Editing Morgause (section)

==Medieval literature==
===Character history and counterparts===
The corresponding character in [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s early-12th-century Norman-Welsh chronicle ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'' is named '''Anna''', who is depicted as the sole daughter of [[Uther Pendragon]] and his wife [[Igraine]], thus making her [[King Arthur|Arthur]]'s full (younger) sister. She is the wife of [[King Lot]] and the mother of [[Gawain]] and presumably also [[Mordred]] (the text describes the latter only as another nephew of Arthur but without ever mentioning other of Arthur's sisters besides her). However, Geoffrey says very little about her otherwise. This was later elaborated in the romance ''[[De Ortu Waluuanii]]'', telling how the teenage Lot fell in mutual love with the also young Anna while serving as her page when he was a royal hostage at the court of Uther. 

In [[Layamon]]'s English ''[[Layamon's Brut|Brut]]'', Anna and Lot, king of Scotland, are said (through [[Merlin]]'s prophecy) to have seven children in all, but her only male offspring are Gawain and Mordred.<ref name=fem>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ibBhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT131 | title=Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Feminist Origins of the Arthurian Legend | isbn=978-0-230-33794-7 | last1=Tolhurst | first1=F. | date=12 November 2012 | publisher=Springer }}</ref> [[Wace]]'s Norman chronicle ''[[Roman de Brut]]'' calls her queen of the Scots, even as her husband Lot is not truly a king there,<ref name=fem/> and mother of Gawain. However, it does not mention either hers or Gawain's relation to Mordred (again described only as Arthur's nephew). According to [[John Fordun]]'s 14th-century Scottish chronicle, ''[[Chronica Gentis Scotorum]]'', Anna was the rightful heir to the throne (since Arthur was merely Uther's bastard son), and so was, consequently, hers and Lot's son Mordred. This motif is followed in the later Scottish chronicle tradition as well. In [[Hector Boece]]'s ''Historia Gentis Scotorum'', for instance, the wife of the [[Picts|Pictish]] king Loth is Anna, later called '''Cristina''', the "queen of the Picts of great honour and fame."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZaDYvAJdrRoC&pg=PA209 | title=The Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland; or, A Metrical Version of the History of Hector Boece | last1=Boece | first1=Hector | last2=Stewart | first2=William | date=2 June 2024 }}</ref> Here, too, she is depicted as the rightful heir of Uther—but, relatively uniquely, as Uther's sister (Arthur's aunt) instead of his daughter.

A parent of Gawain's Welsh forerunner, Gwalchmei ap Gwyar (in later Welsh Arthurian literature, Gawain is synonymous with the native champion Gwalchmei), is one '''Gwyar'''. A very early Welsh Arthurian tale (considered to predate that of Geoffrey), ''[[Culhwch and Olwen]]'', also gives Gwalchmai son of Gwyar (fab Gwyar) a brother named Gwalhafed son of Gwyar. ''Gwyar'' (meaning "gore"<ref>{{harvp|Pughe|1832|p=195}}.</ref> or "spilled blood/bloodshed"<ref>{{harvp|Rhys|2004|p=169}}.</ref>) is likely the name of Gwalchmei's mother, rather than his father as is the standard in the [[Welsh Triads]].<ref name="Bromwich369">{{harvp|Bromwich|2006|p=369}}.</ref> [[Matronymics|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.<ref name="Bromwich369"/> Gwyar is indeed named as a female in one version of the hagiographical genealogy ''[[Bonedd y Saint]]'', which identifies her as a daughter of [[Amlawdd Wledig]], and thus again as Arthur's aunt instead of his sister. The 14th-century fragment ''Birth of Arthur'' substitutes hee with Geoffrey's Anna as Gwalchmei's mother.<ref>{{harvp|Bromwich|2006|pp=369–370}}.</ref> Some Welsh adaptations of the ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' ("Welsh Bruts"), such as the ''[[Brut Tysilio]]'', also explicitly identify Anna with Gwyar, even using both of these names simultaneously for the wife of Lleu (Lot).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0CRMAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA183|title=Bulletin bibliographique de la Société internationale arthurienne|author=International Arthurian Society|date=27 April 1971|via=Google Books}}</ref> Other sources do not follow this substitution, however, indicating that Gwyar and Anna may have originated independently.<ref>{{harvp|Bromwich|2006|p=370}}.</ref> The ''Birth of Arthur'' further gives Anna her first husband, Emyr Llydaw ([[Budic II of Brittany]]), king of [[Armorica]], by whom she is the mother of Howel ([[Hoel]]),<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K2euBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA399|title=Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain|first=Rachel|last=Bromwich|date=15 November 2014|publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn=9781783161461 |via=Google Books}}</ref> and furthermore gives her three daughters by Lleu in addition to the sons Gwalchmei and Medrawd (Mordred).

[[Thomas Grey (chronicler)|Thomas Grey]]'s Anglo-Norman chronicle ''[[Scalacronica]]'' mentions Arthur's "eldest" (not just elder) sister as bestowed by him on Lot. In Alain Bouchart's Breton ''Grande Croniques de Bretagne'', "Anna or '''Emine'''"<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M3W0lMsK0jUC&pg=PA232 | title=The Arthurian Material in the Chronicles Especially Those of Great Britain and France | last1=Fletcher | first1=Robert Huntington | year=1906 }}</ref> is Uther's eldest child, who there also marries Budic and births Hoel. In [[Wolfram von Eschenbach]]'s romance ''[[Parzival]]'', Uther's daughter '''Sangîve''' is first wed to a knight named Florant prior to her later marriage with Lot. Another German poet, [[Der Pleier]], identifies the wife of King Lot and mother of Gawain as '''Seifê'''. However, he also names one of Arthur's other sisters, '''Anthonje''', as the mother of Gaharet, a figure corresponding to Gawain's younger brothers [[Gaheris]] and [[Gareth]] in other romances, whose father here is an unnamed king of Gritenland. In this and other early works, in addition to Mordred (who not always does appear, especially in the stories dealing with Gawain's youth), Gawain is usually given [[Gawain#Origin narratives and alternate siblings|various sisters]]. He also has a brother named Beacurs in ''Parzival''.

The earliest known form of a Morgause-type name is '''Orcades''' (''Norcadés''), given to her in the [[Perceval, the Story of the Grail#First Continuation|First Continuation]] of [[Chrétien de Troyes]]' ''[[Perceval, the Story of the Grail|Perceval]]'' (once attributed to [[Wauchier de Denain]] and dated c. 1200). In the works by Chrétien and his continuators, she is the mother of her sons Gawain, [[Agravain]], Gaheris, and Gareth (as listed in ''Perceval''), and her varying daughters include Clarissant and Soredamor. ''Perceval'' and some related romances tell how she lived hidden away in a castle with her mother and at least one daughter until her son Gawain achieved the adventure of the castle (see also [[Castle of Maidens]]). As '''Morcades''' (''Morchades'', ''Orchades''), she also appears in ''Les Enfances Gauvain'' (early 13th century) and again in Heinrich von dem Türlin's ''[[Diu Crône]]'' (c. 1230). It is likely that her name was originally a place name, as "Orcades" coincides with the Latin name for Scotland's northern [[Orkney]] islands, the lands often described by authors as ruled by Gawain's parents (alternatively, their own realm is named [[Lothian]] in the south-west coast of Scotland). Medievalist [[Roger Sherman Loomis]] suggested that this toponym was corrupted first into the variants of "Morcades" and finally into "Morgause" due to the influence of the name "[[Morgan (given name)|Morgan]]",<ref name=Loomis>R. S. Loomis, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070611104038/http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_089/89_001_021.pdf ''Scotland and the Arthurian Legend'']. Retrieved 26 January 2010.</ref> and also derived her figure from that of the Welsh mythology's humanised goddess [[Dechtire]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DGQcsXGYII4C&pg=PA161 | title=The Grail: From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol | isbn=0691020752 | last1=Loomis | first1=Roger Sherman | date=27 October 1991 | publisher=Princeton University Press }}</ref>

In the prose romance tradition considered to have begun with the French ''[[Merlin (Robert de Boron poem)|Merlin]]'' by [[Robert de Boron]] around 1200 (including the ''Vulgate Cycle'' and the two non-French romances mentioned above), she is one of a varying number of Arthur's half-sisters. Their parents are [[Gorlois]] of [[Tintagel]], [[List of legendary rulers of Cornwall|Duke of Cornwall]], and his wife Lady Igraine (the later wife of Uther and mother of Arthur). In Robert's original ''Merlin'', she appears unnamed (the only named sister is Morgan) and is referred to only as either "King Lot's wife" or the "Queen of Orkney" (''Orcanie''). Her version in the vast prose romance ''[[Vulgate Cycle]]'' from the early 13th century is named '''Brimesent''' (with manuscript variant ''Hermesent''), who in turn is called '''Belisent''' in the late 13th-century ''[[Of Arthour and of Merlin|Arthour and Merlin]]'' and '''Albagia''' in the 15th-century Italian compilation ''[[La Tavola Ritonda]]''. In the ''[[Post-Vulgate Cycle]]'', she is never given a name and is referred to only as the Queen of Orkney.

===Malory's Morgause and his sources===
[[Thomas Malory]]'s 1485 compilation of Arthurian legends ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'', based largely on French prose cycles, Morgause (also ''Morgawse'' or ''Margawse'') is one of three daughters born to Duke Gorlois and Lady Igraine. According to Malory, following his French prose cycles, their mother is widowed by, and then remarried to, Arthur's future father, the high king Uther Pendragon. Afterwards, she and her younger sisters, [[Elaine (legend)#Elaine of Garlot|Elaine]] (called Blasine in ''Merlin'') and [[Morgan le Fay|Morgan]] ("le Fay", later the mother of [[Yvain]]), now Uther's foster daughters, are married off to allies or [[Vassal kingdom|vassals]] of their stepfather. The young Morgause is wed to the Orcadian king Lot and bears him four sons, all of whom later go on to serve Arthur as key members of the [[Knights of the Round Table]]. They are Gawain, one of Arthur's greatest and closest companions with a darker side; Agravain, secretly a wretched and twisted traitor; Gaheris, a skilled fighter but troubled man; and finally the youngest Gareth, a gentle and loving good knight to whom Malory dedicates one of his work's eight parts (''The Book of Gareth of Orkney'').

Morgause's husband King Lot joins the failed rebellions against Arthur that follow in the wake of King Uther's death and the subsequent discovery and coronation of his heir. Acting as a spy during the war, she comes to [[Carleon]], where she visits the boy King Arthur, ignorant of their familial relationship, in his bedchamber, and they conceive Mordred. Her husband, who has unsuspectingly raised Mordred as his own son, is later slain in battle by King [[Pellinore]]. All of her sons depart their father's [[Court (royal)|court]] to take service at [[Camelot]], where Gawain and Gaheris avenge Lot's death by killing Pellinore, thereby launching a long [[blood feud]] between the two families that contributes to bringing the ruin to Arthur's kingdom.

Nevertheless, Morgause has an affair with Sir [[Lamorak]], a son of Pellinore and one of Arthur's best knights. Once, [[Lancelot]] and [[Bleoberis]] even find Lamorak and [[Meleagant]] fighting over which queen is more beautiful, Morgause or [[Guinevere]]. Eventually, her son Gaheris discovers them ''[[In flagrante delicto|in flagrante]]'' together in bed while visiting her castle (the Post-Vulgate's castle Rethename in Orkney, near the border with Arthur's own [[Logres]]). Enraged, he grabs Morgause by her hair and swiftly beheads her, but spares her unarmed lover (who is left naked in bed covered in her blood and is killed later by four Orkney brothers in an unequal fight). Gaheris (who in the Post-Vulgate version defends his act as a just punishment of the queen for her "wretched debauchery"<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ywEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA349|title=The Arthur of the French: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval French and Occitan Literature|date=15 October 2020|publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn=9781786837431 |via=Google Books}}</ref>) is consequently banished from the court of Arthur (though he reappears later in the narrative, eventually being slain by Lancelot during the rescue of Guinevere). 

In the Post-Vulgate story, Gaheris' brothers Gawain and Agravain initially vow to kill him in revenge for their mother's death until they are persuaded by Gareth and [[Bors]] to end the bloodshed in the family. Arthur buries the Queen of Orkney in the main church in [[Camelot]], inscribing the name of her killer on it, while everyone grieves for her and condemns the "treacherous and cruel" act of Gaheris, including actually even Gaheris himself in his self-exile.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klsMZ41xAREC&pg=PA327 | title=Lancelot-Grail | isbn=9781843842385 | last1=Lacy | first1=Norris J. | year=2010 | publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref> In Malory's telling, however, Lancelot calls the slaying of Morgause "shameful", but Gawain seems to be angry at Gaheris only for leaving Lamorak alive at the spot.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hcPtirDJv9wC&pg=PA98|title=Blood, Sex, Malory: Essays on the Morte Darthur|first1=David|last1=Clark|first2=Kate|last2=McClune|date=12 August 2011|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=9781843842811|via=Google Books}}</ref> Her death was first included in the Post-Vulgate ''Queste'';<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jg-8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA222|title = The Romance of the Grail: A Study of the Structure and Genesis of a Thirteenth-century Arthurian Prose Romance|last1 = Bogdanow|first1 = Fanni|year = 1966}}</ref> Malory used the variant from the Second Version of the [[Prose Tristan|Prose ''Tristan'']].

The act of Mordred's conception is described variably in the different works of Arthurian romance. In the Vulgate ''Merlin'', the episode takes place earlier, back when a young teenage Arthur was only a mere squire to his foster-brother [[Sir Kay|Kay]] (prior to the fateful drawing of [[Excalibur|the sword in the stone]]) and completely oblivious about his true heritage. During a meeting of the lords of Britain, when King Lot is out hunting, Arthur sneaks into the queen's chamber and pretends to be her husband; she eventually discovers the deception but forgives him the next morning and agrees to keep the incident a secret between the two of them. Conversely, a flashback scene in the Post-Vulgate ''Merlin Continuation'' portrays the Queen of Orkney as entirely aware and willing in her incestuous tryst with her young half-brother.