page_title: Gorlois
hierarchical_section_title: Gorlois
caption_attribution_description: English: Gorlois violently seizes Igraine. "A sudden madness whirled Gorlois away." from Uther and Igraine, Warwick Deeping, illustrated by "W. Benda"
context_page_description: In Arthurian legend, Gorlois of Tintagel, Duke of Cornwall, is the husband of Igraine prior to Uther Pendragon. He is the father of Morgan le Fay, Morgause, and Elaine.
  Gorlois' name first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, in which Uther falls in love with Igraine and wars with Gorlois to get to her. Uther asks for Merlin's aid in pursuing her, and Merlin concocts some drugs that disguise Uther in the form of Gorlois. As Gorlois, he approaches his love easily and they sleep together, conceiving Arthur. Unbeknownst to either of them, the real Gorlois has been killed in his castle that very night. Eventually Igraine is convinced to marry Uther.
  Later treatments such as the Vulgate Cycle and Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur expand on this outline by having Gorlois' daughters married off to Uther's vassals; Elaine to King Nentres of Garlot, Morgause to King Lot of Orkney, and Morgan to King Urien. Arthur is spared any knowledge of this when he is whisked away by Merlin to be raised by Sir Ector.
context_section_description: In Arthurian legend, Gorlois (Welsh: Gwrlais) of Tintagel, Duke of Cornwall, is the husband of Igraine prior to Uther Pendragon. He is the father of Morgan le Fay, Morgause, and Elaine.
  Gorlois' name first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136), in which Uther falls in love with Igraine and wars with Gorlois to get to her. Uther asks for Merlin's aid in pursuing her, and Merlin concocts some drugs that disguise Uther in the form of Gorlois. As Gorlois, he approaches his love easily and they sleep together, conceiving Arthur. Unbeknownst to either of them, the real Gorlois has been killed in his castle that very night. Eventually Igraine is convinced to marry Uther.
  Later treatments such as the Vulgate Cycle and Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur expand on this outline by having Gorlois' daughters married off to Uther's vassals; Elaine to King Nentres of Garlot, Morgause to King Lot of Orkney, and (after receiving an education in a convent) Morgan to King Urien. Arthur is spared any knowledge of this when he is whisked away by Merlin to be raised by Sir Ector.
caption: Igraine and Gorlois in Władysław T. Benda's illustration for Uther and Igraine by Warwick Deeping (1903)
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