The priestess of Avalon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Priestess of Avalon is a fantasy novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley from 2001, its original English title is Priestess of Avalon (2000). The novel is one of several pre-stories of the bestseller The Mists of Avalon , in which the Arthurian legend is retold. The novel was finished by Diana L. Paxson , as Marion Zimmer Bradley died earlier.

theme

More than in the other novels, the authors deal with the differences and similarities between the old pagan and the new Christian religion. They show their strengths and weaknesses, ultimately also the responsibility of people towards what they want to believe.

action

Julia Coelia Helena, also called Eilan, is the daughter of the high priestess Rian and the Roman prince Coelius. Her mother dies in her birth and thereby draws the hatred of her sister and successor Ganeda. Since Eilan was prophesied when she was born by the Merlin that she would one day connect two worlds, she first grows up in her father's household, where she experiences the Roman way of life and education, before she is sent to Avalon as a ten-year-old to attend her To begin training as a priestess. Her father sends her to Avalon earlier than planned when a military riot breaks out to bring her to safety. As soon as she arrives in Avalon, she realizes that she is actually not welcome there.

During the ritual of passage , which confirms her inner change from child to young woman, she foresees in a vision the arrival of a young man with whom she will fall in love. After the ritual of passage, she is trained as a priestess, but is denied training as a seer.

She soon proves to be a capable and intelligent student with great and far-reaching gifts. The potential for high priestess slumbers in her, but the current high priestess Ganeda has planned this vocation for her own daughter.

When Ganeda's daughter dies and her granddaughter Dierna remains as his successor, Helena is increasingly denied contact with her and her sister Becca. Ganeda does not listen to a vision of Eilan in which she sees that Becca is going to drown in the swamp. But her vision comes true and Dierna is heartbroken.

After a few trials, Helena is ordained a priestess.

When the man actually appears, whom she had foreseen in a vision a few years earlier to unite with a priestess in the course of the Beltane rites, Helena secretly takes the place of the originally intended priestess and sleeps with the young Constantius and becomes so impregnated by him. This disobedience is enough for Ganeda to banish the girl from Avalon forever.

Helena loses the baby, but becomes pregnant again. Since she no longer has another home, she accompanies her husband Constantius to Rome and not only gives birth to her son Constantine there, but also gets to know the power and profundity of Christianity. Deeply impressed, she begins to break away from Avalon and to accept the new faith.

The fact that Constantius entered into a political marriage with the stepdaughter of the Emperor Maximian in order to achieve the title of Augustus and separated from his beloved Helena is only the beginning of further losses. Only when Konstantius died does Helena return to his side and stand by him until the end. He dies in the arms of his great love that he has never forgotten.

During her stay in Britain, she visits the island of the priestesses again, but also realizes that this is no longer her world. In the following years she devoted herself to the education and support of her son Constantine and the search for the secrets and foundations of the Christian faith that even lead her to Jerusalem.

In the fall of her life, she realizes what the prophecy at her birth is all about, which has overshadowed her life for so long.

In the meantime the high priestess Ganeda has died and Dierna succeeds her as high priestess.

Her son Constantine is made emperor and takes Britain again after the reign of Carausius. Helena lives as the queen mother at the emperor's court and becomes an important and powerful person in Rome. Since Constantine strongly supports Christianity, the overwhelming power of Christians in the whole empire begins with him. His mother, a priestess of Avalon and daughter of the high priestess, tries successfully to unite both religions and to let them live next to each other and she thus builds a bridge between the worlds, as she was predicted when she was born.

Shortly before her death, Helena visits the island of Avalon to die there.

people

  • Helena : Also called Eilan, the daughter of the high priestess Rian and the Roman prince Coelius. When Helena's birth, the Merlin prophesies that she will stand at the turning point of time and open the gate between the worlds. Therefore, she first grew up with her father at the court of the British nobleman. At the age of 10 she was sent to Avalon to be trained as a priestess. She becomes the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine.
  • High Priestess Ganeda: The sister of Rian, the aunt of Helena and grandmother of Dierna.
  • Julius Coelius: Prince of Camulodunum, father of Helena.
  • Rian: Helena's mother dies while giving birth. She was the direct predecessor of the current high priestess Ganeda.
  • Emperor Constantine : The son of Helena and Constantius, Roman emperor 306–337.
  • Constantius Chlorus : A Roman Soldier. He comes from a good Roman family, which is currently out of favor in Rome. Husband of Helena and father of Constantine. In order to be able to obtain a higher title, Konstantius Chlorus divorced Helena in order to marry the emperor Maximian's stepdaughter. Appointment as Caesar of the West and later Augustus 293–306.
  • Carausius : Roman naval admiral who was miraculously saved by Dierna during a severe storm and then became her ally. He is married to Teleri and dies in heavy fighting after betraying the Romans. He is buried on Avalon next to Gawen.
  • Emperor Maximian : Emperor of the Roman Empire 286 to 305.
  • Dierna: Helena's second cousin and granddaughter of the high priestess Ganeda, direct successor of Ganeda.

Composition and narrative style

This narrative runs partially parallel to the novel The Mistress of Avalon and is the direct prehistory to the story about the high priestess Dierna, towards the end there is an overlap. It is a first-person story from Helena’s point of view. The story goes back to a section of the history of the Roman Empire .

preparation

When working out the historical details, Diana L. Paxson used the following sources, among others: Plantagenet Somerset Fry, Roman Britain; Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; The Late Roman Empire by AHM Jones; and Jan Willem Drijvers, Helena Augusta.

expenditure