The Mists of Avalon is a feminist retelling of the legend of King Arthur, written from the point of view of Morgan le Fey. The story begins when she is very young - at three years old, the daughter of the Lady and Duke of Cornwall; more significantly, she is the niece of Viviane, Lady of the Lake, someone not altogether different from the modern-day Bishop of Canterbury. The story proceeds from the ascent of Uther Pendragon; to the birth of Arthur; to Arthur’s crowning as High King of Britain with Viviane’s support; to his betrayal of Viviane and the religions centered at the Isle of Avalon; and ultimately, the downfall of his reign.

Along the way, we are treated to a fine-grained look at the mounting power of Christianity and the corresponding decline of mystical religions. This retelling is of course ahistorical, and none of the events described explain the precise origin of this cultural shift. But the book describes the tension between these two belief systems beautifully, and also provides an eye-opening way to think about the world in a manner almost diametrically opposed to that of Christianity, or indeed of any of the Abrahammic religions. Of course, the Mysts of Avalon is heavily influenced by the neopagan movement of the 70s and 80s (and probably helped influence that movement in turn), so in a way the tension that the story relates is not so much ahistorical as it as a recasting of modern neopagan dogma. Nevertheless, I found that explication quite interesting, and I thought that those characters who tried to resolve this tension by seeking some sort of higher truth - most often the two Lord Merlins - were quite interesting to listen to. This tension does get a little old after a while, though, and there were more than a few points along the way where I couldn’t help but wonder whether the knights and ladies could find something else to talk about besides Christian dogma.

Related to this tension, one interesting idea that I wish got a little more attention was the concept that perception shapes reality. For example, early in the story we learn that, because fewer and fewer people care about the mystic religions centered on the Isle on Avalon, it is becoming more and more difficult to actually visit the island. It’s such a clever device to communicate such a subtle idea! But alas, the book essentially leaves that idea largely unexplored, with no more than a couple of subsequent mentions. What a shame - it is an idea and a dilemma that has implications in any number of modern-day pursuits, ranging from advertising to national security, as well as modern spirituality.

As to the story itself - it’s for the most part enjoyable, though a bit uneven. I very much enjoyed the first two-thirds or so, and found the plot and the characters compelling. Throughout this part I really enjoyed the reading, and was quite curious to see what would happen next. At some point along the way, during Morgaine’s ordeal, I found that the book started dragging on, and the “where is Morgaine” question became more than a little tiresome.

Perhaps relatedly, I got a little tired of all the characters - there are simply so many of them, and outside of the handful of main characters, they really do blend together quite a bit. I never did figure out how Gareth and Gawaine differ, for example, nor did I really care to try. The main characters were for the most part well-drawn; I think I most enjoyed Viviane, who seems to suffer from enough dark nights of the soul to offset all the other characters combined. Morgaine is also a wonderfully dark and brooding character, with ambition and cunning in spades. Gwenhwyfar tired me out - she is considerably less interesting and clever than Morgaine, though for all that, it is she who ultimately wields the most power. The male characters are entirely boring, Arthur more than the others, and that is probably by design. Lancelet has some interesting potential - particularly because Viviane has bewitched him to reminisce about Avalon throughout his life - but he manages to basically patch over all of that complexity with page after page of boring dialog.

The final third of the book seems to be the most rushed, with the plot considerably more unwieldy and the characters considerably more volatile than in the first two-thirds. It is as though this book needs to get through all the material covered by previous retellings of this legend, but the book doesn’t care to really explore that material since it doesn’t provide as much grist for the Christians-vs-pagans drama. It seems to me that the book would have been perfectly well served with most of that material excised. Perhaps a fitting final scene would have been Viviane’s visit to Arthur’s court at the Pentecost feast - everything that follows is more or less a logical conclusion of that pivotal event, anyway.

There are a number of interesting parallels and rivalries between the characters - Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar most obviously, but also Arthur and Viviane, and even Lancelet and Nimue. Each, in their own way, mirrors the action of the other, often in complementary ways. Perhaps the complement which I thought most interesting was that of Morgaine crafting the scabbard for Excalibur, as compared to Gwenhwyfar sewing the battle flag for Arthur. There are also a handful of cleverly-symbolized themes. For example, the main characters are more or less obsessed with fate and the question of free will - perhaps Morgaine more than any other. This angst is reflected in the ceaseless scenes of spinning and weaving, a classic byword for the act of determining and setting a person’s fate. This symbolism is really pretty interesting, because it is spinning thread which helps bring on The Sight for Morgaine - and it is these incidents which make her question her capacity for free will most of all. There is a similarly interesting dynamic between, on the one hand, the theme of harmony, or discord, between Christians and pagans; and on the other hand, the act of singing and harp-playing.

On the whole, I quite enjoyed the book, and I think it’s a really important addition to the Arthurian legend. It might have done with a little bit of editing towards the end - but on the whole it was quite worthwhile.