Daughter of Tintagel

Did You Know?

• Three related short stories exist: 'Just Cause', 'Ravens' Meat', and 'The Test'.
• 'The Test' retells Sir Gawain and the Green Knight from Morgan's perspective.

Publication history

The series first appeared as five volumes from Headline between August 1989 and 1992: Wise Woman's Telling, White Nun's Telling, Black Smith's Telling, Taliesin's Telling, and Herself. A paperback omnibus titled Daughter of Tintagel was assembled by Trafalgar Square in July 1992. In 2005, Wildside Press's Cosmos Books republished the series as Morgan le Fay in print-on-demand paperbacks, with two titles slightly altered: White Nun's Telling became Nun's Telling and Black Smith's Telling became Blacksmith's Telling. An ebook version was also released through Google Play.

Synopsis

The story follows the intense, conflicted bond between Morgan le Fay and her half-brother Arthur. The author described the series as sitting between historical fiction and fantasy, with the final part being openly fantasy. Four narrators tell Morgan’s tale: two women, two men, two pagans, two Christians, two sympathetic, two hostile. Finally, Morgan speaks for herself, offering ironic commentary on those who have twisted her story for their own purposes. The first narrator is Gwennol, Morgan’s elderly nurse and a wise woman of the old religion. Morgan, a sharp and stubborn child, is nine when Arthur is born. Arthur is the product of Uther Pendragon tricking Morgan’s mother Ygerne and killing Morgan’s beloved father. Morgan’s sister Elaine helps Ygerne cast spells to lure Uther; the third sister, Margawse, is spirited and openly sexual. When Gorlois leaves to fight Uther, Ygerne and her three daughters flee to the nunnery on Tintagel headland, guarded by the stern abbess Bryvyth. With Merlyn’s aid, Uther takes on Gorlois’s appearance and enters Tintagel. Morgan, desperate to see her father, spies on them. The next morning, learning Gorlois is already dead, Bryvyth angrily expels Ygerne. Uther claims both Bossiney and Ygerne. Merlyn tries to win Morgan over but fears her growing magical power. On the night before Arthur’s naming day, Morgan steals the baby. She is found standing on a rock in the stormy bay, threatening to drop him, when Uther grabs them both. Arthur is secretly taken away, and Morgan is sent to Tintagel nunnery. The second narrator is Luned, a sharp and ambitious farmer’s daughter. She once loved Morgan but now hates her for corrupting her. Converted to Christianity by a traveling monk named Ruman, Luned goes to Bryvyth’s nunnery but is terrified of the sea crashing around the headland. She is disappointed to be given only physical chores by the demanding abbess. After two years, she is promoted to work in the library, where she sees Ygerne’s dramatic expulsion after Uther tricks his way into Tintagel.

Development

Fay Sampson's interest in writing about Morgan le Fay began after reading the first two chapters of Roger Lancelyn Green's 1953 King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, when she decided to write a novel titled Dark Sister. She envisioned Morgan as a teenage girl, comparing her wildness to girls involved in drugs or delinquency. Rather than telling the story from the central character's viewpoint, she chose separate witnesses giving their own version of a phase of Morgan's story. Sampson began writing Dark Sister many years before the first volume's 1989 publication, later expanding the scope into two, then four, and finally five books. The project was abandoned for about ten years before being revised after 1984. It was not published until she decided to write it for adults. The original title Dark Matter was rejected by publishers; the author's note states: Morgan's story is the Dark Matter of Britain. The fifth book, Herself, was a late addition suggested by Hutchinson. Sampson read Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon only while writing the very last part of Herself, as her editor forbade earlier reading. According to Leila K. Norako, the pagan descriptions are far less detailed and neo-pagan in Sampson's novels than in Bradley's; Sampson's Morgan explores both pagan and Christian faiths to acquire powers.

Reception

The series has been well received. G.M. Magazine praised Wise Woman's Telling for injecting new life into the Arthurian legend, noting the undercurrent of paganism and Dark Age brutality; by Taliesin's Telling, the magazine was still recommending it. The Birmingham Science Fiction Group called Black Smith's Tale excellently written but too historically grounded for science fiction fans. The 1997 Encyclopedia of Fantasy by John Grant and John Clute considered the series Sampson's most notable adult fiction achievement and suggested Herself as further reading for its meta discussion of relevant literature. Grant, in a 2002 Interzone guest review, described the series as outstandingly different in style and mood from most Arthurian stories, well out on its own limb. Professor Raymond H. Thompson stated that what emerges is a complex personality of Morgan that continues to fascinate. In 2015, Cindy Mediavilla in Arthuriana chose it as one of the few literary depictions where Morgan progressed from a one-dimensional evil-doer to a fully-realized heroine, alongside Bradley's The Mists of Avalon and Nancy Springer's I Am Morgan le Fay. Professor Jacqueline Jenkins included Sampson among undeniably influential participants in Arthurian retellings with broad audience appeal. Sampson was one of four novelists primarily analyzed in Ann F. Howey's 2001 book Rewriting the Women of Camelot.