She was a beautiful woman and the king developed a great love for her and desired to lie by her. They were agreed on this, and he conceived on her Sir Mordred. She was Arthur’s half-sister through their mother Igraine. She stayed there a month, and then departed.
Then the king dreamed a marvelous dream that made him very afraid. (At this time he did not know that King Lot’s wife was his sister.) This was Arthur’s dream: it seemed to him as if griffins and serpents came into his land and burned and killed all his people. He fought with them, and they did him great harm and wounded him seriously, but in the end he destroyed them. When the king awoke, he was disturbed by his dream, but tried to put it out of his mind as he prepared to go hunting with many knights.
As soon as he was in the forest, he saw a great hart before him. “I will chase this hart,” said King Arthur. So he spurred his horse and rode after the hart for a long time, and through his superior skill he often came close to striking the hart. But the king chased the hart so long that his horse was exhausted and fell down dead; then a yeoman went to fetch the king another horse.
When the king saw that the hart had escaped into a thicket and his own horse was dead, he sat down by a fountain, and there fell into deep thought. And as he was sitting there, he thought he heard a noise similar to that made by thirty hounds; then he saw coming toward him the strangest beast that he had ever seen or heard of. This creature went to the well and drank and there was a great noise in the beast’s belly. Then the creature departed, making great noise, which caused the king to marvel. He was deep in thought, and soon thereafter fell asleep.
Then a knight on foot came up to Arthur and said, “Thoughtful and sleepy knight, tell me if you saw any strange beast pass this way.”
“I saw such a strange beast,” said King Arthur, “that is probably two miles away by now. What do you want with that creature?”
“Sir, I have followed that beast for so long that it has killed my horse; I wish to God that I might have another so that I could continue my quest. “ At that moment a servant arrived with a horse for the king. When the knight saw this, he asked the king to give him his horse. “For I have followed this quest for a year, and I am determined to achieve it or else die trying.” The knight who followed the Questing Beast at this time was named King Pellinore; after his death, Sir Palomides took up the quest.
CI.20
“Sir knight,” said the king, “leave that quest and allow me to take it up, and I will follow it for another year.”
“Fool!” said the king to King Arthur, “your desire is in vain, for this quest may never be achieved except by me or one of my kin.” And then he grabbed the king’s horse and mounted it and said, “Many thanks, for now this horse is mine.”
“Well,” said the king, “you might take my horse by force, but if I were able to fight you, then we would know whether you were more worthy to have him than I.”
When King Pellinore heard him say this, he said: “Look for me here when you wish, and here near this well you will find me.” Then King Arthur bade his men to fetch another horse as quickly as they were able.
Then Merlin came by in the semblance of a fourteen-year-old boy; he saluted the king and asked him why he was so pensive.
“I may well be pensive,” said the king, “for I have seen the most marvelous sight that I have ever seen.”
“I am well aware of that,” said Merlin, “and I know your thoughts as well as you yourself do. But you are a fool to worry about things that will not do you any good. Also, I know who you are—who your father was, and of whom you were begotten. For King Uther was your father and conceived you on Igraine.”
“That is false!” said King Arthur. “How could you know that? You are not old enough to have known my father.”
“Yes,” said Merlin, “I know this better than you or any man living.”
“I will not believe you,” said Arthur, and was angry at the child. So Merlin departed and then returned again in the likeness of an old man of eighty years of age; this made the king glad, for he seemed to be a wise man.
Then the old man said, “Why are you sad?”
“It is understandable that I would be sad,” said Arthur, “for many reasons. Just now there was a child here who told me many things that it seemed to me he could not know, for he was not old enough to know my father.”
“Yes,” said the old man, “that child told you the truth, and he would have told you more if you had allowed him. But you have done a thing lately which has displeased God: you have lain by your sister and on her you have conceived a child that shall destroy you and all the knights of your realm.”
“Who are you,” said Arthur, “who can tell me these things?”
“Sir, I am Merlin, and I was he in the likeness of a child.”
“Ah!” said the king. “You are a marvelous man! But I marvel at your statement that I must die in battle.”
“Marvel not,” said Merlin, “for it is God’s will that your body should be punished for your foul deeds. But I am the one who should really be heavy-hearted,” said Merlin, “for I shall die a shameful death: I shall be put in the earth still alive. But you shall die a worshipful death.”
As they talked thus, someone came with the king’s horse. So the king mounted his horse, and Merlin mounted another, and they rode to Caerleon. When they got there, the king immediately asked Ector and Ulphius how he was begotten, and they told him how King Uther was his father and Queen Igraine was his mother.
“So Merlin told me. I would like my mother to be sent for so that I may speak with her. And if she says this herself, then I will believe it.”
So in all haste the queen was sent for, and she brought with her Morgan le Fay, her daughter, who was as fair as any lady in the land. The king welcomed Igraine politely. Then Ulphius came in and said in the hearing of the king and all who were there feasting that day, “You are the falsest lady in the world, and the most traitorous to the king’s person.”
CI.21
“Beware,” said King Arthur, “of what you say. You use strong words.”
“Sir, I am well aware,” said Ulphius, “of what I am saying. Here is my glove to prove the truth of what I say on any man who says otherwise. Queen Igraine is the cause of your great hardship and the great war; if she had, during the lifetime of Uther, explained your birth, and how you were conceived, then you would never have had to fight the mortal wars that you have. Most of the barons of your realm never knew whose son you were, nor of whom you were begotten. She that bore you in her body should have made this known openly to all the realm to enhance her worship and yours. Therefore, I claim her to be false to God and to you and to all your realm. And whoever says this is not so—I will prove this truth on his body.”
Then Igraine spoke and said, “I am a woman and may not fight in my own defense; rather than be dishonored, I would like some good man to take up my quarrel. But,” she said, “Merlin well knows—and you, too, Sir Ulphius—how King Uther came to me in Tintagel Castle in the likeness of my lord who had died three hours earlier, and he conceived a child upon me that night, and thirteen days later, he married me. By his commandment, when the child was born, it was given to Merlin and fostered
