That night is also the first time she catches a glimpse of Merlin… 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.

Stoic and dependable, it gradually becomes obvious she’s more than what she seems. We’re introduced to the woman who looks after the girls, whom they call Nurse. ‘ 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.’ 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…’īut there is one thing that sets the girls apart… Little Morgan’s father was the Duke of Cornwall and they, along with her mother, and sister, Morgause, lived in Tintagel Castle.Īlthough Morgause is a year older, ‘ we might as well have been twins. When they killed my father, I was only little Morgan.’ That is what my name means: Morgan the fate, Morgan the magical, fey Morgan of the otherworld, Morgan who must be feared. I hover on the wind, and fate falls out of each slow beat of my wings. I am Morgan le Fay, and I will never die. They killed him when I was six years old. He was the only one ever to love me truly. 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. She is about to become Morgan le Fay.’Īlthough ‘ 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.Īs with that book, this one also begins with a prologue, told from the point of view of Igraine, Morgan’s mother. She is about to change the course of history, to become other, to determine her own fate – and, thus, the fate of Britain. 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.īut this Morgan, this girl of magic, is powerful. 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. A high-born girl, a twin, a girl of magic.

Once there was a girl named Morgan, a willful, mischievous girl with mismatched eyes of emerald and violet. This is the second Nancy Springer book I’ve read.

I Am Morgan le Fay by Nancy Springer