| Morgause | |
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Other Names |
Morgawse, Bellicent, Anna, Cristina, Orcades, Sangîve, Seifê, Emine, Morcades, Brimesent, Albagia |
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First Appearance |
Arthurian Legend |
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Created by |
Arthurian Legend |
Origin[]
Morgause, Queen of Orkney, is a character in Arthurian legend in which she is the mother of Gawain and Mordred, both key players in the story of King Arthur and his downfall.
In early texts, Morgause is the wife of King Lot of Orkney, Mordred's father, with whom she may also have other children. In later versions, including the seminal Le Morte d'Arthur, Mordred is the offspring of Arthur's accidental incest with Morgause, his estranged half-sister. There, she is furthermore a sister of Morgan le Fay, as well as the mother of Gareth, Agravain, and Gaheris, the last of whom murders her.
In Le Morte d'Arthur, Morgause is one of three daughters born to Duke Gorlois and Lady Igraine. According to Malory, their mother is widowed by, and then remarried to, Arthur's future father, the high king Uther Pendragon. Afterwards, she and her younger sisters, Elaine and Morgan ("le Fay", later the mother of Yvain), now Uther's foster daughters, are married off to allies or vassals of their stepfather. The young Morgause is wed to the Orcadian king Lot and bears him four sons, all of whom later go on to serve Arthur as key members of the Knights of the Round Table. They are Gawain, one of Arthur's greatest and closest companions with a darker side; Agravain, secretly a wretched and twisted traitor; Gaheris, a skilled fighter but troubled man; and finally the youngest Gareth, a gentle and loving good knight.
Morgause's husband King Lot joins the failed rebellions against Arthur that follow in the wake of King Uther's death and the subsequent discovery and coronation of his heir. Acting as a spy during the war, she comes to Carleon where she visits the boy King Arthur, ignorant of their familial relationship, in his bedchamber and they conceive Mordred. Her husband, who has unsuspectingly raised Mordred as his own son, is later slain in battle by King Pellinore. All of her sons depart their father's court to take service at Camelot, where Gawain and Gaheris avenge Lot's death by killing Pellinore, thereby launching a long blood feud between the two families that contributes in bringing the ruin to Arthur's kingdom.
Nevertheless, Morgause has an affair with Sir Lamorak, a son of Pellinore and one of Arthur's best knights. Once, Lancelot and Bleoberis even find Lamorak and Meleagant fighting over which queen is more beautiful, Morgause or Guinevere. Eventually, her son Gaheris discovers them in flagrante together in bed while visiting her castle. Enraged, he grabs Morgause by her hair and swiftly beheads her, but spares her unarmed lover (who is left naked in bed covered in her blood, and is killed later by four Orkney brothers in an unequal fight). Gaheris (who in the Post-Vulgate version defends his act as a just punishment of the queen for her "wretched debauchery") is consequently banished from court of Arthur (though he reappears later in the narrative, eventually being slain by Lancelot).
In the Post-Vulgate story, Gaheris' brothers Gawain and Agravain initially vow to kill him in revenge for their mother's death until they are persuaded by Gareth and Bors to end the bloodshed in the family. Arthur buries the Queen of Orkney in the main church in Camelot, inscribing the name of her killer on it, while everyone grieves for her and condemns the "treacherous and cruel" act of Gaheris, including actually even Gaheris himself in his self-exile. In Malory's telling, however, Lancelot calls the slaying of Morgause "shameful" but Gawain seems to be angry at Gaheris only for leaving Lamorak alive at the spot.
The act of Mordred's conception is described variably in the different works of Arthurian romance. In the Vulgate Merlin, the episode takes place earlier, back when a young teenage Arthur was only a mere squire to his foster-brother Kay (prior to the fateful drawing of the sword in the stone) and completely oblivious about his true heritage.
During a meeting of the lords of Britain, when King Lot is out hunting, Arthur sneaks into the queen's chamber and pretends to be her husband; she eventually discovers the deception, but forgives him the next morning and agrees to keep the incident a secret between the two of them. Conversely, a flashback scene in the Post-Vulgate Merlin Continuation portrays the Queen of Orkney as entirely aware and willing in her incestous tryst with her young half-brother.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
All Published appearances of Morgause before January 1, 1929 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances can be found below:
- Historia Regum Britanniae
- The Chronicle of Britain
- Le Morte d'Arthur
- Roman de Brut
- Chronica Gentis Scotorum
- Historia Gentis Scotorum
- Grande Croniques de Bretagne
- Parzival
- Scalacronica
- First Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval
- Les Enfances Gauvain
- Diu Crône
- Vulgate Cycle
- Arthour and Merlin
- La Tavola Ritonda
- Merlin by Robert de Boron
- Tales from Tennyson (1902)
Notes[]
- In modern Arthuriana, the character of Morgause is often conflated with that of Morgan le Fay; in John Boorman's film Excalibur (1981), for instance, Morgause's role as the mother of Mordred is transferred to "Morgana". According to E. R. Huber, "What becomes clear on reading Le Morte d'Arthur and its medieval predecessors is that Morgause was not a villain until the modern period."