Overview Geoffrey, Chrétien and other early authors Morgan first appears by name in , written by Norman-Welsh cleric
Geoffrey of Monmouth. Purportedly an account of the life of
Merlin, it elaborates some episodes from Geoffrey's more famous earlier work,
Historia Regum Britanniae (1136). In
Historia, Geoffrey relates how King Arthur, gravely wounded by
Mordred at the
Battle of Camlann, is taken off to the blessed Isle of Apple Trees (Latin
Insula Pomorum),
Avalon, to be healed; Avalon (
Ynys Afallach in the Welsh versions of
Historia) is also mentioned as the place where Arthur's sword
Excalibur was forged. (Geoffrey's Arthur does have a sister, whose name is Anna, but the possibility of her being a predecessor to Morgan is unknown. and (at least seemingly and to have taught it and
astronomy to her fellow
nymph (
nymphae) In the making of this arguably
Virgin Mary-type In addition, according to a theory postulated by
R. S. Loomis, it is possible that Geoffrey has not been the original inventor of Morgan, as the character may have had already existed in Breton folklore in the hypothetical unrecorded oral stories that featured her as Arthur's fairy saviour, or even also his
fairy godmother (her earliest shared supernatural ability being able to traverse on or under water). Such stories being told by wandering storytellers (as credited by Gerald of Wales) would then influence multiple authors writing independently from each other, especially since
Vita Merlini was a relatively little-known text. As
Orvan the Fairy (
Orva la fée, likely a corruption of a spelling such as
*Morgua in the original-text), there she first lustfully 's
Prince Arthur and the Fairy Queen (c. 1788)|left In
Jaufre, an early
Occitan language Arthurian romance dated c. 1180, Morgan seems to appear, without being named other than introducing herself as the "Fairy of Gibel" (
fada de Gibel; Gibel was the Arabic name of Sicily's
Mount Etna that is also occurring in an Italian version of the Avalon motif in some later works). Here, she is the ruler of an underground kingdom who takes the protagonist knight Jaufre (
Griflet) through a fountain to gift him her
magic ring of protection. The 12th-century French poet
Chrétien de Troyes already mentions her in his first romance,
Erec and Enide, completed around 1170. In it, a love of Morgan (Morgue) is
Guigomar (Guingomar, Guinguemar), the Lord of the Isle of Avalon and a nephew of King Arthur, a character derivative of Guigemar from the
Breton lai Guigemar by
Marie de France.
Guingamor's own lai links him to the beautiful magical entity known only as the "fairy mistress", who was later identified by
Thomas Chestre's
Sir Launfal as
Dame Tryamour, the daughter of the King of the
Celtic Otherworld who shares many characteristics with Chrétien's Morgan. It was noted that even Chrétien' earliest mention of Morgan already shows an enmity between her and Queen
Guinevere, and although Morgan is represented only in a benign role by Chrétien, she resides in a mysterious place known as the
Vale Perilous (which some later authors would say she has created as a place of punishment for unfaithful knights). She is later mentioned in the same poem when Arthur provides the wounded hero
Erec with a healing balm made by his sister Morgan. This episode affirms her early role as a healer, in addition to being one of the first instances of Morgan presented as Arthur's sister. Healing remains Morgan's chief ability, but Chrétien also hints at her potential to harm. Chrétien again refers to Morgan as a great healer in his later romance
Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, in an episode in which the Lady of Norison restores the maddened hero
Yvain to his senses with a magical potion provided by Morgan the Wise (
Morgue la sage). There, Morgan is called to treat
Edern ap Nudd, Knight of the Sparrowhawk, following the latter's defeat at the hands of his adversary
Geraint, and is later called on by Arthur to treat Geraint himself. In
the German version of
Erec, the 12th-century knight and poet
Hartmann von Aue has Erec healed by Guinevere with a special plaster that was given to Arthur by the king's sister, the goddess (
gotinne)): In writing that, Hartmann might have not been influenced by Chrétien, but rather by an earlier oral tradition from the stories of Breton bards. In the anonymous First Continuation of Chrétien's
Perceval, the Story of the Grail, the fairy lover of its variant of Guigomar (here as Guingamuer) is named
Brangepart, and the two have a son Brangemuer who became the king of an otherworldly isle "where no mortal lived". In the 13th-century romance
Parzival, another German knight-poet
Wolfram von Eschenbach inverted Hartmann's Fâmurgân's name to create that of Arthur's fairy ancestor named Terdelaschoye de Feimurgân, the wife of Mazadân, where the part "Terdelaschoye" comes from
Terre de la Joie, or Land of Joy; the text also mentions the mountain of Fâmorgân. Speculatively, Loomis and
John Matthews further identified other perceived avatars of Morgan as the "Besieged Lady" archetype in various early works associated with the
Castle of Maidens motif, often appearing as (usually unnamed) wife of
King Lot and mother of
Gawain. These characters include the Queen of Meidenlant in
Diu Crône, the lady of Castellum Puellarum in
De Ortu Waluuanii, and the nameless heroine of the Breton lai
Doon, among others, including some in later works (such as with Lady Lufamore of Maydenlande in
Sir Perceval of Galles). Loomis also linked her to the eponymous seductress evil queen from
The Queen of Scotland, a 19th-century ballad "containing Arthurian material dating back to the year 1200." A recently discovered moralistic manuscript written in
Anglo-Norman French is the only known instance of medieval Arthurian literature presented as being composed by Morgan herself. This late 12th-century text is purportedly addressed to her court official and tells of the story of a knight called Piers the Fierce; it is likely that the author's motive was to draw a satirical moral from the downfall of the English knight
Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall.
Morgayne is titled in it as "empress of the wilderness, queen of the damsels, lady of the isles, and governor of the waves of the great sea." Morgan (
Morganis) is also mentioned in the
Draco Normannicus, a 12th-century (c. 1167–1169) Latin chronicle by
Étienne de Rouen, which contains a fictitious letter addressed by King Arthur to
Henry II of England, written for political propaganda purpose of having 'Arthur' criticise King Henry for invading the
Duchy of Brittany. As described by Étienne,
French prose cycles Morgan's role was greatly expanded by the unknown authors of the early-13th-century
Old French prose romances of the
Vulgate Cycle, also known as the
Lancelot-Grail cycle, and its subsequent rewrite, the
Prose Tristan-influenced
Post-Vulgate Cycle. (Both of these cycles are believed to be at least influenced by the
Cistercian religious order, although some of these attitudes may be arguably shared with the pre-Christian source material.) Integrating her figure fully into the Arthurian world, they also portray Morgan's ways and deeds as being much more sinister and aggressive than they are in Geoffrey or Chrétien, showing her undergoing a series of transformations in the process of becoming a much more chaotic and unpredictable character. Beginning as an erratic ally of Arthur and a notorious temptress opposed to his wife and some of his knights (especially Lancelot, doubling as her unrequited love interest) in the original stories of the Vulgate Cycle, Morgan's figure eventually often turns into an ambitious and depraved nemesis of King Arthur himself in the Post-Vulgate stories. (1880) A common image of Morgan becomes a malicious, jealous and cruel sorceress, the source of many intrigues at the royal court of Arthur and elsewhere. In some of the later works, she is also subversively working to take over Arthur's throne through her mostly harmful magic and scheming, including manipulating men. Most of the time, Morgan's magic arts correspond with these of Merlin's and the Lady of the Lake's, featuring shapeshifting, illusion, and sleeping spells. Some scholars even see the figure of the Lady (or Ladies) of the Lake as Morgan's split-off
literary double serving as a "benevolent anti-Morgan", especially in the Post-Vulgate tradition: a largely (but not entirely) opposite character created using Morgan's copied traits. Although Morgan is usually depicted in medieval romances as beautiful and seductive, the medieval archetype of the
loathly lady is used frequently, as Morgan can be in a contradictory fashion described as both beautiful and ugly even within the same narration.|alt=|left This version of Morgan (usually named
Morgane,
Morgain or
Morgue) first appears in the few surviving verses of the Old French poem
Merlin, which later served as the original source for the Vulgate Cycle and consequently also the Post-Vulgate Cycle. It was written c. 1200 by the French knight-poet
Robert de Boron, who described her as an illegitimate daughter of Lady
Igraine with an initially unnamed Duke of
Tintagel, after whose death she is adopted by King
Neutres of Garlot.
Merlin is the first known work linking Morgan to Igraine and mentioning her learning sorcery after having been sent away for an education. The reader is informed that Morgan was given her moniker 'la fée' ("the fairy") due to her great knowledge. A 14th-century massive prequel to the Arthurian legend,
Perceforest, also implies that Arthur's sister was later named after its
fée character Morgane from several centuries earlier. In the
Huth-Merlin version of
Merlin, Morgain and Morgue la fee are introduced as two different half-sisters of Arthur who then become merged into one character later in the text. In a popular tradition, Morgan is the youngest of the daughters of Igraine and her husband, a
Duke of Cornwall (or Tintagel) who today is best known as
Gorlois. Her father dies in battle with the army of the British high king
Uther Pendragon in a war over his wife (Morgan's mother) at the same moment as when Arthur is conceived by Uther, who infiltrates
Tintagel Castle with the half-demon Merlin's magic aid. In the poem's prose version and its continuations, she has at least two elder sisters. Various manuscripts list up to five sisters or half-sisters of Arthur, sometimes from different fathers, and some do not mention Morgan being a bastard (step)child.). At a young age, Morgan is sent to a
convent after Arthur's father Uther marries her mother, who later gives him a son, Arthur (which makes him Morgan's younger half-brother). There, Morgan masters
the seven arts and begins her study of magic, going on to specialise in
astronomie (astronomy and
astrology) and healing; the Prose
Merlin describes her as "wonderfully adept" and "working hard all the time."). This incident, introduced in the Prose
Merlin and expanded in the Vulgate
Lancelot and the Post-Vulgate
Suite du Merlin (the Huth
Merlin), Morgan then either undertakes or continues her studies of dark magic under Merlin, enamoured for her, the details of which vary widely depending on the telling. In the Prose
Merlin, for instance, it is Morgan who finds Merlin, whom she "loves passionately". it is rather Merlin who goes to live with Morgan and her two ladies for a long time following the betrayal of him by Niniane (the Lady of the Lake) with her other lover, just as Morgan wished for him to do. in the Post-Vulgate Cycle, where Morgan's explicitly evil nature is directly stated and accented, she also works to destroy Arthur's rule and end his life. The most famous and important of these machinations is introduced in the Post-Vulgate
Suite, where she arranges for her devoted lover
Accolon to obtain the enchanted sword Excalibur as well as its protective
scabbard, which has been previously confided to Morgan by Arthur himself as he had trusted her even more than his wife, replacing the real ones with fakes. In a conspiracy with the villainous lord Damas, Morgan plans for Accolon to use Arthur's own magic items against him in single combat, so she and her beloved Accolon would become the rulers. As part of her convoluted plan, both Arthur and Accolon are spirited away from their hunt with Urien by a magical boat of twelve damsels. Confident of her coming victory, Morgan also attempts to murder her sleeping husband Urien with his own sword, but in this act she is stopped by their son Yvain (
Uwayne), who pardons her when she protests she has been under the devil's power and promises to abandon her wicked ways. It is possible that this motif was inspired by classical stories like that how Medea killed her rival for
Jason's affection or how
Deianira sent a poisoned tunic to
Hercules. The reasons for Morgan's hatred of her brother in the Post-Vulgate narrative are never fully explained, other than by just a "natural" extreme antipathy against goodness by the evil that she is an embodiment of. In some versions, she also associates with two other lascivious enchantresses, Queen
Sebile (
Sedile) and the unnamed Queen of Sorestan. Together, the three "knew so much about magic, they enjoyed one another's company and always rode together and ate and drank together." Sebile and Morgan are particularly close companions, working their magic together, but they tend to fall into petty squabbles due to their rivalries and bad tempers, including a conflict between them when they both seduce
Hector de Maris in the late 13th-century
Prophéties de Merlin. Their friendship is further tested when a quarrel over a handsome widower named Berengier (captured by Sebile after Morgan kidnapped his child) ends in a violent attack by Sebile that leaves Morgan half-dead; Morgan swears revenge, but their relationship is later restored. As told in the Prose
Lancelot, they first meet in her magical domain known as the
Val sans Retour (the Vale of No Return), serving as an enchanted prison for false lovers since she took an unnamed knight as her lover but then discovered his affair with another woman. One time, she lets the captive Lancelot go to rescue Gawain when he promises to come back (but also keeping him the company of the most beautiful of her maidens to do "whatever she could to entice him"), and he keeps his word and does return; she eventually releases him altogether after over a year, when his health falters and he is near death. On another occasion, Lancelot captured in Cart Castle (
Charyot) by Morgan and her fellow magical queens, each of whom tries to make Lancelot her lover; he refuses to choose either of them and escapes with the help of one of their maidservants, Rocedon. Another of Morgan's illicit love subjects is the rescued-but-abducted young Cornish knight Alexander the Orphan (
Alisaunder le Orphelin), a cousin of Tristan and Mark's enemy from a later addition in the Prose
Tristan as well as the
Prophéties de Merlin, whom she promises to heal but he vows to castrate himself rather than to pleasure her. Nevertheless, Alexander promises to defend her castle of Fair Guard (
Belle Garde), where he has been held, for a year and a day, and then dutifully continues to guard it even after the castle gets burned down; this eventually leads to his death. who years later uses it to slay Tristan. In the Vulgate
Queste, after Morgan hosts her nephews Gawain, Mordred and Gaheriet to heal them, Mordred spots the images of Lancelot's passionate love for Guinevere that Lancelot painted on her castle's walls while he was imprisoned there. Morgan shows it to Gawain and his brothers, encouraging them to take action in the name of loyalty to their king, but they decide not to do this.
Later years and Avalon It is said that Morgan concentrates on witchcraft to such degree that she goes to live in seclusion in the exile of far-away forests. She learns more spells than any other woman, gains an ability to transform herself into any animal, and people begin to call her Morgan the Goddess (
Morgain-la-déesse,
Morgue la dieuesse). In the Post-Vulgate version of
Queste del Saint Graal, Lancelot has a vision of Hell where Morgan still will be able to control demons even in afterlife as they torture Guinevere. In one of her castles, Tugan in Garlot, Morgan has hidden a magic book given to her by Merlin, which actually prophesied the deaths of Arthur and Gawain and who would kill them, but no one can read this passage without dying instantly. In the Vulgate
La Mort le Roi Artu (
The Death of King Arthur, also known as just the
Mort Artu), Morgan ceases troubling Arthur and vanishes for a long time, and the king assumes her to be dead. One day, he and
Sagramor wander into Morgan's incredibly beautiful castle while lost in a forest, where Arthur is received extremely well and instantly reconciles with his sister. Overjoyed with their reunion, the king allows Morgan to return to Camelot, but she refuses and declares her plan to move to the Isle of Avalon, "where the women live who know all the world's magic," so she can dwell there with these (unspecified) other sorceresses. (1860)|alt= However, disaster strikes Arthur when the sight of Lancelot's frescoes and Morgan's confession finally convinces him about the truth to the rumours of the two's secret love affair (about which he has been already warned by his nephew Agravain). This leads to a great conflict between Arthur and Lancelot, which brings down the fellowship of the
Round Table. At the end of the Vulgate
Mort Artu, Morgan is the only one who is recognised among the black-hooded ladies who take the dying Arthur to his final rest and possible revival in Avalon. Depending on the manuscript, she is either the leading lady (usually, being recognised by Griflet as the one holding Arthur's hand as he enters the boat), a subordinate to another who is unnamed, or neither of them are superior. The latter part of the Post-Vulgate versions of
Queste and
Mort both seem to revert to Morgan's friendly attitude toward Arthur from the end of the Vulgate Cycle, despite the Post-Vulgate' own characterisation of Morgan as thoroughly evil and the earlier fierce hostility between them. As Arthur steps into her boat after Camlann but assures he is not going to return, she makes no mention of Avalon or her intentions when taking him away. His supposed grave is later said to be found mysteriously empty but for his helmet.)
Malory and other medieval English authors Middle English writer
Thomas Malory follows Morgan's portrayals from the Old French prose cycles in his late-15th-century seminal work of the selective compilation book ''
Le Morte d'Arthur (The Death of Arthur
), though he reduces her in role and detail of characterisation, in particular either removing or limiting her traditions of healing and prophecy, and making her more consistently and inherently evil than she is in most of his sources, just as he makes Merlin more good.) in the nunnery where she was raised, before being married to Urien (Uriens'') as a young teenager; in this narrative she did not study with Merlin.). Nevertheless, despite all of their prior hostility towards each other and her numerous designs directed against Arthur personally (and his own promise to get a terrible revenge on her as long as he lives and two of Morgan's allies, the Queen of the Northgales and the Queen of the
Wasteland) who arrive in a black boat to transport the wounded king to Avalon in the end. Unlike in the French and earlier stories on which ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' is based, and where Morgan and Arthur usually would either have first made peace or have just never fought to begin with, here her change of attitude towards him is sudden and unexplained (similar to the Post-Vulgate). Arthur is last seen in Morgan's lap, with her lament of sorrow referring to him as her "dear brother" (
dere brothir), as they disappear from the work's narrative together. (1857)|alt= In the c. 1400 English poem
Alliterative Morte Arthure, Morgan appears in Arthur's dream as Lady Fortune (that is, the goddess
Fortuna) with the
Wheel of Fortune to warn Arthur prior to his fatal final battle, foretelling his death. She also appears in some other English texts, such as the early-13th-century
Anglo-Norman Roman de Waldef where she is only "name-dropped" as a minor character. Middle English romance
Arthour and Merlin, written around 1270, casts a villainous Morgan in the role of the Lady of the Lake and gives her a brother named Morganor as an illegitimate son of King Urien; her wondrous castle Palaus is built mostly of crystal and glass. Morgan le Fay (
Morgue la Faye,
Morgne þe goddes Here, she is an ambiguous
trickster who takes an appearance of an elderly woman (contrasting from the beautiful
Lady Bertilak in a role evoking the loathly lady tradition), as a test for Arthur and his knights and to frighten Guinevere to death. Morgan's importance to this particular narrative has been disputed and called a
deus ex machina and simply an artistic device to further connect Gawain's episode to the Arthurian legend, but some regard her as a central character and the driving force of the plot. and how the story's shapeshifting and enigmatic Morgan might be, or might be not, also Lady Bertilak herself. Later standalone romances often feature Morgan as a lover and benefactor of various heroes, and yet she can also be their opponent, especially when abducting those who turned down her amorous offers or working to separate true lovers. Such texts may also introduce her additional offspring or alternate siblings, or connect her closer with the figure of the Lady of the Lake. For instance, the fairy queen Lady Morgan (
Dame Morgue,
Morgue li fee) shows up in
Adam de la Halle's late-13th-century French farce
Jeu de la feuillée, in which she visits a contemporary
Arras. She arrives accompanied by two of her fay sisters named Arsile and Maglore to dispense enchantment gifts to and curses upon several characters including the author himself, and in the course of the story reverts her love interest in the local mortal (and unfaithful) knight Robert to her previous lover
Hellequin (
Hellekin), a demonic prince of
Faerie who has been trying to woo her back. Hellequin's character in this case may be connected in some way to Arthur, who like him sometimes also figures as the leader of the
Wild Hunt. In
Thomas III of Saluzzo's
Le Chevalier Errant, the fairy Morgan (
la fée Morgane) holds the eponymous Wandering Knight captive inside a magnificent castle in her forest realm Païenie ('Pagania'), until messengers from her brother Arthur arrive with a request to lift her enchantment and let him go, to which she agrees. Loosely drawing from the Vulgate Cycle, the Old French anonymous
Li Romans de Claris et Laris better known as just
Claris and Laris (c. 1270), has its Morgan (
Morgane la Faye) as a fairy sister of Arthur as well as a former pupil of the Lady of Lake, Viviane. Ever lascivious and sexual, Morgan lives in a splendid enchanted castle in the wilderness (identified as
Brocéliande in a later manuscript) with twelve other beautiful fairy ladies including the sorceress Madoine. There, they lure and ensnare many hundreds of young and attractive knights, who then spend the rest of their lives in the palace: A human Morgan is named
Dioneta in the 14th-century Welsh fragment known as
The Birth of Arthur, where she is a sister of both Gwyar (Morgause) and Gwalchmei (Gawain), as well as of the other sisters Gracia and Graeria, and is sent off by Uther to Avallach (Avalon). The island of Avalon is often described as an otherworldly place ruled by Morgan in other later texts from all over Western Europe, especially these written in
Iberia. In the 14th-century French Crusadic fantasy
Le Bâtard de Bouillon, the island kingdom of Arthur and his fairy sister Morgan the Beautiful is hidden by a cloud in the
Red Sea, where it is visited by King Bauduins (
Baldwin II of Jerusalem). In his 14th-century
Catalan poem
La faula,
Guillem de Torroella writes about having visited the Enchanted Isle and met Arthur who has been brought back to life by the fay Morgan (
Morgan la feya,
Morguan la fea) In the 15th-century
Valencian romance
Tirant lo Blanc, the noble Queen Morgan searches the world for her missing brother. Finally finding him entranced in
Constantinople, Morgan brings Arthur back to his senses by removing Excalibur from his hands, after which they celebrate and leave to Avalon. The
Castilian Arderique begins where the
Mort Artu ends, that is with the departure and disappearance of Arthur and his sister Morgaina, described there as a fairy
necromancer, after the battle with Mordred. Another Spanish work,
Francisco de Enciso Zárate's
Florambel de Lucea (1532), features a later appearance of Arthur together with his sister Morgaina, "better known as Morgana the fairy" (
fada Morgana), who explains how she saved her brother and gifts Excalibur to the eponymous hero Florambel. In
Tristán de Leonis, Morgana offers her love to Tristan. In the
rondalla ('folk tale' in Catalan)
La fada Morgana, the protagonist Joana ends up marrying the fairy queen Morgana's son named Beuteusell after passing his mother's test with his help. In the legend of the
Paladins of Charlemagne, she is most associated with one of the Paladins, the Danish folklore hero
Ogier the Dane: following his initial epics, when he is 100 years old, the fairy queen Morgan restores him to his youthful form but removes his memory, then takes him to her mystical island palace in Avalon (where Arthur and Gawain are also still alive) to be her lover for 200 years. She later protects him during his adventures in the mortal world as he defends France from Muslim invasion, before his eventual return to Avalon. In some accounts, Ogier begets her two sons, including Marlyn (
Meurvin). In the 14th-century pseudo-chronicle
Ly Myreur des Histors written by the French-Belgian author
Jean d'Outremeuse, one of their sons is a giant In the 14th-century
Ogier le Danois, a prose redaction of the epic poem ''Roman d'Ogier'', Morgue la Fée lives in her palace in Avalon together with Arthur and Oberon, who both seem to be her brothers. Variants of Ogier's and Huon's stories typically involve Morgan, Arthur, and Oberon (
Auberon) all living in a fairyland where time passes much slower than in human world. Such works include the 14th century's French
Tristan de Nanteuil and the
Chanson de Lion de Bourges, the 15th-century French
Mabrien, In another French
chanson de geste, the early-13th-century
La Bataille Loquifer, the fays When Renoart jilts her and escapes to rescue his other son Maileffer, Morgan sends her demonic monster servant Kapalu (character derived from the Welsh legends'
Cath Palug) after him; the shipwrecked Renoart ends up luckily rescued by a mermaid. The 14th-century Italian romance titled
La Pulzella Gaia (
The Merry Maiden) features the titular beautiful young fairy daughter of Morgana (Italian version of Morgan's name, here too also a sister of the Lady of the Lake) with Hemison. In her own tale, Morgana's daughter defeats Gawain (
Galvano) in her giant serpent form before becoming his lover; she and her fairy army then save Gawain from the jealous Guinevere, who wants Gawain dead after having been spurned by him. She then herself is imprisoned in a magical torment in her mother's glass-and-diamond magical castle Pela-Orso, because of how Morgana wanted to force her to marry Tristan. Eventually, Gawain storms the castle after three years of siege and frees her from a cursed dungeon, also capturing her tyrannical mother for the same punishment. The 15th-century Italian compilation of Arthur and Tristan legends,
La Tavola Ritonda (
The Round Table), too makes Morgan a sister to the Lady of the Lake as well as to Arthur (about the fate of whom it says Morgan "brought him away to a little island in the sea; and there he died of his wounds, and the fairy buried him on that island"). It is based on the French prose romances, but here Morgan is a prophetic figure whose main role is to ensure the fulfilment of
fate. Evangelista Fossa combined and retold some of those in his
Innamoramento di Galvano (
Gawain Falling in Love, c. 1494). (1905)|alt= Morgan le Fay, or
Fata Morgana in Italian, has been in particular associated with
Sicily as a location of her enchanted realm in the mythological landscape of medieval Europe (at least since the
Norman conquest of southern Italy), and local folklore describes her as living in a magical castle located at or floating over
Mount Etna. According to a local legend, Fata Morgana wondrously appeared to the Norman leader
Roger of Hauteville to offer him her help in freeing Sicily from Muslim domination, before he (historically) did so in 1060. Other references linking Avalon to Sicily can be found in
Otia Imperialia (c. 1211) and
La faula, as well as in Breton and
Provençal literature, for example in the aforementioned
Jaufre and
La Bataille Loquifer. The 13th-century Chrétien-inspired romance
Floriant et Florete places Morgan's secret mountain castle of Mongibel (also
Montgibel or
Montegibel, derived from the
Arabic name for Etna), where, in the role of a fairy godmother, Morgane and two other fays a sister known as the Lady Without Pride (
la Dame sans Orgueil), whom Arthur saves from the evil Knight of the Wasteland (similar to the story in the
Tavola Ritonda). Meanwhile, the
Fastnachtspiel (
Ain Hupsches Vasnacht Spill von Künig Artus), a German retelling of the enchanted horn episode, moved Morgan's Mediterranean Sea island domain to the east of Sicily, referring to her only as the Queen of
Cyprus. (1865)|alt= During the
Italian Renaissance, Morgan has been primarily featured in relation to the cycle of epic poems of Orlando (based on
Roland of the historical Charlemagne). In
Matteo Maria Boiardo's late-15th-century
Orlando Innamorato, fata Morgana (initially as lady Fortune) is beautiful but wicked fairy enchantress, a sister of King Arthur and a pupil of Merlin. Morgana lives in her paradise-like garden in a crystal cavern under a lake, plotting to eventually destroy the entire world. There, she abducts her favourites until she is thwarted by Orlando who defeats, chases and captures Morgana, destroying her underwater prison and letting her keep only one of her forced lovers, a knight named Ziliante. In
Ludovico Ariosto's continuation of this tale,
Orlando Furioso (1532), Morgana is revealed as a twin sister of two other sorceresses, the good Logistilla and the evil Alcina; Orlando again defeats Morgana, rescuing Ziliante who has been turned into a dragon, and forces Morgana to swear by her lord
Demogorgon to abandon her plots. The story also features the medieval motif where uses a magic horn to convince Arthur of the infidelity of his queen (Geneura), here successfully.
Bernardo Tasso's ''L'Amadigi'' (1560) further introduces Morgana's three daughters: Carvilia, Morganetta, and Nivetta, themselves temptresses of knights. Morgan's other 16th-century appearances include these of Morgue la fée in
François Rabelais' French satirical fantasy novel
Les grandes chroniques du grand et énorme géant Gargantua et il publie Pantagruel (1532) and of the good Morgana in Erasmo di Valvasone's Italian didactic poem
La caccia (1591). In
Edmund Spenser's English epic poem
The Faerie Queene (1590), Argante (Layamon's name for Morgan) is lustful giantess queen of the "secret Ile", evoking the Post-Vulgate story of Morgan's kidnapping of Sir Alexander. It also features three other counterpart characters: Acrasia, Duessa, and Malecasta, all representing different themes from Malory's description of Morgan. Morgan might have also inspired the characters of the healer Loosepaine and the fay Oriande in the
Scots language poem
Greysteil, possibly originally written in 15th-century England. ==Modern culture==