Mordred
Mordred | |
---|---|
Matter of Britain character | |
First appearance | Annales Cambriae (Medraut) Historia Regum Britanniae (Mo[r]dred) |
In-universe information | |
Title | Sir, Prince, King |
Occupation | Usurper King of the Britons (a prince of Orkney and a knight of the Round Table in later tradition) |
Family | Parents: Arthur or Lot, Anna / Morgause Brothers: Gawain; often also Agravain, Gaheris and Gareth |
Spouse | Either Guinevere, Gwenhwyfach or Cwyllog |
Children | Sometimes two sons including Melehan |
Relatives | King Arthur's family |
Home | Lothian / Orkney, Camelot |
Nationality | Briton |
Mordred or Modred (/ˈmɔːrdrɛd/ or /ˈmoʊdrɛd/; Welsh: Medraut or Medrawt) is a figure in the legend of King Arthur. The earliest known mention of a possibly historical Medraut is in the Welsh chronicle Annales Cambriae, wherein he and Arthur are ambiguously associated with the Battle of Camlann in a brief entry for the year 537. Medraut's figure seemed to have been regarded positively in the early Welsh tradition and may have been related to that of Arthur's son.
As Modredus, Mordred was depicted as Arthur's traitorous nephew and a legitimate son of King Lot in Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-historical work Historia Regum Britanniae, which then served as the basis for the following evolution of the legend from the 12th century. Later variants most often characterised him as Arthur's villainous bastard son, born of an incestuous relationship with his half-sister, the queen of Lothian or Orkney named either Anna, Orcades, or Morgause. The accounts presented in the Historia and most other versions include Mordred's death at Camlann, typically in a final duel, during which he manages to mortally wound his own slayer, Arthur.
Mordred is usually a brother or half-brother to Gawain; however, his other family relations, as well as his relationships with Arthur's wife Guinevere, vary greatly. In a popular telling originating from the French chivalric romances of the 13th century, and made prominent today through its inclusion in Le Morte d'Arthur, Mordred is knighted by Arthur and joins the fellowship of the Round Table. In this narrative, he eventually becomes the main actor in Arthur's downfall: he helps his half-brother Agravain to expose the affair between Guinevere and Lancelot, and then takes advantage of the resulting civil war to make himself the high king of Britain.
Name
The name Mordred, found as the
Early Welsh sources
The earliest surviving mention of Mordred (referred to as Medraut) is found in an entry for the year 537 in the chronicle Annales Cambriae (The Annals of Wales), which references his name in an association with the Battle of Camlann.[4]
Gueith Camlann in qua Arthur et Medraut corruerunt.
"The strife of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut fell."
This brief entry gives no information as to whether Mordred killed Arthur or was killed by Arthur, if they were fighting against one another at all, if they were fighting on the same side, or even if they died in the battle or were just defeated. As noted by Leslie Alcock, the reader assumes conflict between the two in the light of later tradition.[5] The Annales themselves were completed between 960 and 970, meaning that (although their authors likely drew from older material[6]) they cannot be considered as a contemporary source, having been compiled 400 years after the events they describe.[7]
Meilyr Brydydd, writing at the same time as Geoffrey of Monmouth, mentions Mordred in his lament for the death of Gruffudd ap Cynan (d. 1137). He describes Gruffudd as having eissor Medrawd ("the nature of Medrawd"), as to have valour in battle. Similarly, Gwalchmai ap Meilyr praised Madog ap Maredudd, king of Powys (d. 1160) as having Arthur gerdernyd, menwyd Medrawd ("Arthur's strength, the good nature of Medrawd").[8] This would support the idea that early perceptions of Mordred were largely positive.
However, Mordred's later characterisation as the king's villainous son has a precedent in the figure of
An early 12th-century Italian high relief known as the
Depictions in legend
In Geoffrey's influential Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings of Britain), written around 1136, Modredus (Mordred) is portrayed as the nephew of and traitor to King Arthur. Geoffrey might have based his Modredus on the early 6th-century "high king" of Gwynedd, Maglocunus (Maelgwn), whom the 6th-century writer Gildas had described as an usurper,[14] or on Mandubracius, a 1st-century BC king of the Trinovantes.[15] The unhistorical account presented by Geoffrey narrates Arthur leaving Modredus in charge of his throne as he crosses the English Channel to wage war on Lucius Tiberius of Rome. During Arthur's absence, Modredus crowns himself as King of the Britons and lives in an adulterous union with Arthur's wife, Guenhuvara (Guinevere). Geoffrey does not make it clear how complicit Guenhuvara is with his actions, simply stating that the Queen had "broken her vows" and "about this matter... [he] prefers to say nothing."[16] Arthur returns to Britain and they fight at the Battle of Camlann, where Modredus is ultimately slain. Arthur, having been gravely wounded in battle, is sent off to be healed by Morgen in Avalon.
A number of other Welsh sources also refer to Medraut, usually in relation to Camlann. One
Life in romances
The 12th-century early stories of the emerging
In any case, the grown up Mordred becomes involved in the adventures of his brothers (having grown to become the tallest among them), first as a
Eventually, Mordred overthrows Arthur's rule when the latter is engaged in the war against Lancelot (or during the second Roman War that followed it, depending on the version). In the Vulgate Mort Artu, Mordred achieves his coup with the help of a letter supposedly sent by the dying Arthur but actually forged by Mordred. The Mort Artu narration adds that "there was much good in Mordred, and as soon as he made himself elevated go the throne, he made himself well beloved by all," and so they were "ready to die to defend [his] honor" once Arthur did return with his army.[23] Mordred's few opponents during his brief rule included Kay, who was gravely wounded by Mordred's supporters and died after fleeing to Brittany. In the Vulgate Mort Artu, Arthur proposes himself as a regent, while the French-influenced English poem Stanzaic Morte Arthur has council of Britain's knights first elects Mordred for the position in Arthur's absence as the most worthy candidate. The Alliterative Morte Arthure is a unique text in which Mordred is reluctant to be left by Arthur in charge of Britain.[24] In the later romances, as in the chronicles, the returning Arthur's veteran army is ambushed and nearly destroyed by Mordred's supporters and foreign allies during their sea landing at Dover, where Gawain is mortally wounded while fighting as Arthur's loyalist. Afterwards, a series of inconclusive engagements follows, until both sides agree to all meet each other at the one final battle, in which Mordred typically fights exceptionally well while commanding the loyalty of thousands of men willing to lay down their lives for him against Arthur.
Death
In Henry of Huntingdon's retelling of Geoffrey's Historia, Mordred is beheaded at Camlann in a lone charge against him and his entire host by Arthur himself, who suffers many injuries in the process. In the Alliterative Morte Arthure, Mordred first kills Gawain by his own hand in an early battle against Arthur's landing forces and then deeply grieves after him. In the Vulgate Mort Artu (and consequently in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur), the terrible final battle begins by accident during a last-effort peace meeting between him and Arthur. In the ensuing fighting, Mordred personally slays his cousin Ywain after the latter's rescue of the unhorsed Arthur, and decapitates the already badly wounded Sagramore. He also kills Sagramore in addition to six other Round Table knights loyal to Arthur in the Post-Vulgate depiction of the battle, which presents this as an incredible and unprecedented feat. These and many other versions of the legend feature the motif of Arthur and Mordred striking down each other in a duel after most of the others on both sides have died. Furthermore, the Post-Vulgate says it was only the death of Sagramore, here depicted as Mordred's own foster brother, that finally motivates Arthur to kill his son immediately afterwards.
Le Morte d'Arthur features the now-iconic scene where the two meet on foot as Arthur charges Mordred and runs a spear through him. With the last of his strength, Mordred impales himself even further to come within striking distance, and lands a mortal blow with his sword to King Arthur's head. Malory's telling is a variant of the original account from the Vulgate Mort Artu, in which Arthur and Mordred both charge at each other on horses three times until Arthur drives his lance through Mordred's body, but then fully withdraws it (a ray of sunlight even shines through the hole) before Mordred's sword powerfully strikes his head and they both fall from their saddles.
The Post-Vulgate retelling of Mort Artu deals with the aftermath of Mordred's death in more detail than the earlier works. In it, Arthur says before being taken away: "Mordred, in an evil hour did I beget you. You have ruined me and the kingdom of
There have been also alternative stories of Mordred's demise. Thomas Grey's Scalacronica attributes the killing of Mordred to Ywan (Ywain) at Camlann.[29] In the Italian La Tavola Ritonda (The Round Table), it is Lancelot who kills Mordred at the castle of Urbano where Mordred has besieged Guinevere after Arthur's death.[30] In Ly Myreur des Histors (The Mirror of History) by Belgian writer Jean d'Outremeuse, Mordred survives the great battle and rules with the traitorous Guinevere until they are defeated and captured by Lancelot and King Carados in London. Guinevere is then executed by Lancelot and Mordred is entombed alive with her body, which he consumes before dying of starvation.
Family relations
Traditions vary regarding Mordred's relationship to Arthur. Medraut is never considered Arthur's son in Welsh texts, only his nephew, though The Dream of Rhonabwy mentions that the king had been his foster father. In early literature derived from Geoffrey's Historia, Mordred was considered the legitimate son of Arthur's sister or half-sister queen named Anna or Gwyar and her husband Lot, the king of either Lothian or Orkney. Today, however, he is best known as Arthur's own illegitimate son by his beautiful half-sister and Lot's wife, known as Morgause (Orcades / Morcades / Morgawse / Margawse), the Queen of Orkney. This motif was introduced in the Vulgate Cycle, in which their union happens at the time when neither of them have yet known of their blood relation and she was not married yet. Accounts of Mordred's incestuous origin story (including two different variants in just the different parts of the main version of the Vulgate Cycle) present the circumstances of it variably, attributing various degrees of blame or innocence to the either party of the teenage (usually aged 15) Arthur's tryst with his much older (mother to children almost his age) half-sister.[note 2]
Her eldest son Gawain has been Mordred's brother already in the Historia as well as in Layamon's Brut. Besides him, Mordred's other brothers or half-brothers often appearing in literature include Agravain and Gaheris in the tradition derived from the French romances, beginning with the prose versions of Robert de Boron's poems Merlin and Perceval. Another of the brothers, Gareth, joined them in the later versions. In the Vulgate Lancelot, Mordred is the youngest of the siblings who begins his knightly career as Agravain's own squire, and the two of them later conspire to reveal Lancelot's affair with Guinevere, resulting in Agravain's death and consequently the civil war between Arthur's and Lancelot's factions. In stark contrast to many modern works, Mordred's only interaction with Arthur's other sister Morgan in any medieval text occurs in the Post-Vulgate Queste, when all the Orkney brothers visit Morgan's castle and are informed by her about Guinevere's infidelity.
The 14th-century Scottish chronicler John of Fordun claimed that Mordred was the rightful heir to the throne of Britain, as Arthur was an illegitimate child (in his account, Mordred was the legitimate son of Lot and Anna, who here is Uther's sister). This sentiment was elaborated upon by Walter Bower and by Hector Boece, who in his Historia Gentis Scotorum goes so far as to say Arthur and Mordred's brother Gawain were traitors and villains and Arthur usurped the throne from Mordred.[31] According to Boece, Arthur agreed to make Mordred his heir, but on the advice of the Britons who did not want Mordred to rule, he later made Constantine his heir; this led to the war in which Arthur and Mordred died. In John Mair's Scottish Historia Maioris Britanniae, Arthurus, Modred and Valvanus (Gawain) were all said to be underage and thus unfit to rule, with Arthur described as a bastard, though Mordred is also not being depicted heroically, as he seizes both the throne and Guanora (Guinevere) with help from mercenaries.[32]
In the Historia and certain other texts, such as the Alliterative Morte Arthure reimagination of the Historia where Mordred is portrayed sympathetically, Mordred marries Guinevere (usually his aunt) consensually after he takes over the throne. However, in later writings like the Lancelot-Grail cycle and Le Morte d'Arthur, Guinevere (now the wife of Mordred's real father) is not treated as a traitor and instead flees Mordred's proposal and hides in the Tower of London. Willing adultery is still tied to her role in these later romances, but Mordred has been replaced as her lover by Lancelot. Related to this motif, the Galician-Portugaese Post-Vulgate Demanda makes Mordred hate Lancelot due to Mordred's own love for Guinevere.
The 18th-century Welsh antiquarian Lewis Morris, based on statements made by Boece, suggested that Medrawd had a wife named Cwyllog, daughter of Caw.[33] Another late Welsh tradition was that Medrawd's wife was Gwenhwy(f)ach, sister of Guinevere.[33]
Offspring
Mordred has been often said as succeeded by his sons. They are always being numbered as two, though they are usually not named, nor is their mother. In Geoffrey's version, after the Battle of Camlann, Constantine is appointed Arthur's successor. However, Mordred's sons and their Saxon allies rise against him.[34] After they are defeated, one of them flees to sanctuary in the Church of Amphibalus in Winchester while the other hides in a London friary. Constantine tracks them down and kills them before the altars of their respective hiding places. This act invokes the vengeance of God, and three years later Constantine is killed by his nephew Aurelius Conanus.[35] Geoffrey's account of the episode may be based on Constantine's murder of two "royal youths" as mentioned by Gildas.[36]
In the Alliterative Morte Arthure, the dying Arthur personally orders Constantine to kill Mordred's infant sons. Guinevere had been asked by Mordred to flee with them to Ireland, but she instead returns to Arthur's Caerleon without care or concern for their children's safety.[37] The perhaps 15th-century Spanish chivalric romance Florambel de Lucea tells of the surviving Arthur having been saved by his sister Morgaina (Morgan) in a later battle against the sons of Morderec (Mordred).[38]
The elder of Mordred's sons is named Melehan or Melian (possibly the same as Melou from Layamon's Brut[39]), but he was the younger one in the Lancelot-Grail and the Post-Vulgate Cycle. Years later (just after Guinevere's death), in a battle near Winchester, Melehan mortally wounds Lionel, brother to Bors the Younger and a cousin of Lancelot. Bors then splits Melehan's head, avenging his brother's death, while the angry Lancelot chases after and decapitates the unnamed other brother who tried to escape deep into a forest.
Modern portrayals
Mordred is especially prominent in popular modern era Arthurian literature, as well as in other media such as film, television, and comics.
Virtually everywhere Mordred appears, his name is synonymous with treason. In Dante's Inferno, he is found in the lowest circle of Hell, set apart for traitors: "him who, at one blow, had chest and shadow / shattered by Arthur's hand" (Canto XXXII).[41] A few works from the Middle Ages and today, however, portray Mordred as less a traitor and more a conflicted opportunist, or even a victim of fate.[42] Even Malory, who depicts Mordred as a villain, notes that the people rallied to him because, "with Arthur was none other life but war and strife, and with Sir Mordred was great joy and bliss."[43]
See also
Notes
- ^ It has been noted that the date of Mordred's birth would better fit a hero rather than a villain, as do the other circumstances such as the motif of a newborn baby at the sea and Arthur's act being reminiscent of the Biblical Massacre of the Innocents.[20]
- ^ Richard Cavendish writes in King Arthur and the Grail: The Arthurian Legends and Their Meaning: "On the contrary, in the Suite (though not in Malory), it is implied that she knew he was her half-brother. This makes Mordred the child, on his mother’s side, of a perverse passion which could well be felt to imbue him with sinister force."
References
Citations
- ^ ISBN 9781613732106.
- Slate. Lubbock, Texas: The Slate Group. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
- ISBN 978-1614274933.
- ^ "Arthurian References in the 'Annales Cambriae'". Camelot Project at the University of Rochester. Translated by Lupack, Alan. Rochester, New York: University of Rochester. 2002. Retrieved 1 December 2006.
- ISBN 978-0140213966.
- ISBN 978-1138147133.
- ISBN 978-0752444611.
- ISBN 9781783165698.
- ^ Nennius. "Historia Brittonum ("From the 'History of the Britons")". The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester. Translated by Lupack, Alan. Rochester, New York: University of Rochester. Retrieved 1 December 2006.
- ^ The Arthurian Handbook, p. 15; p. 277.
- ISBN 9781134817535.
- ISBN 9781611780253.
- ISBN 9781620550588.
- ISBN 9781591437581.
- ^ "King Arthur: 6 things you need to know about the warrior king and his legend".
- ^ Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, XI.I.
- ^ Triad 51. In Bromwich, Rachel (2006). Trioedd Ynys Prydein.
- ^ Triad 54. In Bromwich, Rachel (2006). Trioedd Ynys Prydein.
- ^ ISBN 9781615990665.
- JSTOR 1259595.
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions about the Arthurian Legends | Robbins Library Digital Projects". d.lib.rochester.edu. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
- ISBN 9780766061859.
- ISBN 9781843842330– via Google Books.
- ISBN 9780859910750– via Google Books.
- ISBN 9781843842309.
- ^ "Brigantia, Cartimandua and Gwenhwyfar". The Heroic Age. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
- ISBN 9781843842330.
- ^ "Discovery of King Arthur's Grave: Margam Abbey Chronicle". britannia.com. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
- ISBN 9780802037220– via Google Books.
- ^ Gardner, Edmund G. (15 January 1930). "The Arthurian Legend in Italian Literature". J.M. Dent & Sons Limited – via Google Books.
- ISBN 9781118396988.
- ISBN 978-0-19-109148-3– via Google Books.
- ^ ASIN B01K3M0ZE0.
- ^ Historia Regum Britanniae, Book 11, ch. 3.
- ^ Historia Regum Britanniae, Book 11, ch. 4.
- ^ De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, ch. 28–29.
- ISBN 9780859910750.
- ISBN 9781783162437.
- ISBN 9780815328650– via Google Books.
- ^ Torregrossa, Michael A., "Will the 'Reel' Mordred Please Stand Up? Strategies for Representing Mordred in American and British Arthurian Film" in Cinema Arthuriana: Twenty Essays (Rev. edn.), ed. Kevin J. Harty. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002 (pb. 2009), pp. 199–210.
- ^ Inferno, Canto XXXII, lines 61–62 (Mandelbaum translation).
- ^ The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, p. 394.
- ^ "King Arthur and His Part in the Breaking of the Round Table // Artifacts Journal". 2023.
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-7083-1386-8
- ISBN 0-8240-4377-4.
- Lacy, Norris J.; ISBN 0-8153-2081-7.
External links
- Mordred at The Camelot Project
- The different accounts of Mordred's death at Camlann (Salisbury Plain)