Morgan le Fay One of the sorceress queens central to the legends of King Arthur. She is the daughter of Gorlois, duke of Cornwall, and his duchess Igraine. Morgan le Fay is either the sister to the witches Morgause and Elaine or their niece. She is Arthur’s half-sister and sometimes is described as a mistress to the wizard MERLIN. Morgan le Fey means “Morgan the Fairy.” She is also known as Morgaine, Modron, Morgian, Morgan le Fee, and Fata Morgana.
Sometimes described as a goddess, Morgan probably is a composite character derived from various Celtic myths and deities. In Welsh folklore, she is related to lake Fairies who seduce and then abandon human lovers; in Irish folklore, she lived in a fairy mound from which she flew out in hideous guises to frighten people. In English and Scottish lore, Morgan lived either on Avalon or in various castles, including one near Edinburgh that was inhabited by a bevy of wicked fairies. She also is related to the mermaids of the Breton coast, called Morganes, Mari Morgan, and Morgan who enchanted sailors. Depending on the story, the sailors either went to their deaths or were transported to a blissful underwater paradise. In Italy, mirages over the Straits of Messina are still called the Fata Morganas.
Morgan possesses the art of magic herbal healing and ENCHANTMENTS. According to Malory, she learned her arts in a nunnery.
Sexual betrayal lies at the bottom of the Arthurian tales, begun by the murder of Gorlois by Uther Pendragon, High-King of the Britons. Pendragon seduces Igraine, Gorlois’ widow, and their union produces Arthur. Merlin raises the boy in secret, and his royal lineage remains a mystery until he pulls the sword from the stone, thereby identifying himself as Uther’s heir. Morgan le Fay, swearing to avenge her father, bewitches Arthur and sleeps with him. Their son Mordred, born of incest and seething with hatred and ambition, brings about the destruction of Camelot and the deaths of both himself and the king. Morgan le Fay plots against Arthur’s queen, Guinevere, as well, in return for Guinevere’s interference in an affair between Morgan and the queen’s cousin Guiomar.
Sometimes portrayed as a pagan healer, Morgan le Fay is most often depicted as a wicked enchantress and shapechanger who is well versed in Merlin’s magical arts and is intent on sowing discord and chaos. She steals Arthur’s magic sword, EXCALIBUR, and gives it to her lover, Sir Accolon of Gaul, son of her husband King Uriens. Accolon nearly kills Arthur in battle, but VIVIANE, the Lady of the Lake, returns Excalibur to Arthur just in time. Furious at the failure of her plans, Morgan le Fay throws the scabbard into the lake.
After years of intrigue and conflict, Arthur and Morgan apparently reconcile not long before the fatal Battle of Camlann against Mordred. Morgan le Fay, joined by the queens of Northgalis (North Wales) and the Wastelands, carry the dying Arthur to Avalon (also known as Appleland, or the Fortunate Isle or Isle of Apples), from where medieval listeners of the legends hoped that the king would someday return and reunite his people.
Later authors of the Arthurian legends have rebuked Morgan le Fay’s wicked reputation and embraced her role as a priestess of the pagan Celtic Goddess. Worship of the Mother Goddess, known as Modron (one of Morgan’s names) or as the Irish Morrighan, coexisted with the new Christian faith. Monks who recorded the Arthurian cycles painted Morgan as badly as possible, labeling her powers as a healer and leader of her people as blasphemous and diabolical.
Morgan was sometimes portrayed as an evil, old hag or crone, as in the stories of Sir Lancelot and the lake and in Gawain and the Green Knight. She is not the “Lady of the Lake” in the Arthurian legend by that name. Morgan was said to have a prodigious sexual appetite and was constantly capturing knights to satisfy her desires.
She may not have engaged in incest, either. T. H. White, in his novel The Once and Future King, makes Morgause the seducer, bewitching Arthur with a spancel: a long unbroken ribbon of human skin, carefully taken from around an entire body. To cast the Spell, the spancel is tossed over the sleeping beloved and tied into a bow without waking him; if the intended awakes, he will die within a year. But in the novel The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Morgaine (Morgan) unknowingly sleeps with Arthur as part of the fertility rites of the Beltane festival (May 1).
Morgan le Fay was a popular subject for medieval and Romantic artists, who often showed her in a small boat carrying Arthur to Avalon, as an enchantress casting a spell, or as a beautiful lover. Her hair is either dark or auburn in accordance with her Celtic heritage.
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FURTHER READING:
- Bradley, Marion Zimmer. The Mists of Avalon. New York: Knopf, 1983.
- “Morgan Le Fay.” Arthurian Biographies: Ambrosius Aurelianus. Available online. URL: www.britannia.com/ history/biographies/morgan.html. Downloaded October 17, 2004.
- “Morgan le Fay: Based on Ancient Myth.” Available online. URL: www.mythicalrealm.com/legends/morgan_le_fay. html. Downloaded October 17, 2004.
- “Morgan le Fay.” The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester. Available online. URL: www.lib.rochester. edu/camelot/morgmenu.htm. Downloaded October 17, 2004.
- “Morgan le Fay.” Other Characters in Arthurian Legend. Available online. URL: www.kingarthursknights.com/ others/morganlefay.asp. Downloaded October 17, 2004.
- White, T. H. The Once and Future King. New York: Berkeley Medallion Books, 1966.
SOURCE:
The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy Written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley Copyright © 2006 by Visionary Living, Inc.