Morgan le Fay
Morgan le Fay /ˈmɔrɡən lə ˈfeɪ/, alternatively known as
Morgan le Faye,
Morgane,
Morgaine,
Morgana and other names, is a powerful sorceress in the Arthurian legend. Early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a fay or magician. She became much more prominent in the later cyclical prose works such as the Lancelot-Grail and the Post-Vulgate Cycle, in which she becomes an antagonist to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. Morgan is said to be the daughter of Arthur's mother, the Lady Igraine, and her first husband, Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, so that Arthur is her half-brother. She has at least two elder sisters, Elaine and Morgause, the latter of whom is the mother of Gawain, Gaheris, Gareth, and Agravain by King Lot and usually the traitor Mordred by Arthur. In Thomas Malory's
Le Morte d'Arthur and elsewhere, she is married, unhappily, to King Urien of Gore, and Ywain is her son. The early accounts of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Gerald of Wales refer to Morgan in conjunction with the Isle of Apples to which the fatally wounded Arthur was carried.