¶ … Arthur's dream of Mordred's treachery, and its implications for the overall King Arthur myth.
Arthur's Dream of Mordred's Treachery
The legend of King Arthur is full of various significant dreams and their interpretations. Celtic history, of which the King Arthur legend is a part, placed a huge emphasis on the meanings of dreams. Dreams were taken very seriously, and often professional dream interpreters were employed in order to divine the true meaning of dreams. In the King Arthur legend, dreams turn out to be very significant and symbolic for Arthur. One of the most important symbolic dreams that Arthur has is his dream of the treachery of his son/nephew, Mordred. Mordred was Arthur's son by his half-sister, Morgaine. Arthur knew nothing of Mordred's existence until Mordred himself was an adult. However, Arthur does have a symbolic dream after inadvertently sleeping with his half-sister, right at the moment that Mordred is conceived. This dream told Arthur all he needed to know about Mordred's future treachery. This paper will examine Arthur's dream for its symbolism, and show how it could not have meant anything else other than that Mordred would one day bring great disaster to King Arthur.
Soon after sleeping with his half-sister, Morgaine, King Arthur had a dream that disturbed him greatly. This dream involved griffins and serpents that come to Camelot burning and killing everything in sight. These griffins and serpents also cause Arthur grievous wounds, but he eventually overcomes these wounds to defeat these monstrous creatures. Griffins and serpents were typical mythical monsters of this period in history. Griffins were great beasts with wings and the head of a lion, while the term "serpent"...
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King Uther married Igraine and they had a son named Arthur. He was born at Tintagel Castle. This was a very dangerous time and attacks by Saxons happened a lot. So King Uther gave his baby son to his wizard, Merlin, for safety. Merlin sent Arthur away to be raised in the countryside by Sir Ector. He grew up with his foster brother, Kay. He never knew who his real parents were. The
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