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Morgan le Fay , alternatively known as Morgan le Faye, Morgen, Morgaine, Morgain, Morgana, Morganna, Morgant, Morgane, Morgne, Morge, Morgue, and other names, is a powerful enchantress in the Arthurian legend. Early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a fay or sorceress. She became both more prominent and morally ambivalent in later texts, in particular in cyclical prose works such as the Lancelot-Grail and the Post-Vulgate Cycle, in which she turns into a dangerous arch-enemy of King Arthur and an antagonist of some tales. The earliest accounts of Geoffrey of Monmouth in ''Vita Merlini'' and Gerald of Wales refer to Morgan in conjunction with the Isle of Apples (Avalon) to which the fatally wounded Arthur was carried off after the Battle of Camlann. To the former, she was a healer and an enchantress, the eldest of nine sisters. In early chivalric romances by Chrétien de Troyes, she also figures as a healer. Her character may be partially derived from that of the Welsh goddess Modron and other myths. In later medieval stories, depictions of Morgan change dramatically. She is often said to be the daughter of Arthur's mother Lady Igraine and her first husband Gorlois, so that Arthur, the son of Igraine and Uther Pendragon, is her half-brother. She becomes an apprentice of Merlin and a vindictive adversary of Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, with a special hatred for his wife Queen Guinevere. In Thomas Malory's ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' and elsewhere, she is unhappily married to King Urien, with whom she has the son Ywain, and her sisters include Morgause. She is also wanton and sexually aggressive, with many lovers including Merlin and Accolon, and an unrequited love for Lancelot. Morgan is an indirect instrument of Arthur's death, though she eventually reconciles with him and retains her original role, serving as one of the sorcerous queens who take him on his final journey to Avalon. ==Etymology and origins== The earliest spelling of the name (found in Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Vita Merlini'') is ''Morgen'', which is likely derived from Old Welsh or Old Breton ''Morgen'', meaning "Sea-born" (from Common Brittonic '' *Mori-genā'', the masculine form of which, '' *Mori-genos'', survived in Middle Welsh as ''Moryen'' or ''Morien''; a cognate form in Old Irish is ''Muirgein'', the name of a Christian, shape-shifting female saint who was associated with the sea). The name is not to be confused with the Modern Welsh masculine name ''Morgan'' (spelled ''Morcant'' in the Old Welsh period).〔Lot, Ferdinand, "Morgue la Fée et Morgan-Tud", in: Romania 28 (1899), pp. 321-28.〕〔Koch, John, Celtic Culture, ABC-CLIO, 2006, p. 16; 458; 537; 702; 1602〕 As her epithet "le Fay" (from the French ''la fée'', "the fairy") and some traits indicates, the figure of Morgan appears to have been a remnant of supernatural female figures from Celtic mythology, and her main name could be connected to the myths of Morgens (or Morgans) which are Welsh and Breton water spirits. While later works make her specifically human, she retains her magical powers.〔Briggs, Katharine (1978). "Morgan le Fay." In ''Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures'', p. 303. New York: Pantheon. ISBN 0-394-73467-X.〕 Inspiration for her character likely came from earlier Welsh mythology and literature. Additional speculation sometimes connects Morgan with the Irish goddess Morrígan, though there are few similarities between the two beyond the spelling of their names. Morgan has been more substantially linked with the goddess Modron,〔Charlotte Spivack, Roberta Lynne Staples. "Morgan le Fay: Goddess or Witch?". ''(The Company of Camelot: Arthurian Characters in Romance and Fantasy )'' (Greenwood Press, 2000), p.32-45.〕 a figure derived from the continental Dea Matrona and featured with some frequency in medieval Welsh literature. Modron appears in Welsh Triad 70, in which her children by Urien, Owain and Morfydd, are called the "Three Blessed Womb-Burdens of the Island of Britain,"〔Bromwich, ''Trioedd Ynys Prydein'', p. 195.〕 and a later folktale preserved in the manuscript known as Peniarth 147 records the story behind these conceptions more fully.〔Preserved in Peniarth 147. See Bromwich, ''Trioedd Ynys Prydein'', p. 449–451.〕 Arthurian legend's version of Urien is Morgan le Fay's husband in the continental romances, while Owain mab Urien is the historical figure behind their son Ywain. The hystorical Urien had a treacherous ally named Morcant Bulc who plotted to assassinate him, similar to how Morgan attempts to kill Urien in the later version of Arthurian myth. Additionally, Modron is called "daughter of Avallach," a Welsh ancestor deity whose name can also be interpreted as a noun meaning "a place of apples";〔Bromwich, ''Trioedd Ynys Prydein'', p. 274–275.〕 in fact, in the tale of Owain and Morfydd's conception in Peniarth 147, Modron is called the "daughter of the king of Avallach". This is similar to Avalon, the "Isle of Apples" with which Morgan le Fay has been associated since her earliest appearances. According to the chronicler Gerald of Wales, ''Morganis'' was a noblewoman cousin of King Arthur who carried him to her island of Avalon (identified by him as Glastonbury), where Arthur was buried. Writing about 1216 in ''De instructione principis'',〔Faedo, ''Avalon Revisited'', p. 134.〕 Gerald claimed that "as a result, the credulous Britons and their bards invented the legend that a fantastic sorceress had removed Arthur's body to the Isle of Avalon, so that she might cure his wounds there," for the purpose of creating the possibility of King Arthur's messianic return.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Two Accounts of the Exhumation of Arthur's Body: Gerald of Wales )〕 Writing in his Latin encyclopedic work ''Otia Imperialia'', around the same time and with similar derision for this belief, Gervase of Tilbury calls that mythical enchantress Morgan the Fairy (''Morganda Fatata''). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Morgan le Fay」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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