The Women of Avalon

Frankly, I don't know how I feel about what has happened here in Avalon. It is hard to tell what really happened to Morgaine regarding her involvement with the Horned One. Much of her experiences were out-of-body, chasing the hunt and watching the rituals take place from her own mental point of view. I am still confused about how exactly she was decided to be this Goddess of earth and life, and the times when she was possessed by the magic of Avalon, feeling the power run through her, and acting outside of her own body. It was hard to tell how she went between these feelings, and being back in her constant, conscious mental state.

The clear part of the story was the fact that she had this random anonymous sexual experience with a boy in a cave. I don't know about anyone else, but I dont usually sleep with someone ive never met out in the middle of nowhere, but then again, Ive also never been on a crazy Avalon vision quest freaking out in a forest. Of course the boy was only nameless for a short time, maybe the most important time, she only found out after sex who her partner was. Her own brother.

As this story unfolds I am trying very hard to not view these women as totally insane, drugging each other, prophecies, blood rituals, sacrifices, and now random anonymous sex in the wilderness. The only thing that could make it worse was if Morgaine had slept with, idk... her own brother. Oh wait, that does happen, what is going on.

Although many of these events sound very insane and hard to believe to the fullest, it is interesting that we hear an Arthurian tale from the women's perspective. Not a viewpoint you often hear about in this day and age. We hear about the first hand struggles of Morgaine and what she goes through in Avalon and we also learn the origins of Arthur being proclaimed king through the eyes of Viviane. She offers him an option, to swear himself to serve under the realm of equality, and to accept all religions and backgrounds, or to deny this new sword and reign under the hand of the Christian faith.

We see two interesting things happening during this point in the story that are not common among tales of Arthur. First he is being ordered to make a decision by Viviane, a woman. Usually nobody tells King Arthur what to do except maybe Merlin, but we see here that a woman is guiding his actions and he must respect her power over him. We also see someone challenge Christianity, that maybe there is more to life than what God and the church have proclaimed, at this time many people could have been killed for questioning Christianity, but religious freedom is suggested and accepted (with some consideration) positively by a young Arthur.

Arthur chooses to accept the sword and swear that he will treat all men fairly and that he will not bind his faith to only one set of beliefs. Perhaps this early experience guided him towards his fair-minded actions until the day he died.