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Joanne Wu

She was one of the most powerful mystics and healers of her time. As the leader of the Nine Holy Women of Avalon, she personally tended King Arthur's mortal wounds, and she was even portrayed in some literature as his truest love. But somehow through the centuries, the name of Morgan Le Fay has become tainted with deceit and evil. How did a benign magic-user turn into the cruel and vengeful witch of legend? Certain elements of European history influenced literature and ensured Morgan's evolution to the darker side. The fanatic religiousness of the Cistercian monks and the Dark Age figure of the murderous Visigoth Queen Brunhilda both contributed to the degradation of Morgan's character.

Before analyzing the causes of Morgan Le Fay's deterioration, her origins should be examined. Initially, the figure of Morgan probably developed from Irish Celtic deities. She is connected with Morrigan the war goddess, Madrron the divine mother, and the Triple goddess of three faces- Morrigan, Macha, and Bodbh- signifying birth, life, and death. Morgan's name is als linked to the motifs of the sea and fate. Interestingly, in many languages, Fata Morgana is a sea or desert mirage that lures men to their deaths. In Welsh, Fata Morgana specifically refers to a mirage of a palace seen across the Straits of Messina. "Mor" is the Welsh word for sea. Also, "mor-forwynm" means sea nymph and "morgan" means mermaid, both creatures known for enticing men. In Greek mythology, the three sisters of Fate- Birth, Life, and Death- were known as the Moeragetes, or the Fata Moeragetes. According to the myth, the Fates appear on the day of a person's death and escort him to the next world, just as Morgan was one of the three queens who appeared to guide the dying Arthur from the battlefield of Camlann.

In literature, Morgan Le Fay originated as a benevolent mystic before her gradual transformation into the malicious half-sister of Arthur. She first appeared in the twelfth century in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Life of Merlin as the leader of the healers from Avalon. In this version, Morgan was not related to Arthur, and in fact fell in love with him and convinced him to stay in Avalon after his death. Later, in French romance, Chretien de Troyes introduces her as "Morgan the Wise" and acknowledges her healing powers in the miraculous medicine applied on Yvain. Throughout most French romances, Morgan remained a force of goodness. By the end of the twelfth century, Morgan had become Arthur's half-sister, though still benign.

However, with the advent of the Cistercian monks in the mid-thirteenth century, the Prose Lancelot, also known as the Vulgate Cycle, was written, changing Morgan into a dark sorceress. The Cistercians wanted to convert the Arthurian Romances into religious allegories in order to indoctrinate the superiority of the spirit over all earthly concerns. The Cistercians were also known during the Crusades for their fearsome order of warrior monks, the Templar Knights, who devoted themselves to the holy cause of exterminating infidels and heretics. The Cistercians despised matters of the flesh and included women in the definition of "flesh." Some priests even argued against the existence of the female soul. Attributing healing or prophetic powers to a female who was not a member of a religious order was considered blasphemous and undermined the authority of the priesthood and church. Thus, the Cistercians tried to destroy Morgan's reputation in literature. They warped her powers of healing and prophecy into sorcery, adultery, and incest.

In the Vulgate Cycle, Morgan actually becomes a pupil of the good magician Merlin, who commented on her great beauty, "graut biaute," as well as her "marvelous intelligence" and the "subtlety of her mind." Unfortunately, in the time period, such uncommon wisdom in women was treated with great suspicion. Later in the Vulgate, Guenevere breaks an affair Morgan is having with her cousin Guiomar, inciting Morgan's hatred. Morgan then seeks vengeance by exposing Guenevere's affair with Lancelot, which destroys Camelot. In literature subsequent to the Vulgate Cycle, Morgan continued to be depicted as evil. Reasons behind her hatred for Arthur range from his having executed one of her lovers to his father Uther's usurpation of her own father, Gorlois. Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur relates Morgan's obsession with dark magic and treachery despite her schooling in a monestary as a child. In Malory's "The Dream of the Questing Beast," Arthur has a premonition in a nightmare filled with monstrous beasts about the coming of his son Mordred. He realizes that this son would be the result of his unholy union with his half-sister Morgan, who had been disguised as the Queen of Orkney. Thus, through the work of the Cistercians, Morgan began her descent into infamy.

Historically, a model for the treacherous Morgan may have arisen from the seductress Queen Brunhilda the Visigoth. A contemporary of Arthur, Brunhilda lived during the Dark Ages. She was the basis behind the murderous queens of the Norse Volsunga Saga and the German Nibelungenlied. She was born in 540 A.D. and married King Sigebert of the Eastern Franks. Chilperic, the king of the Western Franks and brother of Sigebert, married Brunhilda's sister. Sigebert was murdered in 575 and Brunhilda was captured by Chilperic, whose son, her own nephew, married her. She then became a powerful force among the Franks and murdered more than ten kings and princes in the next thirty years, until she was killed in 613. Brunhilda's life of immense power, deception, incest, and murder manifest in Morgan. Since Brunhilda was a contemporary of the historical Arthur, the two characters could have been intertwined into one legend as Morgan and Arthur.

Thus, even Morgan Le Fay, one of the most powerful sorceresses of legend, must submit her character to the manipulation of literature. As a woman, she cannot escape slander by men in a history dominated by patriarchy. Any woman who dares possess power or intelligence is stifled, her name darkened by accusations and fabrications. But perhaps in the future, as women begin to triumph in the battle for equality, a more glorious Morgan Le Fay will once again return.

References:

Chretien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, England, 1991, p.332.

Day, David, The Search for King Arthur, New York, 1995, pp.62-69,145-149.

Goodrich, Norma Lorre, Merlin, NY 1987 pp.185-202.

Lacy, Norris J., The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, New York, 1991, p.329.

Littleton, C. Scott and Linda Malcor, From Scythia to Camelot, New York, 1994, pp.157-163.

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