In the _Vita Merlini_,[21] a Latin poem attributed by some scholars to
Geoffrey of Monmouth, a curious version of Arthur's stay in Avalon is
given. The wounded king is taken after the battle of Camlan to the
Isle of Apples (for such was understood to be the meaning of the
name _Avalon_), which is the domain of a supernatural maiden, wise and
beautiful, Morgen by name, who understands the healing art, and who
promises the king that he shall be made whole again if he abides long
with her. This is the first mention in literature of Morgan la Fee,
the most powerful fay of French romance, and regularly the traditional
healer of Arthur's wounds in Avalon.
The Argante of Layamon's version is doubtless the same being as
Morgana, for whose name, which in any of its current spellings had
the appearance of a masculine proper name, Layamon either may have
substituted a more familiar Welsh name, Argante, as I have already
shown he might easily have done (_Studies in the Fairy Mythology of
Arthurian Romance_, Boston, 1903, pp. 26-28), or, as Professor J.L.
Bruce, with equal plausibility, has recently suggested, he may have
used a corruption of one form of the fay's name, Morgant (_Modern
Language Notes_, March, 1911, pp.
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