Lady of Avalon by Marión Zimmer Bradley (review)

Abstract

arthuriana There are also assertions of dubious provenance—on pp. 43, 77, and elsewhere the name of the South American country Brazil, (whose etymology is usually given as Spanish, 'Brasil, short for tierra de Brasil"red-dye wood land'" [The OxfordDictionary ofEnglish Etymology, CT. Onions, ed., 1974]) is said to be 'named for the Celtic legend of Hy Breasil, a mystical and paradisal island.' Where one might expect at least a shadow cast by Roger Sherman Loomis and the Celtic Twilight school, the notes cite W. A. Cummins, King Arthur's Pfóce in Pre-History: The Great Age of Stonehenge, whose arguments that Arthur was a great king who raised Stonehenge (circa 2000 bce) certainly cannot be squared with the argument advanced by Graham Phillips and Martin Keatman, King Arthur: The True Story (London: Arrow, 1993), here endorsed by Filmer-Davis, that Arthur was a fifth-century King of Powys. The book's central thesis, 'that myth and legend and history too for that matter, provide a deep theological and psychological benefit for readers' (p. 2) is amply borne out in a wide range of modern fantasy and historical fiction. In her enthusiasm, however, Professor Filmer-Davis seems to overstate her case; it is hard to accept that every competition between two men for the affections ofa woman in fantasy literature or Arthurian film is a mythic echo from The Mabinogion (pp. 46, 58, 149), or that every act of selflessness is similar to Pwyll's sexual restraint (pp. 17, 148). RICHARD H. OSBERG Santa Clara University marión zimmer Bradley, Lady ofAvalon. New York: Penguin, 1997. Pp. 461. isbn:o670 -85783-1. $24.99 (cloth). Lady ofAvalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley's third instalment in the Avalon series (Mists ofAvalon [1982], The Forest House [1993]), describes the events—part history, part myth, part imagination—of the time she calls the 'middle period' (a.D. 96—452). This new novel begins months after the destruction of the Forest House and the settlement ofsome ofthe priestesses, under Caillean, on the Isle ofAvalon, described at the end oí The Forest House. Each ofthe novel's three parts describes one generation ofthe inhabitants ofAvalon and the changing political world around them, focussing on the recurring relationships between the High Priestesses and the Sacred Kings. Part One recounts the story of Caillean, High Priestess, Gawen (son of Eilan, the High Priestess killed at the Forest House, and her half-Roman lover Gaius, who dies with her at the hands ofthe Druid priests), and Sianna (daughter ofthe Faerie Queen and a benighted mortal lover).This first part establishes the fundamental triangular relationship repeated through the rest of the novel, and grounds the significance of that relationship in the enduring love of the Priestess (Sianna) and the Year King (Gawen). The second part (a.D. 285—293) describes the lives and loves of Dierna, Lady of Avalon; Teleri, princess of the native Durotriges; and Carausius, a senior Roman officer who eventually claimed the title of Emperor of Britain. This section, though significantly different in its configuration of the essential triangular relationship, REVIEWS nevertheless repeats the initial pattern: Lady ofAvalon and the Sacred King; blood shed on and for Avalon in fulfilment of the Sacred King's vows. The third part of the novel (a.D. 440—452) describes the early development and relationships ofcharacters familiar to readers ofBradley's Mists ofAvalon, though she introduces those characters in the context ofthe patterns and motifs from the earlier sections. Bradley focuses on Viviane (sister to Igraine and Morgause), her mother Ana (the High Priestess), and Vortimer (son of Vortigern and yet another of the Sacred Kings). This third part, like the first, explicitly bridges the gap between the new novel and the earlier Mists ofAvalon. In this case, we meet Viviane and her sisters, Taliesin (who becomes the Merlin), and both Ambrosius Aurelianus and the younger Uther. The three parts ofthe novel serve to mirror the three parts ofthe trilogy itself, and Bradley's agenda seems clear in this work: to tie the whole project together while prefiguring and emphasising the themes and concerns central to the first novel, Mists ofAvalon. For instance, after reading Lady ofAvalon, the...