Morgan le Fay
Morgan | |
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Morgan le Fay (/ˈmɔːrɡən lə ˈfeɪ/; Welsh: Morgên y Dylwythen Deg; Cornish: Morgen an Spyrys; all meaning 'Morgan the Fairy'), alternatively known as Morgan[n]a, Morgain[a/e], Morg[a]ne, Morgant[e], Morge[i]n, and Morgue[in] among other names and spellings, is a powerful and ambiguous enchantress from the legend of King Arthur, in which most often she and he are siblings. Early appearances of Morgan in Arthurian literature do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a goddess, a fay, a witch, or a sorceress, generally benevolent and connected to Arthur as his magical saviour and protector. Her prominence increased as the legend of Arthur developed over time, as did her moral ambivalence, and in some texts there is an evolutionary transformation of her to an antagonist, particularly as portrayed in cyclical prose such as the Lancelot-Grail and the Post-Vulgate Cycle. A significant aspect in many of Morgan's medieval and later iterations is the unpredictable duality of her nature, with potential for both good and evil.
Her character may have originated from Welsh mythology as well as from other ancient and medieval myths and historical figures. The earliest documented account, by Geoffrey of Monmouth in Vita Merlini (written c. 1150) refers to Morgan in association with the Isle of Apples (Avalon), to which Arthur was carried after having been fatally wounded at the Battle of Camlann, as the leader of the nine magical sisters unrelated to Arthur. Therein, and in the early chivalric romances by Chrétien de Troyes and others, Morgan's chief role is that of a great healer. Several of numerous and often unnamed fairy-mistress and maiden-temptress characters found through the Arthurian romance genre may also be considered as appearances of Morgan in her different aspects.
Romance authors of the late 12th century established Morgan as Arthur's supernatural elder sister. In the 13th-century prose cycles – and the later works based on them, including the influential
Many other medieval and Renaissance works feature continuations of her evolutionary tale from the aftermath of Camlann as she becomes the immortal queen of Avalon in both Arthurian and non-Arthurian stories, sometimes alongside Arthur. After a period of being largely absent from contemporary culture, Morgan's character again rose to prominence in the 20th and 21st centuries, appearing in a wide variety of roles and portrayals. Notably, her modern character is frequently being conflated with her sister's as mother of Arthur's son and nemesis Mordred, the status that Morgan herself never had in medieval legend.
Etymology and origins
The earliest spelling of the name (found in
Possible influence by elements of the classical Greek mythology sorceresses or goddesses such as Circe and especially Medea (who, similar to Morgan, are often alternately benevolent and malicious),[7][11] and other magical women from the Irish mythology such as the mother of hero Fráech,[12] as well as historical figure of Empress Matilda,[11] have been also suggested. A chiefly Greek construction is a relatively new origin theory by Carolyne Larrington.[5] Geoffrey's description of Morgen and her sisters in the Vita Merlini closely resembles the story of the nine Gaulish priestesses of the isle of Sena (now Île de Sein) called Gallisenae (or Gallizenae), as described by the geographer Pomponius Mela during the first century, strongly suggesting that Pomponius' Description of the World (De situ orbis) was one of Geoffrey's prime sources for at least his unique version.[13][14][15][16] One of the proposed candidates for the historical Arthur, Artuir mac Áedán, was recorded as having a sister named Maithgen (daughter of king Áedán mac Gabráin, a 6th-century king of Dál Riata), whose name also appears as that of a prophetic druid in the Irish legend of Saint Brigid of Kildare.
Morgan has also been often linked with the supernatural mother
While many works make Morgan specifically human, she almost always keeps her magical powers
Medieval and Renaissance literature
Geoffrey, Chrétien and other early authors
Morgan first appears by name in Vita Merlini, written by Norman-Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth. Purportedly an account of the life of Merlin, it elaborates some episodes from Geoffrey's more famous earlier work, Historia Regum Britanniae (1136). In Historia, Geoffrey relates how King Arthur, gravely wounded by Mordred at the Battle of Camlann, is taken off to the blessed Isle of Apple Trees (Latin Insula Pomorum), Avalon, to be healed; Avalon (Ynys Afallach in the Welsh versions of Historia) is also mentioned as the place where Arthur's sword Excalibur was forged. (Geoffrey's Arthur does have a sister, whose name is Anna, but the possibility of her being a predecessor to Morgan is unknown.[4]) In Vita Merlini, Geoffrey describes this island in more detail and names Morgen as the chief of the nine magical queen sisters who dwell there, ruling in their own right. Morgen agrees to take Arthur, delivered to her by Taliesin to have him revived. She and her sisters are capable of shapeshifting and flying,[32] and (at least seemingly[11]) use their powers only for good.[33] Morgen is also said to be a learned mathematician[34] and to have taught it and astronomy[35] to her fellow nymph (nymphae)[29] sisters, whose names are listed as Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, Thiten (Thitis), and Thiton (Thetis).[36][37]
She who is first among them is more skilled in the healing art, and also surpasses her sisters in beauty. Morgen is her name, and she has learned what useful properties all the herbs contain, so that she can cure the body ills. She knows, too, the art by which to change her shape, and to fly through the air, like Daedalus, on strange wings. When she wishes, she is now at Brest (Brisiti), now at Chartres (Carnoti), now at Pavia (Papie); and at will she glides down from the sky onto your shores. (...) Morgen received us with due honor. She put the king in her chamber on a golden bed, uncovered his wound with her noble hand and looked long at it. At length she said he could be cured if only he stayed with her a long while and accepted her treatment. We therefore happily committed the king to her care, and spred our sails to favourable winds on return journey.
In the making of this arguably Virgin Mary-type[4] character and her sisters, Geoffrey might have been influenced by the first-century Roman cartographer Pomponius Mela, who has described an oracle at the Île de Sein off the coast of Brittany and its nine virgin priestesses believed by the continental Celtic Gauls to have the power to cure disease and perform various other awesome magic, such as controlling the sea through incantations, foretelling the future, and changing themselves into any animal.[6][38] In addition, according to a theory postulated by R. S. Loomis, it is possible that Geoffrey has not been the original inventor of Morgan, as character may have had already existed in Breton folklore in the hypothetical unrecorded oral stories that featured her as Arthur's fairy saviour, or even also his fairy godmother (her earliest shared supernatural ability being able to traverse on or under water). Such stories being told by wandering storytellers (as credited by Gerald of Wales) would then influence multiple authors writing independently from each other, especially since Vita Merlini was a relatively little-known text.[29]
Geoffrey's description of Morgan is notably very similar to that in
In
The 12th-century French poet
Chrétien again refers to Morgan as a great healer in his later romance
The Middle Welsh Arthurian tale Geraint son of Erbin, either based on Chrétien's Erec and Enide or derived from a common source, mentions King Arthur's chief physician named Morgan Tud. It is believed that this character, though considered a male in Gereint, may be derived from Morgan le Fay, though this has been a matter of debate among Arthurian scholars since the 19th century (the epithet Tud may be a Welsh or Breton cognate or borrowing of Old Irish tuath, 'north, left', 'sinister, wicked', also 'fairy (fay), elf').[49][50] There, Morgan is called to treat Edern ap Nudd, Knight of the Sparrowhawk, following the latter's defeat at the hands of his adversary Geraint, and is later called on by Arthur to treat Geraint himself. In the German version of Erec, the 12th-century knight and poet Hartmann von Aue has Erec healed by Guinevere with a special plaster that was given to Arthur by the king's sister, the goddess (gotinne)[29] Feimurgân (Fâmurgân, Fairy Murgan[51]):
When she began to demonstrate her magic powers, she had very soon circumnavigated the world and come back again. (...) Both in the air and on the earth she could hover at her ease, on the waves and beneath them. She was totally indifferent as to whether she lived in the fire or, just as much at her ease, in the dew. (...) And when it took her fancy she could change a man into a bird or an animal. (...) Mighty was she in magic and her life was greatly in defiance of God, for at her command were the birds in the wild, in the woods and fields, and what seems to me greatest, those evil spirits, that are called devils – they were all at her command. She was well capable of marvels for dragons had to bring from the air support in her affairs, as well as the fish in the sea. Moreover, she had kin deep in Hell: the Devil was her companion. He sent her aid, even from the fire, as much as she wanted. And whatever she would have from this earth, she took, without peril, in ample measure, all for herself. The earth bore no root, the power of which was not as familiar to her as the back of my hand is to me. (...) This earth never acquired a better mistress of magic arts than Feimurgân.[52]
In writing that, Hartmann might have not been influenced by Chrétien, but rather by an earlier oral tradition from the stories of Breton bards.[29] Hartmann also separated Arthur's sister (that is Feimurgân) from the fairy mistress of the lord of Avalon (Chrétien's Guigomar), who in his version is named Marguel.[53] In the anonymous First Continuation of Chrétien's Perceval, the Story of the Grail, the fairy lover of its variant of Guigomar (here as Guingamuer) is named Brangepart, and the two have a son Brangemuer who became the king of an otherworldly isle "where no mortal lived".[54][55] In the 13th-century romance Parzival, another German knight-poet Wolfram von Eschenbach inverted Hartmann's Fâmurgân's name to create that of Arthur's fairy ancestor named Terdelaschoye de Feimurgân, the wife of Mazadân, where the part "Terdelaschoye" comes from Terre de la Joie, or Land of Joy; the text also mentions the mountain of Fâmorgân.[29][42] Jean Markale further identified a Morganian figure in Wolfram's ambiguous character of Cundrie the Sorceress (later better known as Kundry) through her plot function as mistress of illusions in an enchanted fairy garden.[56]
Speculatively, Loomis and
A recently discovered moralistic manuscript written in Anglo-Norman French is the only known instance of medieval Arthurian literature presented as being composed by Morgan herself. This late 12th-century text is purportedly addressed to her court official and tells of the story of a knight called Piers the Fierce; it is likely that the author's motive was to draw a satirical moral from the downfall of the English knight Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall. Morgayne is titled in it as "empress of the wilderness, queen of the damsels, lady of the isles, and governor of the waves of the great sea."[59] Morgan (Morganis) is also mentioned in the Draco Normannicus, a 12th-century (c. 1167–1169) Latin chronicle by Étienne de Rouen, which contains a fictitious letter addressed by King Arthur to Henry II of England, written for political propaganda purpose of having 'Arthur' criticise King Henry for invading the Duchy of Brittany.[59] Notably, it is one of the first known texts that made her a sister to Arthur, as she is in the works of Chrétien and many others after him.[60] As described by Étienne,
Arthur, gravely wounded, sought the help of his sister, who held the holy Isle of Avalon. Morgan, the everlasting nymph (Morganis nympha perennis), received her brother here, cured him, nourished him, revived him, and made him immortal. He was presented the Antipodes as his kingdom. The faerie folk being unarmed, the great war leader comes to their aid: he fears no battle.[59]
French prose cycles
Morgan's role was greatly expanded by the unknown authors of the early-13th-century
A common image of Morgan becomes a malicious, jealous and cruel sorceress, the source of many intrigues at the royal court of Arthur and elsewhere. In some of the later works, she is also subversively working to take over Arthur's throne through her mostly harmful magic and scheming, including manipulating men.
Family and upbringing
This version of Morgan (usually named Morgane, Morgain or Morgue) first appears in the few surviving verses of the Old French poem Merlin, which later served as the original source for the Vulgate Cycle and consequently also the Post-Vulgate Cycle. It was written c. 1200 by the French knight-poet Robert de Boron, who described her as an illegitimate daughter of Lady Igraine with an initially unnamed Duke of Tintagel, after whose death she is adopted by King Neutres of Garlot.[7][70] Merlin is the first known work linking Morgan to Igraine and mentioning her learning sorcery after having been sent away for an education. The reader is informed that Morgan was given her moniker 'la fée' ("the fairy") due to her great knowledge.[71] A 14th-century massive prequel to the Arthurian legend, Perceforest, also implies that Arthur's sister was later named after its fée character Morgane from several centuries earlier. In the Huth-Merlin version of Merlin, Morgain and Morgue la fee are introduced as two different half-sisters of Arthur who then become merged into one character later in the text.[72]
In a popular tradition, Morgan is the youngest of the daughters of Igraine and her husband, a Duke of Cornwall (or Tintagel) who today best known as Gorlois. Her father dies in battle with the army of the British high king Uther Pendragon in a war over his wife (Morgan's mother) at the same moment as when Arthur is conceived by Uther, who infiltrates Tintagel Castle with the half-demon Merlin's magic aid. In the poem's prose version and its continuations, she has at least two elder sisters. Various manuscripts list up to five sisters or half-sisters of Arthur, sometimes from different fathers, and some do not mention Morgan being a bastard (step)child.[7] In the best-known version, her sisters are Elaine (Blasine) and the Queen of Orkney sometimes known as Morgause, the latter of whom is the mother of Arthur's knights Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris and Gareth by King Lot, and the traitor Mordred by Arthur (in some romances the wife of King Lot is called Morcades, a name that R. S. Loomis argued was another name of Morgan[73]). At a young age, Morgan is sent to a convent after Arthur's father Uther marries her mother, who later gives him a son, Arthur (which makes him Morgan's younger half-brother). There, Morgan masters the seven arts and begins her study of magic, going on to specialise in astronomie (astronomy and astrology) and healing;[59][74] the Prose Merlin describes her as "wonderfully adept" and "working hard all the time."[59] The Vulgate Suite du Merlin narration describes Morgan's unmatched beauty and her various skills and qualities of character:
She was comely in body and features, she stood straight and was wonderfully pleasant and a good singer. She was the best worker with her hands that anyone knew about in any land, and she was the cleverest of all. And she had the fairest head of any suited for a woman, and the most beautiful hands, and her skin was softer than millet. But she was the most lustful woman in all Great Britain and the lewdest. And as long as she was in her right mind, she was more courteous than any, but when she was angry with anyone, there was no need in trying to reconcile them.[75]
Schism with Guinevere and Arthur
Uther (or Arthur himself in the Post-Vulgate
Morgan then either undertakes or continues her studies of dark magic under Merlin, enamored for her, the details of which vary widely depending on the telling.[40] In the Prose Merlin, for instance, it is Morgan who finds Merlin, whom she "loves passionately".[7] In the Livre d'Artus, where Morgan's first lover is a knight named Bertolais,[79] it is rather Merlin who goes to live with Morgan and her two ladies for a long time following the betrayal of him by Niniane (the Lady of the Lake) with her other lover, just as Morgan wished for him to do.[7][40] In the Post-Vulgate Suite, Morgan had been tutored by Merlin even before her relationship with Guiomar, and later she returns to learn more.[7] They meet at Lot's funeral, during the time when Morgan is pregnant with Yvain. After Merlin teaches her so much she becomes "the wisest woman in the world", Morgan scorns and drives Merlin away by threatening to torture and kill him if he would not leave her alone, which causes him great sorrow out of his "foolish love" (fol amor) for her.[7][30] In the Vulgate Lancelot, Morgan learns all her magic only from Merlin (and not in the nunnery). In any case, having finished her studies under Merlin, Morgan begins scheming her vengeance as she tries to undermine virtue and achieve Guinevere's downfall whenever she can.
While Morgan's antagonistic actions in the Vulgate Cycle have been motivated by her "great hatred" (grant hayne) toward Guinevere,[81] in the Post-Vulgate Cycle, where Morgan's explicitly evil nature is directly stated and accented, she also works to destroy Arthur's rule and end his life. The most famous and important of these machinations is introduced in the Post-Vulgate Suite, where she arranges for her devoted lover Accolon to obtain the enchanted sword Excalibur as well as its protective scabbard, which has been previously confided to Morgan by Arthur himself as he had trusted her even more than his wife, replacing the real ones with fakes. In a conspiracy with the villainous lord Damas, Morgan plans for Accolon to use Arthur's own magic items against him in single combat, so she and her beloved Accolon would become the rulers. As part of her convoluted plan, both Arthur and Accolon are spirited away from their hunt with Urien by a magical boat of twelve damsels. Confident of her coming victory, Morgan also attempts to murder her sleeping husband Urien with his own sword, but in this act she is stopped by their son Yvain (Uwayne), who pardons her when she protests she has been under the devil's power and promises to abandon her wicked ways.[78] After Arthur nevertheless mortally defeats Accolon in a duel arranged by Morgan, her former mentor Merlin, still having feelings for her, saves her from Arthur's wrath by enabling her to escape.[82] To avenge Accolon's death, which caused her great sorrow, Morgan again steals the scabbard from the sleeping king. Pursued by Arthur for her betrayal, Morgan throws the scabbard into a lake, before temporarily turning herself and her entourage to stone, the sight of which makes Arthur think they have been already punished by God. That action of Morgan ultimately causes the death of Arthur, who would otherwise be protected by the scabbard's magic in his final battle. On her way out, Morgan saves Arthur's knight named Manassen (Manessen) from certain death when she learns Accolon was Manessen's cousin and enables him to kill his captor.
In the same narrative, having been banished from Camelot, Morgan then retires to her lands in the magical kingdom of Gorre and then to her castle near the stronghold of Tauroc (possibly in North Wales). However, her treacherous attempts to bring about Arthur's demise in the Suite are repeatedly frustrated by the king's new sorceress advisor Ninianne (the Lady of the Lake). An iconic case of Morgan's such further and very underhanded plots to kill Arthur in the Post-Vulgate occurs when Morgan sends him a supposed offering of peace in the form of a rich mantle cloak, but Morgan's messenger maiden is made put on the gift first by Ninianne'a advice to Arthur, for "if she dies of it, Morgan will be angrier than at anything else that could happen to her, for she loves her with a very great love." The girl indeed falls dead, and Arthur has her body burned.[83] It is possible that this motif was inspired by classical stories like that how Medea killed her rival for Jason's affection[84] or how Deianira sent a poisoned tunic to Hercules.[85] The reasons for Morgan's hatred of her brother in the Post-Vulgate narrative are never fully explained, other than by just a "natural" extreme antipathy against goodness by the evil that she is an embodiment of.[7]
Lancelot, Tristan and other knights
Morgan is often emphasised as promiscuous, even more than her sister Morgause, as she is "so lustful and wanton that a looser [noble]woman could not have been found."
Morgan uses her skills in her dealings, amorous or otherwise, with several of Arthur's
Another of Morgan's illicit love subjects is the rescued-but-abducted young Cornish knight Alexander the Orphan (Alisaunder le Orphelin), a cousin of Tristan and Mark's enemy from a later addition in the Prose Tristan as well as the Prophéties de Merlin, whom she promises to heal but he vows to castrate himself rather than to pleasure her. Nevertheless, Alexander promises to defend her castle of Fair Guard (Belle Garde), where he has been held, for a year and a day, and then dutifully continues to guard it even after the castle gets burned down;
In the Prose Tristan, wherein Morgan presents herself as Arthur's full sister,[7] she delivers by Lamorak to Arthur's court a magical drinking horn from which no unfaithful lady can drink without spilling, hoping to disgrace Guinevere by revealing her infidelity, but it is Isolde whose adultery is disclosed instead. With same intent, when Tristan was to be Morgan's champion at a jousting tournament, she also gives him an enchanted shield depicting Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot to deliver to Camelot in the Prose Tristan.[90] In the Vulgate Queste, after Morgan hosts her nephews Gawain, Mordred and Gaheriet to heal them, Mordred spots the images of Lancelot's passionate love for Guinevere that Lancelot painted on her castle's walls while he was imprisoned there. Morgan shows it to Gawain and his brothers, encouraging them to take action in the name of loyalty to their king, but they decide not to do this.[95]
Later years and Avalon
It is said that Morgan concentrates on witchcraft to such degree that she goes to live in seclusion in the exile of far-away forests. She learns more spells than any other woman, gains an ability to transform herself into any animal, and people begin to call her Morgan the Goddess (Morgain-la-déesse, Morgue la dieuesse).
However, disaster strikes Arthur when the sight of Lancelot's frescoes and Morgan's confession finally convinces him about the truth to the rumours of the two's secret love affair (about which he has been already warned by his nephew Agravain). This leads to a great conflict between Arthur and Lancelot, which brings down the fellowship of the Round Table. At the end of the Vulgate Mort Artu, Morgan is the only one who is recognised among the black-hooded ladies who take the dying Arthur to his final rest and possible revival in Avalon. Depending on the manuscript, she is either the leading lady (usually, being recognised by Griflet as the one holding Arthur's hand as he enters the boat), a subordinate to another who is unnamed, or neither of them are superior.[98] The latter part of the Post-Vulgate versions of Queste and Mort both seem to revert to Morgan's friendly attitude toward Arthur from the end of the Vulgate Cycle, despite the Post-Vulgate' own characterisation of Morgan as thoroughly evil and the earlier fierce hostility between them. As Arthur steps into her boat after Camlann but assures he is not going to return, she makes no mention of Avalon or her intentions when taking him away. His supposed grave is later said to be found mysteriously empty but for his helmet.[7] (Spanish poem La Faula has Morgan explain that by saying the tomb's purpose was to prevent knights from searching for Arthur.[99])
Malory and other medieval English authors
Middle English writer Thomas Malory was the first to actually call her "Morgan le Fay". Malory follows Morgan's portrayals from the Old French prose cycles in his late-15th-century seminal work of the selective compilation book Le Morte d'Arthur (The Death of Arthur), though he reduces her in role and detail of characterisation, in particular either removing or limiting her traditions of healing and prophecy, and making her more consistently and inherently evil than she is in most of his sources, just as he makes Merlin more good.[7] He also diminishes Morgan's conflict with Guinevere, since there is no mention of Guiomar and instead Accolon ("of Gaul") is her first named lover in a much abbreviated version of his story,[5] but does not clarify Morgan's motivations for her very antagonistic behaviour against Arthur.[60][86] Overall, up until the war between Arthur and Lancelot and the rebellion of Mordred, it is the evil and chaotic Morgan who remains the main and constant source of direct and indirect threat to the realm.[60][d]
In Malory's backstory, Morgan has studied astrology as well as nigremancie (which might actually mean
In the c. 1400 English poem Alliterative Morte Arthure, Morgan appears in Arthur's dream as Lady Fortune (that is, the goddess Fortuna) with the Wheel of Fortune to warn Arthur prior to his fatal final battle, foretelling his death.[108][109] She also appears in some other English texts, such as the early-13th-century Anglo-Norman Roman de Waldef where she is only "name-dropped" as a minor character.[110] Middle English romance Arthour and Merlin, written around 1270, casts a villainous Morgan in the role of the Lady of the Lake and gives her a brother named Morganor as an illegitimate son of King Urien; her wondrous castle Palaus is built mostly of crystal and glass.[42] Conversely, a 14th-century Middle English version of the Vulgate Mort Artu known as the Stanzaic Morte Arthur makes Morgan an unquestionably good sister of Arthur, concerned only about his honour in regard to the affair of Lancelot and Guinevere. Entering her boat (she is not named in the scene, but addresses him as her brother), Arthur believes he is going to be healed, yet his tomb is later discovered by Bedivere.[7]
At the end of the 14th-century Middle English romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the best-known Arthurian tales, it is revealed that the entire Green Knight plot has been instigated by Gawain's aunt, the goddess[111] Morgan le Fay (Morgue la Faye, Morgne þe goddes[30]), whose prior mentorship by Merlin is mentioned.[112] Here, she is an ambiguous trickster[113] who takes an appearance of an elderly woman (contrasting from the beautiful Lady Bertilak in a role evoking the loathly lady tradition[114]), as a test for Arthur and his knights and to frighten Guinevere to death. Morgan's importance to this particular narrative has been disputed and called a deus ex machina[115] and simply an artistic device to further connect Gawain's episode to the Arthurian legend, but some regard her as a central character and the driving force of the plot.[27][76] Opinions are also divided regarding Morgan's intentions and whether she succeeds or fails,[116] and how the story's shapeshifting and enigmatic Morgan might be, or might be not, also Lady Bertilak herself.[107][e]
Other later portrayals in various countries
Morgan further turns up frequently throughout the Western European literature of the High and Late Middle Ages, as well as of the Renaissance. She appears in a variety of roles, generally appearing in works related to the literary cycles of Arthur (the Matter of Britain) or Charlemagne (the Matter of France) and written mostly in various Romance languages and dialects, especially still in France but also in Italy, Spain and elsewhere. In the case of Spain, even public edicts dating from the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century tell of the belief in Morgan continuing to enchant and imprison people at Tintagel and in "the Valley of False Trickery".[119]
Later standalone romances often feature Morgan as a lover and benefactor of various heroes, and yet she can also be their opponent, especially when abducting those who turned down her amorous offers or working to separate true lovers. Such texts may also introduce her additional offspring or alternate siblings, or connect her closer with the figure of the Lady of the Lake. For instance, the fairy queen Lady Morgan (Dame Morgue, Morgue li fee) shows up in
Morgana made several conquests, and of course, many enemies amongst the damsels who found themselves forsaken by their disloyal Knights. The fairy gave proofs of her partial preference to the great Lancelot of the Lake, which Genievre, Arthur's beauteous consort, bore very impatiently. At last, whether she took a dislike to the court, or the court to her, she thought proper to retire to the forest we speak of; where, at her command, her invisible agents erected an enchanted palace. She was followed in her delicious retreats by young and beautiful Varlets, Esquires, and as many Knights as preferred the inglorious, but delightful pleasures that awaited them with Morgana, to the honourable toils of knight-errantry. The fairy was also constantly attended by spirits, and other familiars, who gave her an exact account of what passed within a certain distance from her palace, and assisted her in inveigling every traveller whom she best thought worth her notice.
1780 English translation by Lewis Porney[129]
A human Morgan is named Dioneta in the 14th-century Welsh fragment known as The Birth of Arthur, where she is a sister of both Gwyar (Morgause) and Gwalchmei (Gawain), as well as of the other sisters Gracia and Graeria, and is sent off by Uther to Avallach (Avalon).
In the legend of the Paladins of Charlemagne, she is most associated with one of the Paladins, the Danish folklore hero Ogier the Dane: following his initial epics, when he is 100 years old, the fairy queen Morgan restores him to his youthful form but removes his memory, then takes him to her mystical island palace in Avalon (where Arthur and Gawain are also still alive) to be her lover for 200 years. She later protects him during his adventures in the mortal world as he defends France from Muslim invasion, before his eventual return to Avalon.[142] In some accounts, Ogier begets her two sons, including Marlyn (Meurvin).[42][143] In the 14th-century pseudo-chronicle Ly Myreur des Histors written by the French-Belgian author Jean d'Outremeuse, one of their sons is a giant[29] and they live in a palace made of jewels.[59] In the 13th-century chanson de geste story of another Paladin, Huon of Bordeaux, Morgan is a protector of the eponymous hero and the mother of the fairy king Oberon by none other than Julius Caesar.[144] In the 14th-century Ogier le Danois, a prose redaction of the epic poem Roman d'Ogier, Morgue la Fée lives in her palace in Avalon together with Arthur and Oberon, who both seem to be her brothers.[42][145] Variants of Ogier's and Huon's stories typically involve Morgan, Arthur, and Oberon (Auberon) all living in a fairyland where time passes much slower than in human world. Such works include the 14th century's French Tristan de Nanteuil and the Chanson de Lion de Bourges, the 15th-century French Mabrien,[146][147] and John Bourchier's 16th-century English The Boke of Duke Huon of Burdeux in which Arthur's sister Morgan is mother of not Oberon but Merlin.[148] In another French chanson de geste, the early-13th-century La Bataille Loquifer, the fays[29] Morgan (Morgue) and her sister Marsion (Marrion) bring the Saracen hero Renoart (Renouart, Rainouart) to Avalon, where Arthur is the king. Renoart falls in love with Morgan and impregnates her with his illegitimate son named Corbon (Corbans), "a live devil who did nothing but evil."[42][147] When Renoart jilts her and escapes to rescue his other son Maileffer, Morgan sends her demonic monster servant Kapalu (character derived from the Welsh legends' Cath Palug[149]) after him; the shipwrecked Renoart ends up luckily rescued by a mermaid.
The 14th-century Italian romance titled La Pulzella Gaia (The Merry Maiden)[150] features the titular beautiful young fairy daughter of Morgana (Italian version of Morgan's name, here too also a sister of the Lady of the Lake) with Hemison. In her own tale, Morgana's daughter defeats Gawain (Galvano) in her giant serpent form before becoming his lover; she and her fairy army then save Gawain from the jealous Guinevere, who wants Gawain dead after having been spurned by him. She then herself is imprisoned in a magical torment in her mother's glass-and-diamond magical castle Pela-Orso, because of how Morgana wanted to force her to marry Tristan. Eventually, Gawain storms the castle after three years of siege and frees her from a cursed dungeon, also capturing her tyrannical mother for the same punishment.[151][152] The 15th-century Italian compilation of Arthur and Tristan legends, La Tavola Ritonda (The Round Table), too makes Morgan a sister to the Lady of the Lake as well as to Arthur (about the fate of whom it says Morgan "brought him away to a little island in the sea; and there he died of his wounds, and the fairy buried him on that island"[153]). It is based on the French prose romances, but here Morgan is a prophetic figure whose main role is to ensure the fulfilment of fate.[94] Her daughter also appears, as Gaia Donzella, in the Tavola Ritonda, where she is kidnapped by the knight Burletta of the Desert (Burletta della Diserta) who wants to rape her but she is rescued by Lancelot. The Italian Morgana appears in a number of cantari poems of the 14th to 15th century. Some of these are original new episodes, such as the Cantari di Tristano group's Cantare di Astore e Morgana, in which Morgana heals the wounded Hector de Maris (Astore) but turns him evil, and gives him an armour made in Hell as well as a magical ship in her revenge plot against Gawain as well as Arthur himself, and the Cantari del Falso Scudo that features her evil fairy son, the Knight of the False Shield, who ends up slain by Galahad. Other include Lasencis, a standalone version of the Tavola Ritonda story of the eponymous Corsican knight armed by Morgan with enchanted weapons to avenge his brother killed by Lancelot, and a yet another telling of the familiar story of Morgana's good fairy daughter titled the Ponzela Gaia.[154][155][156][157][158] Evangelista Fossa combined and retold some of those in his Innamoramento di Galvano (Gawain Falling in Love, c. 1494).[159]
Morgan le Fay, or Fata Morgana in Italian, has been in particular associated with
During the Italian Renaissance, Morgan has been primarily featured in relation to the cycle of epic poems of Orlando (based on Roland of the historical Charlemagne). In Matteo Maria Boiardo's late-15th-century Orlando Innamorato, fata Morgana (initially as lady Fortune[164]) is beautiful but wicked fairy enchantress, a sister of King Arthur and a pupil of Merlin. Morgana lives in her paradise-like garden in a crystal cavern under a lake, plotting to eventually destroy the entire world. There, she abducts her favourites until she is thwarted by Orlando who defeats, chases and captures Morgana, destroying her underwater prison and letting her keep only one of her forced lovers, a knight named Ziliante.[165] In Ludovico Ariosto's continuation of this tale, Orlando Furioso (1532), Morgana is revealed as a twin sister of two other sorceresses, the good Logistilla and the evil Alcina; Orlando again defeats Morgana, rescuing Ziliante who has been turned into a dragon, and forces Morgana to swear by her lord Demogorgon to abandon her plots. The story also features the medieval motif where uses a magic horn to convince Arthur of the infidelity of his queen (Geneura), here successfully. Bernardo Tasso's L'Amadigi (1560) further introduces Morgana's three daughters: Carvilia, Morganetta, and Nivetta, themselves temptresses of knights.[166] Morgan's other 16th-century appearances include these of Morgue la fée in François Rabelais' French satirical fantasy novel Les grandes chroniques du grand et énorme géant Gargantua et il publie Pantagruel (1532)[167] and of the good Morgana in Erasmo di Valvasone's Italian didactic poem La caccia (1591).[168] In Edmund Spenser's English epic poem The Faerie Queene (1590), Argante (Layamon's name for Morgan) is lustful giantess queen of the "secret Ile", evoking the Post-Vulgate story of Morgan's kidnapping of Sir Alexander. It also features three other counterpart characters: Acrasia, Duessa, and Malecasta, all representing different themes from Malory's description of Morgan.[169] Morgan might have also inspired the characters of the healer Loosepaine and the fay Oriande in the Scots language poem Greysteil,[170] possibly originally written in 15th-century England.
Modern culture
The character Morgan le Fay has become ubiquitous in Arthurian works of the modern era, spanning fantasy, historical fiction and other genres across various mediums, especially since the mid-20th century.[171]
See also
Notes
- ^ Variant spellings of the name in the manuscripts include: orua, orna, oua, ornains, orueins, oruain, ornais, morgain, moruein, moran, and moranz.[39]
- ^ Richard Cavendish wrote: "Christian writers may have found it hard to cope with such an ambivalent figure (...) However this may be, in most of the stories about her Morgan personifies the old and deep-rooted male fear of the evilness of woman, which is not confined to the Celtic background but exists in the Judaeo-Christian and classical traditions, to which Arthurian writers were also heir. Woman's evilness is linked with voracious female sexuality, felt to rob man of his dominance and reduce him to abject subjection. It is connected with an old awareness of the irrational and overwhelming nature of passionate desire, regarded as a supernatural force."[61] According to Maureen Fries, "This character elaboration, incidentally coinciding with the growth of women-hatred in the latter Middle Ages, turns Morgan from a nurturing ruler of a sea-girt paradise into a destructive sorceress who entraps men sexually rather than healing them. (...) In spite of this murderous and adulterous career, Morgan retains her nurturing function as Arthur's conductress to Avalon after his wounding. But this 'good' Morgan is overshadowed by the ubiquitous 'bad' woman. She is the most extreme villain of Arthurian romance—even worse than the infamous Sir Breunz sans Pitié. Her gradual change (...) from a connector of life with healing, as mistress of Avalon, into a connector of death with illicit sex indicates the inability of male Arthurian authors to cope with the image of a woman of power in positive terms."[62]
- ^ For example, Maureen Fries, describing Morgan as the most influential Arthurian female counter-hero, wrote about how "more beneficent splittings-off from her original role emerge in the several Ladies of the Lake who later develop from her archetype: literally watered-down from Morgan (whose name indicates her origins in the greater body of water, the sea)". Fries wrote about this "fluid figure, always at least double and usually multiple in her manifestations": "Obviously the Lady has been retailored to represent the (mostly) nurturing side of the split mother-image, as Morgan has become the (mostly) devouring side. A combination of these split images appears in the figure of Nimue (also called Niniane and Viviane), who first serves as a devourer and then as a restorer of Arthurian males. Like her [Excalibur giver] sister-avatar, she is called the Lady of the Lake. In a borrowing from Morgan's career, she has the besotted Merlin teach her his magic, but without yielding to him sexually. (...) But Nimue then becomes the devoted and influential friend of Arthurian society: she saves the King and his knights from Morgan's death-dealing (...) and emerges as one of the three (or more, depending on the work) queens who bear the King away to Avalon. This last function allies her, of course, with her original—Morgan le Fay."[67]
- ^ Elizabeth Sklar described Malory's version of Morgan's character as "an essentially sociopathic personality, respecting no boundaries and acknowledging no rules save those dictated by her own ambitions, envy, and lust."[102] As noted by Mary Lynn Saul: "Curiously, in spite of all her powers, Morgan is rarely successful in any of her plots. Nevertheless, she remains a medieval symbol of the potential danger of uncontrolled female power."[103] According to Corinne Saunders, Malory's "Morgan is also characterized as following the pattern of the otherworldly ruler who wishes both to destroy and to possess bodies. She shapes herself as the faery mistress and her magic is partly directed towards the destruction of female rivals."[5] Some modern researchers attribute Malory's "personal misogyny"[104] to his portrayal of Morgan as well as women in general.
- ^ For example, Angela Carson proposed, citing a dual nature of Morgan seen in the poem's sources, that not only the two women are one and the same but also that Bertilak's true identity is Morgan's sometime-husband Urien.[117] According to Corinne Saunders, "Morgan is typically depicted as beautiful and seductive, but here Bertilak's wife functions as the youthful, desirable counterpart of the loathly old hag: the poem separates out the two faces of the enchantress, beautiful and monstrous."[118]
References
Citations
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- ^ Koch, John, Celtic Culture, ABC-CLIO, 2006, p. 16; 458; 537; 702; 1602.
- ^ a b c d Dalecky, Elke (2008). Different Faces of Morgan le Fay: The Changing Image of the Sorceress in Arthurian Literature (PDF). University of Vienna.
- ^ a b c d e f Mangle, Josh (2018). "Echoes of Legend: Magic as the Bridge Between a Pagan Past and a Christian Future in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur". Graduate Theses.
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- ^ a b c d e Shearer, John Christopher (2017). Masks of the Dark Goddess in Arthurian Literature: Origin and Evolution of Morgan le Fay. Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond.
- ^ a b c Pérez, The Myth of Morgan la Fey, p. 95.
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Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-7083-1386-2.
- Faedo, María José Alvarez, ed. (2007). Avalon Revisited: Reworkings of the Arthurian Myth. Literary Criticism. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-3-03911-231-9.
- Fenster, Thelma S., ed. (1996). Arthurian Women: A Casebook. Garland Publishing (published 2015). ISBN 978-0-203-76081-9.
- Thebert, Jill Marie (2008). Shapeshifter: The Manifestations of Morgan le Fay. Western Michigan University. ISBN 978-0-549-75664-4.
- Hook, David (2015). The Arthur of the Iberians: The Arthurian Legends in the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds. University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-1-78316-243-7.
- Larrington, Carolyne (2006). King Arthur's Enchantresses: Morgan and Her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-78453-041-9.
- Pérez, Kristina (2014). The Myth of Morgan la Fey. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-33298-1.
External links
- Morgan le Fay at The Camelot Project
- Media related to Morgan le Fay at Wikimedia Commons