Arthur\'s Dream of Mordred\'s Treachery

¶ … Arthur's dream of Mordred's treachery, and its implications for the overall King Arthur myth.

Arthur's Dream of Mordred's Treachery

The legend of King Arthur is full of various significant dreams and their interpretations. Celtic history, of which the King Arthur legend is a part, placed a huge emphasis on the meanings of dreams. Dreams were taken very seriously, and often professional dream interpreters were employed in order to divine the true meaning of dreams. In the King Arthur legend, dreams turn out to be very significant and symbolic for Arthur. One of the most important symbolic dreams that Arthur has is his dream of the treachery of his son/nephew, Mordred. Mordred was Arthur's son by his half-sister, Morgaine. Arthur knew nothing of Mordred's existence until Mordred himself was an adult. However, Arthur does have a symbolic dream after inadvertently sleeping with his half-sister, right at the moment that Mordred is conceived. This dream told Arthur all he needed to know about Mordred's future treachery. This paper will examine Arthur's dream for its symbolism, and show how it could not have meant anything else other than that Mordred would one day bring great disaster to King Arthur.

Soon after sleeping with his half-sister, Morgaine, King Arthur had a dream that disturbed him greatly. This dream involved griffins and serpents that come to Camelot burning and killing everything in sight. These griffins and serpents also cause Arthur grievous wounds, but he eventually overcomes these wounds to defeat these monstrous creatures. Griffins and serpents were typical mythical monsters of this period in history. Griffins were great beasts with wings and the head of a lion, while the term "serpent" was used to describe any variety of monstrous snake-like creatures. Snakes, of course, were symbolic of evil, just as they are today. Though no interpretation of this dream was immediately forthcoming for Arthur, those who are familiar with the King Arthur myth will recognize the symbolic meaning of this dream right away.

When King Arthur saw these monsters destroying Camelot and killing her people, this must have upset Arthur greatly. Camelot meant everything to King Arthur. It was his own special experiment in social engineering, his ideal society. In Camelot, Arthur had hoped to create a veritable Utopia, based on truth, fairness, and justice. In Arthur's prime, the Camelot experiment seemed to be working beautifully. To see all that he had worked so hard to achieve destroyed in this dream of his would have been devastating for Arthur. By destroying Camelot, the griffins and serpents were hitting Arthur where it hurt the most, in his most vulnerable spot. Though he did destroy these creatures in his dream, the damage they inflicted upon Camelot could not have been made up for, in Arthur's mind.

When Mordred later shows up in Arthur's life, the meaning of his symbolic dream of so many years ago suddenly becomes very clear. Mordred is immediately an untrustworthy character, and though he makes moves to ingratiate himself to Arthur in the beginning, and to become a part of the whole Camelot enterprise, it is obvious from the start that he is only doing this to set up a situation that will serve to further his own aims. Mordred is biding his time until the moment is right to strike, much as a snake does. When one realizes that Mordred is up to no good, it becomes natural to think back to the dream that Arthur had when Mordred was conceived. Suddenly, everything begins to become crystal clear.

Mordred does not take too long to live up to the air of untrustworthiness he has built up around himself. He eventually betrays Guinevere and Lancelot in their affair, thus forcing Arthur to have to go to war with Lancelot, a war which divides his kingdom. Then, while things are at their worst, Mordred comes along with his own army to destroy what is left of Camelot, and take its crown for himself. Mordred is ruthless in his killing and destroying of everything that his father holds dear. The reader can now see clearly that Mordred (along with his army) is the embodiment of those same griffins and serpents that King Arthur saw in his dream of so many years ago. He is killing and destroying everything in sight in Camelot, just as those monsters did in his father's dream.

As the battle between King Arthur and Mordred reaches its height, Mordred mortally wounds Arthur. However, the wound does not kill Arthur immediately. Arthur is still able to fight for a time. Because of this, Arthur is able to kill Mordred. Even after all Mordred has done, Arthur is still loathe to kill him, because he is his son, but he is also pragmatic enough to realize that there is no choice in the matter. Thus, another part of the dream comes true. In the dream, the griffins and serpents grievously wounded Arthur, but he was still able to ultimately destroy them. Mordred wounded Arthur, a wound that would eventually kill him, but Arthur was able to rally enough after receiving this wound to kill and defeat Mordred. Mordred was destroyed, though by this time it mattered little, as Camelot lay in ruins, and Arthur's friends were either dead or turned against him. Even his wife, Guinevere, was sequestered in a convent. Arthur defeated Mordred, but at a terrible cost. This was something the dream did not tell him.