Queen Morgause & King Arthur’s Pets
Enchanted was inspired by a paragraph I read in King Arthur and His Knights by Sir James Knowles. The paragraph described the visitation of King Lot’s wife to Camelot after Arthur beat back Lot and his allies. King Lot’s wife was sent to spy on Arthur, but after she meets with him she confesses that her husband sent her as a spy and purposely leaves Gawain, her eldest son, with Arthur so Arthur can use him as a hostage against Lot. And yes, all of this happens in a single paragraph.
Several other legends, most famously Le Morte d’Arthur, have similar themes, although sometimes Lot’s wife leaves all their children with Arthur instead of just Gawain. However, in the more modern versions of King Arthur legends, Morgause is typically an enchantress or witch of some sort who tries to seduce Arthur in order to help her husband. While both of these characters are married to Lot, the mother of Gawain, and always meet Arthur at some point in the king’s life, these women are practically different characters. The wife who is sorry for her part in Lot’s schemes was, in some of the oldest stories, named Anna. In Le Morte d’Arthur the character’s name is Morgause, even though she does the same actions as Anna, and it is Morgause’s name that most modern authors use when writing about King Lot’s horrible wife.
(As a side note, no matter what King Arthur legend you look at, Anna/Morgause is always the sister of Morgan le Fay. They aren’t the same characters, but the similar names can mess with you. King Artie and his cohorts are very good at that. Don’t even get me started on the Bors’.)
I wanted to reconcile Morgause with her original character, Anna, so I morphed the modern with the ancient, and my version of Morgause was born. My Morgause is a mix of the two characters. She has the magic and cunning of the modern Morgause, but the sincerity and courage of the ancient Anna. With that kind of character it would be extremely tricky getting her to let go of her loyalty to her family and support Britt, which is why I made her something of a feminist.
I actually got the idea because of some research I was doing on Gawain at the time. Because of some quests he both failed and passed, Gawain was blessed and cursed to be the ladies knight—meaning he had to help any maiden he came across who needed assistance. Compared to the rest of the knights—Lancelot included—Gawain is considered to be the most sensitive to the plight of females in Arthur’s kingdom. I decided that in order to mold that type of character into him, especially given that his father was something of a power-hungry/cut-throat king, he would need a mother who was not only equally as strong as King Lot, but extremely verbal about the fact that females are not lesser beings.
Morgause was a lot of fun. I enjoyed her bold personality, and I hope to have just as much fun with her sister, the infamous Morgan le Fay. On a final thought, all of Britt’s pets—Llamrei, Roen, and Cavall—are all animals that are attributed to Arthur in THE oldest records of the legendary king.
Embittered
Book 3 of King Arthur and Her Knights
By: K. M. Shea
a Take Out The Trash! Publication
Copyright ? K.M. Shea 2013
Chapter 1
The Arrival of Lancelot
“The sword he pulled, the crown he wore, and he just a fair faced youth, hah! Fair faced youth my horse’s rear end,” Britt said as she gnawed on a hunk of crusty bread and recited a line from the newest ballad echoing through Camelot.
Llamrei, Britt’s white mare, looked up from grazing.
“No offense,” Britt said.
The mare went back to eating.
“I’ve been here a year and a half. How old am I supposed to be now? Sixteen or seventeen? This ploy won’t last much longer,” Britt said. “Bedivere and his ilk have hinted since Christmas that I need to find a wife. Merlin won’t be able to distract that faction much longer, and even I have heard some of the disparaging rumors about my unwillingness to grow facial hair.”
It was, in fact, Bedivere’s hinting that drove Britt from her courts that fine afternoon. Bedivere had set his young cousin Griflet after Britt to sing songs about a rich king who did great deeds on behalf of his beautiful wife. Of course whenever Griflet started a game of Badger Britt Ywain—Sir Ywain now, Britt had knighted him at the New Year—was sure to join in as well.
Favorable things could not be reported of Ywain’s singing voice, so avoiding the duo became Britt’s greatest ambition.
Britt rolled onto her stomach so she could look at Camelot. The immense castle was well within eyesight, perhaps even within shouting range. Britt was splayed near the edge of the forest that impeded on Camelot’s land, surrounding about half of the castle.