May Babies
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The May Babies refers to an incident in Arthurian legend in which King Arthur, at the urging of Merlin, kills several hundred children born in May. The deaths are a (futile) attempt to avert foretold disaster by killing his bastard son, Mordred.
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[edit] Origins of the legend
The story is mentioned in Malory and bears resemblances to the massacre of the Innocents from the New Testament.
[edit] Later uses of the legend
The incident is used in Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry. As penance for and expiation of his crime, Arthur is reborn again and again, along with Lancelot and Guinevere, to relive their painful love triangle, to fight evil, and to die in the final battle ("I never see how it comes out," The Darkest Road).
[edit] References
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