User blog comment:Merlinmania/Arthur's Bane/@comment-5350801-20120810200754

Bane is more than just death. According to dictionary.com bane can also be 1. "a person or thing that ruins or spoils," 2. "a deadly poison (often used in combination, as in the names of poisonous plants): wolfsbane; henbane," 3. "death; destruction; ruin," 4. "Obsolete . that which causes death or destroys life: entrapped and drowned beneath the watery bane."

If you look at the 4th definition and the statement "stalks him like a ghost," Mordred is the the most likely idea. Mordred causes Arthur's death.

The other possibility could be Uther. We know he makes an appearance but are not sure how, from my understanding. It could be flashback, it could be ghost. It is possible Uther could stalk Arthur for some of the changes he has made. If the guy speaking the words about Arthur's bane and "stalks him like a ghost" is in fact an oracle, oracle's have been known to speak in riddles even prophecy.

Any one familiar with riddles and prophecy in fantasy knows they are very seldom ever literal. But if by chance they were literal, the way the prophecy takes form can be very subjective. Look at Merlin's vision in the episode The Crystal Cave. If written down that could have been prophecy and yet it was the events that Merlin was trying to change that led to the vision coming true. Had he left well enough alone, Morgana wouldn't have been hurt, and here parentage wouldn't have been known and she wouldn't have been hell bent on the throne. . . to the extent that she was.