In the book Le Morte D’Arthur, written by Sir Thomas Malory, women are possessed with magical powers. Whenever they are depicted women are usually using magic for nefarious purposes against men. They often initially act pleasant and gain the men’s trust. Their powers enhance their ability to trick men. Their magic allowed them to pull Arthur’s sword out of the stone, but also deceive him with a fake replica. The men often do not find out about the women’s true intentions until after the act. The women’s true plot is often only made clear after one dramatic and revealing event. The typical encounter with a woman with special powers works in a few distinct stages. First they attract you in, then they gain your trust, which puts them in a position to exploit the men’s weaknesses. All their uses of power are usually for a bigger plot of overthrowing the current power dynamic.
Women’s use of magic starts with a lure. They start by first attracting the men to them. The women are shown as expert seducers. They know what strings to pull to push the situation to their advantage. Similarly aligned to the modern concept of the woman in the red dress at a bar. She might not have a magic wand, but she is able to seduce you because she knows the right strings to pull to get you to do what she wants. In the literature, they usually surround themselves with other objects of desire to help. Women’s relationship with men, in Le Morte D’Arthur, seems to be analogous to the relationship between fly tarps and flys. From afar, they appear to satisfy all desire but once you trust them enough to enter, or land, they have you trapped. These objects of desire attracted King Arthur enough to enter a strange ship, “richly behanged with cloth of silk… there came out twelve fair damosels [who] saluted King Arthur on their knees.. they served them all wines and meats that they could think of… for he fared never better in his life as for one supper,” Morte p 125. These trickster women seem to expertly satisfy men, so much that they let their guard down. Once the man is seduced, he’s in her trap and done for.
Women in power play games of trickery. Just like a street peddler attracting people to what appears like a fair game, it’s really just rigged in the woman’s favor. Women as tricksters is made clear especially by the language used to describe them as they act. The Lady of the Lake, for example, trapped Merlin, “by her subtle workings,” Morte pg 121. It is important to understand that men dominated the power dynamic in medieval times. Le Morte D’Arthur was written by Sir Thomas Malory, a man who in some respect wrote speculative sci-fi fiction that played with the idea of women in power. Malory’s fantasy of women in power was one where when women are given power, they misuse it. Since there were not many examples of women in power at the time, by his depictions of females as untrustworthy and conniving, Malory reinforces the narrative around why women are not in power. The moral thread readers learn from Malory’s book is that women and power are a dangerous combination.
The women use the man’s trust in them to their advantage. Accolon of Gaul learned this the hard way. After he trusted women enough to board a ship and eat dinner, he awoke dramatically transported to the edge of a cliff and cried,”these damosels in this ship have betrayed us, they were devils and no women and if I may escape this misadventure, I shall destroy all where I may find these false damosels that usen enchantments,” Morte pg 127. In other words, the women betrayed the trust that the men placed in them. Accolon’s use of the word enchantment is interesting as it’s two different definitions best summarize the strategy that Malory depicts medieval women of having. The first is to put the men under great pleasure and delight. This brings them in to the awaiting trap. Once they are there, the second is to put the men in a state of being under a spell of magic. This is typically when the trick is pulled. In an age of Kings, loyalty is critical to maintaining the hierarchy of kingdoms. Accolon says the women betrayed him. Betrayal or being untrustworthy is probably the greatest stain that could be given to an individual. In Le Morte D’Arthur women in power are almost always corrupt and betray men. When Accolon said, “these were devils and not women,” Morte pg 127 he is subtly associating women possessed by the desire for power to have a devilish drive. Most medieval women were excluded from the power structure. Popular literature representing women in power in such a negative way almost certainly swayed public opinion on the issue.
The men only find out about the women’s magical conniving when it’s too late. The women are so good at deception that men such as Arthur find out after he is almost killed. On the surface level, their intentions sometimes even appear to be genuine. In reality it was all just a ploy as Arthur is told, “Morgan Le Fay sendeth here your sword… but she was false and the scabbard was counterfeit and brittle and false,” Morte pg 130. The spell these women have upon men is so strong that the men only become aware of the magic when it is dramatically revealed. For example, Accolon only found out about the women’s use of magic when he awoke at the edge of a cliff. Similarly Arthur was told only after a battle where he was severely disfigured.
Women often use their special abilities to try to get power. They are usually disappointed or resentful by their current position on the power structure. This plays into the overall narrative that women who have aspirations only do because they want to take power from the men that hold the status quo. Morgan Le Fay’s desire to change the power dynamic led her to almost killing King Arthur. Le Fay is resentful and, “most hateth, because he is most prowess of any of her blood…. she might bring about to slay Arthur by her crafts, she would slay her husband… [making her] my queen,” Morte pg 134. Le Fay does not even need to kill Arthur herself. Her magic gives her the ability to manipulate people through simple deception.
Medieval stories seem to focus on deception. Whoever has the best deception tactics gets power. Modern writings occasionally show how women can use their sex appeal to their advantage with men. Medieval writing, especially in Le Morte D’Arthur, take this to the extreme to where they have so much power over men through seduction and magic that they can get them to fight and kill each other. Along with their power of attraction, they are depicted as being on a power quest. A fantasy from actual medieval times where women lacked power. That power, however, is almost always used for evil. Men reading, and men in the story, are told that these women on power quests are almost always up to no good. They inexplicably say that they are not to be trusted and in one case equate them to being possessed by the devil. The women, on the other hand, are shown to use a formula to get what they want. They first start by luring the men in with their sex appeal and by surrounding themselves with objects of desire. Women at this point often gain men’s trust. With this they now have the ability to misuse it to get what they want. They then play a masterful game of trickery, for example by pitting man against man. But the women are shown to be so good at deception that the men are too late to fight against it. At this point the woman has won and often achieved her nefarious desire for power.