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The Mists of Avalon By Marion Zimmer Bradley
This book is truly one of epic proportions. Well
over 800 pages in length, intricate and highly detailed, you probably won’t
get through it in one, or even two, sessions. The premise is really very
interesting. Arthurian legends are plentiful, done by everyone from Sir Thomas
Malory to Walt Disney to T.H. White. However, I believe Bradley may be the first
to take these stories and retell them from the viewpoints of the women who also
lived them.
The main "voice" and unifying character
in this novel is Morgaine, frequently known as Morgan of the Fairies or Morgan
Le Fay, and half-sister to Arthur. All of the well-known characters are here —
King Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere, Mordred, Merlin, the Lady of the Lake —
although Bradley uses names and spellings which vary somewhat from the familiar
ones. Here also are the fabled events — the finding of Excalibur in the stone,
the search for the Holy Grail, the Knights of the Roundtable, and many others.
One of the biggest differences in this novel is
that Morgaine is not portrayed as an evil character. Rather, she is a priestess
of the Goddess, at a time when Christianity was just beginning to become a force
in Britain. The priestesses of Avalon worship the Goddess as mother of all
living things and believe that Christianity is a stifling, dead religion,
against the natural order of things. Britain may be at war with the Saxons, but
there is another struggle taking place as well. The old orders and rituals of
Avalon and the Druids are gradually being replaced by the Christian rites.
Bradley seems to imply that since Christianity eventually triumphed over the
religion of the Goddess, the resulting tales and histories necessarily take a
Christian slant, casting those worshipers of the Goddess as villains, witches
and other evildoers. This is her attempt to tell the story from the
"losing" side.
Although Morgaine has the central role, a great
deal of time is given to the other women in Arthur’s life. The story begins
with the plight of Ygraine, not yet Arthur’s mother, young and alone in the
castle of Tintagel, before her fateful meeting with King Uther. Gwenhwyfar,
Arthur’s young bride, also has a voice in this tale, as expected. However,
when viewed through Morgaine’s eyes, Gwenhwyfar is hardly the romantic,
idealistic figure so often portrayed throughout the legends. Overly religious
and neurotic, her influence over Arthur has serious consequences, changing
forever his relationship with the priestesses and people of Avalon. Bradley
gives the romantic triangle of Gwenhwyfar, Arthur, and Lancelet overtones and
nuances seldom considered in other versions. Mysteries and magic, both real and
assumed, are present here.
Overall, I would say this was a good, thought
provoking book, certainly a must-read for anyone seriously interested in
Arthurian legends. My chief complaint was that I felt the book was slow moving
in some sections and could probably have been shorter. To be fair, Bradley
covers a lot of territory in this novel and does her best to provide a detailed,
insightful accounting of events that have taken on mythic proportions. This is
definitely not a novel for the fainthearted or casual reader, but if you are
looking for something with depth and breadth, get ready to dive in!
Reviewed by: Diane
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The Forest House
by Marion Zimmer Bradley 
Although written as the second of what would
ultimately become three novels about the priestesses of Avalon, The Forest
House actually sets the stage for both of the other novels, beginning as it
does in the farthest reaches of British history. Bradley takes the familiar
theme of star-crossed lovers and tells it in her own special style.
In the time of The Forest House the Druids
still hold a great deal of power and Rome is still fighting to prove their
sovereignty over their unwilling British subjects. Gaius Macellius is the son of
a Roman father and a British mother. Raised as a Roman, he still retains some of
the knowledge and language of his mother’s culture, and strongly resembles his
mother’s people. When he is hurt and rescued by native Britons, he is
mistakenly identified as a Briton himself. Before he is able to clarify the
situation, he realizes he is in the hands of highly placed Druids, enemies to
the Romans. One of his caretakers is a young girl, Eilan, daughter of an
important Druid leader and granddaughter to the Arch Druid. Before Eilan met
Gaius, she dared to hope she might become a priestess of the Goddess. But, after
these two young people meet, their hopes for the future change considerably.
Despite the odds, each believes they are meant to be together. And it seems
perhaps they are, but not in the way they hoped.
On its simplest level, this is a story of two
young people, deeply in love but tragically separated by fate and political
differences. As historical fiction, Bradley describes a turbulent period in
Britain’s history as the strength of the Druids declines and the Romans begin
to assert their ultimate dominion over the native tribes. As with most of
Bradley’s work, this novel also has a mystical level, describing the ongoing
relationship of the Goddess and her people. Bradley’s characters are
believable and the plot moves along at a steady pace. She shows how easily fate
and circumstance can conspire to close off the alternate paths a person’s life
might take until only one choice is left. I thought this book was very well
done, probably the best one of the series.
Reviewed by: Diane
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Lady of Avalon by
Marion Zimmer Bradley 
Lady of Avalon
is a forerunner to Bradley’s biggest commercial success, The Mists of
Avalon. Written after the success of Mists, Bradley returns to
Avalon, but at a much earlier time in history. In all honesty, I enjoyed this
novel much more than The Mists of Avalon. This time, Bradley manages to
tell the stories of three different women, beginning in 96 AD and ending in 452
AD, in about half the space!
Each of these women’s stories could be a
stand-alone novella. Their main connection is that they all, at some point,
become the Lady of Avalon, the sisterhood’s highest and most respected
position. Common themes run through each section — devotion to duty, personal
sacrifices, self-doubt, to name just a few. The book begins with the tale of
Caillean, the first Lady of Avalon. Fleeing the destruction of her previous
community by the Romans, she arrives at Avalon with a young boy whose bright
spirit will return again during the times Britain will need him most. To help
ensure that Avalon will continue to be a refuge from the Romans, it is Caillean
who eventually shrouds the island in the mythical mists, removing it from the
mortal world.
More than seven generations later, Bradley returns
to Avalon. Dierna is High Priestess in a land beset by troubles. Although
Britain still pays tribute to the Romans, their protection from overseas raiders
is sadly lacking. After years of seclusion within the mists, Dierna believes it
is time for the Priestesses to return to the world and use their influence for
the protection and preservation of Britain. The third and final portion of this
tale brings the reader to the time immediately prior to the events that will
occur in The Mists of Avalon. Viviane has been raised as the foster
daughter of a simple farmer and his wife, until the day Taliesin comes to return
her to her rightful place as heir to the Lady of Avalon. Amid personal and
religious strife and political upheavals, Viviane must find her own path. This
path will ultimately lead to the Holy Grail and the bestowing of a new title,
the Lady of the Lake. Her actions will set the course for the mythical figures
to come after her — Igraine, Arthur, Morgaine, to name just a few.
I suspect the shorter length of this book
influenced my opinion, by contributing to my enjoyment of these three
interrelated stories. Each era was filled with enough history to be informative
and enough action to be interesting, without a lot of the extra verbiage and
minutiae Bradley introduces in her earlier Avalon novel. My only complaint
regards the way in which Bradley would drop one section and move on to the next.
She introduces a number of interesting supporting characters, but you are never
really sure what becomes of them when Bradley is through with the main character’s
story. Still, this is true of real life as well, so it is probably more a matter
of my curiosity rather than a flaw of Bradley’s. This book is a nice blend of
historical and mystical elements and Bradley’s interpretation of the
Priestesses and their role in Britain’s power struggles is quite interesting.
Reviewed by: Diane
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