Seduction Through Magic
Does a witch need to be beautiful? Does a beautiful woman need to be a witch? Ask Mordred, for he finds himself caught in the seductive powers of a witch whom the narrator has described as temperamentally lazy and aided more by subtlety than cleverness. The imagery speaks for itself:
“He caught, against the moonlight, the shadow of a smile. Her eyes were blank and dark, gaps of nothingness. Even her jewels were quenched. She seemed to grow taller. Her shadow, thrown by the moon, grew monstrous, engulfing him. The air felt cold. In spite of himself, he began to shiver.
She watched him, still smiling, as she put out the first dark feelers of her magic.”
Camelot
What would a King Arthur tale be without Camelot? And what would Camelot be without imagery suggestive of specific time and place set against the backdrop of familiar character? The name Morgause may not be quite as recognizable as others to many readers, but let her look out upon the Arthurian world, do a little name-dropping, and suddenly she seems right at home:
“The queen, the letter lying in her lap, looked out beyond the moorland, beyond the green horizon where the sky reflected the endless shining of the sea, and smiled, seeing again the vision she had had, shrined in the crystal, of Camelot's high towers, and herself, with her sons beside her, carrying to Arthur the rich gifts that would be her pass to power and favour. And the richest gift of all stood there below her window: Mordred, the High King's son.”
Fate
Fate is so omnipresent in the story that it is almost a character in itself. Its pervasive presence it also serves as grist for the metaphorical mill and the production of imagery to feast upon as a unifying element throughout the narrative:
“A feeling of dread, formless and heavy, settled on him, as if the vultures of fate clung to his shoulders, their claws digging into his flesh.”
“Fate has more than one arrow. The gods wait behind cloud."
“What he had seen as a cursed fate, foreseen with grief by Merlin and twisted into evil by Morgause, dwindled in this world of clear water and lighted mist into its proper form.”
“fate is made by men, not gods.”
Illegitimacy
Or, bastardy, as it is referenced throughout the novel. The illegitimacy of three of the central players in the Arthurian legend becomes the focus of the plot and through constant reference it also becomes part of the fabric of the imagery. References to the significance of being born out of wedlock run throughout the tale, but is most concisely considered in an interior monologue featured in the Prologue:
"A bastard, that was all they had been told. A royal bastard. And as such a danger, somewhere, to
someone. But some day, perhaps, to be useful. So keep silent, and nurture him, and your reward may
one day be great.…"
as well as an almost Hamlet-esque interior monologue later by Mordred:
“Bastard or not, I am the king's eldest son, and they don't like it. Does this mean that I really am a threat? I must find out. Perhaps he married her, my mother, whoever she was…? Or perhaps a bastard can inherit… his Arthur himself was begotten out of wedlock, and so was Merlin, that found the King's sword of Britain.… Bastardy, what need it matter after all? What a man is, is all that counts.…”
