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Morgan ferch Uther

Morgan le Fay (born 450) was, in Arthurian legend, a powerful enchantress and the half-sister and archenemy of King Arthur.

Biography[]

Morgan le Fay

Morgan charming a man

Morgan was the youngest daughter of Duke Gorlois of Cornwall and Igraine, and she was the half-sister of King Arthur and the sister of Morgause. She unhappily married King Urien of Rheged, giving birth to Owain, and she later became an apprentice of the magician Merlin. A lustful woman, Morgan shapeshifted into another woman and slept with her own half-brother Arthur, giving birth to Mordred. She grew jealous of Arthur's wife Guinevere and frequently attempted to harass Guinevere and the Knights of the Round Table, such as initiating Gawain's encounter with the Green Knight. She also took Merlin as a lover, but she failed to seduce Lancelot. In 537, she avenged this unrequited love by making Guinevere and Lancelot fall in love, causing Arthur to order Guinevere to be burnt at the stake. Lancelot rescued her by killing Gareth and Gaheris, Gawain's brothers, and the two eloped to Francia. Gawain persuaded Arthur to help him hunt them down and seek vengeance, and Morgan's son Mordred took this opportunity to usurp the throne from Arthur. When Arthur returned, he and Mordred both died at the Battle of Camlan, and Morgan eventually reconciled with Arthur by taking him on his final journey to Avalon.

Derfel's chronicle[]

According to Derfel Cadarn's chronicle, she was born in 450 AD (thirty years before most sources date Arthur's birth), the first of Uther's illegitimate children (three girls and a boy) fathered on Igraine of Gwynedd. She was high-born, but, as a young bride, she had been trapped in a burning house which had killed her new husband and scarred Morgan horribly, taking her left ear, blinding her left eye, searing the hair from the left side of her scalp, maiming her left leg, and twisting her left arm, leaving her whole left line wrinkled, raw, red, distorted, shriveled, and gruesome. She was fit for Merlin's high hall, however, and he trained her to be his prophetess, wearing a gold mask made by Merlin. She was always dressed in black and gold-faced, and she had a healing touch and gifts of prophecy; however, she was also the worst-tempered woman whom Derfel ever met.

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