Morgan le Fay: The Eternal Shapechanger
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The Great Queen
Some believe her name comes from the Welsh "Morgen" -- "born of the sea" -- and in modern times sea sprites in Britanny are called "Morgan", but since she is not associated with the sea until the 13th century, it's possible there is another connection: the Irish battle goddess known as the Morrigan, or the "great/terrible queen."
It is the Morrigan's job to incite heroes to deeds of prowess and to plan battle. She is a powerful sorceress, and uses her magic to aid those she supports in warfare. She is also a shapeshifter, and she also formed an attachment to an important warrior-hero, Cu Chulainn. In what we will see is an important part of the aspect of the fay, she watched over him from birth, helped him succeed in battle, tried unsuccessfully to woo him and tormented and attacked him in the forms of an eel and a wolf-bitch for rejecting her, and stood by him at his death in her preferred form of a raven.
Morgan le Fay is often referred to as a queen; she is the sister of a king and often the wife of one as well; she is named as one of the three queens who tempts Lancelot; and she is one of the queens who come to retrieve Arthur after he meets Mordred. Her animosity to Arthur and his court can be seen as parallel to some of the episodes in the Morrigan's mythos, and suggest an divinely-appointed adversary, whose job it is to keep the hero on his toes, rather than just a spiteful sister. But Morgan's realms are not just magic and battle; she is also a healer, and mistress of a magical realm known as the Isle of Apples (a common symbol for rebirth in Celtic legend) or the Isle of Glass. She is a fairy queen, a fay.
The Fay, or, the Fate
The fay in Arthurian romance is "essentially a supernatural woman, always more beautiful than the imagination can possibly fancy her, untouched by time, unhampered by lack of resources for the accomplishment of her pleasure, superior to human blemish, contingency or necessity, in short, altogether unlimited in her power." (Paton) The relationship between the fay and her beloved is characterized by:
- Persistent and insistent love, but only for the most valorous (kings, knights, heroes)
- Foreknowledge and prophecy
- Often guarded from infancy the mortal whom she finally takes to the Otherworld
Although this connection is usually romantic, and Arthur and Morgan do not share any kind of romantic association, the shared elements between their relationship and that of the fay and her beloved are too striking to ignore.
From Paton: "When the hero is drawn into the fay's realm, he is bewildered, forgetful of the mortal world and of time itself, and is only conscious of the delights offered him." An Irish example: Conle, son of Conn of the Hundred Battles, High King of Ireland in the 2nd century AD, whose adventures date from 8th c. manuscripts, was invited by a woman to "the Plain of Delight," a place without weeping or sorrow. She tosses an apple to him and disappears, and each bite gives him more longing for the woman and her land. A month later she returns and invites him again, saying it was a country "which delights the mind of anyone who goes there," and that "there are no people there save for women and girls." The two sail away in the woman's ship of glass, and Connle is not seen again.
We see this in our text [La Mort le Roi Artu, Penguin Classics, translated by James Cable -- SHK] starting on p. 66 when Arthur enters Morgan's realm feeling ill, confused and tired; some of his perceptions include these descriptions: "The place was beautiful, delightful, rich and splendidly kept..." "the king had never seen in his life a table as plentifully adorned with rich vessels in gold and silver as this one..." "[the king] listened to all the different musical instruments he had ever heard of in his life, and they all sounded together so sweetly that he had never heard music that was so gentle and pleasant to the ear." He does not even recognize his sister until she reveals her identity the next day. Also, the time he spends in her kingdom is ambiguous -- "for as long as he wished."
Paton again: "Once the mortal has experienced fairy control there is no true release." After Arthur's visit to Morgan's castle and the revelations made there about Lancelot and Guenevere, "there was never a time that he was not more suspicious of the queen." The images painted by Lancelot reside in Morgan's otherwordly keep, and those images stay with Arthur even after he returns to Camelot. All the ensuing events grow out of his new-found knowledge, and these events ensure that Arthur will be struck down by Mordred and taken to Avalon, the "dwelling-place of the ladies who know all the magic in the world" -- including Morgan. Like the fairy lover of Celtic legend, Arthur's sister has succeeded in binding him to her forever.
Conclusions
So what does this do for us when reading these medieval Arthurian texts? I think this information is particularly interesting in the questions it raises about the character of Morgan in the stories. We can see a marginalization and even denigration of pagan and magical themes (the lines are becoming clearly drawn between what is holy and sacred in Christian tradition and what is so in the earlier beliefs) and also a censure and condemnation of women who exert power in certain areas (nobody called Lancelot "the faithless," and I have yet to see anyone demonize Merlin for creating an ointment that would allow a man to father a child on a married woman by appearing as that lady's husband).
But it also shows the continuing power of the fascination Morgan le Fay holds for writers, and is a re-affirmation of what is her greatest strength (and maybe weakness?) -- her ability to change shape.
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