Morgan Le Fay, alternatively known as Morgaine, Morgain or Morgana and a slew of related nicknames, is an important female figure and sometime antagonist of Arthur and enemy of Guinevere in the mythology of King Arthur. As a Celtic woman, Morgana has inherited a share of the earth magic that Arthur lacks. In the 12th century Latin Life of Merlin (Vita Merlini) she is said to be the first of nine sisters who rule The Fortunate Isle or the Isle of Apples (cf. Garden of the Hesperides) and is presented by Geoffrey of Monmouth as a healer as well as a shapeshifter. Following Geoffrey of Monmouth, later writers like Chretien de Troyes enlarge on the theme that Morgana will heal and cure Arthur on the island of Avalon.
Morgan was the daughter of Arthur's mother, the Lady Igraine and her first husband, Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall; thus her half-brother, the child of Uther Pendragon and Lady Igraine, was King Arthur. Morgana had an older sister named Morgause. Modern interpretations of the Arthurian myth often assign to Morgan the role of seducing Arthur and giving birth to the wicked inbreed Mordred, though originally (as in Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur) it was Morgause who did this. (According to the legend, Mordred grew to manhood away from Arthur's court, and eventually killed his father, bringing an end to the Arthurian age.)
The Vulgate Cycle finds Morgan still on good terms with Arthur but angry at Guinevere for breaking a romance with one of her lovers. She tries alternately to seduce Lancelot and to expose his affair with the queen, presumably both through magical means. In the Prose Tristan, she has delivered to Arthur's court a magic drinking horn from which no unfaithful lady can drink without spilling.
Following the Vulgate Cycle of Arthurian tales, Sir Thomas Malory gave as a motivation for Morgan's anger with Arthur that he had killed one of her lovers. Through magic and mortal means, she tried to arrange his downfall, most famously when she arranged for her lover Accolon to have the sword Excalibur and try to kill Arthur with it in single combat. Failing in this, Morgan threw Excalibur's protective scabbard into a lake.
At the end of the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, it is revealed that the entire episode whad been instigated by Morgan, as a test of Arthur and his knights.
Morgan le Fay is identified by some with Morrigan of Celtic myth.
Morgan is the protagonist of Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, and in recent years has been increasingly seen by feminist revisionists as the representation of the archetypical goddess element in Celtic mythology.
See also: