Morgause - Malory's Morgause

Malory's Morgause

The earliest form of her name, Orcades, is found in the First Continuation of the Old French Perceval of Chrétien de Troyes (which was once attributed to Wauchier de Denain and dated c. 1200), in which she is the mother of sons Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, Gareth, and Mordred and daughters Clarissant and Soredamor. As Morcades she also appears in Les Enfances Gauvain (early 13th century) and again in Heinrich von dem Türlin’s Diu Crône (c. 1230). It is possible that her name was originally a place name, Orcades being the Latin name for the Orkney Islands, the land traditionally ruled by Gawain's parents; presumably under the influence of Morgan (le Fay), the name Orcades evolved into Morcades and, finally, Morgause.

Her character is perhaps most fully developed in Sir Thomas Malory's 15th-century compilation of Arthurian legends Le Morte d'Arthur, in which she appears as Morgause, daughter of Lady Igraine and her first husband Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, and sister of Morgan le Fay (the future mother of Ywain) and Elaine. According to Malory, when her widowed mother remarries Uther Pendragon, Morgause is married to the Orcadian king Lot. She has several sons including Gawain. Later, in the rebellions following Arthur's coronation, King Lot unsuccessfully goes to war with Arthur. Shortly after her husband's defeat, Morgause visits Arthur in his bedchamber, ignorant of the fact that he is her maternal half-brother, and conceives Mordred.

When her husband is later slain in battle by King Pellinore, it thrusts their families into a blood feud; also, all of her children depart their father's kingdom to take service at Arthur’s court. Gawain and Gaheris avenge their father's death by killing Pellinore, but despite this, widowed Morgause eventually has an affair with Pellinore's son Lamorak, one of the best knights of the Round Table. Gaheris discovers his mother in bed with Lamorak and immediately beheads her, though he spares her unarmed lover. Later, framing Lamorak as his mother's killer, Gaheris convinces Gawain, Agravain and Mordred to join him in ambushing and killing Lamorak (gentle, loving Gareth takes no part). Afterward, the Orkney brothers find out that Morgause's death was matricide at Gaheris' hand, and the guilty party is banished from court (though he reappears later in the narrative).