Jo-Anne Blanco
Morgan le Fay On Screen: Pat Barton
In the same year as the release of the musical version of A Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949), a film serial called The Adventures of...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Aug 11
- 4 min
Remembering the ‘Witches’
‘Morgan the Witch.’ It is perhaps what Morgan le Fay is most famous for being, cementing her role as Arthur’s nemesis. The term ‘witch’,...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Aug 4
- 3 min
Morgan Le Fay: Feminist Ruler
This blog has covered in depth the ways in which Morgan le Fay has been portrayed throughout the ages, and how the depictions of her...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Jul 27
- 1 min
The Four Arthurian Warrior Women
What distinguish the four warrior women of Arthurian times described here are their extraordinary virtues of nobility, bravery,...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Jul 20
- 2 min
Britomart - Arthurian Female Warrior
Perhaps the most famous warrior woman with ties to Arthur in English literature is Britomart, a female knight in Spenser’s The Faerie...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Jul 13
- 2 min
Melora
Orlando has a direct connection with King Arthur in the 16th century Irish romance The Adventures of Melora and Orlando, in which Melora,...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Jul 6
- 1 min
Bradamante - Warrior of Arthurian Times
One of the most wonderful aspects of the Arthurian legends is how extensive and vastly influential they are. Their influence can be found...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Jun 29
- 3 min
The Grail Heroine
One female quester who deserves more fame is the woman known as the Grail Heroine. While most people are familiar with the knights of the...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Jun 22
- 1 min
Warrior Women of Arthurian Legend
Despite warrior women being a mythic motif of ancient Celtic culture, there are very few female warriors in Arthurian legend. There are...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Jun 15
- 2 min
Reassessment of Morgan le Fay
From the late Middle Ages onwards, Morgan le Fay has not been portrayed as the independent ruler completely apart from Arthur and his...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Jun 9
- 1 min
The King o’ the Cats
The British folktale ‘The King o' Cats’ contains a prototype of a Cat-Sìth. In the story, a sexton’s wife and her black cat, Old Tom, are...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Jun 1
- 2 min
The Black Cat - Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” uses a Celtic Cat-Sìth both as a symbol of guilt and as a nemesis to punish the guilty. The...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- May 25
- 1 min
Seanchán the Bard and Irusan, the King of Cats
One of the more famous Irish tales involving cats is the story of Seanchán Toirpéist, Ireland’s chief bard, and Irusan, the King of Cats....
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- May 18
- 2 min
The Island of the Cat
In The Voyage of Máel Dúin, a tale of an epic sea voyage written in Old Irish ca. 1000 A.D., the hero and his crew alight on an island...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- May 11
- 2 min
King Arthur and the Cat
Evidence that cats were a source of fear as well as reverence to the Celts can be found in the Welsh legend of Cath Palug, a monstrous...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- May 5
- 2 min
Morgan le Fay and the Cat
Cath Palug or Kapalu, the giant cat that began its legendary life in early Welsh texts, became, eventually, a friend and ally of Morgan...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Apr 21
- 2 min
The Fairy Cat - Cats in Celtic Mythology
The most infamous black cat of Celtic legend was the Cait-Sidhe (‘The Fairy Cat’ – ‘sidhe’, pronounced ‘Shee’, meaning ‘fairy’),...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Apr 6
- 1 min
Cats and Witchcraft
Cats were (and still are) seen as the most common familiar to witches, which older women practicing medicinal and healing crafts were...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Mar 30
- 2 min
Cats in Celtic and Arthurian Legend
How much do we adore our feline friends? I couldn’t be without our two beloved rescue cats who have been with us now for almost two and a...
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Jo-Anne Blanco
- Jan 12
- 2 min
Defaming Morgan
Why was it deemed necessary – and why is it still deemed necessary – to demote, defame and demonise the all-powerful, magic-wielding...
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