I Am Mordred

I Am Mordred (2002), a young adult fantasy story by Nancy Springer, centers on King Arthur’s illegitimate son and his quest to fulfill his true destiny. The story received mixed reviews upon publication, and it is recommended that readers know something of Arthurian legends before reading. It was nominated for the 2000 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award. Springer is the author of more than fifty books for young adults and children. She’s also a two-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

Mordred has a troubled origin. Prophesied as the boy who will ultimately kill King Arthur, his father, everyone despises him from the moment he’s born. King Arthur abandons him by the sea when he’s only a baby, in the hope that the tide will wash him away. However, a fisherman’s wife finds him and raises him as her own.

No one tells Mordred the story of who his parents are. The kingdom wants to forget that King Arthur committed incest with his half-sister; everyone is content to think that Mordred died. The fisherman and his wife don’t know the truth about who the boy is, and so they can’t tell him anything about his past.



However, one day, a sorceress arrives at their cottage by the sea. The sorceress, Nyneve, tells the family that she’s taking Mordred away to live with his real mother. The family is devastated to lose Mordred; he feels like their own son, but they know they aren’t strong enough to overpower Nyneve. They also know that there must be something significant about Mordred if a sorceress bothers with him.

Nyneve takes Mordred to live in the town of Lothian. There, he lives with his birth mother, Morgause. He’s still only a young boy, and Morgause doesn’t tell him who his father is yet. However, she has a son, Garret, who knows exactly who Mordred is. Garret is cruel to Mordred, as are the rest of Mordred’s half-brothers. To make matters worse, Morgause doesn’t pay him any attention.

Mordred doesn’t know why Morgause summoned him to stay there when it’s obvious she despises him. He wishes more than anything that he could go back and stay with the fisherman and his wife, but no one lets him. One day, Garret tells Mordred the truth about where he came from, and Mordred is devastated. He knows the whole kingdom thinks he’s a curse on them, and that his father hopes he died at sea years ago.



Mordred doesn’t want to kill King Arthur. All he wants is to be accepted and to prove himself a worthy, lovable son. He decides he needs to get closer to the king. When he’s fifteen and old enough to serve, he goes to Camelot to serve as a Knight of the Round Table. His hopes die immediately when he learns that he can’t tell the king who he is. He must pretend to be someone else.

While staying in Camelot, Mordred realizes that his father is a good man who only wants to protect his kingdom from ill fortune. The king treats him well, and he looks after all his knights. However, when the king discovers who Mordred is, he knows he must kill him before the prophecy can come true.

Mordred doesn’t know what he can say or do to prove to his father that he has no intention of killing him. He knows he’s supposed to, because that’s what the prophecy says, but he doesn’t want to. He just wants to be loved. Both King Arthur and Mordred know they should kill each other, but they can’t bring themselves to do it. This puts them at a standoff.



Mordred becomes preoccupied with avoiding his destiny. He decides that there must be a way to escape fate, and he sets out to find someone who can help him change the future. He believes that no one is born evil—at least, he hopes this is true. However, any sorcerers he encounters all tell him the same thing—you cannot change destiny, no matter how awful it is.

Mordred decides his only option is to stay away from his father entirely. The problem is, avoiding the dilemma only makes matters worse. When he meets Merlin, Merlin shows him a vision of the future that is to come. It is so violent and despairing that Mordred knows there’s nothing he can do to change it. At this point, Mordred accepts the role of murderer, setting out to kill his father. When he kills the king, it brings him no sense of peace—only shame.

I Am Mordred raises questions about making one’s own choices or resigning oneself to a fate outside of one’s control. It doesn’t take much to convince Mordred to kill his father because he thinks so little of himself that he believes he couldn’t possibly have a greater purpose in life.