Year of Epic Fantasy Reading 2017: Day 18 (The Mists of Avalon)

Title: The Mists of Avalon
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley
Themes: Paganism vs Christianity
Quotes: “The older I grow the more I become certain that it makes no difference what words we use to tell the same truths.”
Reading/Listening Time: 16 hours, 1 minute

Review:

This is basically a retelling of the King Arthur legend from Morgaine's perspective, and surprisingly it doesn't make her out to be the villain. A lot of people kinda see it as a revisionist work for feminism....which I probably would have enjoyed, considering how I felt about Thomas Mallory's Le Morte D'Artur...but it's really more about the struggle between the people of two different religious groups, personified by the half-siblings Morgaine and Arthur.

It starts out seeming like the women are all liberated as Pagans, but as the story goes on you kinda see that they're as tightly bound by their beliefs as the Christian's are.

Both Morgaine and Arthur are under the thumb of their respective religious establishments, and they eventually get manipulated into engaging in ritualistic sex.

If that sounds really weird, it kinda is. But if you're familiar with the King Arthur Legends, their relationship is kinda a staple of it, and the explanation as to why and how it happened in this book is actually the one that makes the most sense to me.

I also liked that The Ladies of the Lake actually have an explanation for who they are, exactly. Why they exist, and what is their beef with Arthur and Co.

I mentioned in my "Le Morte D'artur Vol. 1" post about how I felt that that I felt that story was fragmented. It didn't feel like it was complete. Well this story fills in those gaps so magnificently that everything feels whole, and coherent, and complete. It's really quite masterful.


Notes:

I remember reading the first few pages at my grandma's house, as a kid, and came away feeling it was pretty hostile towards Christianity. Later on, though, it goes into a really thoughtful discussion about spirituality, and the theology of the two religions and why some people would prefer to believe one or the other.

 It was especially cathartic for me because it reminded me strongly of the types of conversation I with my paternal grandmother when I was younger.

I will never forget the last meaningful conversation I had with her was shortly after I'd read this book and I was able to talk to her about it, and about faith, again. She was quite elderly and she didn't remember reading it herself, but she admitted "I read everything." I remember it was pretty prominently displayed at her house, so I'm pretty sure she did. I will always wonder if and how it may have influenced her views on faith and spirituality.

Rating: 4/5 Stars. I need to read it again...