Haunted by Morgana

For today’s post I would like to share another work of short fiction. This is a story inspired by Arthurian legend and classic legend. I have entitled my short story Haunted by Morgana, and it is a story that integrates the work of Edgar Allan Poe with Arthurian legend. I know that this is shorter than my other fiction, but for this story I feel it works. I hope you enjoy it, and please let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Haunted by Morgana

by Maranda Wabik

One night after the death of his much beloved wife, Edgar Allan Poe was looking deeply into a mirror asking for guidance and love.   He focused so deeply and intently into this mirror that he began to see strange shapes appearing within the murky glass.   He felt it was likely the laudanum he had consumed earlier that evening that was leading to these strange visions.

What the writer could never had expected was that he was summoning the dark faery enchantress Morgana Le Fay with his desperate pleas.    Morgana heard his pain and felt his pull from beyond the grave.   She felt that she should come forward to make her claim on his heart.   Morgana knew she could be the muse who inspired his dark beauty, and could consume his soul with her magical beauty!

Morgana stepped through the portal of the magical mirror which she had enchanted.   She introduced herself as the Lady of Avalon to her new lover, Edgar Allan Poe.   He was immediately enthralled by this woman who was a fair as alabaster, and hair as darkly fiery as auburn.   He declared his undying love for the beautiful enchantress, and she smirked and said she wanted to hear his new poetry.

He read aloud his newly written poem “Annabelle Lee” and Morgana was only happy to tell him that she loved this new poem.   He began working on a new short story that would be about a young woman who died young.   He would write several stories about beautiful young women that died young, and were subjected to horrors.

This became a favorite subject for Poe, who believed that the greatest tragedy in the world was the death of a young woman.   He found much beauty and poetry in the death of a very young woman, and in everything that is eerie and creepy.    Morgana loved the stories that she was inspiring.   She felt that these stories would become the basis of all the horror literature.   

One night after making love with Poe, Morgana went on to read his newest tale by the light of a candle.    The Lady of Avalon was very impressed by the tale, and decided to try her had at magic.   She did not know if she could still fully wield her magic as a spirit, but she had to try.    Gazing deeply into the mirror she had stepped from the world of the dead to this one she began to chant.   She called upon the Goddess and asked to see the future for Poe and his great gift.    

Slowly but surely the mirror misted over, and she began to see it clearing.   She saw Poe publishing the rest of his work, and saw him writing his critiques.   Then she saw him dying on a trip, and how his death would forever remain a mystery of literature.   Next she saw many years, over a century into the future.   She saw that Edgar Allan Poe would become the icon and legend she knew he could be.   His literary achievements and his strange life story only helped to gain him the privilege of being a household name many years after his demise.

It was then that Morgana knew she had to leave, as she had inspired, and loved Poe with all her being.   But she also knew that he was not long for this world, and she had been dead many centuries.   In the end Morgana was the enchantress of Camelot and lady of Avalon, who had been shirking her afterlife duties.   She had left the Faery realm of the dead, where she should be looking after the other dead denizens of Camelot and Avalon to be here.   She must return to her own world of the dead, and be content with the knowledge that she had inspired a man to create stories and poetry that would resonate throughout time!   She was a ghost who had impacted literary history, making her a pretty powerful spirit.

After Morgana had returned to her land of the dead, everything that she had foreseen had come to pass.   Now as I write this over a century later, we still remember Poe and his literary achievements!   Maybe we should thank Morgana for her helping him to realize his potential!

~Finis~