The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
by Zia ~ January 30th, 2006. Filed under: Books.
It will, perhaps, come as no surprise to you to learn that I was a snotty child.
When I was 9, I spent a summer with my grandparents up in Julian while my mother was in language training prior to our move to Bucharest. I whiled away my time hammering pieces of wood to my treehouse (they promptly fell off), writing short stories (don’t ask), and slogging through The Mists of Avalon. At some point, I got a letter asking if I wanted to join some kiddie book-a-month club. And for some reason, I was incensed — so incensed, in fact, that I penned a letter to them explaining that their books were far too juvenile for me, and that I was reading The Mists of Avalon, and “enjoying it very much, thank you!”
Apparently, I was a better woman at 9 than I am at 32.
After reading The Once and Future King (and deciding to become an armchair Arthurian scholar), I checked out a bunch of other related novels. This was one. And by golly, it’s a hard slog. I started three weeks ago, got sidetracked with Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave and The Hollow Hills (both fun), and finally lost all patience with it last night. It’s a feminist retelling of the tale — which is great, except the only way to give women power in an age when they really didn’t have much of it is to imbue them all supernatural powers. In fact, they all seem like new age earth mothers, babbling about reincarnation and previous lives and Wicca that’s called something else. Next up? Mallory’s Morte D’Arthur.
February 4th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
I have no real idea how I stumbled upon your blog, however, I found it fascinating that you’d be writing about King Arthur on my birthday. You see, in HS and my early 20’s I was fascinated by anything Arthur. My favorite books so far are Mary Stewart’s, I just couldn’t get into Mists of Avalon, but I did love The Once and Future King - but the most fascinating thing I read once was that Arthur was never a “king” but actually the last “War Duke of Brittain” - under the Byzantine empire, in the last crumbling moments of Rome. It was said he was literally kept out of the history books by a monk who was angry at him for not being Christian enough (he might well have been a pagan). I have no idea if this is true, but I loved that idea - also, it said that his name was from the Roman Arturo.
February 6th, 2006 at 10:43 am
Hi Melissa,
However you found my blog, I’m gad you’re here! It’s also nice to have my opinions vindicated by someone else.
I’ve just started the final Mary Stewart novel in her trilogy, but found that I needed a break in between reading the first two. I’m also in the midst of reading Mallory’s Morte D’Arthur, and it’s really interesting to see how quickly the story moves along. I mean the conception of Arthur takes a page, if that …
Thanks also for the history tidbit about Arthur. It’s fascinating learning about the actual history. As for the vindictive monk … who knew?