Mists of Avalon

I just finished reading Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.  I am going to re-cap what I've read on the blog, because I think it will be nice for me to have kind of a reference of what I've read and what I've thought about it.  I will also keep track of this on GoodReads.  Mists of Avalon is the story of King Arthur presented through the perspective of the women involved.  I have minimal knowledge of the actual Arthurian legends, so I don't know how the actual events in this book stack up against the actual legend.  However, I loved this book.  It was really great.  To me, this is really the story of a dying religion.  Faith is what drives all of the characters to make their choices.  Morgaine, Arthur's sister and a priestess reared in Avalon, is the main character.  You can't help but like her and kind of pity her as you watch her completely lose herself and try to control the course of events to do right by her Goddess.  Most of the choices she makes are to desperately try to preserve respect for her Goddess and Druidism as a whole.  Towards the end of the book, you'll understand why she feels the need to make all of those crazy decisions and ruin herself and others in the process - she learned from Viviane.  She ends up being just like the mother figure she rebelled against for so long.  So, why is Viviane the way she is in the first place?   I guess that is addressed in another book in this series that I can't wait to read!  On the other end of the spectrum, Gwenhwyfar, Arthur's wife, is a die-hard Christian.  She uses her influence over Arthur to turn his entire kingdom completely Christian and causes him to betray his oath to Avalon.  The conflicting beliefs of Gwenhwyfar and Morgaine, and their influence over the other characters fuel the plot.  It is pretty insane.  At the end, you learn that the real victim of the story is Druidism and you feel for it.  All because of what people choose to believe in - those who create religion also destroy it.

Comments

[santina]

I never finished reading this book because somebody was too cool to let me read it in his presence :P but from what I remember your critique is spot on. I remember I wanted to read it in the first place because my mom and I watched the mini-series on TV with the woman from ER as Morgaine and it was AWESOME. You would be totally into it. netlix dude.

[ragan]

I checked this out at the library and I am about 100 pages into the story. :o) So far, so good! Thank you for recommending it to me.