The Depiction of Morgan Le Fay In Various Accounts Of The Arthurian “In my time I have been called many things: sister, lover, priestess, wise-woman, queen.” So begins Marion Zimmer Bradley’s account of the Arthurian legend, which places unusual emphasis on the character of Morgaine, otherwise known as Morgan Le But who exactly is Morgan and how does she vary in the different accounts of theArthurian legend?In order to assess how Morgan Le Fay is depicted throughout history, it is firstimportant to establish who she is and what part she plays in the legend. Five differenttexts: Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings Of Britain, Sir Thomas Malory’sLe Morte d’Arthur, a French version of the Arthurian legend, Mort Artu, written by anunknown 13th century author and T. H. White’s 20th century classic The Once andFuture King, along with Marion Zimmer Bradley’s New York Times best-selling novelThe Mists Of Avalon show vastly different versions of the character of Morgan and herimportance in the legend. In most versions of the legend, Morgan is Arthur’s half sister, the daughter ofQueen Igraine and her first husband, the Duke of Cornwall. After her mother’s marriageto the High King, Morgan is trained in magic of some sort. She, whether knowingly orunknowingly, beds Arthur and is impregnated by him. She bares him a son, Mordred, thendisappears into the “realm of the fairies” After several years, Morgan is married to theKing of Uriens. This is the way Morgan appears most frequently in re-tellings of theArthurian legend. However, the character Morgause has often taken on some of thecharacteristics and roles of Morgan in the legend; therefore, in order to adequatelycompare texts on Morgan, one must explore the depiction of Morgause also.The original full retelling of the Arthur story, Monmouth’s The History of theKings of Britain, has few female characters. ...
