Arthurian Legend and Myth --

Arthurian Legend and Myth -- Morgana

The legends told about King Arthur, from "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," to Malory's renderings of the Arthurian myths, to the Victorian Lord Alfred Tennyson's "Idylls of the King," all fuse, to varying degrees, elements of pre-Christian, pagan Celtic myths with the later Christian ideology of the one, true Holy King. Even more than the figure of Arthur himself, this occasionally discomforting melding of the two religious systems can be seen in the figure of Morgana, otherwise known as Morgan le Fay.

Morgana is one of Arthur's three elder half-sisters. Morgana, Elaine, and Morgause were the daughters of Ygraine and Gorlois. Ygraine eventually married Uther Pendragon and gave birth to Arthur. Gorlois was the Duke of Cornwall, Ygraine's first husband. (Took, 2004) in myth, Morgana, the Queen of Avalon, Morgana acts the conveyer of Arthur's power by bestowing Excalibur upon him, as well as standing as Arthur's half-sister and link to the other, mythical realm of Avalon.

Avalon is where Arthur goes at the end his saga. At Avalon, Arthur will one day return to heal his native land, after Queen Morgana heals him of his wounds. The pre-Christian nature of the Arthur myth is evidenced in the Queen's identity as a spiritual, feminine healer of the fairy realm. Morgana is a powerful female religious figure in her own right, outside of the control of men. But because Morgana was a powerful female, Christian interpreters often feared her power and influence as a witch. In most extant versions of the Arthurian legends, had Morgana is shown as hating her half-brother Arthur nearly from the day he was born, and the existing versions of the Arthurian legends are full of her attempts to bring his downfall, as well as the implication that she tricked Arthur into siring an incestuous son with her, Mordred, who brought about Camelot's kingdom's downfall.

It is noteworthy that once Morgan may have been an entirely benevolent figure, but not all of the earliest myths of the Arthurian saga may survive. In the first recorded reference to Morgana that scholars have today, in Geoffrey Monmouth's "Vita Merlini," she is merely a creature "of the realm of Fairy." (Rise, 2001) in this work, she is a "magical figure as well as a priestess presiding over a sisterhood of nine inhabiting an enchanted isle. She receives the wounded king after the last battle and offers to cure him if he remains long enough." (Rise, 2001) Because Christianity had such a difficult time "assimilating a benevolent enchantress," into Camelot's structure of tales, particularly a female outside of male religious spheres of power, Morgana "becomes more and more sinister," in later tales, and also more human in her jealousies and passionate wrangling in Camelot. (Rise, 2001)