Gawain Project feature: Morgana

Ever since I started reading Arthurian stories (and I really can't remember when that started, only that I must have been younger than eleven), I have liked Morgana the Fay. I'm not entirely sure why, because especially as a child I was very uncritical of heroes, and Morgana kept herself occupied trying to thwart those heroes. But I was always fond of witches and magic, and Morgana is a great sorceress. Maybe it also amused me that there were few men in the stories, if any at all, who didn't fear her. Another possibility is that I was simply drawn to a strong female character in stories that invariably centred on the heroic exploits of men.

When I drew my very first comic at the age of twelve, Morgana was in it. I needed a good, powerful villain, and I immediately thought of her. Admittedly she made a rather painful exit, overclassed by the magical powers of my self-invented heroine. But then it is common knowledge that nobody can resist the Very Speshul Powahs of Mary Sue :P.

Morgana is an intriguing character, appealing enough to make cross-overs into other legends. She also appears in the story of Ogier the Dane, which belongs to the cycle surrounding Charlemagne. She is still popular today, and her name has even become attached to a natural phenomenon, the fata morgana. Writing her is a bit scary. People have certain expectations when they see the name "Morgana" appear. Whereas it would be a bit boring to meet them all, to make her too different would likely put people off.

I know that it's silly, because comments can vary for all sorts of reasons, but when I saw that the number of comments to my last instalment of the comic had halved as compared the previous entries, my first thought was that people didn't like the fact that Morgana explicitly identifies herself as a nun. She's not usually a nun. She is known as a seductress, a femme fatale, a wicked sorceress. I suppose that 'nun' seems to exclude all of those almost by definition. If Morgana is a nun, doesn't that take all the attractions of her character away?

Honestly? I don't think it does. Not in this story, I should hope.

( Morgana, with pictures )