Morgause/Origin

Morgause is a character in later Arthurian  traditions, appearing in Thomas Malory' s 15th-century  text Le Morte d'Arthur  as the mother of Gawain  and Mordred , both key players in the story of King Arthur  and his downfall. The latter is fathered by Arthur in inadvertent incest , Morgause being the king's estranged half-sister. She is also a sister of Morgan le Fay  and the wife of King Lot  of Orkney , as well as the mother of Gareth , Agravain , and Gaheris.

Le Morte d'Arthur
Her character is fully developed in Malory's 1485 compilation of Arthurian legends <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">  Le Morte d'Arthur<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">, in which Morgause (or <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">  Margawse<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">) is one of three daughters born to Gorlois <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">of Tintagel <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">, Duke of Cornwall <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">, and the Lady Igraine <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">. According to Malory, her mother is widowed and then remarried to Uther Pendragon <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">, after which she and her sisters, Elaine <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">and Morgan ("le Fay", later the mother of Ywain <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">), are married off to allies or vassals <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">of their stepfather. Morgause is wed to the Orcadian king Lot and bears him four sons, all of whom go on to serve Arthur as Knights of the Round Table <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:19.200000762939453px;">: Gawain, one of his greatest knights; Agravain, a wretched traitor; Gaheris; and Gareth, a gentle and loving knight.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Years later, her spouse joins the failed rebellions against Arthur that follow in the wake of King Uther's death and the subsequent coronation of his heir. Shortly after her husband's defeat, Morgause visits the young king Arthur in his bedchamber, ignorant of their familial relationship, and they conceive Mordred.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Her husband, who has unsuspectingly raised Mordred as his own son, is slain in battle by King Pellinore. Her sons depart their father's court to take service at Camelot, where Gawain and Gaheris avenge Lot's death by killing Pellinore, thereby launching a blood feud between the two families. Nevertheless, Morgause has an affair with Sir Lamorak, a son of Pellinore and one of Arthur's best knights. Her son Gaheris discovers them in flagrante and swiftly beheads Morgause in bed, but spares her unarmed lover, whom he frames as her killer. Gawain, Agravain and Mordred join Gaheris (Gareth takes no part) in ambushing and killing Lamorak, thinking him to blame. Eventually the Orkney brothers find out the truth about Gaheris' matricide and the guilty party is banished from court (though he reappears later in the narrative).

Earlier counterparts
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">The corresponding character in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th-century Latin chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae is named Anna; in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, Anna is replaced by Sangive (whom Der Pleier calls Seife), while her parallel in Arthour and Merlin (late 14th century) is Belisent. And the mother of Gawain's Welsh forerunner, Gwalchmei ap Gwyar, is thought to be Gwyar (a name meaning "gore").

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">The earliest known form of Morgause's name is Orcades, given in the First Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval (the former of which was once attributed to Waucher de Denain and dated c. 1200), in which she is the mother of Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, Gareth and Mordred and daughters Clarissant and Soredamor. As Morcades she also appears in Les Enfances Gauvain (early 13th century) and again in Heinrich von dem Türlin’s Diu Crône  (c. 1230). It appears her name was originally a place name, as "Orcades" coincides with the Latin name for the Orkney Islands, the land traditionally ruled by Gawain's parents. Medievalist Roger Sherman Loomis suggests that the toponym was corrupted into "Morcades" (or Morchades, Morcads) and finally "Morgause" due to the influence of the name "Morgan" (le Fay)