Just posted this to MerlinBBC and thought I'd dump it here too...
There's a discussion on characters diverging from their roles and...well...Sar is Sar and commented on what she knows best. Cut for Morgan le Fay...
The Morgana front is most interesting to me, probably because I wrote my Master's Exam on Morgan le Fay and her changing roles through the mythos. The earliest Morgan comes from Monmuth's Vita Merlini and she is awesome. She's a mysterious but benevolent character who lives on the Island of Apples (I don't recall right now if it is properly named Avalon yet) with her eight sisters and is a healer, shapeshifter, etc. She's also called "Morgan the goddess". Arthur is sent to her while he is dying and Monmuth makes it clear that she can heal him in time so that he can return to life and England some day.
My theory for the changes in Malory's writings is that as the pagan religion was being suppressed in favor of the rise of Christianity, the roles of women were being diminished in the new church. My research indicated that writers such as Malory were having a difficult time with the idea of a woman having that much control over men (while women in the middle ages did have a great deal more power than we associate with them, it would have functioned in a different way than our modern society would expect, and it was usually noblewomen who held this control, though sometimes religious figures such as Marjery Kempe could gain control through those means...)and remnants of the pagan religion. Characters such as Morgan, who exemplified elements of the pagan religion had to go, or be explained in terms that would make sense to this group of people.
Morgan seemed to stay there a while. The Victorian period was especially interesting because they liked to gloss over the incest issue (and seemed more interested in Merlin and the Lady of the Lake anyway) and as you say, it wasn't until Bradley that we really have a Morgan who journeys back to the first sources that were written about her. (Morgaine's journey through Mists seems to exemplify the three facets of the Celtic triple goddess as she plays each role through her life.)
For our Morgana...I would love to see her role as antagonist explored with more detail. As long as we have reasons to understand why she is doing what she does, it would be great to see her develop into a role which could span both aspects of her character as it has emerged throughout the legend. It's interesting how she's always changed shapes and this was mentioned in her earliest inception...I'd love to see the Beeb mess around with THAT aspect but I don't think it will happen literally this go-round. Seeing it figuratively is what I figure is about to happen in the next two episodes.
...And stuff. XD.
The Morgana front is most interesting to me, probably because I wrote my Master's Exam on Morgan le Fay and her changing roles through the mythos. The earliest Morgan comes from Monmuth's Vita Merlini and she is awesome. She's a mysterious but benevolent character who lives on the Island of Apples (I don't recall right now if it is properly named Avalon yet) with her eight sisters and is a healer, shapeshifter, etc. She's also called "Morgan the goddess". Arthur is sent to her while he is dying and Monmuth makes it clear that she can heal him in time so that he can return to life and England some day.
My theory for the changes in Malory's writings is that as the pagan religion was being suppressed in favor of the rise of Christianity, the roles of women were being diminished in the new church. My research indicated that writers such as Malory were having a difficult time with the idea of a woman having that much control over men (while women in the middle ages did have a great deal more power than we associate with them, it would have functioned in a different way than our modern society would expect, and it was usually noblewomen who held this control, though sometimes religious figures such as Marjery Kempe could gain control through those means...)and remnants of the pagan religion. Characters such as Morgan, who exemplified elements of the pagan religion had to go, or be explained in terms that would make sense to this group of people.
Morgan seemed to stay there a while. The Victorian period was especially interesting because they liked to gloss over the incest issue (and seemed more interested in Merlin and the Lady of the Lake anyway) and as you say, it wasn't until Bradley that we really have a Morgan who journeys back to the first sources that were written about her. (Morgaine's journey through Mists seems to exemplify the three facets of the Celtic triple goddess as she plays each role through her life.)
For our Morgana...I would love to see her role as antagonist explored with more detail. As long as we have reasons to understand why she is doing what she does, it would be great to see her develop into a role which could span both aspects of her character as it has emerged throughout the legend. It's interesting how she's always changed shapes and this was mentioned in her earliest inception...I'd love to see the Beeb mess around with THAT aspect but I don't think it will happen literally this go-round. Seeing it figuratively is what I figure is about to happen in the next two episodes.
...And stuff. XD.