Calogrenant - Week 47

A word of explanation: Mordred is King Arthur’s son, as has been established. He is also the brother of Agravain, who is not Arthur’s son. Agravain is Arthur’s nephew. If Agravain wants to be judgmental, he might look to his right. Or, for that matter, look to his mother, who, according to the romances, was Arthur’s sister Morgause, the wife of King Lot of Lothian and Orkney, who cast a spell upon the young king and seduced him, and the result of this action was Mordred. The more generous romancers maintained that neither Arthur nor Morgause knew of their relationship. Others saw it as a deliberate way to get revenge for the death of her father, Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, whom Arthur’s father, Uther Pendragon, had had killed whilst he seduced Igraine, Gorlois' wife and Morgause's mother (and mother of the enchantress Morgan Le Fay). Sir Thomas Malory, who tied it all together in Le Morte d’Arthur, doesn’t have his characters make a secret of it. Either way, this may account for Mordred's bad attitude. Arthur acknowledges his son (after a Herod-like attempt on the infant Mordred - at Myrddyn’s suggestion, making the whole thing even more disillusioning). More family skeletons next week.