Mordred - Mordred in Later Works

Mordred in Later Works

Virtually everywhere Mordred appears, his name is synonymous with treachery. He appears in Dante's Inferno in the lowest circle of Hell, set apart for traitors: "him who, at one blow, had chest and shadow / shattered by Arthur's hand;" (Canto XXXII).

A few works of the Middle Ages and today, however, portray Mordred as less a traitor and more a conflicted opportunist, or even a victim of fate. The 14th century Scottish chronicler John of Fordun even claimed that Mordred was the rightful heir to the throne of Britain, as Arthur was an illegitimate child (in his account, Mordred was the legitimate son of Lot and Anna.) This sentiment was elaborated upon by Walter Bower and by Hector Boece, who in his Historia Gentis Scotorum goes so far as to say Arthur and Gawain were traitors and villains who stole the throne from Mordred. Even Malory, who depicts Mordred as a villain, notes that the people of England rallied to him because, "with Arthur was none other life but war and strife, and with Sir Mordred was great joy and bliss".

Mordred is especially prominent in popular Arthurian texts of the modern era, especially in fiction, film, and television, and the comics medium. Some modern Arthurian works such as Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon replace Morgause as Mordred's mother with Morgan le Fay (traditionally her sister). Mordred remains a major villain in many modern takes on the legend, including John Boorman's film Excalibur, T.H. White's novel The Once and Future King (where Mordred plays the role of a bitter but successful populist and faux-Bolshevik) and the musical based on it, Camelot, and Hal Foster's popular comic strip Prince Valiant. In the 2008 episode "The Beginning Of The End" of the BBC television series Merlin, a prequel to and re-imagining of the Arthur legends, Mordred appears as a young Druid boy whom Merlin protects despite being warned that he would one day kill Arthur. In series 5 of Merlin, an older and much more mature Mordred returns. 24-year-old Alexander Vlahos now takes the role of the Druid destined to be responsible for Arthur’s death.

In the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica by James A. Owen, Mordred is the main villain. In the third book, The Indigo King, it is revealed that Mordred was born as Madoc in a place called the Archipelago of Dreams, from which he was exiled for trying to use knowledge of the future to shape it. He and his twin, Myrddyn, were sons of Ulysses. Mordred was banished by his brother until he was allowed to come back to fight to become High King, taking on the name Mordred. He fought Myrddyn, who is now Merlin, defeating him but losing to Arthur, Merlin's son and Mordred's nephew.

Other works treat the character differently. The Victorian poet George Augustus Simcox wrote a poem titled "Mordred My Master" from the perspective of Mordred's dog. Rosemary Sutcliff's portrayal of 'Medraut' in Sword at Sunset is fatalistic but fairly ambiguous, showing him as a product of his mother's hate, inexorably compelled towards his doom. Mary Stewart's The Wicked Day is told from his perspective and portrays him more sympathetically than usual, as a victim of fate and the machinations of his mother, whom Stewart identifies as Morgause, illegitimate daughter of Uther. Elizabeth Wein's The Winter Prince portrays him similarly, as a conflicted young man doomed by his mother's manipulations and his own jealousy of his legitimate half-brother Lleu. In Bernard Cornwell's The Warlord Chronicles, Mordred is the club-footed, legitimate grandson and heir of Uther Pendragon, and Arthur serves as the kingdom's regent during his minority. In Stephen R. Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle, Medraut is even half-Atlantean (as is Myrddin), since Lawhead makes his mother Morgian (here Myrddin's aunt) a refugee from Atlantis. In Vivian Vande Velde's The Book of Mordred, Mordred is portrayed as the protagonist of the story, killing an evil wizard and saving a telepathic girl, her mother, and a witch named Nimue, who was Merlin's student. Similarly, Douglas Clegg's Mordred, Bastard Son portrays the character as not only sympathetic but heroic (he and Lancelot save Guinevere from a murderous plot), and in a new twist, he is Lancelot's lover.