The Mists of Avalon

“What wise God would consign a man to Hell for ignorance, instead of teaching him to be better in the afterlife?”

Igraine poses this as a rhetorical question to Uther to comfort him after his mentor Ambrosius’s death. Rhetorical questions often highlight problems that are unanswerable or at least lack a simple solution. Zimmer Bradley’s usage of a rhetorical question demonstrates the complexity of the struggle between Druidism and Christianity, forcing both Uther and the reader to reconsider their preconceived notions of each belief system.

“[W]hat he called honor; he would deprive all Britain of her High King, leave the land naked like a woman to be ravished by the Saxon hordes—all because he was not man enough for his wife and feared that Uther would be.”

Igraine compares the land to a woman, saying that Gorlois should protect both with the same intensity. By saying that his pride is causing him to dishonor the land, Igraine is also speaking to his conduct as a husband and alluding to the disrespect he shows her. She also taunts him for a perceived lack of masculinity, weaponizing the gender roles she finds so frustrating to her advantage.

“Am I prepared to be ruthless with this girl too? Can I train her, never sparing, or will my love make me less harsh than I must be to train a High Priestess?”

Viviane’s internal dilemma relates to the book’s overall questions about the relationship between womanhood and power. Viviane constantly worries about balancing her maternal instincts toward Morgaine with her ability to exert the power of the Goddess. In this quote, Viviane understands that her duty to Avalon may force her to abandon her desire for a daughter, which pains her.

“For all the peoples of Britain […] my sword for your protection, and my hand for justice.”

This is the promise Arthur makes to his people on the day of his coronation. For Arthur, an essential duty of being High King is treating everyone equally. This signals that he is likely to be starkly different from his predecessors—most notably Uther, who openly disregarded religions other than Christianity.

“[M]y grandsire fought him and carried off his best mead-hall table…it is round, you see, so a bard can sit at the center to sing to them, or the servants pass round to pour wine or beer. And when he entertained his fellow kings he need not set one higher than another […] so my father thought it fitting for a High King, who must also seat his well-born Companions without preferring one above the other.”

The round table is a symbol for the transformative potential of Arthur’s reign. If Arthur can prioritize the values of equality suggested by the table’s history and apply them to his subjects, he can be the legendary ruler he is prophesied to be.

“In God’s name, how could she, a chaste and Christian woman, have such evil thoughts?”

Gwenhwyfar’s juxtaposition of Christianity and evil suggests that the two cannot naturally exist together. This reflects the book’s broader depiction of Christianity, in which its followers are often unaware of the negative consequences of their behavior because they assume they are following God’s will.

“You thought me so pious, that I retired to a convent in my last years. But where else should I have gone?”

Igraine confesses to Gwenhwyfar that she was never a true Christian and joined the convent as a matter of convenience. All her life, she was defined by her proximity and usefulness to men: In Avalon, she was valuable because she could play a part in Viviane’s plan, Gorlois saw her as a shiny trinket, and the people of Britain saw her as Uther’s pious queen. Once Uther passed away, she was no longer “useful” and locked herself away.

“‘Such a thing of beauty as this is,’ he said gently, ‘and made with such love, how could I possibly condemn it?’”

Taliesin makes this comment after Gwenhwyfar explains her plan to send Arthur into battle carrying the sign of the cross. Gwenhwyfar assumes her banner will wound Taliesin, but his open-mindedness allows him to see that everybody desires to serve their faith with love and devotion. His outlook offers a different perspective on religion, emphasizing tolerance over unthinking piety.

"I cannot even pray for peace of mind. I have forfeited the right to pray.”

Gwenhwyfar’s lack of faith while struggling with her feelings for Lancelet shows how Christianity encourages women to view themselves. Gwenhwyfar has learned that women must constantly repent for Eve’s Original Sin. Gwenhwyfar scolding herself for loving Lancelet shows that this extends to the level of thoughts and feelings—even her unspoken prayers could become beacons of sin.

“I cannot listen to you curse at my religion, Gwenhwyfar. I cursed not yours, remember that.”

Morgaine’s gentle rebuke of Gwenhwyfar’s fanaticism demonstrates the dichotomy between the two religions. Druidism preaches that truth can be subjective and that God and Goddess take on multiple faces that can inspire different beliefs. Christianity assumes that its God is the only God and that only its understanding of God is correct.

“I have been all up and down these lands, in all weathers and all times—the Merlin of Britain, hawk of the Sight, messenger of the Great Raven—and I see now another heart in the land, and it shines forth from Camelot.”

Kevin the Merlin describes religion as a government’s metaphorical heart, thus establishing it as a critical part of any kingdom. Religion and tradition motivate a kingdom’s rulers and its people. If its heart is a Christian one, Kevin is suggesting that the very form and function of the kingdom is about to change, though he is more accepting of this change than Morgaine.

“I rule this land as it is, Gwenhwyfar, not as the bishops would have it to be.” 

Arthur’s comment to Gwenhwyfar demonstrates his ruling philosophy. By pledging to rule the land according to the people who live in it and not the bishops who seek to control it, Arthur suggests that a peaceful population is more important than power. This is what separates him from characters like Morgause and Gwydion, who seek the throne to assert personal or ideological dominance.

“[Y]ou are the young stag who will bring down the King Stag.”

The concept of the battle between the young stag and the King Stag demonstrates the Holy Isle’s cyclical view of time. The struggle between young and old is fated to happen over and over again and is a natural cycle of life. When Morgause says this to Gwydion, she is not necessarily expressing malice toward Arthur—she is simply expressing a reality of the world.

“I have used him, Morgaine thought, as ruthlessly as ever Viviane did me.” 

Morgaine constantly laments that Viviane used her as a pawn for her own ambitions under the guise of fate. In reflecting on her treatment of Accolon, she realizes that she is doing the same thing for the same cause. Since Morgaine is the protagonist, this renders Viviane more sympathetic, but it also signals Morgaine’s moral slippage.

“‘Yet another thing,’ Gwydion said lightly. ‘I have no intent ever to watch by my arms in any Christian church. I am of Avalon. If Arthur will admit me among his Companions for what I am, that will be well, and if not, that too will be well.’”

Gwydion’s assertion of his beliefs as an uninitiated knight in the face of Arthur’s increasingly devout Christian court shows how claiming your identity can be an act of rebellion. This explains why Morgaine, Viviane, and Taliesin were always willing to participate in debates about theology: If the Druids speak about their beliefs, they will have proof they exist.

“It was from Avalon you received the sacred sword, and to Avalon that you swore an oath to preserve and guard the Holy Mysteries! And now you would make the sword of the Mysteries into the cross of death, the gallows for the dead!”

Morgaine frequently looks down on Gwenhwyfar for her reductive view of Druidism, but she acts hypocritically when she compares another religion’s holy symbol to something sick and evil. Morgaine has become so corrupted by her bid for power and influence that she is ignoring her religion’s central teachings of tolerance. By seeking to uphold her truth as supreme, she is betraying her ideals.

“There seems to be a deep change in the way men now look at the world, as if one truth should drive out another—as if whatever is not their truth, must be falsehood.”

When Kevin says this to Morgaine, it symbolizes a turning point in the spiritual battle for Britain. The philosophy he describes reflects the openness inherent to Druidism, in which all gods and goddesses reflect the God and Goddess. Druids therefore see other religions as equally valid. Conversely, all the Christians portrayed in The Mists of Avalon see other religions as inferior, false, and even dangerous. Kevin is suggesting that adopting Christianity has made Britain less tolerant.

“And it seemed to her for the moment that this love was the greatest truth in her life, and that love could never be weighed out or measured, so much for this one and so much for that, but was an endless and eternal flow, that the more she loved, the more love she has to give, as she gave it now towards everyone, as it had been given her by her vision.”

Morgaine used pagan magic to elevate a Druid relic during a Christian ceremony, but Gwenhwyfar is only able to feel the truth of love. Gwenhwyfar is unwittingly experiencing this intense and powerful love during a moment that blends Druidism and Christianity.

“If we were caught, then the men would think you only all the more manly for it, and none would chide or shame you, but I, I am a maiden and they would point to me as a harlot or worse.”

Nimue’s deception plays on traditional gender power dynamics. Kevin’s inability to live up to the masculine ideal—especially in his relationships with women—has always embarrassed him. Nimue soothes these anxieties by imagining him in the “manly” role of sleeping with a woman while underscoring her own vulnerability as a woman. This is ironic, given that she seduces Kevin in order to strip him of his power.

“Perhaps a religion which demands that every man must work through lifetime after lifetime for his own salvation is too much for mankind. They want not to wait for God’s justice, but to see it now. And that is the lure which this new breed of priests has promised them.”

Lancelet’s comment about Christianity offers a sympathetic perspective. Where some Druids like Viviane see Christianity as narrow-minded, Lancelet explains it through the lens of humanity’s innate desire to be good. Just as the Druids argue that peasants should be able to keep their rituals because they bring joy, Lancelet suggests that Christians should keep their customs because it is comforting to believe that they can attain salvation after a single lifetime rather than struggling through multiple incarnations.

“‘I must believe that I had no power to do other than I have done’

…must believe that I never had a choice…a choice to refuse the king-making, a choice to destroy Mordred unborn, a choice to refuse when Arthur gave me to Uriens, a choice to hold back my hand from the death of Avalloch, a choice to keep Accolon at my side…a choice to spare Kevin Harper a traitor’s death, and Nimue…”

Morgaine says that fate has become an essential part of her worldview because it allows her to live with some of her more gruesome actions. If she can tell herself that fate drove her actions, she can excuse some of her more blatant power grabs. This confession adds an additional layer to Zimmer Bradley’s discussion of fate by suggesting that it should not be invoked for selfish reasons.

“Would it be better that no good of any kind should come from the sin I did with Morgaine—for you will have it that it was sin—or should I be grateful that, since the sin was done and there’s no going back to innocence, God has given me a good son in return for that evil?” 

This quote illustrates a fundamental dichotomy between Arthur and Gwenhwyfar. Christians suggest that sinners live in constant anxiety and torment over their mistakes, as Gwenhwyfar does when thinking about her feelings for Lancelet. Conversely, Arthur reframes a traumatic experience based on what he has learned from the experience.

“For lo, all the days of man are as a leaf that is fallen and as the grass that withereth. Thou too shalt be forgotten, like the flower that falleth on the grass, like the wine that is poured out and soaks into the earth. And yet even as the spring returns, so blooms the land and so blooms life which will come again.”

These are the lyrics to the ballad of the Fisher King, which Mordred sings for Arthur and the Companions. It uses seasons as a metaphor for the phases of a person’s life. Arthur worries that Mordred is making a veiled threat about Camelot at the end of his reign, but it alludes to the Druidic principle of cyclical time. It also shows how Mordred is beginning to twist Druid principles for his own purposes. Though Mordred is the young stag meant to overtake King Stag, he ends up doing so for deeply personal reasons, therefore serving himself instead of the natural cycles of life. Mordred appears to share this ballad as a threat, not a lesson.