Title: The Mists of Avalon
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley
Year of Publication: 1982
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 912 pages in the soft-cover edition
Rating: 4.5/5 – Worth paying full price
Review:
There are few classic tales that can be told over and over again without boring the reader. One trick that many authors use – and I seem to gravitate towards these – is to tell the story from a different angle or point of view. With that in mind, Bradley presents us with a stunning version of the tale of King Arthur and Avalon, from the point of view of someone who is often considered the villain, or at least, the protagonist; the misunderstood, the unloved, the mystical, Morgaine, aka Morgan la Fay.
True to the stories, she is the sister of King Arthur, though they are separated while still quite young. The book takes us from when Morgaine was merely a toddler – dark-haired, big-eyed, someone who is unsettling, fairy-like and far too mature for a young girl. She is much like her older relative, Viviane, who is a High Priestess of Avalon. Eventually, she is taken under Avalon’s wing and trained there to be a priestess herself. For many years she is separated from Arthur and the rest of Britain, and becomes a woman of great power.
As the story goes, she does sleep with Arthur during a Beltane festival – in this version, neither knew who the other was. In other versions, Morgaine is maliciously and purposefully committing incest – and keeps the child that results from this a secret. The child is raised by Morgaine’s sister, Morgause, as Morgaine doesn’t have much knowledge or interest in raising children. The child, Mordred, suffers from this.
The book is very long, taking us through a good deal of the life of Morgaine, from when she was a toddler, to living in the mists of her home of Avalon, to living at the castle with Arthur, Gwenhwyfar (only Arthur, who is said to have an accent, pronounces it the more common Gwinevere) and Lancelot, and also at her mother’s fortress. She is portrayed as a woman who is fighting against her destiny and is trying to change it, to make it better, but to no avail.
Other powerful female figures are given a voice in the book as well, such as Lady Gwenhwyfar, Morgause, Viviane and Morgaine’s mother, Igraine. Each is connected to Arthur in some way, and mostly want to use him to further their own agendas, or the perceived agenda of the Goddess, in Viviane’s case.
There is also the addition of a love-square between Arthur, Gwenhwyfar, Morgaine and Lancelot, which is at the best of times merely confusing. Although Morgaine is one of Gwenhwyfar’s Ladies of the Court for quite some time, the two never really get along, since they have the underlying tensions of the two men who connect them.
Overall, a stunning tale and must-read for anyone who enjoys Pagan literature, and stories about King Arthur. While it may be a long read, it’s well worth it, even if you can only get a dozen or so pages in a night. The writing is beautiful and the characters come to life on the page. As a word of caution, not all of Bradley’s books are as well done. She also wrote Lady of Avalon, which doesn’t have quite the power that Mists of Avalon possesses, and a few other Avalon books that I have not read.
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