The Mists of Avalon, by M. Z. Bradley - Review

Amazon Book Link

Do you have a list of books you always wanted to read, but that for some reason or another you never did? I do, and The Mists of Avalon has been on that list for ages. Maybe it was never the right time to read it, or maybe its over 700 pages seemed a bit scary; thing is, I just decided this year it had to be the one I was finally taking it. Well, I regret now I haven't decided to read it earlier, because I simply loved it! I think I'm not exaggerating when I say that my life is going to be parted between the time before and after I read this book; it opened my eyes on so many aspects, and made me think in a particular way about people's view of religion.

Now that I read this marvellous book, I can suggest everybody to give it a go, because it definitely is a book you must read at least once in your life, and I am sure its going to have a massive impact on you too.

The Mists of Avalon is, in a nutshell, the story of King Arthur, just narrated from the point of view of the female characters. If you always found this mythological character interesting and fascinating, you have one more reason to read this book. I personally always loved the figure of the Morgaine the fairy, and as most of this book is narrated from her point of view, and her story investigated further, I really was curious to read Marion Zimmer Bradley's perspective of King Arthur's myth.

The book explores the story from since before Arthur's birth, and how his parents, Uther Pendragon and Igraine of Avalon, came to meet. Then it narrates Arthur's kingdom, the wars he fought, his victories and defeats, and finally, his death. But again, the story is always seen from the point of view of the women: Igraine, Morgaine, Morgause, Viviane and Gwenhwyfar.

I'm going to summarise now the main female characters stories, and although I won't make massive spoilers (promise), I will spill a tiny bit, so be aware of that before keep on reading.

Igraine: Igraine of Avalon is the first character we meet. She's going to be Arthur's mother, but before that, she was married, very young, to king Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. She is the middle sister of Viviane, High Priestess of Avalon. Viviane and Merlin will convince Igraine to betray Gorlois and marry Uther, so that she can give him a heir, Arthur, who will be great king of Britain, and rule justly on both Avalon and the rest of the country, respecting all religions.

Igraine will oppose her sister's plans at beginning, but later she will genuinely fall in love with Uther, and marry him. She has a daughter with Gorlois, Morgaine, and a son with Uther, Arthur (Gwydion). As a daughter of Avalon, Igraine has a bit of that mystic land power, but not as much as Viviane. As soon as she marries Uther though, she will abandon her first believes and turn to Christianity, religion to which she will be faithful for the rest of her life.

Morgaine: Morgaine is one of the main characters of the story, and one you can't but love. If in the most classic tradition Morgaine is painted as evil, and opposed to the just knights of the Round Table, here we read the story of a woman who really only tries to live her life as best as she can, embracing the power given to her by her Avalon origins, and loving her family and friends.

Her actions are lead by love and seek for justice, but despite her best intentions some of them only cause harm and unhappiness, for which she suffers and tries to amend.

As a child, she is very in love with her mum Igraine, but after she marries Uther and gives birth to Arthur, Igraine's love is all focused on Uther, and Morgaine feels lonely. Her aunt Viviane will recognise her mystic powers, and will decide to make Morgaine her rightful heir, bringing her to Avalon to become the next High Priestess.

At beginning Morgaine behaves like the next High Priestess should, embracing her destiny; after her meeting with her cousin Lancelet though, she falls in love with him, and her believes start to shake. On the day of her half brother Arthur's coronation then, something terrible happens, and Morgaine, disgusted by her aunt Viviane plotting, decides to leave Avalon for ever. She seeks refuge to Arthur's court for a while, and starts a timid friendship with Gewnhwyfar, although the two women are too much different, and they will in fact always be jealous of one another, despite truly feeling affection for each other.

Morgaine will never find herself very comfortable there also because of the new religious print Arthur is giving to his court. Being his wife Gwenhwyfar very religious, and almost a fanatical Christian, the king is pushed to make his kingdom a truly Christian one, and forbid everything linked to paganism (here intended as the old Avalon religion). Point is, Arthur was made king by Viviane and her plotting; she gave him the powerful sward Excalibur, and made him promise he will always protect Avalon.

As the years pass on Arthur will try to make his wife happy, and become more and more Christian, and his act will be seen as a betrayal to Morgaine's eyes. Morgaine will never understand a religion according to which women are seen as inferior, everything's joyful pointed as evil and corrupting, and where suffering becomes the solely law of living. Having grown up in a place where women represent the highest power, and according to which the Goddess (again, a female figure) gives love and happiness in a righteous way, she will oppose and refuse her half brother doing, and blame Gwenhwyfar for that.

Morgause: She's Viviane's younger sister, and she will take the place Avalon's High Priestess has decided for her as well, when Morgause will be made wife of king Lot. But if Igraine will become Uther's faithful wife and a godly woman, Morgause will take a different path. Being pretty much of a vain, cunning character, Morgause will always try to move things for her own gain. She won't surrender to a religion where a woman only has a second place; she will rule at her husband side, and take his place when he's in war. She will use her beauty and charm as a weapon, and have many different lovers. She's not totally a negative character, but her greediness will be her ruin, and her plots turn against the people she loved the most.

Viviane: High Priestess of Avalon and mother of Lancelet. She plots with Merlin to put on the throne of Britain a King with Avalon blood in his veins, who will protect Avalon for ever. Her plotting will take different turns and twists though, as she can't control her puppets' actions in full, and in a particular way, she will enrage the only person she considers a daughter, Morgaine.

Gwenhwyfar: Ah, this character. I never was a great fan of Gwenhwyfar, but after having read this book I totally despised her. I hated her since her very first appearance, when she mistakenly enters the reign of Avalon, and is very much afraid. Lancelet and Morgaine, who were nearby, run to help her, but what does the little brat do? She hangs like a parasite to Lancelet (who will fall in love with her basically immediately), and points the finger against Morgaine, saying she's ugly and scary, although she was trying to help too, and did absolutely nothing bad to her.

The fact that Gwenhwyfar has such a prejudice against Morgaine only because she's a Priestess of Avalon, and judges her without even greeting for her help, or trying to know her better, make us understand that Gwenhwyfar is an ignorant character, with a closed mind, and marked by the stubbornness of the person who wants to be in the right and refuses to open her mind to anything different.

Marion Zimmer Bradley tried to justify her acts saying that she had a very sad childhood, that her father mistreated her and caused her inferiority complex and agoraphobia. And ok, I tried to understand her. But I changed my mind as I kept on reading about her. Everybody knows about the story of Gwenhwyfar and Lancelet, so I'm not doing spoilers here. So Gwenhwyfar claims herself a true Christian woman, godly and pious, right and faithful. She claims to love her husband, and she is destroyed by the fact that she's sterile and can't give him an heir. She prays night and day, she pushes hard her husband to turn his kingdom totally Christian and ban paganism, because God wants it and that is the only way to the salvation of the soul... and thus she betrays her husband with his best friend!! What I really, really couldn't stand was Gwenhwyfar's hypocrisy and stubbornness, together with the fact that she uses her clear unhappiness and despair for not being able to give Arthur an heir to manipulate her husband.

Marion Zimmer Bradley's story is not only a beautiful retelling of a famous and beloved narration. The themes she touches in her book are many, and some of them very delicate: love, betrayal, incest, religion, trust, family, brotherhood, bisexuality. There are so many twists and turns in this story, every page makes the reader holding their breath. And as I said at the very beginning, I am sure that after having read this book you're life will be parted between before and after the Mists of Avalon. And hopefully, it will help you seeing some aspects of our life in a different way, open new perspectives, grow up, and love and respect the people around us even more.

M.