Morgan le Fay, alternatively known as Morgane, Morgain, Morgana and other variants, is a powerful
sorceress and antagonist of
King Arthur and
Guinevere in the
Arthurian legend.The early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a
fay or magician. She became much more prominent in the later cyclical prose works such as the
Lancelot-Grail and the
Post-Vulgate Cycle, in which she is said to be the daughter of Arthur's mother, the Lady
Igraine, and her first husband,
Gorlois,
Duke of Cornwall; Arthur is her half brother by Igraine and
Uther Pendragon. Morgan has at least two older sisters,
Elaine and
Morgause, the latter of whom is the mother of
Gawain and the traitor
Mordred. In Sir
Thomas Malory's
Le Morte d'Arthur and elsewhere, she is married, unhappily, to King
Urien of Gore and
Ywain is her son. Though she becomes an adversary of the
Round Table when Guinevere discovers her adultery with one of her husband's knights, she eventually reconciles with her brother, and even serves as one of the four enchantresses who carry the king to
Avalon after his final battle at
Camlann.
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[Arthurian] Introduced in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini, her name (there spelled "Morgen") implies ties to the realm of Fairy. She is also 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. There are many Celtic traditions evident here, not just of fairy queens ruling magic lands, but of actual sisterhoods of healers and miracle workers recorded in classical literature. Such a group might have been led by a priestess that served as the earthly manifestation of a goddess. Giraldus Cambrensis and other medieval authors were well aware of Morgan's divinity. Comparison of Welsh and non-Welsh Arthurian matter show her to be somewhat identified with Modron and ultimately with the river goddess Matrona, similar to and possibly derived from the Irish goddess Morrigan. Christianity humanizes and eventually vilifies her. Early on she is a type...
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