Morgaine

An enchantress or fairy, probably derived from the Welsh Modron and, ultimately, from the Celtic goddess Matrona, and she may have been influenced by an enchantress in Irish mythology called Morrigan. She is generally named as Arthur’s half-sister, but she is sometimes his full sister or his niece. Her most important role is to bear Arthur’s body to the Island of Avalon after he receives a mortal wound at the battle of Camlann. Incongruously, though, she is often portrayed as Arthur’s enemy during his reign. Thus, her character is remarkably inconsistent throughout the Arthurian saga, sometimes described as evil, sometimes as benevolent; somtimes ugly, sometimes beautiful. When she is not a character in a story, she is sometimes mentioned as a metaphorical or mythical figure.
She first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini as the queen of the Island of Apples (Avalon), to which Arthur’s body is borne after Camlann. Described as beautiful, she is said to have shape-shifting and healing abilities. She has nine sisters including Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, and Thitis. Geoffrey, however, does not name her as Arthur’s sister.
Morgan does not appear in Geoffrey’s Historia, nor in Wace’s Roman de Brut. Layamon includes a variation of her name, Argante, as the elven queen who takes Arthur’s body to Avalon. As it is unlikely that Layamon was influenced by Geoffrey’s Vita, both of these stories can be taken as examples of a widely-held Welsh or Breton oral tradition. Either Chrétien de Troyes or Etienne de Rouen is the first to name her as Arthur’s sister. In Chrétien’s Erec, she is, as in Geoffrey, the ruler of Avalon, and she has a lover named Guinguemar. Her magical healing ointment heals Erec and Yvain in their respective romances. Chrétien does not demonstrate a dependence on the earlier texts, suggesting, again, a wide profusion of her character in oral legend.
In between these early accounts and the Vulgate Cycle are a smattering of contradictory appearances in various French romances, few of which contribute anything meaningful to the evolution of her character. Wolfram von Eschenbach (who, through a reversal of her traditional name, calls her Terdelaschoye of Feimurgan) has her as the wife of Mazadan and an ancestor of Arthur. Ulrich von Zatzikhoven’s Lanzelet features a water fairy who raises Lancelot from infancy. Though not named as “Morgan,” the fairy is said to be the mother of Mabuz, probably identical to Mabon son of Modron in Welsh legend. Morgan may have therefore once been the same character as the Lady of the Lake, a role which she is given in Arthour and Merlin. She is first mentioned as the mother of Yvain in a minor French romance called Tyolet, and she does not assume the role again until the Post-Vulgate Suite du Merlin. However, her counterpart, Modron, is named as Owain’s mother in Welsh legend.
As with a great many of characters, the Vulgate Cycle is the first group of texts to give Morgan le Fay a complete story, starting with her birth as the daughter of Igerne. Her father is not named. He was most likely Gorlois, Igerne’s first husband, but at one point Morgan is called a *******. Nentres of Garlot took her into his care when her father died, and he assigned her to a nunnery, where she learned to read, write, heal, and interpret the stars. During Arthur’s Saxon wars, she met Merlin and increased her knowledge of the magical arts through his teaching. Eventually, she became the lover of Guinevere’s cousin, Guiomar. Guinevere ended their affair when she learned of it, causing Morgan’s subsequent hatred for Arthur and his knights. Her hate was intensified by her own love or lust for Lancelot, who would have nothing to do with her. She created the Valley of No Return, which entrapped a number of Arthur’s warriors; imprisoned Lancelot on three separate occasions and tried to trick Arthur’s court into thinking he was dead; and sent hints of Lancelot’s affair with Guinevere to Arthur. In the end, however, she dutifully takes Arthur’s body from the battlefield of Salisbury without any explanation for her change of heart.
The Suite du Merlin, the other Post-Vulgate romances, and the Prose Tristan add and change the following facts: She married King Urien, and she had a son by him named Yvain. She later tried to murder Urien but was stopped by her son. Merlin fell in love with her. After she learned Merlin’s magic, however, she scorned him and threatened him with death if ever came near her again. In addition to her other plots against Arthur, she made a counterfeit of Excalibur and its scabbard, giving the original to her lover, Sir Accalon of Gaul, while returning the fake one to Arthur. She then arranged for Arthur and Accalon to meet in combat, and it was only through the intervention of Nimue (the Lady of the Lake) that Arthur survived. Afterwards, Morgan managed to throw Excalibur’s scabbard into a lake. She sent a mantle to Arthur that would have burned him to cinders had he put it on, but Arthur made her unfortunate servant don it instead. She also sent a magical chastity horn to Arthur hoping to reveal Guinevere’s adultery. It was from Morgan that Mordred learned of the affair between Lancelot and Guinevere. She kidnapped Tristan and made him carry an insulting shield depicting Guinevere’s infidelity at one of Arthur’s tournaments. Later, she sent a poisoned lance to Mark, which Mark used to kill Tristan. She also plotted with Mark to destroy Alexander the Orphan, who for a time become Morgan’s prisoner. She had a number of lovers, including Helians, Kaz, Gui, and Corrant. Despite her evil deeds, she again bears her brother’s body away from the last battlefield for healing.
Malory’s tales are derived primarily from the Vulgate, and he adds only the confirmation of her parentage by Igerne and Gorlois, giving her two sisters named Morgause and Elaine. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight it is revealed that the Green Knight’s visit to Arthur’s court is yet another of Morgan’s plots to distress Arthur. In the French tale of Huon de Bordeaux, she has a son with Julius Caesar named Huon, and in La Bataille de Loquifer, she has a son with the hero Renoart named Corbon. In Italian romance, she has a daughter named Pulzella Gaia, the Lady of the Lake is presented as her sister, and Uther Pendragon is her father. Some texts have her living on Sicily, in a castle called Montegibel.
Consequent of the growth of her fame, Morgan appears in a number of non-Arthurian or quasi-Arthurian texts as the mother, sister, or benefactress of various characters.