mordred (a younger brother, not always appearing in the texts, especially these dealing with Gawain's youth), Gawain is usually given various sisters, daughters of King Lot. In Parzival, he also has a brother named Beacurs. Thomas Grey's Anglo-Norman chronicle Scalacronica mentions Arthur's "eldest" (not just elder) sister as bestowed by him on Lot.

The earliest known form of a Morgause-type name is Orcades (Norcadés), given to her in the First Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval (the former of which was once attributed to Wauchier de Denain and dated c. 1200). In the works by Chrétien and his continuators, she features as the mother of her sons Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, and Gareth (as listed in Perceval), and her varying daughters include Clarissant and Soredamor. Perceval and some related romances tell how she lived hidden away in a castle with her mother and at least one daughter until her son Gawain achieved the adventure of the castle (see also Castle of Maidens). As Morcades (Morchades, Orchades), she also appears in Les Enfances Gauvain (early 13th century) and again in Heinrich von dem Türlin's Diu Crône (c. 1230). It is likely that her name was originally a place name, as "Orcades" coincides with the Latin name for the Orkney Islands, own of the lands traditionally ruled by Gawain's parents (alternatively it is often the realm of Lothian). Medievalist Roger Sherman Loomis suggests that this toponym was corrupted into the variants of "Morcades" and finally "Morgause" due to the influence of the name "Morgan".[10] He also derived her from the Welsh goddess Dechtire.[11]

Her parallel in the vast prose romance Vulgate Cycle from the early 13th century is named Brimesent (with manuscript variant Hermesent), who in turn is called Belisent in the late 13th-century Arthour and Merlin and Albagia in the 15th-century Italian compilation La Tavola Ritonda. In the prose romance tradition considered to have began with the French Merlin by Robert de Boron around 1200 (including the Vulgate Cycle and the two non-French romances mentioned above), she is one of a varying number of Arthur's half-sisters. Their parents are Gorlois of Tintagel, Duke of Cornwall, and his wife Lady Igraine (the later wife of Uther and mother of Arthur). In Robert's original Merlin, she appears unnamed (the only named sister is Morgan) and is referred only as either "King Lot's wife" or the "Queen of Orkney" (Orcanie). Throughout the Post-Vulgate Cycle, too, she is never given a name and is referred to only as the Queen of Orkney.

In Malory and his sources

Thomas Malory's 1485 compilation of Arthurian legends Le Morte d'Arthur, based largely on French prose cycles, Morgause (also Morgawse or Margawse) is one of three daughters born to Duke Gorlois and Lady Igraine. According to Malory, following his French prose cycles, their mother is widowed by, and then remarried to, Arthur's future father, the high king Uther Pendragon. Afterwards, she and her younger sisters, Elaine (called Blasine in Merlin) and Morgan ("le Fay", later the mother of Yvain), now Uther's foster daughters, are married off to allies or vassals of their stepfather. The young Morgause is wed to the Orcadian king Lot and bears him four sons, all of whom later go on to serve Arthur as key members of the Knights of the Round Table. They are Gawain, one of Arthur's greatest and closest companions with a darker side; Agravain, secretly a wretched and twisted traitor; Gaheris, a skilled fighter but troubled man; and finally the youngest Gareth, a gentle and loving good knight to whom Malory dedicates one of his work's eight parts (The Book of Gareth of Orkney).

Morgause's husband King Lot joins the failed rebellions against Arthur that follow in the wake of King Uther's death and the subsequent discovery and coronation of his heir. Acting as a spy during the war, she comes to Carleon where she visits the boy King Arthur, ignorant of their familial relationship, in his bedchamber and they conceive Mordred. Her husband, who has unsuspectingly raised Mordred as his own son, is later slain in battle by King Pellinore. All of her sons depart their father's court to take service at Camelot, where Gawain and Gaheris avenge Lot's death by killing Pellinore, thereby launching a long blood feud between the two families that contributes in bringing the ruin to Arthur's kingdom.

Nevertheless, Morgause has an affair with Sir Lamorak, a son of Pellinore and one of Arthur's best knights. One time, Lancelot and Bleoberis even find Lamorak and Meleagant fighting over which queen is more beautiful, Morgause or Guinevere. Eventually, her son Gaheris discovers them in flagrante together in bed while visiting her castle (the Post-Vulgate's castle Rethename in Orkney near the border with Arthur's own Logres). Enraged, he grabs Morgause by her hair and swiftly beheads her, but spares her unarmed lover (who is left naked in bed covered in her blood, and is killed later by four Orkney brothers in an unequal fight). Gaheris (who in the Post-Vulgate version defends his act as a just punishment of the queen for her "wretched debauchery"[12]) is consequently banished from court of Arthur (though he reappears later in the narrative, eventually being slain by Lancelot). In the Post-Vulgate story, Gaheris' brothers Gawain and Agravain initially vow to kill him in revenge for their mother's death until they are persuaded by Gareth and Bors to end the bloodshed in the family. Arthur buries the Queen of Orkney in the main church in Camelot, inscribing the name of her killer on it, while everyone grieves for her and condemns the "treacherous and cruel" act of Gaheris, including actually even Gaheris himself in his self-exile.[13] In Malory's telling, however, Lancelot calls the slaying of Morgause "shameful" but Gawain seems to be angry at Gaheris only for leaving Lamorak alive at the spot.[14] Her death was first included in the Post-Vulgate Queste;[15] Malory used the variant from the Second Version of the Prose Tristan.

The act of Mordred's conception is described variably in the different works of Arthurian romance. In the Vulgate Merlin, the episode takes place earlier, back when the young teenage Arthur was only a mere squire to his foster-brother Kay (prior to the fateful drawing of the sword in the stone) and completely oblivious about his true heritage. During a meeting of the lords of Britain, when King Lot is out hunting, Arthur sneaks into the queen's chamber and pretends to be her husband; she eventually discovers the deception, but forgives him the next morning and agrees to keep the incident a secret between the two of them. Conversely, a flashback scene in the Post-Vulgate Merlin Continuation portrays the Queen of Orkney as entirely aware and willing in her incestous tryst with her young half-brother.

Modern fiction

Young Gareth appealing to his mother Morgause (Queen Bellicent) to let him go serve King Arthur in Tales from Tennyson, 1902

In modern Arthuriana, the character of Morgause is often conflated with that of Morgan le Fay; in John Boorman's film Excalibur (1981), for instance, Morgause's role as the mother of Mordred is transferred to "Morgana". According to E. R. Huber, "What becomes clear on reading Le Morte d'Arthur and its medieval predecessors is that Morgause was not a villain until the modern period."[16] Some modern authors such as Alfred Tennyson or Howard Pyle use the name Bellicent.

  • Morgause is the title character of T.H. White's novel The Queen of Air and Darkness (1939), the second of four books in his series The Once and Future King. She hates Arthur due to his father killing her father and raping her mother and raises her children, known as the Orkney clan, to hate the Pendragons. She seduces Arthur through magic, siring Mordred. As in Malory, she is found in bed with Lamorak, but here it is Agravaine who kills her. Due to Mordred being raised by her alone, he is left damaged and hateful, blaming Arthur for his mother's death.
  • In her Merlin novels (1970–1983), Mary Stewart characterizes Morgause unflatteringly as an ambitious and resentful young princess who wants to learn magic from Merlin, but he refuses her. She seduces Arthur in the hope that she can later use it against him.
  • A sorceress with authority over dark powers, Morgawse is a central figure in Hawk of May (1980) and its sequel, Kingdom of Summer (1982), the first two novels in Gillian Bradshaw's Down the Long Wind series. In Kingdom of Summer, she and her husband ("King Lot of The Orcades") intrigue with King Maelgwn of Gwynedd, whom she takes as a lover.
  • Marion Zimmer Bradley in her influential novel The Mists of Avalon (1983) makes Morgause a younger sister of Igraine and Viviane and aunt of Morgaine. After her niece gives birth to Mordred, Morgause adopts the newborn and rears him for Morgaine, his birth mother. In the novel's film adaptation (2001), Morgause tricks Morgaine into revealing her son's paternity, then decides to raise him as her own, thus assuming her traditional role of mother to Mordred.
  • She appears in The Keltiad series (1984-1998) by American neopagan Patricia Kennealy-Morrison as the evil Marguessan, would-be usurper of the Throne of Scone and an evil twin sister of Morgan.
  • Morgause is the main antagonist in The Squire's Tales series (1998-2010) by Gerald Morris. She is portrayed as the latest version of "the enchantress", an evil sorceress who wishes to destroy the kings of men. She plots numerous times to kill King Arthur but is foiled in multiple books, however, she successfully seduces Arthur (who does not realize she is his half-sister) and births Mordred. In the final book she is killed by her son Gaheris, which undoes her evil spells.
  • A main antagonist in the BBC television series Merlin (2008–2012), Morgause is portrayed by actress Emilia Fox as a powerful, Lady Macbeth-like sorceress. She is fiercely loyal to her half-sister Morgana, whom she seeks to make queen of Camelot.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Dr Caitlin R. Green of www.Arthuriana.co.uk notes: "In the later Vulgate Mort Artu, Morguase – Arthur's supposed half-sister – is made to be Medraut [Mordred]'s mother and this incest motif is preserved in the romances based upon the Mort Artu (for example, Malory's Morte Darthur). Both this parentage and the incest motif are, however, clearly inventions of the Mort Artu, despite their modern popularity, and in all unrelated accounts the portrayal of Medraut is solidly Galfridian."[1]

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Green, Caitlin. "Pre-Galfridian Arthurian Characters". Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  2. ↑ Pughe (1832), p. 195.
  3. ↑ Rhys (2004), p. 169.
  4. 1 2 Bromwich (2006), p. 369.
  5. ↑ Bromwich (2006), pp. 369–370.
  6. ↑ International Arthurian Society (27 April 1971). "Bulletin bibliographique de la Société internationale arthurienne" – via Google Books.
  7. ↑ Bromwich (2006), p. 370.
  8. ↑ Bromwich, Rachel (15 November 2014). Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain. University of Wales Press. ISBN 9781783161461 – via Google Books.
  9. ↑ Fletcher, Robert Huntington (1906). "The Arthurian Material in the Chronicles Especially Those of Great Britain and France".
  10. ↑ R. S. Loomis, Scotland and the Arthurian Legend. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  11. ↑ Loomis, Roger Sherman (27 October 1991). The Grail: From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691020752.
  12. ↑ The Arthur of the French: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval French and Occitan Literature. University of Wales Press. 15 October 2020. ISBN 9781786837431 – via Google Books.
  13. ↑ Lacy, Norris J. (2010). Lancelot-Grail. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781843842385.
  14. ↑ Clark, David; McClune, Kate (12 August 2011). Blood, Sex, Malory: Essays on the Morte Darthur. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. ISBN 9781843842811 – via Google Books.
  15. ↑ Bogdanow, Fanni (1966). "The Romance of the Grail: A Study of the Structure and Genesis of a Thirteenth-century Arthurian Prose Romance".
  16. ↑ Huber, Emily Rebekah. "Morgause: Background". The Camelot Project at The University of Rochester. Retrieved 3 December 2012.

Bibliography

  • Bromwich, Rachel (2006). Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain. University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1386-8.
  • Pughe, William Owen (1832). A Dictionary of the Welsh Language, Explained in English. London: Thomas Gee.
  • Rhys, John (2004). Studies in the Arthurian Legend. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-8915-5.
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