In an article in New Scientist for 29 Dec. 2001, p.54, in an article entitled "Ice Magic" I encountered the term "Fata Morgana" the optical illusions seen in the Arctic region under special conditions. I searched for it, and found a site with many hours of very pleasant browsing, about a very wide range of subjects.
http://www.unmuseum.mus.pa.us/mirage.htm
My encyclopedia says phenomenon got its name from frequent occurrence in Straits of Messina. I am a bit surprised to learn that Arthurian legends must have been popular in Italy.
I thought Fata Morgana was a Palestinian terrorist organisation made up of mothers with soap and facecloth, pursuing their kids through the streets of Israeli towns in the early morning.
Silly me!
Dear CK: You are too modest. You are not merely silly.
In reply to:
I am a bit surprised to learn that Arthurian legends must have been popular in Italy.
The Normans also conquered Sicily and parts of Southern Italy, so the ruling class could have read the French language courtly romances about Arthur.
Bingley
The Normans also conquered Sicily and parts of Southern Italy, so the ruling class could have read the French language courtly romances about Arthur.
While I accept that this is potentially possible, Bingley, I find it hard to believe that the Normans in Italy could read at all, since most of the ones who followed young Willy to England certainly couldn't. They used clerics to do their reading and writing for them. I suppose you could put it all down to the bards, though.
Dear CK: You are too modest. You are not merely silly.
"merely". Hmmm.
CK:
Silly me!wwh:
Dear CK: You are too modest. You are not merely silly.CK:
"merely". Hmmm.CK, clearly dr. bill typoed, and intended to say,
"You are not 'merely' , Silly." 
Dear Keiva: You read me correctly. I haven't been able to find a good link about King Arthur's Harry Pottering sister. Anyway, she could only be his half sister. Uther Pendragon sired Arthur by help of magic. No recollection of reading that he did it a second time. And why didn't she use her powers to help Arthur out? At the very least, she could have helped keeping Guinevere from being naughty with Lancelot.
(He "lanced" a lot.)
A little research on Morgana, leave off the Fata for now, will open up whole new realms of possibilities. The Arthur legend is based on older Celtic myth and the Celts were all over the place in Europe. Just happened there was a historic character in Britain about the time the Romans left that fit well enough to the myth that he got grafted on to it.
Dumb question: Did Uther Pendragon's name mean he had three legs?
Dear Faldage: Thanks for the suggestion. I found a site much to long to interest the group, but with one excerpt worth quoting.
Morgana
This name has several possible origins, or understandings of its origin. The literary character "Morgain la Fee" appears in Italian versions of the Arthurian tales as "Fata Morgana". [De Felice] Morgana may also be understood as a modern "feminization" of the masculine given name Morgan (q.v.).
There appears to be no evidence that Morgana was used as a name by real people before 1600.
The "DeFelice" is just a bibliography.
Many a morganatic marriage has been fatal ...
The principal cause of pavor uxoris. Ten bucks on the mantel ain't enough.Leading cause of ligaticide.