ABSTRACT

KATZ, WELWYN WILTON, Canadian author of novels for younger readers, including The Third Magic (1988). This innovative fantasy places the opposition between Morgan Ie Fay and Merlin within a broader conflict between the First Magic of the Circle, wielded by women, and the Second Magic of the Line, wielded by men, originating on the world of Nwm. The Sword in the Stone, Grail, and Bleeding Head (Bran) are symbols of the Third Magic that seeks to transcend the conflict. [RHT]

KAY (Cei, Keu, Kei, Cayous), Arthur's seneschal, a ubiquitous, but never a major, character in Arthurian romance. Authors from Malory to T.H. White and beyond present him as the son of Ector or Hector, who also reared Arthur until the furure king drew the sword from the stone. Kay is neither clown, coward, nor traitor, but a scoffer, scapegoat, troublemaker, and foil who contrasts with the protagonist, such as Gawain, Lancelot, or Yvain. Chretien de Troyes invented situations that were to become typical in later narrative. In the Chevalier au lion, Keu unfairly insults Calogrenant for rising at Queen Guenievre's unexpected arrival, and in the Chevalier de la charrete he beguiles Arthur into granting him the honor of pursuing the Queen's kidnaper, at which task he meets immediate and humiliating defeat. Such events are mimicked by imitators, like Paien de Maisieres's La Mule sans frein and the anonymous L'Atre

pbilleux. Because of his behavior, he is often linked with the gab, an Old French word whose primary meaning was "mockery." Keu himself is a gabeor in the Didot-Perceval, and in the First Continuation of the Perceval he is mocked by Arthur's knights.