The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Historical Fiction. Historical Fantasy. Retelling. Feminist. Pagan. Christian.  

I first tried to read this book the summer after 10th grade with some friends from my English class, on  recommendation from my our teacher. But the book was long, and our summers were busy, and our little book club fell apart after about a quarter of the book. I never lost interest, but knowing how much of a commitment reading it would be, I kept putting it off. Evidently I picked an even less opportune time to start it--right on top of college app and research paper season--which is why it took me so long to finish. I hope, though, that when one of the other people from my group also finishes the book over Winter Break, we can talk about it and our Summer of 2021 goals can finally be actualized.

Rating: 4/5

Pages: 876

Started: 15 November 2022

Finished: 1 December 2022

Summary:

    The Mists of Avalon tells the story of Camelot's rise. It begins with Igraine, a daughter of the holy isle of Avalon, who is forced into a loveless marriage with an old man in Great Britain. When she is told by her sister Vivianne, the Lady of the Lake and High Priestess of Avalon, that her destiny is to marry Uther, one of the men fighting to inherit the throne after it's elderly king's death, Igraine realizes must submit to her fate or let Great Britain be destroyed. 

    Next comes Morgaine, Igraine's daughter from the loveless marriage. A few years after Igraine's second child, Arthur, is born, Morgaine is taken by Vivianne for training as a Priestess in Avalon. Though she has been selected to take the position of Lady after Vivianne's death, when she is tricked into performing a primal rite with her own brother and becomes pregnant with her brother's child, she flees from Avalon to the castle of her aunt, Morgause, to have and leave her child there. Believing that she can never return to Avalon, Morgaine begins to use her learnings as Priestess to ensure that Arthur keeps the throne as a king who allows all religions to thrive. But in a land where Christianity spreads like wildfire, burning older religions in its path, Morgaine has no idea how much sacrifice will be necessary to ensure the survival of Avalon. 

My Conversation with Andy:

    We finally were able to have our conversation! It may have been two years late (oops) but it was still a lot of fun. Nearly all of our conversation ended back at the idea of gender, but here are a few takeaways: 

• The Maiden, The Mother, The Crone: Usually in stories, the focus is placed on the Maiden, aided or tasked by the crone in some mission, but TMOA placed the emphasis on the Mother. The book began with Igraine, in her cycle of motherhood, emphasizing the importance of the Mother in setting off a story. And though Morgaine was at times each of the three faces of the Goddess, her motherhood was central in both her caring for her own child and in her caring for the lands and kingdoms around her. 
• Paganism and Christianity: Paganism is a feminine religion, one of fate and peace and caring for the world. By contrast, Christianity is masculine, not only in its male God but also its perpetuation through war and power-grabbing, rather than clever machinations. But despite the violence between religions, and the ultimate victory of Christianity over Pagan faith, Zimmer Bradley created the impression of one God with many faces and many names, simply accessed by different religions in different ways. This allowed her to present the transition from one religion to another as a part of a natural cycle. 
• Fate and the Afterlife: In Christianity, sin and the afterlife are direct consequences of choices. By contrast, in Paganism actions are the result of fate, and people have second chances through reincarnation. This idea came through very clearly through the men's versus the women's choices, especially in terms of scope of goals--the men wanted victory, and the women wanted to follow visions and fate. 
• Feminism: Arthurian mythology is generally very male-dominated, and so having female narration is already quite feminist by contrast. But we talked about how, through her wide and varied array of flawed characters, Zimmer Bradley was able to present women as both powerful and fallible people who make mistakes, ultimately allowing her to subvert stereotypes and play with lots of different significances of femininity. 

This really was such a fascinating book, and I am endlessly glad that Andy and I were finally able to sit down and discuss it. 

Thoughts (SPOILERS AHEAD):

    This book was brilliant. I loved how femininity was centered and how, unlike the original story, women had almost complete agency--not in day-to-day life, where they had to answer to husbands and fathers, but in how Vivianne set Arthur on the throne and Morgaine kept him there, in how Gwenwyfar got Arthur to make his land Christian and Morgaine used those Christian values mixed with magic to trick Lancelet into marriage. Women got to be clever, but they also got to make mistakes. Morgaine did a lot of things that were hard to read, because I could see how they might end badly. 

    There were also a lot of complex character dynamics that were gorgeously done, if frustrating to read.     Gwenwyfar, for one, was a maddening contradiction of Christianity and greed. First she wanted nothing got do with ruling, then she used all her power to force Arthur into making Camelot Christian. She forced Arthur to confess to an unloyal priest about sleeping with Morgaine, putting her and her child in jeopardy. But when she couldn't conceive, she went to Morgaine for a pagan charm. And, near the end, she gave up on attempting chastity, began sleeping with Lancelet without guilt, and then after they were caught, escaped with him. In short, she was Christian when it was convenient to her, no matter how much it hurt others, and then the moment it became inconvenient she cast it off like a cloak, to be taken up again when she felt like it.  Her ending was arguably redeeming--she sacrificed her love for her kingdom and for the love between Arthur and Lancelet. But that doesn't negate all of the harm that she did when she felt like piety served her best. 

    Speaking of the love between Arthur and Lancelet, this book was fascinatingly queer. It was insinuated again and again that Lancelet was into men, and one of the most sexual scenes in the book was when Arthur--in the room!--encouraged Gwenwyfar to sleep with Lancelet. There were also hints that Morgaine had sex with Raven, a fellow priestess, as well as a few other women. None of this is surprising, considering Marion Zimmer Bradley's history of writing queer pulp fiction, but I still think it's a cool addition to an already modern spin. 

    Love in general was very interesting too, though. Arthur loved Morgaine more than anyone, though Morgaine thought of him only as a brother. Morgause loved Gwydion, and wanted his attention and nothing else. (I think he was a psychopath, though). Most love was wrong, or unrequited, or felt dirty somehow.

    One of the most interesting themes in this book was religion. The idea of the Goddess, who was all gods, versus the Christian God who was the only god. Paganism was cast in a much better light, but its eventual disappearance from Great Britain also insinuated that either its God was less powerful or that truly it was the same as Christinity. I liked the idea of destiny, but that it was Priestesses' jobs to see that destiny to completion. I also loved the idea of Avalon, and the way it was separate from the world despite it's religions teachings that the Goddess is the whole world. The idea that Morgaine (Morgan le Fay) became both the Goddess and the Faerie Queen is also a really fascinating ending. 

    I think it's also important to think about the author for this specific book. To be clear, I absolutely do not condone Marion Zimmer Bradley's life choices. It's disgusting that she covered up her husband's sexual assault of children, disgusting that she allegedly sexually assaulted her own children. I purchased this book before I knew anything about it or her, and she's deceased now anyways, so at least the purchase isn't going back to her. But I do think that it's interesting--telling, perhaps--how big themes of incest were in this book.

    I'm glad I finally managed to finish The Mists of Avalon. It was a fascinating read, and though I would preface any recommendation with a clear condemnation of the author, I do believe that this is a book worth reading. 

Words:

            note: this is not a complete list of vocabulary, just some I found particularly interesting

    Abstruse (adj) difficult to understand

    Equivocal (adj) open to more than one interpretation

    Temerity (adj) excessive confidence or boldness

    Chilblains  (n) painful ichy swelling of skin, caused by cold 

    Diffidently (adv) in a way that shows lack of confidence in ones own ability, fitness or skil

    Midden (n) refuse heap

    Wattled (adj) made of rods interlaced with other materials 

    Uncintured (adj) unbelted

    Fecundity (n) fertility

    Rapine (n) the violent seizure of someone's property

    Annealed (v) heat (metal or glass) and allow to cool slowly in order to toughen it.