Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23275 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
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

Synopsis
Helena. Beautiful, young, enigmatic. She's a daughter of the Holy Isle who became a Christian Saint and the heroine of Welsh legend. In 296, the emperor Contantius come to Britian and falls in love with Princess Eilan, known as Helana to the Romans. She is also the daughter of King Coel and the high Priestess of Avalon. Helena see's a chance to marry the bloodlines of ancient royal families, and their myths and traditions. But she has to contend with the politics of Rome, the ill fortunes of war and the irresistable rise of a powerful new religion...

Customer Reviews

Marion's Legacy
Thís fourth "Avalon" novel tells the life story of Eilan, a Priestess of Avalon, who becomes the wife/concubine of the Roman soldier Constantius Chlorus and mother of the legendary Emperor Constantine the Great, who later will be worshipped as a Christian saint. Known as Helena to the Romans, Eilan has to leave the isle of Avalon, because she wants to follow her heart. Her way leads her to Roman Germania, Rome and eventually the Holy Land. But her true home is elsewhere. Bradley's novel is a careful reimagination of a historical character that sometimes captures the reader with its atmospheric descriptions and lush storytelling. Written from Helena's first person point-of-view, Bradley adds another chapter to her popular series of pre-Arthurian historicals. Most of the time it is an entertaining read, but really too much happens off-stage or is simple recounted in dry sentences. Helena's story would have had the potential to rival THE MISTS OF AVALON, and it would have demanded a truly epic treatment. There are far too many time jumps and too much is left out. I think this novel could easily have been twice as long. Overall, this is a good book for MZB/Avalon fans, but not for people who have yet to encounter the magic of Marion Zimmer Bradley. And although Bradley died in 1999, there will be yet another novel in this series linking her Atlantis novel THE FALL OF ATLANTIS with her Avalon books...

More addictive reading from the Queen of Avalon!
Let's get is straight - if you've read the other Marion Zimmer Bradley books in the Avalon series, and you're dying for a "fix", you won't be disappointed with this one. Published posthumously with the collaboration of Diane Paxson, the story of Eilan is a well-written tale with a timeline that interweaves seamlessly with "Lady of Avalon", and shares many of the same characters.

For the first time in the Avalon series, life outside Britannia is explored, as Eilan becomes "Helena" and takes her place in Roman society alongside her husband, Constantius. The descriptions of faraway places are evocative and the reader is aided by a series of maps and translated place-names in the introduction to the book.

There were only two small issues which struck me initially; firstly that the book is written in the first person, while no others of the Avalon series are written this way, and secondly, that in a very early part of the book there are a couple of spelling and "continuity" errors. However, these are small things and will probably be ironed out in later editions.

I would highly recommend this book to Marion Zimmer Bradley fans, and congratulate Diane Paxson on her contribution to the work. I have read and re-read the other Avalon books until they were in tatters, and it seems I am destined to do the same with this one!!!