Arthurian and Grail Poetry

That Night, at Tintagel
by Michael Burch

That night,
at Tintagel
there was a darkness such as man has never seen.
Darkness and treachery,
and the unholy thundering of the sea.

In his arms,
who is to say how much she new?
And if he whispered her name,
“Igraine . . .”
Could she tell above the howling wind and rain?

Could she tell, or did she care,
by the length of his hair
or the heat of his flesh,
that that night her companion
was Uther, the dragon . . .

and Gorlois lay dead?

Notes: The legend of what happened on a stormy night at Tintagel is still breathtakingly haunting. Supposedly, Merlin transformed Uther Pendragon to look like Gorlois so that he could sleep with Igraine, the lovely wife of the unlucky duke. While Uther was enjoying Igraine’s lovemaking, Gorlois was getting himself killed. The question is: did Igraine suspect that her lover was not her husband? Regardless, Arthur was the child conceived out of this supernatural (?) encounter.

©Copyright by Michael Burch With Permission Kindly Provided for the Celtic Twilight