Morgana le Fay: New & Ancient Arthurian Tales

by Pamela Koehne-Drube (Introduction)

416 pages, Hardcover

Published April 15, 2025

Reviews

[lorenzodulac]

This was an outstanding short story collection. It deserves much more recognition.
The introduction, for starters. You can tell when an author is passionate about a subject and Pamela Koehne-Drube is just that on Morgana.
Now here are my ratings to every short story:
His Head in Your Lap, Dear Brother by K. Blair: 4.5/5⭐️
Morgana and the Morrigan by Chris A. Bolton: 4/5⭐️
No Need for the Green Knight by Courtney Danielson: 3.5/5⭐️
The Woman with the Bleeding Eye by Evan Davies: 4/5⭐️
To Cut the Rot by Caroline Fleischauer: 4/5⭐️
Gelato by Micah Giddens: 5/5⭐️
The Story that I Want by Lyndsay E. Gilbert: 5/5⭐️
Under Avalon by Liam Hogan: 3.5/5⭐️
An Offense of Memory by Larry Ivkovich: 4/5⭐️
Mirror, Mirage by Alexis Kaegi: 4.5/5⭐️
Destiny Forged by Damien Mckeating: 4.5/5⭐️
To Catch a Name by Nico Martinez Nocito: 5/5⭐️
The Many-Hued Land by John J. O'Hara: 4/5⭐️
Hound, Hart, Crow, Queen by M.R. Robinson: 5/5⭐️
Sea-born by C.J. Subko: 4/5⭐️
She Made a Doll in Winter by Lana Voos: 3.5/5⭐️
Every Son a Reaver by Holly Lyn Walrath: 4.25/5⭐️
Overall rating: 4.75/5⭐️

[Calum MacIver]

A beautifully presented book with an excellent set of modern stories about the enigmatic Arthurian sorceress, Morgana Le Fay. All the stories are very good and deal with different aspects of Morgana. It is difficult to single one particular story out but I think my favourite was possibly the opening tale, "His Head in Your Lap, Dear Brother" by K. Blair. If there was to be a criticism is that when taken together the stories all become a touch one tone - but in the scheme of things that's a minor quibble. The comprehensive introduction to Morgana by Pamela Koehne-Drube, exploring origins and sources, was particularly good - scholarly, fascinating and very readable and really helped to contextualise the tales. Overall, a hugely enjoyable book.

[Alex]

The introductory essays laid the foundation for the short story anthologies that followed it. It gave the necessary background of Morgana le Fay's role in the stories she has been in and gave a good cultural background. I think the following two quotes give the context for Morgana in these stories:

“Magic itself is neither good nor evil; morality is applied simply in the way that it is used.” (Pg 58)
“Morgana’s character has explores themes of power, responsibility and the consequences of wielding magic.”(pg 58)

While I enjoyed most of the stories in this collection, To Cut the Rot by Caroline Fleischauer, Under Avalon by Liam Hogan, An Offense of Memory by Larry Ivkovich, Mirror, Mirage by Alexis Kaegi, The Many-Hued Land by John J. O’Hara, Hound, Hart, Crow, Queen by M.R. Robinson, and Sea-born by C.J. Subko ended up being my favorite short stories in this anthology. Mirror, Mirage is the one that I keep coming back to and thinking about because of the relationship it develops between Morgan and Lancelot and how that relationship is affected by magic being a neutral force but the knight's of Arthur's court view as being evil. I also found Sea-born to be an intriguing story that focused on Morgan being a Mermaid, who was captured and forced to marry King Uriens. I liked the otherworldly aspect of Morgan, and the fact that there was a bit of a Little Mermaid/Selkie situation going on with their story.