Igraine

Igraine, also spelled Ygraine, Igrayne, or Igerna, is a figure in Arthurian legend best known as the mother of King Arthur and the wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. In most medieval traditions, her relationship to Arthur is central to the dynastic legitimacy of his birth.

Across sources, Igraine’s parentage and exact status vary. In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, the wizard Merlin orchestrates a deception in which Uther Pendragon, aided by magic, conceives Arthur with Igraine while Gorlois is away. Gorlois dies in battle shortly afterward, and Uther marries Igraine, making Arthur the recognized heir to the throne. In the wake of these events, Arthur is raised in secrecy and later revealed as Uther’s son and rightful king.

Igraine’s role in the Arthurian narrative is primarily that of a noble matriarch and a symbol of dynastic continuity. Her portrayal ranges from a passive figure in some retellings to a more developed presence in later romances, but she is rarely the central agent of action in the core stories. The particulars of her life, even her precise lineage, differ among the various redactions of the Arthurian cycle.

In modern literature and film, Igraine appears in numerous retellings and adaptations of the Arthurian myth, serving to illuminate themes of motherhood, political alliance, and the fragile moral ambiguities surrounding power and legitimacy. The character’s name and interpretation reflect the evolving ways writers link Arthur’s myth to his royal origins.