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"In my time I have been called many things: sister, lover, priestess, wise-woman, queen..."
- Morgaine from Marion Zimmer's The Mists of Avalon
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Early Welsh literature refers to an island called "Ynis Avallach," or the "Isle of Apples." It is the home of Afallach, who was the father of Modron, also known to some as Morgan Le Fey. Some believe this isle of Apples is actually the same as the Isle of Avalon in f the Arthurian legends. In Geoffrey of Monmouth's Life of Merlin, the bard Taliesin tells us the island is ruled by nine sisters or seers, whose high priestess was Morgan.
Modron is also another name for Matrona, a different Celtic goddess, which is perhaps why "Morgan" is more commonly used to refer to the goddess to whom I've dedicated this page.
Morgan Le Fay was the daughter of Le Fay, a Welsh sea goddess. Le Fay also means "of the Fairies" or "the fate," and in the case of Morgan, both probably apply.
In 1193, Giraldus Cambrensis wrote, "...the place which is now Glaston (Glastonbury) was in ancient times called the Isle of Avalon... and Morgan, a noble matron and the ruler and lady of those parts, and kin by blood to King Arthur, carried him away to the island... that she might heal his wounds."
This impression of Morgan was reinforced in the contemporary novel The Mists of Avalon written by Marion Zimmer, who calls her "Morgaine" and portrays her as a sympathetic character with an unfortunate destiny.
In Welsh, Modron or Morgan simply means "mother." She was a great healer and keeper of holy springs, one of which is believed to be the Chalice Well which exists to this day in Glastonbury. The name Morgan can be traced through Irish mythology to Morrighu or Morrigan, "Great Queen."
In the Breton tradition, Morgan is called Morgause and is Queen of the Otherworld. In Zimmer's The Mists of Avalon, when the Romans began to Christianize the British Isles, those belonging to the Pagan culture disappeared through the mists and lived simultaneously in the parellel Otherworld, and the Christian Glastonbury with its monastery and convent full of nuns was the same place as Avalon inhabited by Priestesses who served the Goddess. The Priestesss were aware the co-existed alongside the Christians of Glastonbury, but the inhabitants of Glastonbury were non-believing. It was their non-belief that separated the two worlds to begin with. However, in the Mists, Morgause is Morgaine's ambitious aunt who fosters Morgaine's son, Mordred, and , unbeknownst to Morgaine, grooms him to overthrow Arthur.
In the Irish tradition she gradually became identified as one of the fairy folk of Ireland, the Tuatha de Danann, and inhabited the Sidhe, also known as the fairy mounds or hills.
Some associate Morgn with the dark goddess The Morrigan, who is one of the triple aspects of the Badhbh
MORGAN LE FAY aka MORGAINE, MORRIGAN, MORRIGHU, MORGAUSE or MODRON
