More Thoughts on Modern King Arthur Retellings
Content Note: rape in fantasy literature, spoilers for Sophie Keetch’s Morgan le Fay Series
I recently blogged about The Bright Sword and its use of the ableist magical cure trope. I also wrote, “One of my favorite aspects of recent Arthurian retellings is that they expose Merlin as an abuser” who enables rape. In that post, I mentioned another recent Arthurian novel: Morgan Is My Name by Sophie Keetch. By now, I’ve also read Le Fay, the second book of Keetch’s excellent series. I also watched Excalibur, John Boorman’s 1981 film inspired by Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory. All three of these modern King Arthur adaptations depict Merlin as a sexual abuser. Merlin’s glamoring of Uther Pendragon enables Uther to deceive and rape Gorlois’ wife, Igraine.
Earlier, I mentioned that when I was in college, our professor, Helga Duncan, explained that Merlin uses magic to enable rape in Malory’s text Le Morte D’Arthur. She showed us clips from the film Excalibur in class in 2011. The beginning of the film follows Le Morte D’Arthur well. It depicts Merlin glamouring Uther to look like Gorlois. I’ve never seen that in any of the numerous other King Arthur movies I’ve watched. Young Morgan (called Morgana here) watches Uther enter her mother’s bedroom after dreaming that her father is already dead. Uther later complains that Morgana “keeps watching me with her father’s eyes.” Igraine is traumatized and furious when she realizes what Uther did to her.
Sophie Keetch’s 2023 historical fantasy novel, Morgan Is My Name, contains a similar scene. Uther as Gorlois sneers as he tells young Morgan, “Get to bed, whelp.” Morgan thinks her father, Gorlois’, voice sounds “alien in tone” — so out of character that Morgan knows he’s not her father anymore, but an imposter. A previous scene showed Gorlois patiently explaining falconry to Morgan. So, being familiar with the story, I immediately knew the cruel version of “Gorlois” was already Uther in disguise. This was so well-done!
In the film Excalibur, Nicol Williamson is mesmerizing and terrifying as Merlin. Here is Mary Jones’ interpretation of Merlin’s “Charm of Making” spell in the film, which she says is in Old Irish.
Helen Mirren is equally compelling as Morgana in Excalibur. The film conflates her with Morgause and Nimue. She begs Merlin to teach her, then walls him up, like Nimue usually does, creating a cave around him. Like Morgause does in some versions, she also hypnotizes, deceives, and conceives a child with her brother, Arthur. Ironically, she hates Merlin but uses his sexually predatory methods.
Excalibur’s Merlin is an intense, frightening villain. Instead of learning or caring that rape is wrong, Merlin keeps using his unapologetic, unethical magic and is concerned only for himself. When Arthur (Nigel Terry) first sees Guinevere (Cherie Lunghi), he asks Merlin, “Could you MAKE her love me?” The 1981 film’s version of Arthur, like his father, is not averse to rape or love potions. Merlin refuses — not because it’s wrong but because it drained his power too much the last time! It took him nine months to recover, he says. I think there’s an implied parallel to the nine months of Igraine’s pregnancy here — but it comes from the filmmakers themselves, not from Merlin as a character.
Merlin is similarly amoral, predatory, and unapologetic in Keetch’s Morgan le Fay Series. In my previous blog post, I said Morgan refuses to let Merlin teach her in the first book. In the second book, though, she reluctantly agrees, out of desperation. Arthur wants Merlin to mentor Morgan, and letting Merlin teach her for a year is Morgan’s only chance to hide her pregnancy from the court. However, Morgan still knows Merlin is a rapist and totally manipulative and untrustworthy. “I won’t consent to being alone with you,” Morgan tells Merlin (Le Fay, 160). Exactly, Merlin is a rapist, I thought as I read it.
Ninianne says to Morgan, “You had that concern. Yet you wonder why I would have advised you not to come” (167). Ninianne, called Nimue or Vivienne in other versions of the legend, is the Lady of the Lake and Merlin’s student. She’s such a mysterious, morally ambiguous character in Keetch’s novel. She warns Morgan not to befriend or trust her, yet she teaches her more than Merlin does and protects her from him.
Both Keetch’s book series and Excalibur contain Merlin’s disguising mist. In Morgan Is My Name, Merlin is stunned that Morgan can see the magical mist that trails him. It’s one of the main reasons he initially wants to teach her. He also steals Morgan’s work, which is so in character for a powerful, abusive person.
Near the end of Le Fay, Morgan throws the magical scabbard for Excalibur, not Excalibur (the sword itself), into the lake. I loved this. I can’t wait for Book 3 and to see how Sophie Keetch continues her unique take on this story!
The scene of the boats sailing to the magical island of Avalon at the end of Excalibur is beautiful. Morgan(a) is already dead, and Morgause and Elaine aren’t mentioned in the film. Characters were probably condensed to avoid making the film too long or confusing. So, I’m unsure who’s in the boats, but it’s a beautiful image. The music is great: an original Trevor Jones score, plus public domain classical music, like Wagner and “O Fortuna.” It’s by far the best and most adult Arthurian movie.
Works cited:
Keetch, Sophie. Le Fay. United States, Random House of Canada, 2024.
Keetch, Sophie. Morgan Is My Name. United States, Random House of Canada, 2023.
