Mordrains
Mordrains is a king of the British tradition, attested in Le Morte d'Arthur with 11 citations across the Grail quest narrative in Book XVII.
Mordrains is a king of the British tradition, attested in Le Morte d'Arthur with 11 citations across the Grail quest narrative in Book XVII. He belongs to the ancient sacred history of the Sangreal, predating the Arthurian court by centuries, and his story connects the early Christian era of the Grail to the quest of Galahad.
The record places Mordrains in the deep past of the Grail tradition. He is introduced through the story of his brother-in-law Nacien, who "forty year after the passion of Jesu Christ" was carried by divine command to "an isle, into the parts of the West, that men cleped the Isle of Turnance" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVII, Ch. IV). Nacien's ship eventually brings him to "another ship where King Mordrains was, which had been tempted full evil with a fiend in the Port of Perilous Rock" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVII, Ch. IV). This detail establishes Mordrains as a figure who endured spiritual trial -- temptation by a fiend -- in the service of the Grail's guardianship.
When Mordrains sees the sacred sword, he "praised it much" but issued a warning: "the breaking was not to do but by wickedness of thy selfward, for thou art in some sin" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVII, Ch. IV). This judgment connects him to the moral economy of the Grail, where worthiness determines access to holy objects.
Mordrains reappears at the culmination of the Grail quest. Galahad "came to the abbey where King Mordrains was" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVII, Ch. XVIII), and upon Galahad's arrival "the king saw him, which had lain blind of long time" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVII, Ch. XVIII). The blind king's sight is restored by the presence of the perfect knight, closing a narrative arc that spans from the earliest days of the Grail's history to its fulfilment.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition