Who was Mordred?

I apologize for the long absence. I’ve been rather occupied with a yeast cleanse diet that has had my brain addled for the past few weeks.

So here we go again. Who was Mordred? Good question. Most accounts agree that he is the son of king Arthur’s sister. Some call her Morgan le Fey, but Morgan is a man’s name, and it means, mor – or “meer” – meaning water. Gan – or guy – or man: water man! Others call Mordred’s mother Morgause and place her as the eldest daughter of queen Ygrain, Arthur’s mother. I like to call her Morguase, the faithful. Recall my earlier blogs about the word Fairy, the Spanish Fe, the Latin Fidelus? Fey is faith.

All we really know about Mordred is that he was a member of the royal family and appeared to be crown prince. He died at the Battle of Camlann, as did Arthur, though it is not specified in the earliest accounts if they were on the same side, or on opposing sides. Also, he had a wife named Guenivere. Some of the later accounts of Mordred claim he abducted Arthur’s queen Guenivere and tried to rule in his stead – usurpation by abduction. But I think it’s this whole thing about titles instead of names that seems to create the greatest amount of confusion.

It’s all possible, of course. But I can’t help thinking of an exhibition I attended during a trip to California some years ago that was about king Arthur. They made the claim that Arthur actually had three wives and they were all named Guenivere. As close as I can tell in my studies, the name means “White Priestess.” And all queens seemed to bear this title. So Arthur had a queen Guenivere and Mordred had a queen Guenivere. So should that make Mordred a bad guy? I don’t think so.

I think he was a legitimate son of Arthur’s sister, Morguase, the throne princess after her mother Ygraine. He had every right to the royal title of prince, and every right to marry a woman of importance, land and property, a Guenivere.

Here I end my speculations about the Celtic culture and the Legends of King Arthur, though I have much much more, and who knows, maybe one day I’ll get around to speculating some more.

Now I’m ready to move on to the real meat, what the search for Arthur finally led me to: The Celtic Christian Church and its great churchmen, Pelagius, Patrick & Gildas. These three are worthy of greater study by our LDS Scholars than they have been. These three kept a light burning through the dark ages of Europe and laid a foundation for the emergence of and thirst for truth that began with our Pilgrim Fathers and continues around the globe today.

Next: The Celtic Christian Church.