Book Review - 'I Am Morgan le Fay' by Nancy Springer

‘I Am Morgan le Fay’ by Nancy Springer

This is the second Nancy Springer book I’ve read.

‘The dark beginnings of Camelot.
Once there was a girl named Morgan, a willful, mischievous girl with mismatched eyes of emerald and violet. A high-born girl, a twin, a girl of magic. She sees her father killed and her mother stolen into servitude and driven out of her mind by the treachery of a king named Uther Pendragon. But the king is not long to live, and now – with an entire country at war and no one to claim the throne – there are many who want this girl dead and out of the way.
But this Morgan, this girl of magic, is powerful. She is about to change the course of history, to become other, to determine her own fate – and, thus, the fate of Britain. She is about to become Morgan le Fay.’

Although ‘I Am Morgan le Fay’ is a companion novel to ‘I Am Mordred’, the first book I read by Springer, the only thing linking the books is the Arthurian legend.

As with that book, this one also begins with a prologue, told from the point of view of Igraine, Morgan’s mother.

The rest of the book is narrated in first person by Morgan herself looking back on her life from age six… of her life before Arthur became king.

‘My father loved me. He was the only one ever to love me truly. They killed him when I was six years old.
I am Morgan le Fay, and I will never die. I hover on the wind, and fate falls out of each slow beat of my wings. That is what my name means: Morgan the fate, Morgan the magical, fey Morgan of the otherworld, Morgan who must be feared. But I was not always Morgan le Fay. When they killed my father, I was only little Morgan.’

Little Morgan’s father was the Duke of Cornwall and they, along with her mother, and sister, Morgause, lived in Tintagel Castle.

Although Morgause is a year older, ‘we might as well have been twins. They dressed us alike, lessoned us alike, scolded us alike when our noses were dirty and exhorted us alike to sit still and keep our legs together… Morgause and I looked much alike, with our mother’s porcelain skin and smooth sable hair…’

But there is one thing that sets the girls apart…
‘Morgause and I had dark eyes, deer eyes like our mother’s, but mine were not quite like: one of my eyes peeped shadowy emerald green, and one violet, like deepest dusky amethyst.’

We’re introduced to the woman who looks after the girls, whom they call Nurse. Stoic and dependable, it gradually becomes obvious she’s more than what she seems.

The story of how Uther came to Igraine that fateful night in the guise of her husband is a familiar one, but, here, we see it through the eyes of a six-year-old child who suspects something is not quite right but doesn’t know what.

That night is also the first time she catches a glimpse of Merlin…
‘He wore a black gown bordered in stars and moons and strange devices that shone with their own weird green glow in the half-light… Although I stood in the shadows, he looked straight at me and smiled – it was as if a skull had grinned at me.’

Not understanding the implications of their father’s death, the girls then have to deal with losing their mother as she is taken away by Uther as his bride.

A year later, we meet another character, twelve-year-old Thomas, who is part of an escort sent to fetch the girls to attend to their mother and new baby brother.

They travel to, interestingly enough, Avalon, where they see fay for the first time who have come to bless the baby, Uther’s son.

Afterwards, in the dead of night, Morgan witnesses Merlin take the baby away.

Not allowed to stay with their mother, the girls are sent back to Tintagel.

When Morgan is twelve, she and Morgause have to flee their home together with their Nurse and Thomas who has come to warn them.

He explains to the girls, “The king is dead. His lords and stewards will want to seize his lands. Your sons, if you have sons, will be the rightful heirs of Cornwall. Anyone who wants to claim Cornwall will try to kill you or imprison you.”

Nurse takes them to her home, and it is there that we learn more of her and of Thomas.

Three years after leaving Tintagel, Morgan, aged fifteen, goes to Avalon, and leaves when she’s eighteen to return to the home she’d shared with Nurse and Morgause.

As with ‘I Am Mordred’, Springer has taken some familiar points from the Arthurian tales to enhance this story.

I find her writing style easy, in that it flows well, and I like her descriptions.

‘This was a secret place… with the sea washing against rocky shores on three sides and no village anywhere near. Halfway up the hillside… the spring flowed from a rocky scarp into a pool where fallow deer and foxes drank, where willow and roan grew. In their green shadow, silver trout swam with barely a ripple.’

Springer’s depiction of Avalon…
‘It was a castle after all. And also a lake. And a great lofty mound. Avalon can be many places… as the slanting rays of the setting sun touched the blunt stone at the apex of the mound and turned it golden, I felt a vibration like earth humming a primrose song and the mound bloomed open. The greensward parted like petals, lifted like leaves, and from within issued the warm light of many white candles in golden sconces, and I glimpsed the pillars and carved gilt groins of the great hall I remembered from years ago.’

However, there was one thing I found jarringly odd – Springer has the girls call their father, ‘Daddy’.

Having enjoyed ‘I Am Mordred’ immensely, I was really looking forward to reading Springer’s take on Morgana le Fay.

I enjoyed the start of it very much, seeing familiar scenes through the eyes of a child.

But by the time they got to Nurse’s home, I wasn’t enjoying it as much.

It is difficult to really immerse myself in a story when the protagonist isn’t a very likeable character. Of course, that is my opinion and others may well like the way Springer has portrayed Morgan.

Her petulant, wilful nature is understandable in a child, especially one who’s had her world turned upside down while still young.

At age fifteen, Morgan describes herself thus:
‘I knew myself not to be pure of heart. I scorned my sister, I harbored secret thoughts of Thomas, and at heart I was no better than a seven-year-old jealous of baby Arthur, that same dragon of resentment still fiery in me. Too many times I had wished evil on others.’

I don’t deny that that’s to be expected from a teenager.

However, when she still has those same traits at eighteen, I have to wonder, where is the character development?

She hasn’t matured nor learned any lessons from what I could tell.

Though she has a valid reason to do so, Morgan leaves Avalon before she’s ready, before she’s learned to embrace all of her, even her shadow.

When told she hasn’t yet chosen between ‘the peaceful ways of the fays and the shadowed ways of sorcery’, she won’t listen, believing herself to be ready.

While in Avalon, it’s never made clear how she refines her use of magic and controls it or how that magic works. Yet, by the time she leaves, she’s able to weave magic easily and, in some cases, quite spectacularly. But her powers remain vague and ill-defined.

The other characters are barely developed, apart from Nurse, who is a truly intriguing character, and I would have liked more about her.

Morgause remains very much in the background and is, according to Morgan, ‘… a sweet, shy violet of a young lady, mannerly, soft-spoken, everything I was not.’

Their mother, Igraine, similarly lacked any character development.

As for the original character, Thomas, his role seemed to be nothing more than providing a supposedly compelling reason for why Morgan turned into the Morgana le Fay of Arthurian lore.

And I feel that diminishes the power and strength of Morgana le Fay by attempting to rationalise her actions as a sorceress when she requires no such excuses.

I was disappointed to find, yet again, another story that disparages the men.

The male characters are basically mannerless louts with no redeeming qualities, except for the ones Morgan likes – her father and Thomas; they’re both brilliant and near-perfect.

One of the themes, if not the main one, that runs through this story is about questioning your fate, same as with ‘I Am Mordred’.

Springer’s take on Mordred’s story definitely made me think and had me constantly wondering ‘if only…’ even after I’d finished the story.

‘I Am Morgan le Fay’, however, left me with the overall feeling of watching a spoilt child constantly have a tantrum because things aren’t going her way.