Morgan

Morgan the fairy is a magical creature from folklore, particularly early Welsh mythology. She first appears in print in Geoffrey of Monmouths’s 1150 work, Life of Merlin, and takes up her most popular manifestation as the sorceress of Arthurian legend. In Chretien de Troyes’ 1170 romance, Erec and Enide, Morgan is also characterized as the half-sister of King Arthur, with magical healing powers. In this role, she serves as a healer to Arthur when he is taken to Avalon after being wounded in battle. She is fleshed out in a more sinister incarnation by Thomas Malory in Le Mort d’Arthur, in which she apprentices to Merlin in order to master sorcery and to take revenge upon Guinevere, who has banished Morgan from court for her adulterous affairs. Typically, Morgan is portrayed as a manipulative villainess who is determined to unseat Arthur and Guinevere; this appears to have been the direct result of Christian influence, wherein a sorceress, a dabbler in the magic arts, simply cannot also appear as a good and virtuous woman. By the last quarter of the twentieth century, however, Morgan was beginning to be seen as a powerful symbol of feminist strength and benevolence, intent upon finding justice in a lopsided world – and this is exactly how we see her, too!