Igraine - Other Accounts

Other Accounts

In the Post-Vulgate Cycle and Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, it is Morgan le Fay who becomes the wife of King Urien and mother of Ywain (and Malory adds this information). In other accounts Ywain is not Arthur's nephew at all, though sometimes still made Gawain's cousin through their two fathers who are sometimes presented as brothers.

In the Brut Tysilio, Duke Cador of Cornwall is the son of Gorlois, one would guess by Igraine. The same appears in Richard Hardyng's Chronicle where Cador is called Arthur's brother "of his mother's syde." Opposing views appear in Layamon's Brut where Cador appears first as a leader who takes charge of Uther's host when they are attacked by Gorlois while Uther is secretly lying beside Igraine in Tintagel. In the English Alliterative Morte Arthure Cador is continually called Arthur's "cousin".

Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur names the first daughter Margawse, the second Elayne and the third Morgan the Fay with no mention of Morgan's illegitimacy. Lancelot is the son of Arthur's sister Clarine in Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's Lanzelet, Caradoc Breifbras is Arthur's sister's son in the Prose Lancelot, Percival is son of Arthur's sister Acheflour in the English romance Syr Percyvelle. Arthurian tales are not consistent with one another and sisters of Arthur seem to have been created at desire by any teller who wished to make a hero into Arthur's nephew.

The Prose Lancelot relates that when Igraine became Uther's wife she left behind in the dukedom of Tintagel a son of the Duke of Tintagel by a previous marriage. Some romances show her alive after Uther's death. In Chrétien de Troyes's Perceval, le Conte du Graal she and her daughter Gawain's mother are discovered by Gawain in an enchanted castle named the Castle of Marvels. Gawain had thought both his mother and grandmother to be long dead. This same account appears in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and in Heinrich von dem Türlin's Diu Krone. In both of these latter it is explained that Igraine was abducted (and it is hinted that she was willingly abducted) by the magician who has enchanted the castle. In the French Livre d'Artus, an incomplete alternate conclusion to the French Vulgate Merlin, it is mentioned that Ygraine dwells hidden in the Grail castle. This is apparently a version of the same tradition since in the late Vulgate cycle the enchantments of the Grail castle are very similar to and seem to be based on the enchantments found in Chrétien's Castle of Marvels.

Author Jack Whyte's A Dream of Eagles portrays Igraine as the daughter of Athol, a ruler from Éire. She is married off to Lot, the Duke of Cornwall. She flees the cruel Lot for his arch enemy, Uther Pendragon. She is killed by Derek, king of Ravenglass, one of Lot's allies, shortly after he kills Uther. She dies telling Merlyn, Uther's cousin and commander of the forces of Camulod, of her son by Uther, Arthur Pendragon.

In the BBC series Merlin, Ygraine is the wife of Uther, but dead for many years by the time the events of the series begins. She could not conceive, and so Uther asked for the help of the sorceress Nimueh so that they could have a child. Igraine gives birth to Arthur, but because magic was invoked in his conception, Uther had to pay the price of asking for a life from magic—that of losing the life of someone he treasured equally, his wife. It is Igraine's death that sparks Uther's hatred and persecution of all magic users within his kingdom.