KNIGHTS OF LORE SERIES: KING ARTHUR, the once and future king

Alright, alright, technically King Arthur was a king and not a knight. I will concede that point. However, Arthur, accordingly to legends, fought like a knight, led knights into battle, sent them on quests and created a force so great it is still being talked about, and even copied today. Just look at Marvel Comics Avengers and D.C. Comics League of Justice. Don’t think they borrowed the idea of heroes gathering to save humanity from lurking evil from the Knights of the Round Table? I would beg to differ.

By most accounts, the story, legend, myth of Arthur is the first and perhaps greatest mainstream story of medieval times. However, much is still in the air about Arthur. No one knows for sure when he lived, or if he even lived at all. They didn’t call it the dark ages for nothing!

The Arthurian legends begin in the 5^th Century CE. Whatever exploits he had at the time were kept alive by bards, singing poems about him around hearths and bonfires. It wasn’t until the 12^th century that the once and future king became immortalized in print. Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welsh monk penned ‘The History of the Kings of Britain’, and in that tome, Arthur became perhaps the first non-conquering king to become forever renowned in world history.

Before that there was Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and the Caesars of Rome. Arthur was different. He fought for his people and to save his homeland. That was all he ever wanted. That is why he is still beloved today.

In the darkness of the 4^th century, Britain gained its freedom from Rome, the great city-state of the day, whose fingerprint is still felt in the world. Because of the power vacuum left by Rome’s abandonment of Britain, Saxon’s from the North Country and Picts from Scotland decided to move in, push the Brits out and stake their claim. Uther Pendragon was the King of Britain at this point. He was a worthy king, strong but maybe too headstrong.

Merlin enters the picture and uses his magick to trick a rival king’s wife into thinking Uther was her husband. They slept together and Arthur was conceived. In return for this favor, Uther promised Merlin the child. Merlin, the great druid seer, knew that Uther would not be able to totally defeat the Saxons because he was too arrogant. So he took Arthur to live with some country folk, not only to keep him from harm’s way of the ever-invading Saxon’s, but also so the boy could learn humility.

Everyone knows how the rest of the story goes. Uther dies, Arthur is not yet a man, and is still unknown. Merlin sets a magickal sword inside a stone and proclaims that whoever pulls it out shall be King of Britain. When Arthur loses his older brother’s sword just before a great festival and knight games, he sees the Sword in the Stone and pulls it out. Without even knowing it, he becomes King of Britain and changes the world forever.

The boy king is challenged by all the other kings of Britain and defeats them all to become the One King. After garnering his power and emboldening his people, he decisively defeats the Saxons and sets the stage for his homeland to experience a golden age. All is right with the world, peace has come at last, the harvests are plentiful, and churches begin to pop up.

This great time reaches its apex when Arthur marries the Welsh noblewoman Guinevere and creates the Knights of the Round Table. What follows is one of the greatest dramas ever written, even though it has been re-written hundreds of times. Betrayal, lust, greed, evil magick, incestuous relationships; it’s all there. In the end, Arthur and his evil bastard, incestuously born son, Mordred slay each other in battle over who should be King of Britain. Arthur’s sister (who happens to also be Mordred’s mother) takes the fatally wounded King Arthur to her veiled utopian society called Avalon, where she serves as the high priestess of her pagan gods and goddesses. (Note: In some versions Mordred is Arthur’s nephew who has an affair with Guinevere, in other’s it is Arthur’s trusted knight Lancelot who betrays him with a tryst with the king’s wife.)

That is where most stories would end. But how you can ‘end’ a story about a once and future king? Arthur’s destiny is to come back to defend Britain when she needs him most. Seeing how he didn’t come back during World War I or II, it makes you wonder how bleak things will get before he actually returns to protect his homeland once more.

For those of us who do look forward to the return of King Arthur of Britain, that wait might soon be over. The second in line for the British throne is none other than Prince William Arthur. Coincidence? Perhaps Princess Diana and Prince Charles tempted fate by naming their son Arthur, or perhaps destiny says this is the right time. Now where is Merlin?

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Number 1 Witch of All-Time: Morgana Le Fay of Camelot

Unattributable to any one author, but originally credited to twelfth century author Geoffrey of Monmouth, the legend/myth of King Arthur’s Camelot is the greatest fantasy story of all time, in my opinion. There are so many great characters from the story, but the one we will touch on the most in this blog is Morgana Le Fay, the number one witch of all time.

Morgana was the daughter of Duke Gorlois of Cornwall and Lady Igraine. Uther Pendragon attacked Gorlois because he wouldn’t submit to Uther’s goal of gaining kingship of a reunited England. As battle loomed, Merlin caused a great fog to form between the armies and then used sorcery to disguise Uther’s face to look like Gorlois’, so Uther could sleep with Igraine. In return for the favor, Merlin got the child conceived during that liaison.

If Uther would have waited he would have gotten Igraine anyway, as Gorlois was slain in the battle, thus giving Uther the role of first unified King of England. He married Igraine, and sent Morgana to a convent. It is said that Morgana received her early witchcraft training at that convent. When Arthur was born to Uther and Igraine, Merlin came and forced Uther to live up to the agreement and give him the child, which he reluctantly did.

With the help of Merlin the Magician, Wizard, Druid, Prophet, madman, what have you, Arthur Pendragon grew up, pulled the mythical sword from the stone and inherited his rightful throne as King of England, after Uther, the father he never knew, was killed. King Arthur then became one with the land, gathered widely celebrated knights and went on a quest for the holy grail.

Everything was good until Arthur's evil half-sister, Morgana Le Fay returned to the scene, and decided to finally act upon her livelong jealousy of Arthur, by tricking him into sleeping with her at a pagan fertitlity ritual, a tryst which begets him a son who will eventually be the death of him. (note: many Arthur stories, especially older ones, cite Morgause as Mordred’s mother.)

The only person standing in Morgana’s way now is Merlin. How does Morganna do him in? She does what any beautiful royal lady and aspiring witch would do. She shows interest in his sorcery and persuades him to tutor her in the dark arts of Druidry. She then seduces the great wizard and eventually discovers his weakness. Morgana uses her newfound power to freeze Merlin and all his magickal knowledge and power in ice for all eternity and takes her role as the most powerful druid in England.

How important is Morganna? She has been the subject of countless novels by numerous authors, plays, movies, songs, comics and even a heavy metal band. Check them out: http://morganalefay.com.

Morgana has set the standard for witches for thousands of years. Her name Morgana comes from a derivative of the Welsh words for water sprite and Celtic for war goddess. The word ‘le fee’ means fairy. These spirits are as ancient as written history, if not older, and are still spoken to this day.

Perhaps more importantly, Morgana was and is a role model for women as a very dominant character. She was involved in the highest levels of English royal circles and political scene and she used her position along with cunning, intuition, and witchcraft talents to double-cross her enemies and influenced Anglo-Saxon history in the process.

Think about this: If the Arthurian legends are real, and there is no evidence I’ve seen that they aren’t, then we have a spectral war going on between Morgana and Merlin that set the stage for the end of open paganism in Anglo-Saxon Europe and helped usher in the age of Christianity. That is some huge influence right there.

Imagine how differently things could be right now. Mordred came so close to defeating his father in the battle of Camlann when he near fatally stabbed Arthur but was simultaneously killed by his father. If Morgana’s plan would’ve worked, Christianity might not have had such an easy path through Europe with Mordred ruling England.

So what happened to Morgana? After Mordred was killed and Arthur near-fatally wounded, the story goes that Morgana took Arthur by boat to the enchanted island of Avalon, where Morgana was high priestess of a society of female sorceresses. Neither was ever seen again and the island of Avalon drifted beyond the invisible veil that separates this world from the spiritual world.

Even after her dreams of uniting England as a pagan society were ended with her son’s death, the love and sympathy for her brother stayed true, as she nursed him back to health in her mystical paradise so he could return again someday as Once and Future King. And I guess that makes the answer to the question of whether she was evil or not, simply a matter of perspective.

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