Sibling Bonding

A particular seen in today's reading that was very jarring and captivating was the infamous scene of Arthur and Morgaine recognizing who each other were after making love. This scene is very powerful because it causes distress to both Arthur and Morgaine for obvious reasons.

Even though the deed was so dastardly, Morgaine is trying to make as much sense out of it as she can, ""Don't cry," she said, helplessly, "don't cry. We are in the hands of her who brought us here. It doesn't matter. We are not brother and sister here, we are man and woman before the Goddess, no more"" (181).

Morgaine is trying to comfort Arthur by saying that their affiliations outside of the ritual do not matter because this is supposedly the Goddess's will. However, this still doesn't make the situation not distressing to the both of them. No matter what a higher power's will may be, one will still have deep regret for having relations with their own sibling which is a normal human trait.

Another key conflict that was brought to attention though was, why did Viviane allow this to happen? Viviane knew the Horned One was Arthur so why would she set this whole ritual up for the both of them to be together? Morgaine even questions this herself at the very end of the chapter when she's comforting her brother, "But even as she soothed him, despair beat at her. Why did you do this to us? Great Mother, Lady, why? And she did not know whether she was calling to Viviane, or to the Goddess" (181).

Morgaine is outraged that Viviane has done this knowing exactly what would happen. There's a lot of emotions and thoughts swarming through Morgaine's head, so much so that she doesn't even know what to believe anymore. The most she can do now is to stay strong for the both of them.