In
Geoffrey of Monmouth's
Historia Regum Britanniae, Igerna enters the story as the wife of
Gorlois,
Duke of Cornwall. In
Thomas Malory's ''
Le Morte d'Arthur'', her daughters by Gorlois are
Elaine,
Morgause and
Morgan le Fay. High King
Uther Pendragon falls in love with her and attempts to force his attentions on her at his court. She informs her husband, who departs with her to
Cornwall without asking leave. This sudden departure gives Uther Pendragon an excuse to make war on Gorlois. In
Layamon's
Brut, Igraine "was sorry and sorrowful at heart / that so many men should be lost for her". Geoffrey does not say, and later accounts disagree, as to whether Gorlois died before or after Arthur was begotten. Uther Pendragon later marries Igraine. Geoffrey says "from that day on they lived together as equals, united by their great love for each other". Geoffrey does not indicate whether Igraine ever learned of Uther's deception. According to Geoffrey, Igraine also bore a daughter to Uther Pendragon,
Anna, the future mother of
Gawain and
Mordred. The 12th-century
Life of St Illtud says
Illtud was the son of Rieingulid (daughter of Amlawdd Wledig), and cousin to Arthur, reinforcing the connection between Igraine, Rieingulid, and Goleuddydd as three of the many children of Amlawdd Wledig, which was set out in later genealogies. When combined with the two previous sources, the
Brut Dingestow suggests that Arthur's mother was named Eigyr. Welsh genealogies list Eigyr's mother as Gwen (daughter of
Cunedda Wledig), and her father Amlawdd Wledig is made a descendant of
Joseph of Arimathea's sister Enigeus. Around 1400, Glastonbury monks modified the genealogies to make the
Fisher King either Igraine's grandfather or great-grandfather through Amlawdd Wledig. '' (c. 1280–1290)|alt=|250x250px In
Robert de Boron's poem
Merlin, Igraine's previous husband is an unnamed Duke of Tintagel and it is by him that she becomes the mother of two unnamed daughters. One marries
King Lot and by him becomes the mother of Gawain, Mordred,
Gaheriet, and
Guerrehet. A second daughter, also unnamed in some variants but in some named Morgaine, is married to
King Nentres of Garlot. According to Robert de Boron, Igraine died before her second husband. A third illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Tintagel is sent to a school and there learns so much, she becomes the great sorceress
Morgan le Fay (no other medieval accounts state that Morgan is illegitimate and therefore, as in this version, Arthur's stepsister). In the
Lancelot-Grail cycle's Vulgate
Merlin, Igraine is provided with two earlier husbands, one named Hoel (Gorlois) who is the father of two daughters: Gawain's mother and a daughter named Blasine who marries King Nentres of Garlot. After Hoel's death, Ygraine marries the Duke of Tintagel and by him becomes mother of three more daughters: a third daughter who marries a King Briadas and becomes mother of King Angusel of Scotland (in no other extant text made Arthur's nephew), a fourth daughter named Hermesent who marries King
Urien of
Rheged and becomes mother of
Ywain the Great, and a fifth daughter, Morgan. In other accounts, Ywain is not Arthur's nephew, although sometimes, he is Gawain's cousin when their respective fathers are presented as brothers. ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' names the first daughter
Margawse, the second Elayne and the third Morgan.
Lancelot is the son of Arthur's sister Clarine in
Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's
Lanzelet,
Caradoc is Arthur's sister's son in the Prose
Lancelot,
Percival is son of Arthur's sister Acheflour in the English romance
Syr Percyvelle. Arthurian tales are not consistent with one another and sisters of Arthur seem to have been created at desire by any storyteller who wished to make a hero into Arthur's nephew.
Richard Carew's
Survey of Cornwall (1602), drawing on earlier sources, mentions a sister of Arthur called Amy born to Igerna and Uther. Some romances show her alive after Uther's death. In
Chrétien de Troyes'
Perceval, the Story of the Grail she and her daughter, Gawain's mother, are discovered by Gawain in an enchanted castle named the Castle of Marvels, after he had thought both his mother and grandmother to be long dead. This same account appears in
Wolfram von Eschenbach's
Parzival and in
Heinrich von dem Türlin's
Diu Crône. In both of these, it is explained that Igraine was abducted (and it is hinted that she was
willingly abducted) by the magician who has enchanted the castle. In the French ''Livre d'Artus
, an incomplete alternate conclusion to the French Vulgate Merlin'', it is mentioned that Ygraine dwells hidden in
Corbenic, the castle of the
Holy Grail. This is apparently a version of the same tradition since in the late Lancelot-Grail, the enchantments of the Grail castle are very similar to and seem to be based on the enchantments found in Chrétien's Castle of Marvels.
Bosigran promontory fort in
Zennor parish, Cornwall, was suggested by
Henry Jenner to mean . Jenner also noted the proximity of Bosigran to Bosworlas (in
St Just parish) , who he believed was a real petty-chief in fifth or sixth-century
Dumnonia. ==Modern fiction==