Tales of Avalon: Wisdom of the Ancient Marshes

by Walter William Melnyk

Volume II in the Tales of Avalon Series Magical sequel to "The Apple and the Thorn," This is a novel of ancient Avalon in which the thirteen Marsh Tales are recounted. It is the story of a priestess of Avalon who has survived the Roman massacre of the druids on the Isle of Mona, and the Celtic tribal Healer who brings her back to health. Woven into this story are the thirteen "Marsh Tales," the ancient Wisdom of Avalon, original myths by Melnyk, based upon traditional Welsh fairies. Fianna, called to return to Avalon before it is enclosed forever by mists to protect against the Romans, teaches the Tales to Cethin the Healer. The unique and intriguing format is that of a novel containing thirteen short stories, in which the timeless quest of the human spirit is brought vividly to light. This printing has corrected typographical errors that appeared in the first printing. From a Reader: What I can only call the pervasive mood of the book is really strong in your writing - far more so than most other novels. It feels like reading history, full of sounds, smells, and tastes . . . did you intend to have such a pungent atmosphere? It certainly adds to the tale, drags you in and stays with you. -- Cat, United Kingdom By Brynneth Colvin for The Druid Network There are tales within tales, delving further into the realms of history and myth. There are a number of different voices in this book, and they come through well. Melnyk shifts between the realms of more real, historical seeming people, and the landscape of myth in some very effective ways. Added to this, he has a lyrical writing style, giving the work flow and vitality. I loved the Marsh Tales, and very much recommend them.

Genres: Fantasy

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2010

About the author

Walter William Melnyk is a novelist, poet, violinist and weaver. He lives in a small log cabin atop a wooded mountain in Tennessee. Melnyk now plays the actual "Pavel's Violin," which he received from his Czech teacher, who is a member of Pavel's family. The experience of researching and writing the novel moved him to adopt Judaism, as a member of the Society for Humanistic Judaism. He is donating all his royalties from the book to the United States Holocaust Museum, and other Holocaust Memorials.

Formerly, Melnyk was a priest in the Episcopal Church. He is the author of of two novels and works of spirituality emerging from his long spiritual journey.

Reviews

[K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear.

I bought this, along with its sister book 'The Apple & the Thorn' when they were being offered free on Amazon Kindle. Having read & delighted in The Apple & the Thorn I was looking forward to reading Tales of Avalon. The quality was nowhere near as good. Although the tales were nice, the whole reading experience was let down immensely by terrible formatting.

Now I'm not a purist. The occasional spelling mistake or missing punctuation I don't mind. If the story's good I barely notice them. However there was too much to ignore in this book. Headings not distinguished from the rest of the text so they ended up bleeding into the first sentence, dropped speech-marks, characters names changing & the worst... random, broken sentences that left you hunting the pages for the rest of the words. All of this conspired to make Tales of Avalon a headache to read. Which is a shame, as like I said, the tales themselves were enjoyable.

In the end I'd say this book is only worth a try if a) a new, formatted version gets uploaded or b) it becomes free again.

[Merissa (Archaeolibrarian) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started this book straight after finishing "The Apple and the Thorn", very pleased that I had got both of them. However, this book needs some serious editing before it will be as easy to read as the first book which is a shame as the tales within are wonderful. There are just enough grammatical errors, spelling mistakes (is the chief of the Silures Cadael or Cadfael?) and layout errors that the book does not flow as it should. There were a few times where words have been missed out that completely change the meaning of a sentence and also where the sentence is written partly on one line
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and then carries on halfway down the page with more of the story inbetween. So you have to go searching for the rest of it to make sure you haven't lost any of it.

I am a lover of Avalon and these Marsh Tales are absolutely wonderful. I would love to read more of them as they transport the reader through the Mists to a different time. But please, sort out the editing first.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The priestess Fianna of Avalon is cared for by the clan Healer after she is stabbed by a Roman soldier. During her recovery she tells him a series of 12 ancient Tales of the Marsh so that he can pass them on to the next generation. He then tells a tale of his own making a total of 13 tales.

She calls Avalon Affalon and uses Welsh spellings for names and places--few vowels.