About
The Mists of Avalon series was written by Marion Zimmer Bradley and consists of 5 books:Mists of Avalon - 1982
The Forests of Avalon - 1993, originally published as The Forest House
Lady of Avalon - 1997
Priestess of Avalon - 2000
Priestess of Avalon was published a year after Bradley died, on 25th September 1999, and was co-written by Diana L. Paxson.
Ancestors of Avalon - 2004
This book was just released, so I haven't had a chance to read it yet. I'm quite hesitant to actually, as apparently Paxson wrote the book herself. I'm a fan of Bradley and not Paxson, but I shall try and read it as soon as I can. For now I can't give a synopsis of the book for obvious reasons, but if someone has read it already and would like to help me out, just email me.
Short synopsis
Each of the 4 books contributes to the story of Avalon, a sacred isle also known as the isle of apples or apple isle, located in ancient Britain, that once was open for any visitor to find, but which is now behind a thick curtain of mist to protect itself from the dangers of the outside world. Each book shows us different periods in history and tells us the stories of the different High Priestesses, the priestesses of Avalon and the situation of the world on that moment. It shows us how the old religion, that being Paganism, has to stand up against the vast Roman empire and then when that crumbles, the new religion of Christianity.Short synopsis of each book
I've tried to keep this in chronological order, it was a bit difficult as Priestess of Avalon seems to run at almost the same period of time as part 2 of Lady of Avalon. I've placed Priestess after Lady simply because I can't put it anywhere else:The Forests of Avalon/The Forest House: Eilan, daughter of the Druids, is destined to serve as a virgin priestess in the Forest House of Avalon; Gaius, son of a Roman father and British mother, serves with the legions. Trapped between a love that can never be permitted and duty to their irreconcilable cultures, their hearts and minds are in turmoil as Rome and the tribes clash in the bitter struggle for Britain. Yet it is foretold by High Priestess Caillean that from their tragic union of Eagle and Dragon will come one day a defender of the land.
Lady of Avalon: Through the generations the women of Avalon prepare for the coming of the Defender, the sacred king who will guard the old ways of the Britons and save their land from drestruction. On the holy isle of Avalon hidden in the mists between the world of Faerie and men, they wait. For High Priestess Caillean, facing the Roman foe, salvation comes not through victory, but bitter sacrifice. Two hundred years later her successor Dierna faces a new enemy: the Saxon hordes who assail her people like savages. By the time of Viviane, Britain seems wholly lost. But a Merlin is made amongst the Druids once more and the day of the Defender, who will come to be known as Arthur, draws close.
Priestess of Avalon: With her mother's dying breath, Eilan, the fifth child of the High Priestess of Avalon, takes life. The baby is taken to her father, King Coel, and raised in the Roman way as Helena, but in the year A.D. 259 the ten year old girl is returned to the mythical place of her birth. There she begins her training as priestess, in the face of her Aunt Ganeda's determiniation that she shall fail. Despite Ganeda's hostility, fired by her resentment over the death of Helena's mother, the child grows to be a gifted priestess, and on the moonlit night of her iniation she has a vision of the Roman, Constantius, the man she will love for the rest of her life. Her vision also reveals that he will father the one whose light will blaze across the world, the one who will free Britannia from Roman tyranny. But to be with him she must betray her sisters and turn her back on the security of Avalon, to build a new life in the danger-filled city of the enemy.
Mists of Avalon: Morgaine, gifted with the Sight and fated with her brother-lover's doom, recounts the glorious tragedy of Camelot's brief flowering not as a tale of knightly deeds, but as a woman's rounded view of society in the crucible of change. Through the lives of pious Guinevere, ambitious Morgause, Priestess of Avalon Viviane and her successor as Lady of the Lake, Morgaine herself, this rich and haunting epic reveals a greater threat to the Old People than the Saxons. For the spread of patriarchal Roman ways and a narrow Christianity seem likely to drive the ancient worship of the Mother forever into the mists.
Amazon links
All links open in a new window.The Forest House
Lady of Avalon
Priestess Of Avalon
The Mists of Avalon
Ancestors of Avalon
