Morgan le Fay (Arthurian legend)

Symbols: Raven’s cloak; birds of prey (ravens, hawks, falcons)

Culture: English/Welsh

Mother: Ygerna or Igraine

Father: Gorlois

Siblings: varies—none; two sisters: Elaine and Morgause; or eight sisters: Mazoe, Moronoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Thiten, Thiton, Tyronoe

Children: Yvain or Ywain

Morgan le Fay is an important figure in the legend of King Arthur of Britain. She is generally presented as a witch or enchantress—le Fay is a Middle French term meaning "the fairy," "the sorceress," or "the witch." She is sometimes an ally of Arthur, but at other times, she is an adversary. Most often, she is on Arthur’s side. In the best-known Arthurian tales, she is Arthur’s half-sister. They have the same mother but different fathers. Morgan’s father is the Duke of Cornwall, and Arthur’s father is Uther Pendragon. In earlier renditions of the story, she is a sorceress and one of nine sisters who lived in the Celtic underworld.

Morgan’s role as an antagonist or ally of Arthur depends on when the story was retold and where. In the earliest references, she is simply an enchantress. In Welsh stories, she may be based on a Celtic mother-goddess named Modron. Later retellings of the Arthurian legend, particularly Sir Thomas Malory’s fifteenth-century Le Morte D’Arthur, turn her into a bitter adversary of the king. Chrétien de Troyes, a twelfth-century French poet, mentions her as a healer and as Arthur’s sister. The Vulgate Cycle, a series of thirteenth-century French Arthurian stories written by Cistercian monks, places her in a more intimate position within King Arthur’s court.

In Mythology

The stories of le Fay are many and varied. The character evolved over time. In Vita Merlini by Geoffrey of Monmouth, le Fay is the most beautiful of nine magical sisters. She is able to shape-shift and fly. In contrast to later tellings of the Arthurian legend, in Vita Merlini, le Fay is not with the mortally wounded king. Her home is the enchanted island of Avalon.

Chrétien de Troyes also places her on Avalon, the island where Arthur dies. In the poet’s tales, le Fay is primarily a healer, and her character is still benign.

In The Vulgate Cycle, le Fay is painted in a somewhat more negative light. In these tales, she is a child of Ygerna and probably Gorlois, the Duke of Cornwall, although she is also referred to as a bastard. She is taught in a nunnery, where she learns how to heal and also how to read and write, among other skills. She receives additional education from Merlin, learning magic while Arthur is at war against the invading Saxons. She becomes the lover of Guiomar, who is Queen Guinevere’s cousin. Guinevere puts an end to the relationship, which is what turns le Fay into an implacable enemy of Arthur and the queen.

In the legends, le Fay attempts to make Arthur’s right-hand man Lancelot her lover, but he spurns her. She then tries to expose Lancelot’s affair with Guinevere. She also creates the Valley of No Return. This is a place where knights are trapped, including Lancelot, who was trapped there three times. However, she is the one who takes Arthur away for healing despite the fact that they were enemies.

The tale that is best known today—and the most popular one—has its base in Le Morte D’Arthur. In it, le Fay is King Arthur’s half-sister, born before Uther Pendragon raped and then wed their mother Ygerna, the wife of the Duke of Cornwall. While Arthur is given at birth to the magician Merlin, le Fay is educated in a nunnery. While there, she studies sorcery.

A marriage to King Urien is arranged for her, but she takes a knight named Accolon as a lover. She plots with the knight against Arthur, then attempts to seduce Lancelot. In many other ways, she tries to foment discord in King Arthur’s court—for example, by trying to expose Guinevere’s adultery by sending a cup that was known as "the chastity-revealing cup" to Camelot. She remains Arthur’s nemesis until the very end, when in an apparent change of heart, she takes the wounded king to the island of Avalon, where he dies in peace.

In a romance that is called a post-Vulgate work, the Suite de Merlin, le Fay is married to King Urien and has a son named Yvain. She later tries to kill Urien but is stopped by her son. Merlin falls in love with her, but she abandons him after she has learned his magic. As in Le Morte D’Arthur, she plots against Arthur and tries to sow discord in his court. She also replaces his magical sword Excalibur with a fake, giving the original to Accolon before he and Arthur fight. Arthur is saved only by the Lady of the Lake, who is likewise magical. In this tale, le Fay makes other attempts on the king’s life, but as in the earlier stories, she carries him to Avalon for healing after his final battle.

Origins and Cults

Morgan le Fay was known by many different names. Some are simply variant spellings, such as Morgan le Faye, Morgane, Morgant, Morgne, Morge, Morgue, Morgana, or Morganna. However, other spellings may suggest different origins for the character of the sorceress in the legend.

Geoffrey of Monmouth called her Morgen. Some scholars believe this spelling indicates her origin as an ancient Welsh or Breton supernatural water deity or spirit. Depictions of le Fay as a shape-shifter are consistent with this theory. Other scholars theorize that the character comes from the ancient Irish or Celtic deity Modron. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s reference is the earliest known. In Vita Merlini, she is also presented as a healer.

Chrétien de Troyes is the first one to name le Fay as Arthur’s sister, and it is in his poems that she uses magical poultices to save the lives of heroes. In The Vulgate Cycle, she begins to appear as a less-benevolent character. Modern views of le Fay as a witch, a femme fatale, or an enemy of Arthur who uses her magical powers against her half-brother are based primarily on Malory’s telling of the Arthurian legend.

It is a sign of the enduring impact the character has had within the legend of King Arthur that she has been transformed, updated, and reinterpreted by artists and authors for almost one thousand years. She has been featured hundreds of times in books, comic books, movies, television shows, musicals, operas, and card games. The list goes on and on. It is safe to conclude that she will continue to intrigue artists and audiences for centuries to come.

Bibliography

Ackroyd, Peter. The Death of King Arthur: Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur: A Retelling. New York: Viking, 2011. Print.

Ashley, Mike, ed. The Mammoth Book of Arthurian Legends. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1998. Print.

Hebert, Jill. Morgan le Fay, Shapeshifter. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Print.

Larrington, Carolyne. King Arthur’s Enchantresses: Morgan and Her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006. Print.

Malory, Thomas. Le Morte D’Arthur: The Winchester Manuscript. Oxford: Oxford Paperbacks, 2008. Electronic.

Malory, Thomas, and Stephanie Budin. Le Morte D’Arthur: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. San Diego: Canterbury Classics, 2015. Electronic.

Perez, Kristina. The Myth of Morgan le Fay. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Print.

White, T. H. The Once and Future King. New York: Ace, 1987. Print.