Mordred kill arthur pendragon biography

While Lancelot tells his secret lover Guinevere but not Arthur , she refuses to believe in the story of the prophecy and does not banish Mordred. The young knight, on his part, tries to get himself killed before accepting his destiny. The Prose Lancelot indicates Mordred was about 22 years old at the time, as well as just two years into his knighthood.

Eventually, Mordred overthrows Arthur's rule when the latter is engaged in the war against Lancelot or during the second Roman War that followed it, depending on the version. In the Vulgate Mort Artu , Mordred achieves his coup with the help of a letter supposedly sent by the dying Arthur but actually forged by Mordred. The Mort Artu narration adds that "there was much good in Mordred, and as soon as he made himself elevated to the throne, he made himself well beloved by all," and so they were "ready to die to defend [his] honor" once Arthur did return with his army.

In the Vulgate Mort Artu , Arthur proposes himself as a regent, while in the French-influenced English poem Stanzaic Morte Arthur , the council of Britain's knights first elects Mordred for the position in Arthur's absence as the most worthy candidate. The Alliterative Morte Arthure is a unique text in which Mordred is presented as not only a possibly better ruler than Arthur [ 24 ] but also as reluctant to be left by Arthur in charge of Britain.

Afterwards, a series of inconclusive engagements follows, until both sides agree to all meet each other at the one final battle , in which Mordred typically fights exceptionally well while commanding the loyalty of thousands of men willing to lay down their lives for him against Arthur. In Henry of Huntingdon 's retelling of Geoffrey's Historia , Mordred is beheaded at Camlann in a lone charge against him and his entire host by Arthur himself, who suffers many injuries in the process.

In the Alliterative Morte Arthure , Mordred first kills Gawain by his own hand in an early battle against Arthur's landing forces and then deeply grieves after him. In the Vulgate Mort Artu and consequently in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur , the terrible final battle begins by accident during a last-effort peace meeting between him and Arthur. In the ensuing fighting, Mordred personally slays his cousin Ywain after the latter's rescue of the unhorsed Arthur, and decapitates the already badly wounded Sagramore.

He also kills Sagramore in addition to six other Round Table knights loyal to Arthur in the Post-Vulgate depiction of the battle, which presents this as an incredible and unprecedented feat. These and many other versions of the legend feature the motif of Arthur and Mordred striking down each other in a duel after most of the others on both sides have died.

Furthermore, the Post-Vulgate says it was only the death of Sagramore, here depicted as Mordred's own foster brother, that finally motivates Arthur to kill his son immediately afterwards. Le Morte d'Arthur features the now-iconic scene where the two meet on foot as Arthur charges Mordred and runs a spear through him. With the last of his strength, Mordred impales himself even further to come within striking distance, and lands a mortal blow with his sword to King Arthur's head.

Malory's telling is a variant of the original account from the Vulgate Mort Artu , in which Arthur and Mordred both charge at each other on horses three times until Arthur drives his lance through Mordred's body, but then fully withdraws it a ray of sunlight even shines through the hole before Mordred's sword powerfully strikes his head and they both fall from their saddles.

One copy of the Welsh text Ymddiddan Arthur a'r Eryr has the dying Arthur tell Guinevere how he struck Mordred nine times with Caledfwlch another name variant of Excalibur. The Post-Vulgate retelling of Mort Artu deals with the aftermath of Mordred's death in more detail than the earlier works. In it, Arthur says before being taken away: "Mordred, in an evil hour did I beget you.

You have ruined me and the kingdom of Logres , and you have died for it. Cursed be the hour in which you were born. Later, as it had been commanded by the dying Arthur, the Archbishop of Canterbury constructs the Tower of the Dead tomb memorial, from which Bleoberis hangs Mordred's head as a warning against treason. It remains there for centuries until it is removed by the visiting Ganelon.

Conversely, Margam Abbey 's chronicle Annales de Margan claims Arthur is buried alongside Mordred, here described as his nephew, in another tomb purportedly exhumed in the "real Avalon" at Glastonbury Abbey. There have also been alternative stories of Mordred's demise. Guinevere is then executed by Lancelot, and Mordred is entombed alive with her body, which he consumes before dying of starvation.

Traditions vary regarding Mordred's relationship to Arthur. Medraut is never considered Arthur's son in Welsh texts, only his nephew, though The Dream of Rhonabwy mentions that the king had been his foster father. In early literature derived from Geoffrey's Historia , Mordred was considered the legitimate son of Arthur's sister or half-sister queen named Anna or Gwyar and her husband Lot , the king of either Lothian or Orkney.

This motif was introduced in the Vulgate Cycle, in which their union happens at the time when neither of them have yet known of their blood relation and she was not married yet. Accounts of Mordred's incestuous origin story including two different variants in just the different parts of the main version of the Vulgate Cycle present the circumstances of it variably, attributing various degrees of blame or innocence to either party of the teenage usually aged 15 Arthur's tryst with his much older mother to children almost his age half-sister.

Her eldest son Gawain has been Mordred's brother already in the Historia as well as in Layamon 's Brut. Besides him, Mordred's other brothers or half-brothers often appearing in literature include Agravain and Gaheris in the tradition derived from the French romances, beginning with the prose versions of Robert de Boron 's poems Merlin and Perceval.

Another of the brothers, Gareth , joined them in the later versions. In the Vulgate Lancelot , Mordred is the youngest of the siblings who begins his knightly career as Agravain's own squire, and the two of them later conspire to reveal Lancelot's affair with Guinevere, resulting in Agravain's death and consequently the civil war between Arthur's and Lancelot's factions.

Mordred kill arthur pendragon biography

In stark contrast to many modern works, Mordred's only interaction with Arthur's other sister Morgan in any medieval text occurs in the Post-Vulgate Queste , when all the Orkney brothers visit Morgan's castle and are informed by her about Guinevere's infidelity. In the Historia and certain other texts, such as the Alliterative Morte Arthure reimagination of the Historia where Mordred is portrayed sympathetically, Mordred marries Guinevere usually his aunt consensually after he takes over the throne.

However, in later writings like the Lancelot-Grail cycle and Le Morte d'Arthur , Guinevere now the wife of Mordred's real father is not treated as a traitor and instead flees Mordred's proposal and hides in the Tower of London. Willing adultery is still tied to her role in these later romances, but Mordred has been replaced as her lover by Lancelot.

The 14th-century Scottish chronicler John of Fordun claimed that Mordred was the rightful heir to the throne of Britain, as Arthur was an illegitimate child in his account, Mordred was the legitimate son of Lot and Anna, who here is Uther 's sister. This sentiment was elaborated upon by Walter Bower and by Hector Boece , who in his Historia Gentis Scotorum goes so far as to say Arthur and Mordred's brother Gawain were traitors and villains, and Arthur usurped the throne from Mordred.

In John Mair 's Scottish Historia Maioris Britanniae , Arthurus, Modred and Valvanus Gawain were all said to be underage and thus unfit to rule, with Arthur described as a bastard, though Mordred is also not depicted heroically when he uses mercenaries to seize both the throne and Guanora Guinevere. The 18th-century Welsh antiquarian Lewis Morris , based on statements made by Boece, suggested that Medrawd had a wife named Cwyllog , daughter of Caw.

When Arthur went to fight Lancelot, Mordred was left as regent in his absence. In the Alliterative Morte Arthure, he and Guinevere had a child. In Welsh tradition Mordred married Cywyllog, daughter of Caw, and they had two sons. Some texts downplay his sinister wickedness even allowing for regretfulness. Parting entirely from the Cornish connection, the Romancers place the final battle near Salisbury.

Send comments , cite this article. Article created on Saturday, August 8, Mythology Folklore Arthurian legend Miscellaneous Search. Although Mordred is almost universally viewed as a villain by those familiar with basic Arthurian legend, many lesser known sources tell a different story. Considering the early references to Mordred in several Welsh texts, Mordred may have been an historical figure from Welsh nobility.

In fact, he is portrayed as courteous and brave in some early writings—quite the opposite of the Mordred of legend. The first mention of his presence at the Battle of Camlann merely indicates that he fought there and does not state that he fought against Arthur. In fact, some sources suggest that the battle was brought about by a dispute between Queen Guinevere and her sister.

A central theme in the myth of Mordred is the vengeance of the illegitimate son. Though Arthur had an affair with a woman he did not know to be his sister, and later believed himself to be Mordred's uncle, the legends suggest that the final clash between the two was fated to occur. Mordred represents all of Arthur's secret flaws, unseen by most of the Knights of the Round Table, but which ultimately played an important part in the failure of his seemingly perfect kingdom.

Mordred is a key figure in nearly all versions of Arthurian legend. He is present even in the earliest documented portions of the myth, found in The Annals of Wales , and in Geoffrey of Monmouth 's History of the Kings of Britain. Medraut is a gifted boy who uses his powers of healing to help his sickly younger brother, Lieu, who is destined to become the next king—something Medraut, the illegitimate son of King Artos Arthur , cannot do.

When his cunning mother Morgause attempts to pit the boys against each other for her own wicked ends, the two brothers seem destined to either grow closer through understanding, or destroy each other through envy. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. January 8, Retrieved January 08, from Encyclopedia.

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