The next day, the king and his two followers rode out from Tintagel to a forest where, in a grove, there was a well.  Here, Merlin washed his face and advised the king and Ulfin to do the same.  In this way all three recovered their normal appearance.

When the duke of Cornwall’s death was reported at court, the king summoned his barons to consult about the best course of action.  The duke and duchess had one daughter who would inherit the duchy of Cornwall.  The duke of Orcania, Lot by name, begged his king’s permission to ask her hand in marriage.  Uter Pendragon assented to this request, promising to make him duke of Cornwall.

Meanwhile, Lady Igerna had come to see the king in private.  She had to confess to him that a man who looked like her husband had come to her private chamber and had made love to her.  The next day she had been told that her husband was already dead at that moment.  “And now I am expecting! What will people say?”  The king knew an answer to her problem: “Marry me and your child will become king after me; you will be the wife and mother of kings.”

Igerna consented, but she had another problem: “When my child is born, it will be less than eight months after our wedding day. What will people say?”  The king had an answer to that, too:  “We will hand over your son to my most trusted friend, Merlin, who will look after him better than anyone else, and no one will know about it.”  Igerna agreed to this.  In those days, even a loving mother had to give up her child for the sake of her good reputation, especially if she was a queen, even if she knew that the king himself was the father of her child.

When the child was born, it was a sturdy son, no seven-months’ baby.  The midwife, who had been sworn to silence, wrapped the baby in swaddling bands and carried him to a back door of the palace, where Merlin was waiting to receive him.  Merlin took the child to Sir Ector (or Antor) whose wife nursed the young Arthur together with her own son Key or Keu, who thus became the future king’s foster brother.  Ector had the child baptized as Arthur.

Uter Pendragon lived happily with his lovely queen, Igerna, for sixteen peaceful and prosperous years.  Alas, nothing is eternal.  When it was revealed that the king was afflicted with a fatal illness, his enemies conspired to seize and divide the kingdom.