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Ted Agens

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The Mists of Avalon (Avalon, #1)

by Marion Zimmer Bradley

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Ted Agens said: " I am a big fan of history and historical fiction books. I love the time period and locale of immediate post Roman Britain and the Arthurian story. I have read several books on this theme. My favorite two have been Voices of the Stars by Rowena Whalin I am a big fan of history and historical fiction books. I love the time period and locale of immediate post Roman Britain and the Arthurian story. I have read several books on this theme. My favorite two have been Voices of the Stars by Rowena Whaling (Permuted Press, 2014) and The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell (St Martins, 1996). Each book is a work of historical fiction set around Arthur, post Roman Britain, the British ancient religions and the Germanic incursions (Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Frisians). Whenever I commented on either of these books on several sites, I would always get a comment of "you should read Mists of Avalon. since you liked these books you will love it!". Ok, I am about 400 pages into it, and I am not "loving it". It goes too far into fantasy. Example-Avalon and Glastonbury Tor apparently share the same space though Avalon is somehow invisible. In the previous mentioned books, Glastonbury Tor exists as a Holy Island of some type in the British Religions, but, they are wholey of this physical world. The magic in each book is not so other worldly/paranormal, but is more a type of harmony with nature type of belief. The aforementioned books are entirely in the genre of historical fiction and therefore, and in my opinion, much more respect is given to the Arthurian tradition based on who/whom Arthur is based on in history. Additionally, Mists is riddled with anachronisms in language and place names. Example- we have Gwenhyfar being referred to as 'the Queen of England', when the word England was a Germanic one and not even used by the Saxons for about another 400 - 500 yrs after the time of this book (historically the real persons the Arthur tale is based on would have lived between about 450 to 500 AD). Also in place names we get 'Cornwall' instead of the historical 'Kernow' or 'Dumnonia'. We have place names that are Saxon, like 'Glastonbury'. And worst of all we have the British peoples referring to their lands and themselves as "Wales" and "welsh"! When that word is a Saxon one as well (Saxon word for foreigner). The story itself is ok, but the endless distractions caused by these anachronisms and incorrect word usage is just too much. ...more "

Mar 06, 2019 06:12PM · see review