Morgause

The Queen of Orkney, today best known as Morgause and also known as Morgawse and other spellings and names, is a character in Arthurian legend in which she is the mother of Gawain and Mordred, both key players in the story of King Arthur and his downfall. In early texts, Mordred's father is her husband, King Lot of Orkney, with whom she may also have various other children. In later versions, including the seminal Le Morte d'Arthur, Mordred is the offspring of Arthur's accidental incest with Morgause, his estranged half-sister. There, she is furthermore a sister of Morgan le Fay, as well as the mother of Gareth, Agravain, and Gaheris, the last of whom murders her. 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 Arthur's full (younger) sister. She is the wife of King Lot and the mother of brothers Gawain and Mordred, but Geoffrey says very little about her otherwise. This was later elaborated in the romance De Ortu Waluuanii, telling how the teenage Lot fell in a 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 Brut, Anna and Lot are said (in Merlin's prophecy) to have seven children in all yet Mordred remains Gawain's only brother. Wace's Norman chronicle Roman de Brut calls her Queen of Scotland and mother of Gawain, but does not mention either hers or Gawain's relation to Mordred (described only as Arthur's nephew). According to John Fordun's 14th-century Scottish chronicle Chronica Gentis Scotorum, Anna and consequently her and Lot's son Mordred were the rightful heirs to the throne as Arthur was merely Uther's bastard son. This motif is followed in the later Scottish chronicle tradition as well. In Hector Boece's Historia Gentis Scotorum, for instance, the wife of Loth, King of the Picts, is Arthur's aunt (not sister) Anna later called Cristina, who is also depicted as the rightful heir of Uther. The mother of Gawain's Welsh forerunner, Gwalchmei ap Gwyar (in later Welsh Arthurian literature, Gawain is considered synonymous with the native champion Gwalchmei), is thought to be Gwyar.