Morgause - Earlier Counterparts

Earlier Counterparts

In the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate Cycles, her character is not given a name. Her counterpart in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th-century Latin chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae is named Anna; in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, Anna is replaced by Sangive, while in Arthour and Merlin (late 13th century) the corresponding character is called Belisent.

In later Welsh Arthurian literature, Gawain is considered synonymous with the native champion Gwalchmei ap Gwyar; Gwyar (meaning "gore" or "spilled blood/bloodshed") is likely the name of Gwalchmei's mother, rather than his father as is the standard in the Welsh Triads. Matronyms were sometimes used in Wales, as in the case of Math fab Mathonwy and Gwydion fab Dôn, and were also fairly common in early Ireland. Gwyar is named as a female, a daughter of Amlawdd Wledig, in one version of the hagiographical genealogy Bonedd y Saint, while the 14th-century Birth of Arthur substitutes Gwyar for Geoffrey's Anna as Gwalchmei/Gawain's mother. Other sources do not follow this substitution, however, indicating that Gwyar and Anna/Morgause originated independently.