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katiemcgrath:

Mordred is the illegitimate son of King Arthur and his half sister, Queen Morgan le Fay (Or

Morgause). When Arthur learns that he has had a child by his half-sister, he attempts to kill Mordred by condemning all the children born on May Day to be set adrift on the sea. But his son survives when the ship he is in breaks up and he is cast up on the shore and found by a good man, who raises him until he is fourteen. Even before Mordred accuses Lancelot and Guinevere of their treasonous affair and plans to trap them, his villainy is clear. When Gawain and his brothers treacherously attack and slay Lamorak, it is Mordred who gives him a fatal wound in the back. While Arthur is besieging Lancelot’s castle in France, Mordred forges letters saying that Arthur is dead, claims the throne, and intends to marry Guinevere. In the final battle at Camlann, Arthur gives Mordred a fatal wound; but Mordred thrusts himself up the length of Arthur’s spear so he can strike his father, commiting the ultimate crime of regicide. 

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