In the Queen of Air and Darkness Morgause raises four boys. She is not a good
mother, and she does not give her boys a sense of right and wrong. She often ignores
them for days at a time and beats them when they displease her. She acts as if they were
pets rather than human beings, to be loved or not at her convenience . But despite this
common maltreatment, the boys turn out very differently.
Gawaine is the oldest of the boys and in many ways the most normal. He becomes
a knight in Arthur's court, fighting for him loyally. The way in which he is affected by his
upbringing is his rages. When provoked Gawaine goes into a berserk rage in which he
does things he would normally never do. When Gawaine and Agravaine are arguing over
whether or not to write a letter to their father about the knights, Agravaine refuses to say he
is wrong, so Gawaine goes berserk and attacks him.
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English: Gareth MatthewsHe does not simply beat him, but
chokes him and slams his head against the floor until Gareth pulls him off. If Gareth had
not been there, Gawaine very well might have killed his younger brother. Gawaine even
kills a women when worked up to a rage. These rages are a product of the unhealthy
childhood he endured.
The next child, Agravaine, is probably the least well adjusted of the four. He tends
to be sadistic and self-centered. The children were told the tale of the King of Ireland by
St. Toirdealbhach; the tale where the king gets a head wound and can not be excited, but
then he dies while trying to defend his savior. Agravaine does not see any point in putting
one's self in danger to protect any one else.