Editing Mordred (section)

==Depictions in legend==
[[File:The Death of Arthur by G.H. Thomas.png|thumb|''The Death of Arthur'', [[George Housman Thomas]]'s illustration for [[Thomas Malory]]'s ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' in an 1862 edition by [[James Thomas Knowles (1831–1908)|James Thomas Knowles]]|alt=]]

In Geoffrey's influential ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), written around 1136, Modredus (Mordred) is portrayed as the nephew of and traitor to King Arthur. Geoffrey might have based his Modredus on the early 6th-century "[[high king]]" of [[Gwynedd]], [[Maelgwn Gwynedd|Maelgwn]], whom the 6th-century writer [[Gildas]] had described as a [[usurper]],<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mVkoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT255|title = The Lost Tomb of King Arthur: The Search for Camelot and the Isle of Avalon|isbn = 9781591437581|last1 = Phillips|first1 = Graham|date = 11 April 2016| publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref> or on [[Mandubracius]], a 1st-century BC king of the [[Trinovantes]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/king-arthur-facts-real-round-table-holy-grail-death-buried-lancelot-guinevere/ | title=King Arthur: 6 things you need to know about the warrior king and his legend}}</ref> The unhistorical account presented by Geoffrey narrates Arthur leaving Modredus in charge of his throne as he crosses the [[English Channel]] to wage war on [[Lucius Tiberius]] of Rome. During Arthur's absence, Modredus crowns himself as [[King of the Britons]] and lives in an adulterous union with Arthur's wife, Guenhuvara (Guinevere). Geoffrey does not make it clear how complicit Guenhuvara is with his actions, simply stating that the Queen had "broken her vows" and "about this matter... [he] prefers to say nothing."<ref>Geoffrey of Monmouth, ''The History of the Kings of Britain'', XI.I.</ref> Arthur returns to Britain and they fight at the Battle of Camlann, where Modredus is ultimately slain. Arthur, having been gravely wounded in battle, is sent off to be healed by [[Morgan le Fay|Morgen]] in [[Avalon]].

A number of other Welsh sources also refer to Medraut, usually in relation to Camlann. One [[Welsh Triads|Welsh Triad]], based on Geoffrey's ''Historia'', provides an account of his betrayal of Arthur;<ref>Triad 51. In Bromwich, Rachel (2006). ''Trioedd Ynys Prydein''.</ref> in another, he is described as the author of one of the "Three Unrestrained Ravagings of the Isle of Britain" – he came to Arthur's court at [[Kelliwic]] in [[Cornwall]], devoured all of the food and drink, and even dragged Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere) from her throne and beat her.<ref>Triad 54. In Bromwich, Rachel (2006). ''Trioedd Ynys Prydein''.</ref> In another Triad, however, he is described as one of "men of such gentle, kindly, and fair words that anyone would be sorry to refuse them anything."<ref name=":0" /> The ''[[Mabinogion]]'' also describes him in terms of courtliness, calmness, and purity.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLx7w5IzCDMC&pg=PA49|title=King Arthur's Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition|last=Tichelaar|first=Tyler R.|date=2010|publisher=Loving Healing Press|isbn=9781615990665|language=en}}</ref>

===Life in romances===
The 12th-century poems of the emerging [[chivalric romance]] genre such as those by [[Chrétien de Troyes]], dealing with the adventures of various knights during Arthur's reign, would typically not mention Mordred at all. This changed through the 13th century, as the [[Old French]] cyclical prose romance literature greatly expanded on the history of Mordred prior to the war against Arthur. In the Prose ''Merlin'' part of the [[Vulgate Cycle]] (in which his name is sometimes written as "Mordret"), Mordred's elder half-brother [[Gawain]] saves the infant Mordred and their mother [[Morgause]] from being taken away as prisoners by the [[Saxons|Saxon]] king Taurus. In the revision known as the [[Post-Vulgate Cycle]], and consequently in [[Thomas Malory]]'s English compilation ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' (''The Death of Arthur''), Arthur is told a cryptic (and, apparently, [[self-fulfilling prophecy|self-fulfilling]]) prophecy by [[Merlin]] about a newly-born child that is to be his undoing, and so he tries to avert his fate by ordering to get rid of all [[May Day]] newborns. Whether they were intended to be killed or merely sent off to a distant land (the texts are vague about this), the ship on which the children were placed sinks and they drown. This episode, sometimes dubbed the "May Day massacre",{{#tag:ref|It has been noted that the date of Mordred's birth would better fit a hero rather than a villain, as do the other circumstances such as the motif of a newborn baby at the sea and Arthur's act being reminiscent of the Biblical [[Massacre of the Innocents]].<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1259595 | jstor=1259595 | title=Mordred, King Arthur's Son | last1=Varin | first1=Amy | journal=Folklore | year=1979 | volume=90 | issue=2 | pages=167–177 | doi=10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716139 }}</ref>|group="note"}} leads to a war between Arthur and the furious [[King Lot]], acting on his belief that he is the biological father of Mordred. Lot dies in a battle at the hands of Arthur's vassal king [[Pellinore]], beginning a long and deadly blood feud between the two royal families. Meanwhile, however, and unknown to both Lot and Arthur, the baby miraculously survives. It turns out Mordred was found and rescued by a fisherman and his wife, who then raise him as their own son until he is 14.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/frequently-asked-questions|title=Frequently Asked Questions about the Arthurian Legends {{!}} Robbins Library Digital Projects|website=d.lib.rochester.edu|access-date=2019-06-27|archive-date=28 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128200322/https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/frequently-asked-questions|url-status=dead}}</ref> In this branch of the legend, following his early life as a commoner, the young Mordred is later reunited with his mother, which happens long after Merlin's downfall caused by the [[Lady of the Lake]].

In any case, the grown-up Mordred becomes involved in the adventures of his brothers (having grown to become the tallest among them), first as a [[squire]] and then as a [[knight]], as well as others such as [[Brunor]]. Eventually, he joins King Arthur's elite fellowship of the [[Knights of the Round Table]]. Since the Post-Vulgate, however, Mordred tends to be depicted as murderously violent and known for his [[chivalry|unchivalrious]] and lustful habits, including engaging in rape (as in an incident in the Post-Vulgate ''Queste'', when he brutally kills a maiden and is injured for his actions by King [[Bagdemagus]], who is then in turn mortally wounded by Gawain; there is also an attempted rape in the standalone romance ''Claris et Laris'').<ref name=":1" /> Notably, it is Mordred who fatally stabs Pellinore's son in the back, later doing the same to one of the best Knights of the Round Table, [[Lamorak]], in an unfair fight involving most of his brothers ([[Gaheris|one of whom]] had even murdered their own mother for being Lamorak's lover). Mordred displays stronger knightly values in the Vulgate Cycle (as does Gawain too in comparison to his later Post-Vulgate portrayal), where he is also shown as womanising and murderous, but to a significantly lesser degree. In the Prose ''Lancelot'', he becomes a protege and companion of the eponymous great knight [[Lancelot]]. The older knight comes to the young Mordred's rescue on multiple occasions, such as helping to save his life at the Castle of the White Thorn (''Castel de la Blanche Espine''), and Mordred in turn treats the much older Lancelot as his personal hero. In this version, his turning point toward villainy happens after they meet an old hermit monk who begins to tell his own prophecy for the two "most unfortunate knights", revealing Mordred's true parentage by Arthur and predicting Mordred's and Lancelot's respective roles in the coming ruin of Arthur's kingdom.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X_deDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA74|title=Mythology of King Arthur and His Knights|last=Wolfson|first=Evelyn|date=2014|publisher=Enslow Publishing, LLC|isbn=9780766061859|language=en}}</ref> However, the angry Mordred kills the monk before he can finish. 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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9ufgmo5uY14C&pg=PA398|title=Lancelot-Grail: The post-Vulgate Quest for the Holy Grail & the post-Vulgate Death of Arthur|first=Norris J.|last=Lacy|date=19 January 2010|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=9781843842330 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Mordred's few opponents during his brief rule included [[Sir Kay|Kay]], who was gravely wounded by Mordred's supporters and died after fleeing to [[Brittany]]. In the Vulgate ''Mort Artu'', Arthur himself proposes him as a regent, while in the French-influenced English poem [[Stanzaic Morte Arthur|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|Alliterative ''Morte Arthure'']] is a unique text in which Mordred is presented as not only a possibly better ruler than Arthur<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24643470 | jstor=24643470 | last1=Bruso | first1=Steven P. W. | title=The Sword and the Scepter: Mordred, Arthur, and the Dual Roles of Kingship in the Alliterative "Morte Arthure" | journal=Arthuriana | date=2015 | volume=25 | issue=2 | pages=44–66 | doi=10.1353/art.2015.0018 }}</ref> but also as reluctant to be left by Arthur in charge of Britain.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7M6vuneJGSEC&pg=PA35|title=The Alliterative Morte Arthure: A Reassessment of the Poem|first=Karl Heinz|last=Göller|date=19 January 1981|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=9780859910750 |via=Google Books}}</ref> In the later romances, as in the chronicles, the returning Arthur's veteran army is ambushed and nearly destroyed by Mordred's supporters and foreign allies during their sea landing at [[Dover]], where Gawain is mortally wounded while fighting as Arthur's loyalist. Afterwards, a series of inconclusive engagements follows, until both sides agree to all meet each other at the [[Battle of Camlann|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.

===Death===
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 King 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.

[[File:Boys King Arthur - N. C. Wyeth - p306.jpg|thumb|[[N. C. Wyeth]] illustration for [[Sidney Lanier]]'s ''[[The Boy's King Arthur]]'' (1922) <br /><small> "Then the king ran towards Sir Mordred, crying, 'Traitor, now is thy death day come.'"</small>|alt=]]

''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 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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d-jFvu5lp8EC&pg=PA126|title = Lancelot-Grail: The death of Arthur|isbn = 9781843842309|last1 = Lacy|first1 = Norris J.|year = 2010| publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref> The Alliterative ''Morte Arthure'' has Mordred grievously wound Arthur with the ceremonial sword [[Clarent]], stolen for him from Arthur by his co-conspirator Guinevere, but then Arthur slashes off Mordred's sword arm and brutally skewers him up on the sword Caliburn ([[Excalibur]]). 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).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.heroicage.org/issues/1/habcg.htm |title=Brigantia, Cartimandua and Gwenhwyfar |publisher=The Heroic Age |date= |accessdate=2022-08-21}}</ref>

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."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9ufgmo5uY14C&pg=PA400|title = Lancelot-Grail: The post-Vulgate Quest for the Holy Grail & the post-Vulgate Death of Arthur|isbn = 9781843842330|last1 = Lacy|first1 = Norris J.|last2 = Asher|first2 = Martha|year = 2010| publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref> One of the few survivors of Arthur's army, [[Bleoberis]], then drags Mordred's corpse behind a horse around the battlefield of [[Salisbury Plain]] until it is torn to pieces. 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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannia.com/history/docs/margam.html|title=Discovery of King Arthur's Grave: Margam Abbey Chronicle|website=britannia.com|access-date=31 January 2019}}</ref>

There have also been alternative stories of Mordred's demise. [[Thomas Grey (chronicler)|Thomas Grey]]'s ''[[Scalacronica]]'' attributes the killing of Mordred to Ywan (Ywain) at Camlann.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZUJ7Q2_0nEcC&pg=PA58|title=Before Malory: Reading Arthur in Later Medieval England|first=Richard James|last=Moll|date=1 January 2003|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=9780802037220 |via=Google Books}}</ref> In the Italian ''[[La Tavola Ritonda]]'' (''The Round Table''), it is Lancelot who kills Mordred at the castle of Urbano where Mordred has besieged Guinevere after Arthur's death.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WaoqAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA189|title=The Arthurian Legend in Italian Literature|first=Edmund G.|last=Gardner|date=15 January 1930|publisher=J.M. Dent & Sons Limited|via=Google Books}}</ref> In ''Ly Myreur des Histors'' (''The Mirror of History'') by writer [[Jean d'Outremeuse]], Mordred survives the great battle and rules with the traitorous Guinevere until they are defeated and captured by Lancelot and [[Caradoc|King Carados]] in London. Guinevere is then executed by Lancelot, and Mordred is entombed alive with her body, which he [[Human cannibalism|consumes]] before dying of starvation.