Mordred's Lullaby

This song is told by Morgana, half sister to King Arthur. Her hatred for Arthur derives from the previous generation, where Arthur's father killed Morgana's father, robbing her of her parent. Arthur, later, while married to Guinevere, was attracted to the wife of King Lot sexually, and deceived her into believing that he was her husband, later to find out that she was actually Morgana. She became pregnant with Mordred, and resented him for a long time, because of the fact that he's a result of incest between half-siblings. Mordred was an antagonist, who hated his father for his sin of adultery and incest, and wanted to seize the thrown. "Hush, child, darkness will rise from the deep, and carry it down into sleep, child." This for me, for some reason is the hardest line to interpret. I think it's metaphorically speaking that, the darkness, being his hatred for his father and those sins (and because he actually acted on that hatred, rebelling against his father), would lead to the downfall of Arthur, making everything right in her mind.

"Guileless son, I’ll shape your belief, and you’ll always know that your father’s a thief And you won't understand the cause of your grief, but you’ll always follow the voices beneath. " So, this is also a bit difficult to say exactly what it means. Obviously, the beginning means that she's going to make Mordred believe that his father is purely evil in every sense of the word. She wants Mordred to hate Arthur, because she wants Mordred to punish Arthur. The second part means that, although Mordred will never truly understand why he's supposed to hate his father, he'll always listen to what his mother says, because that's all he's ever known, and because his mother resented him, which made him always crave love from her more than anyone. 'The voices beneath' is Morgana brainwashing Mordred.

"Guileless son, your spirit will hate her. The flower who married my brother the traitor." This refers obviously to Guinevere, because of her affair and untrustworthy relationship with Arthur. She was in another relationship with Lancelot while married to Arthur, which makes her an easy pawn for Mordred. Destroying the marriage between Arthur and Guinevere would make it easier for Mordred to steal the thrown, because Morgana has brainwashed Mordred into believing that Arthur doesn't deserve it. Guinevere is the only obstacle keeping Mordred away from royalty. (Guinevere is childless, meaning the only heir is Mordred, the son of Arthur.)

"And you will expose his puppeteer behavior, for you are the proof of how he betrayed her loyalty." This obviously means that she's looking forward to when Arthur's affair with Morgana will be exposed to everyone, showing everyone what a sinner he is. Arthur basically raped Morgana, which was incest and adultery (on Guinevere), and nobody would respect him as King if they found out, which is exactly what Morgana wants.

"My only son, each day you grow older, each moment I’m watching my vengeance unfold. The child of my body, the flesh of my soul, will die in returning the birthright he stole." Depending on the version of the story, this could mean a lot. It really just refers to the fact that Mordred is living proof of what a terrible man Arthur is. Mordred will be the one that shows everyone how sinful the well-worshipped king is. In some versions, Morgana believes she should be at the thrown because Arthur's father killed hers. However, this doesn't make much sense because she's not technically royal. Her father was the duke, not the king. She's kind of just a bit crazy, and I'm not exactly sure why she believes she should be at the thrown. She just does.