Editing Igraine

{{Short description|Legendary mother of King Arthur}}
{{redirect|Igerna|the insect|Igerna (leafhopper)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2019}}
{{Infobox character
| name             = Igraine
| series           = [[Matter of Britain]]
| image            = Uther and Igraine.jpg
| caption          = King Uther and Igraine after Gorlois's death, from ''Uther and Igraine'' by [[Warwick Deeping]], illustration by [[Władysław T. Benda]], 1903
| first            = ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]''
| creator          = [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]
| occupation       = [[Duchess]], [[Queen regnant|queen]]
| spouse           = [[Gorlois]], [[Uther Pendragon]]
| children         = [[Elaine (legend)#Elaine of Garlot|Elaine]], [[Morgan le Fay|Morgan]], [[Morgause]] (with Gorlois), [[King Arthur|Arthur]] (with Uther)
| family           = [[King Arthur's family]]
| nationality      = [[Celtic Britons|Briton]]
}}

In the [[Matter of Britain]], '''Igraine''' ({{IPAc-en|i:|'|ɡ|r|eɪ|n}}) is the mother of [[King Arthur]]. Igraine is also known in [[Latin]] as '''Igerna''', in [[Welsh language|Welsh]] as '''Eigr''' ([[Middle Welsh]] '''Eigyr'''), in French as '''Ygraine''' ([[Old French]] '''Ygerne''' or '''Igerne'''), in ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' as '''Ygrayne'''—often modernised as Igraine or '''Igreine'''—and in ''[[Parzival]]'' as '''Arnive'''. She becomes the wife of [[Uther Pendragon]], after the death of her first husband, [[Gorlois]].

== Legend ==
In [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'', Igerna enters the story as the wife of [[Gorlois]], [[List of legendary rulers of Cornwall|Duke of Cornwall]].  In [[Thomas Malory]]'s ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'', her daughters by Gorlois are [[Elaine (legend)#Elaine of Garlot|Elaine]], [[Morgause]] and [[Morgan le Fay]].<ref name=Lupack/> In other works, the names, roles and even number of Arthur's half-sisters vary depending on the text (including none in the ''Historia'', in which Arthur has only a younger sister). In the ''[[Brut y Brenhinedd|Brut Tysilio]]'', [[Cador]] of Cornwall is their son. [[John Hardyng]]'s ''Chronicle'' calls Cador Arthur's brother "of his mother's syde".

Geoffrey describes her as one "whose beauty surpassed that of all the women of Britain."<ref name="Linton">{{Cite web |last=Linton |first=Phoebe C. |date=2013-12-04 |title=The Public and Private Boundaries of Motherhood: Queen Igraine in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia and Laȝamon’s Brut |url=https://hortulus-journal.com/linton/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=Hortulus |language=en}}</ref> 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 [[Layamon's Brut|''Brut'']], Igraine "was sorry and sorrowful at heart / that so many men should be lost for her".<ref name=Linton/>

Gorlois conducts the war from the castle of Dimilioc but places his wife in safety in [[Tintagel Castle]]. [[Shapeshifting|Disguised]] as Gorlois by [[Merlin]], Uther Pendragon is able to enter Tintagel to satisfy his lust. He manages to rape Igraine by deceit – she believes that she is lying with her husband and becomes pregnant with Arthur. Her husband Gorlois dies in battle that same night.<ref name="Lupack">{{Cite web |last=Lupack |first=Alan |title=Igraine {{!}} Robbins Library Digital Projects |url=https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/theme/igraine |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241106172137/https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/theme/igraine |archive-date=2024-11-06 |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=The Camelot Project |publisher=University of Rochester |language=en}}</ref> 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".<ref name="Lopez">{{Cite web |last=Lopez |first=Teresa |title=Uther and Igraine {{!}} Robbins Library Digital Projects |url=https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/lopez-uther-and-igraine |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241111200126/https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/lopez-uther-and-igraine |archive-date=2024-11-11 |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=The Camelot Project |language=en}}</ref> Geoffrey does not indicate whether Igraine ever learned of Uther's deception.<ref name=Lopez/> Layamon says "Uther greeted Ygaerne, noblest of wives, and sent her token what they had spoken in bed; he commanded her that she should give up the castle quickly – there was no other way, for her lord was dead."<ref name=Linton/>

[[File:Boys King Arthur - N. C. Wyeth - p4.jpg|thumb|left|[[Merlin]] taking away the infant [[King Arthur|Arthur]] from Igraine. An illustration by [[N. C. Wyeth]] for ''[[The Boy's King Arthur]]'' (1880): "So the child was delivered unto Merlin, and so he bare it forth."]]

Malory has Arthur, who had been raised by [[Sir Ector]], meet his mother for the first time after he had grown to manhood and become king.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Malory |first=Sir Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8yBbAAAAMAAJ&dq=Igraine&pg=PA24 |title=The Arthurian Tales: The Greatest of Romances which Recount the Noble and Valorous Deeds of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table |publisher=Norrœna Society |year=1907 |pages=24 |language=en}}</ref> According to Geoffrey, Igraine also bore a daughter to Uther Pendragon: Arthur's full sister [[Morgause|Anna]], the future mother of [[Gawain]] and [[Mordred]].<ref name=Lupack/>
 
Igraine is indirectly mentioned several times in the 11th/12th-century Welsh text ''[[Culhwch and Olwen]]'' as the unnamed mother of [[King Arthur|Arthur]]. [[Culhwch]] is given as Arthur's cousin, though it is not said whether this is through his father Cilydd (son of Celyddon) or his mother [[Goleuddydd]] (daughter of [[Amlawdd Wledig]]), nor whether through Igraine or Arthur's father. ''Culhwch and Olwen'' lists several brothers of Arthur's mother: Llysgadrudd Emys, [[Gwrfoddw|Gwrbothu Hen]], Gweir Gwrhyd Ennwir, and Gweir Paladyr Hir. It also says she had another son, Gormant, to [[Ricatus|Ricca]], the chief elder of Cornwall.<ref>{{cite wikisource | translator-first=Charlotte | translator-last=Guest | translator-link=Lady Charlotte Guest | title=The Mabinogion |chapter=Kilhwch and Olwen | wslink=The Mabinogion | location=London | publisher=Bernard Quaritch | year=1877 | pages=217, 219, 222, 224–226, 256 }}</ref> The 12th-century ''Life of St Illtud'' says [[Illtud]] was the son of Rieingulid (daughter of Amlawdd Wledig), and cousin to Arthur,<ref name="Exploring Celtic Civilizations 2019">{{cite web | first=Michael | last=Newton | title=Text: Life of St. Illtud | website=Exploring Celtic Civilizations | date=7 May 2019 | url=https://exploringcelticciv.web.unc.edu/prsp-record/text-life-of-st-illtud/ | publisher=[[University of North Carolina]] | access-date=4 May 2022}}</ref> reinforcing the connection between Igraine, Rieingulid, and Goleuddydd as three of the many children of Amlawdd Wledig, which was set out in later genealogies.<ref name="Culhwch and Olwen Translation">{{cite web | first=Will | last=Parker | year=2016 | title=Culhwch and Olwen Translation | website=Culhwch ac Olwen | url=http://www.culhwch.info/index.html#footnote2 | access-date=4 May 2022}}</ref> When combined with the two previous sources, the ''[[Brut Dingestow]]'' suggests that Arthur's mother was named Eigyr.<ref>R. Bromwich and D. Simon Evans, ''Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale'' (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), pp.44-5.</ref> Welsh genealogies list Eigyr's mother as Gwen (daughter of [[Cunedda|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|Maimed King]] either Igraine's grandfather or great-grandfather through Amlawdd Wledig.<ref name="Bartrum1966">{{cite book| editor-link=Peter Bartrum | editor-first=Peter C. | editor-last=Bartrum | title=Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts| publisher=University of Wales | year=1966 }}</ref>

[[File:Story of Merlin - Arthur's conception.png|thumb|Arthur's conception in the 13th-century prose version of ''[[Merlin (Robert de Boron poem)|Merlin]]'' (c. 1280–1290)|alt=|250x250px]]

In [[Robert de Boron]]'s poem ''[[Merlin (Robert de Boron 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, [[Gareth|Gaheriet]], and [[Gaheris|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|Morgan the Fairy]] (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<ref name="Bruce">{{Cite book |last=Bruce |first=Christopher W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZFbczeMtYcC&q=Igraine&pg=PA229 |title=The Arthurian Name Dictionary |date=1999 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-8153-2865-0 |language=en}}</ref> 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 [[Morgause|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 (antiquary)|Richard Carew]]'s ''Survey of Cornwall'' (1602), drawing on earlier sources, mentions a sister of Arthur called Amy born to Igerna and Uther.<ref>{{Cite book | first=Richard | last=Carew | author-link=Richard Carew (antiquary) | title=The Survey of Cornwall. And An Epistle concerning the Excellencies of the English Tongue | url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/9878/pg9878.html | year=1769 | orig-date=1602 | publisher=E. Law and J. Hewett | page=78 }}</ref>

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 {{gloss|the Dwelling of Igerna}}. Jenner also noted the proximity of Bosigran to Bosworlas (in [[St Just in Penwith|St Just]] parish) {{gloss|the Dwelling of Gorlois}},<ref name="Jenner Dinas">{{cite journal | journal=Annual Report of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society | title=Castle-an-Dinas and King Arthur | first=Henry | last=Jenner | authorlink=Henry Jenner | pages=100–101 | url=https://archive.org/details/annualreport04royauoft/page/100/mode/2up | year=1922 | volume=4 | series=New Series | publication-place=Plymouth and Falmouth }}</ref> who he believed was a real petty-chief in fifth or sixth-century [[Dumnonia]].<ref name="Jenner Damnonia">{{cite journal | journal=Annual Report of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society | title=The Royal House of Damnonia | first=Henry | last=Jenner | authorlink=Henry Jenner | page=139 | url=https://archive.org/details/annualreport04royauoft/page/138/mode/2up | year=1922 | volume=4 | series=New Series | publication-place=Plymouth and Falmouth }}</ref>

==Modern fiction==
*[[Jack Whyte]]'s ''[[A Dream of Eagles]]'' portrays Igraine as the daughter of Athol, a ruler from Ireland. She is married off to Lot, the Duke of Cornwall and flees the cruel Lot for his arch enemy, Uther Pendragon. 
*In the [[BBC]] series ''[[Merlin (2008 TV series)|Merlin]]'' (S02 E08: "''The Sins of the Father''"), Ygraine is the wife of Uther, but dead for many years by the time the events of the series begins. She could not conceive, and so Uther asked for the help of the sorceress [[List of Merlin characters#Nimueh|Nimueh]] so that they could have a child. Igraine gives birth to Arthur, but because magic was invoked in his conception, Uther had to pay the price of asking for a life from magic—that of losing the life of someone he treasured equally, his wife. It is Igraine's death that sparks Uther's hatred and persecution of all magic users within his kingdom.
*In [[Guy Ritchie]]'s 2017 film ''[[King Arthur: Legend of the Sword]]'', [[Poppy Delevingne]] plays Igraine, Uther's wife.

==See also==
*[[King Arthur's family]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/theme/igraine.html Igraine] at The Camelot Project

{{Arthurian Legend}}
{{Geoffrey of Monmouth}}

[[Category:Arthurian characters]]
[[Category:Family of King Arthur]]
[[Category:Mythological queens]]
[[Category:Mythological rape victims]]
[[Category:European people whose existence is disputed]]
[[Category:Uther Pendragon]]