Mordred, King Arthur's Son

Geoffrey of Monmouth is the first to tell us that Mordred was Arthur's sister's son and that Camlann was the climax of his revolt against Arthur, by which he intended to take both his uncle's kingdom and his wife.2 The author of the Mort le roi Artu adds the next major facts concerning Mordred: that Arthur was not merely his uncle, but his father as well, and that Arthur had dreamed that Mordred would kill him.3 The Huth Merlin4 and Sir Thomas Malory in the Morte d'Arthur5 give the fullest account of Mordred. According to Malory, Arthur's half-sister Margawse, the wife of King Lot of Orkney, came to court with her four sons by Lot and slept with Arthur before he knew of their relationship. Calculating that their child would be born on the first of May, Arthur ordered all the babies born at that time to be put in a boat and floated out to sea. All the babies were drowned but Mordred, who was returned to his mother and grew up to perform the same deeds as in the Mort le roi Artu. The Merlin story is somewhat different: Lot ordered Mordred to be sent to Arthur by sea. The ship sank and all Mordred's adult attendants were drowned

Art · Genealogy · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Medieval History and Crusades · Medieval Literature and History

• Essays on a Science of Mythology

  M H Jameson, Maureen Jameson et al.•The Classical Weekly•1952

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