Welcome dear reader ! Take a seat and be ready to discover an important woman of the Arthurian legend with a blurry story.
Who was she ?
Ygraine by Julek Heller
« Women are most likely identified through their kinship or bond to another character, always a man. » (Women at the round table by Theresa Adams).
Eigr, Eigyr, Ygerne, Igerne, Ygraine, Igerna… so many names for a woman who was/is majoritively depicted as the most beautiful woman, daughter of Gwenn and Amlawdd Wledig (a prince), one of nine or ten children (depending on the sources) in the famous Culhwch and Olwen. In Welsh text, she is said to have a son named Gormant. She is also depicted in english and french versions as the wife of Gorlois of Tintagel, duke of Cornwall with whom she has two or three daughters (Elaine, Morgause, Morgana), sometimes like in the Vulgate she also is the wife of Hoel with whom she has two daughters, or even wife of Harinan in Arthour and Merlin, wife of the King of Britain Uther Pendragon and mother of the Once and Future King Arthur Pendragon, she appears as a « passive » and « submissive » character in the eyes of many, she had been depicted as the perfect « courtly love » character. Never given a voice or barely, she is here as « the wife of » or « the mother of » (many characters are outside Elaine, Morgause, Morgana, and Arthur are considered to be her children, such as Anna who would be Arthur’s sister, or even Blasine, Belisant and Brimesent), and yet there is way more to know about her than her condition as a passive character only here to provide heirs.
How was she depicted as a character ?
A very common version in Arthurian literature about Eigyr and her relationship with Uther is often depicted by a sentence similar to : « King Uther send for this Duke, charging him to bring his wife with him, for she was called a fair lady, and a passing wise, and her name was called Igraine » La Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory. We still find that particular quote, rewritten a bit differently in modern and contemporary texts. Uther does not feel love but lust toward the duchess and wants to possess her no matter what.
Usually, a reader will focus on Morgan le Fay or Guenevere who are presented as « evil » or « flawed » because of their actions and morals, while Eigyr remains a name shadowed by her husbands and son.
Merlin tells his prophecy of Arthur to Uther Pendragon, with Igraine watching from a tower, Langtoft’s Chronicle of English History (N. England, 1307–27): Royal MS 20 A II, f. 3v
In many versions, like La Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory, the queen Ygraine/Eigyr is said to rejoice when she learns about the event of the conception of Arthur (which sound unreal, far from a normal reaction to that kind of knowledge). In every version of the story of Arthur’s conception, she only learns the truth after getting married to Uther, and her feelings when he’s taken away at birth are ignored. It is extremely contradictory to what happens before when she expresses the urgent need to leave Uther’s Court to get rid of his desires. It is the turning point of her story, she becomes fully passive as if the authors were trying to get rid of her quickly when she was supposed to take care of the Kingdom after the death of Uther.
She is tricked by Uther and Merlin, and raped by the King she ended up marrying. She becomes as passive as her son and she isn’t present in his life, her feelings about his absence are ignored by Malory until later when her son starts to reign. A passive voice leaves no space for interpreting this deed as her own action. Her voice is simply not heard.
Eigyr is often depicted as a tragic figure who was caught in the middle of the political struggle for power in Camelot. Still in Malory’s version, the Queen is blamed by Sir Ulfin for not revealing the truth about Arthur’s lineage (while King Uther and Merlin were the ones who should have told the truth of their trick), blamed for the chaos in the kingdom brought by the absence of a ruler.
« I am a woman and I may not fight, but rather than I should be dishonoured, there would be some good man take my quarrel. More, Merlin knoweth well, and ye Sir Ulfius, how King Uther came to me in the Castle of Tintagel in the likeness of my lord, that was dead three hours before, and thereby gat a child that night upon me. And after the thirteenth day King Uther wedded me, and by his commandment when the child was born it was delivered unto Merlin and nourished by him, and so I saw the child never after, nor wot not what is his name, for I knew him never yet…Well I wot, I bare a child by my lord King Uther, but I wot not where his become. » La Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory.
Uther and Igraine by Warwick Deeping, illustration by Władysław T. Benda, 1903
In Perceval ou le Conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes, the Queen ended up in an enchanted castle with her daughter, mother of Gawain who find them and can't believe it, sixty years had passed since Arthur's birth.
She is either represented to be a Duchess then Queen who says only a couple of sentences and disappears quickly from the Court (like in Malory’s version, Merlin by Robert de Boron, The Sword and the Circle by Rosemary Sutcliff where she is completely passive and doesn’t utter a single direct speech…), dead (like in the series BBC Merlin where Uther sacrificed her to get an heir, or the book The Other Merlin by Robyn Schneider where she fell sick and die, for example) or a dual character who is given a voice (both active and passive) like in more recent versions (The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, the upcoming book The Cleaving by Juliet.E.Mckenna)
The future adaptations of her character might bring us new perspectives anout her character and finally give her the voice she's been denied for centuries. But even though she appears as a passive character in the surface, in the modern versions she has a more and more influence on her son, without her the legend we know and love dearly wouldn't exist as we know it. She is the first important turning point of the Arthurian legend.
Sources :
The Other Merlin by Robyn Schneider
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Merlin by Robert de Boron
The Sword and the Circle by Rosemary Sutcliff
La Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory
The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend by Alan Lupack
Perceval ou le Conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes
Women at the round table by Theresa Adams