Who doesn't love Arthurian legend? Seriously - knights of the Round Table, chivalry, Merlin, swords stuck in stone. The whole nine yards. Avalon tells the story of Arthur's reign from the point of view of Morgaine, Arthur's half-sister, who was taken to the island of Avalon as a child and raised to become a priestess. In a fertility ritual gone bad, Morgaine is set-up with Arthur and she has his child, Mordred.
And that's where the similarities mostly end. More than a love story about humans, this series is a love story about a place and its culture. A tribute to the power of females in a time when females had little power, this series celebrates women and explores the eventual merging of Celtic and Christian beliefs.
The series spans the years surrounding Camelot, and contains a prequel, but it is recommended that you read the books in the order they were printed. There are also additional titles in the series, but they are written by Diana Paxson, not Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Don't get me wrong, this is an entertaining read, but be warned - you might learn something in the process!
For grades 9 and up.
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I "read" this book as a recorded book. I loved every moment I spent in the world Bradley created and even now, 7 years later, the images she created still reverberate in my mind and heart. Though not central to the story, I love some of the details such as Morgaine's wandering into the land of faerie (it's made me seek out other artistic treatments of similar journeys such as Robin McKinley's The Door in the Hedge and Eloise McGraw's The Moorchild. The notion of a bard, Taliesin, as a holy poet, musician, and spiritual leader has made me revere poets and musicians more than I ever had before. And the ritual of the running of the deer, resulting in the conception of Mordred, rings in my imagination still. The world never looked the same after I read this book. Hope you love it too.
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