Priestess of Avalon (Hardcover)

The last in the sequence of Avalon fantasies, Priestess of Avalon was completed after Bradley's death by Diana L. Paxson, her long-standing friend and collaborator. It's told from the viewpoint of Eilan, later known as Helena, born in 249AD to a priestess of Avalon, who dies in childbirth. She is sent to her Roman father, but returns to Avalon at age 10 to be initiated into the mysteries of the Goddess. When she falls in love with Constantius, a Roman, she leaves the sacred isle to become his consort, and bears a son who becomes Constantine the Great. Helena is a historical figure, but little is known of her life, and so the authors had considerable freedom in constructing this autobiography, linking her with the ancient wisdom of Avalon. During her long life, she travels the Roman Empire from Eburacum (York) to Rome, Greece and even Palestine. Her menfolk keep her away from the incessant wars, but her womanly life of hearth and home involves many important incidents, and as Christianity spreads across the Empire she struggles with the meaning of her own power as a servant of the Goddess. There are occasionally too many Roman names and too many political manoeuvrings to keep track of easily, but overall this is a strong and absorbing evocation of a world in flux, and the life of a strong woman within it. --Elizabeth Sourbut

Praise for The Mists of Avalon: "A most original interpretation of the matter of Britian by way of Celtic religion and the Great Mother... a remarkable feat of imagination" Mary Renault "A pillar of the fantasy field, Bradley here combines romance, rich historical detail, magical dazzlements, grand adventure and feminist sentiments into the kind of novel her fans have been yearning for" Publishers Weekly

With consummate skill Zimmer Bradley's novels combine romantic fantasy with early-Roman history, in the third and fourth centuries AD. This, her last, published posthumously, written with the co-operation of her lifelong friend Diana L Paxson (who did the 'historical legwork' and finally finished the story), tells the romantic tale of the woman who became Helena, mother of Constantine the Great. She was born Eilan, Child of Rian, High Priestess of Avalon, and was destined for priestesshodd of the Old Religion of Brittania. But plans do not always go as expected. When her mother died in childbirth Eilan was taken by her father, Roman King Coel, to be brought up in the Roman way and it was not until she was ten years old that she returned to Avalon to train as a priestess, under the disapproving and resentful eye of her mother's sister Ganeda, whose ambition was that her own child should be in Eilan's place. Fate took a deciding hand when Eilan meet and fell in love with Constantine, a Roman soldier with a very different future as an increasingly powerful figure in the Roman army and politics. In defiance of her upbringing, and Aunt Ganeda, Eilan yielded to their mutual passion, and their alliance was sealed in a cermony which carried no official sanction - something which affected the whole of their life together. Eilan, now 'Helena', travelled by her husband's side to the far-eastern reaches of the Roman world, and Rome's powerful Court, where first her husband, and then her son and grandson were to wear the royal purple. Little is known of the life of the royal Helena, though there are many legends about her and this novel is a credible addition. To aid those unfamiliar with the period there are maps, lists of people (many of them historical figures) and Latin place-names. (Kirkus UK)

King Arthur goes New Age in the latest offering from Bradley ("Traitor's Son", 1998, etc.), who has made a career of smoothing down the sharp corners of the Round Table for her matriarchal fans. Princess Eilan (that's "Helena" to you Eurocentric patriarchs) hails from the misty isle of Avalon, where she became adept in the ancient craft and lore of the wisewomen. In love with the Roman general Constantius, she leaves Britain and elopes with him-only to be cast aside when he becomes Caesar and is forced to marry the Roman patrician Theodora. In her grief she makes a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where she discovers the True Cross and learns of the new religion of Christianity. Eventually, her son Constantine succeeds his father as Caesar, and Helena helps him bridge the pagan and the Christian eras-changing Western history in the process. A guilty pleasure for ancient-history buffs, and a sure hit for the goddess crowd. (Kirkus Reviews)