Mordred Mordred Mordred or Modred (; ) is a character in the Arthurian legend. Based on a possibly historical figure, Mordred is most commonly known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur was fatally wounded. In the popular version, he is the bastard son of Arthur and Arthur's half-sister, Morgause. The name "Mordred" (found as Modredus in Geoffrey of Monmouth's "Historia Regum Britanniae") comes from Old Welsh "Medraut" (comparable to Old Cornish "Modred" and Old Breton "Modrot") and is ultimately derived from Latin "Moderātus" meaning "within bounds, observing moderation,
Battle of Camlann negotiations between Arthur and Mordred. Many die and Arthur kills Mordred in a final duel, but is himself mortally wounded. Arthur tasks his knight Griflet (or Bedivere) with returning his sword Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake, and the king is taken to Avalon. The "Mort Artu" account of Arthur's last battle was adapted into many subsequent works, including the Old French Post-Vulgate Cycle, the Middle English Stanzaic "Morte Arthur", and Thomas Malory's influential Middle English work "Le Mort d'Arthur". These works all locate the battle at Salisbury. In a popular motif, introduced by Geoffrey in "Historia" and elaborated