The Mists of Avalon

By: Marion Zimmer Bradley

Narrated by: Davina Porter

Length: 50 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

A posthumous recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, Marion Zimmer Bradley reinvented - and rejuvenated - the King Arthur mythos with her extraordinary Mists of Avalon series. In this epic work, Bradley follows the arc of the timeless tale from the perspective of its previously marginalized female characters: Celtic priestess Morgaine, Gwenhwyfar, and High Priestess Viviane.

©1982 Marion Zimmer Bradley (P)1993 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

“[A] monumental reimagining of the Arthurian legends...” ( The New York Times Book Review)

Davina Porter brings an old favorite back to life!

I first read this book more than a quarter century ago as a college student. I had very fond memories of it, but hadn't reread it until I found it on Audible last month. Not only that, it was narrated by Davina Porter, who has become my favorite narrator through her reading of Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series.

I find Marion Zimmer Bradley's characters to be very real, and their interactions genuine. I love the general sweep of the story, and the elegance of the prose. And Porter's narration brings that depth of character development and storytelling to a new intensity.

One thing, if you are looking at the four-part "series" of this book, note that "The Mists Of Avalon" is the collection of the other four (Mistress Of Magic, The High Queen, The King Stag, and The Prisoner In The Oak). The full book costs one credit, and the parts also cost one credit. Save yourself three credits and buy the complete version at once.

Outstanding Must Listen Tome

The point of view of this novel comes from the females of the legend. From the first fifteen minutes, I am enthralled. We know the plot, we know the legend, or do we? Bradley offers a credible and interesting perspective that brings many possibilities to light that breathe life into this story.

Davina Porter makes narration a fine art in this story. Her voice brings this tale to life and she is the perfect fit.

This is a rare listen to a fantasy legend. Little is know about the real Arthur. Was he a king or a general? I offer highest praise. Please make room for this on you listening list. It is an investment at 60 hours. Also for you people who listen at 2X, you know who you are, slow down and take it all it a 1X. I give a big thumbs up.

The Mists of Avalon Unabridged includes all 4 bks

What did you love best about The Mists of Avalon?

I absolutely loved Davina Porter's reading of this series. I was pleasantly surprised to find that when I purchased the Unabridged version of "The Mists of Avalon," I had purchased all four books of the series using just 1 credit. Other reviewers had not commented on this, so I thought I would share and suggest that you do the same as the rest of the books are interesting. The story comes to life in this reading and it is well-researched. Zimmer Bradley conducts a fantastic feminist reading of the Arthurian legends.The production is equally fantastic- featuring Davina Porter who is one of the best audiobook readers.

What other book might you compare The Mists of Avalon to and why?

If you are interested in Porter's reading of this, you might also enjoy her reading of the Outlander Series (though a completely different type of historically-based drama).

Which character – as performed by Davina Porter – was your favorite?

She particularly excels in her Scottish accents.

SO MUCH LOST POTENTIAL

I should start by saying I really, really wanted to love The Mists of Avalon. How could I not, when it had so much potential? A “feminist” retelling of Arthurian legend set in the late 5th to early 6th century, the peerless Davina Porter as narrator, and decades of praise from critics and readers alike; added to the fact this 50+ hour audiobook combines four separate books into one -- I didn’t think a credit could be better spent!

Reluctantly, however, I find myself forced to admit that none of those things can make up for the fact that this book got lost in its own grandiosity. Ms. Bradley’s heavy-handed treatment of themes such as fate vs. free will felt like an emotional bludgeoning with her don’t-you-see-the-point-yet sledgehammer as we, the listener, are subjected to hour upon dragging hour of unrequited love, foolish pride, grating piety, and constant self-absorption from characters you want to like but can never really identify with. The protagonist, Morgaine, devolves into a rambling bore; her counterpart, Gwynhwyfar, is weak and irritating; and the plot twist revealed at the very end by the “villain” Morgause is given such short shrift I wondered if it was added-in as an editorial after-thought. And the men? Arthur is a one-dimensional “hero,” Lancelet is a sexually confused martyr, and Kevin is simply tragic. Strangely, I liked Mordred, although by the time he enters the story I was mostly over it.

That said: Do I regret buying this audiobook? No. Would I listen to it again? Probably not. Would I recommend it to others? Possibly. Davina Porter is a wonderful narrator, the time and place are well-researched and extensively detailed, and the premise is still unique. However, the story lags and the characters are emotionally exhausting. If you are going to give this book a chance, I would recommend having something a little more light-hearted on hand so you can switch between the two books. [Think Tina Fey’s “Bossypants,” Mark Tufo’s “Zombie Fallout,” or Kresley Cole’s “Immortals After Dark” series.]

Authors Abuse ruined it for me

read her Daughter Moira Greyland. MZB was an enabler and abuser. wish I never bought it.

Don't want it to end...

I am in love with anything Davina Porter narrates, but in the Mists of Avalon, I am also re-captivated by the story of Camelot as told through the eyes of the key women. It is refreshing and thought-provoking in ways I would not have expected; an aspect that only adds to my enjoyment!

Still a favorite

Where does The Mists of Avalon rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the better audiobooks since it is an old favorite.

What did you like best about this story?

The reader, Davina Porter. She is one of my favorites.

What about Davina Porter’s performance did you like?

She is able to mix and match the voices without making all the men sound like idiots.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I guess my strongest reaction is just a real comfort with the story - I strongly associate with the crossover elements to other literature on the Arthurian legends.

Any additional comments?

Highly, highly recommend.

Reimagining Arthur in a Syncretic Context

Today we remake Spiderman every couple of years. For much of the millennium before that – extending to today – we’ve remade the legends of Arthur and the Round Table. It’s generally the same story, at least in its outlines, but the challenge is to emphasize one or another element, to take material that belongs to all of us and to reframe it with a particular perspective.

When you come to Bradley’s Mists of Avalon, it helps to know the story already. Spoiler, but Guinevere can’t deny her love for Lancelot and that means trouble all around. And the part about the quest for the Holy Grail that destroys the companionship of the knights? Yeah, there’s no avoiding it either.

Traditional authors of the story have done all sorts of things with it, of course. Malory applied it to developing and codifying a code of chivalry which, while it has its virtues, helped lay the foundation for a sexist and puritanical Britain two or three centuries later. T.H. White (with Disney following) emphasized the wonder of the story, turning it into one stream of fantasy that paved the way for the reception of (if not so much the creation of) Tolkien’s world.

Bradley turns out to be powerfully ambitious here. She inserts a clear feminist take on the legends – here, Morgaine (Morgan le Fey) is not evil, but rather the most important representative of the druidical religion that Christianity is displacing. This is not “merely” feminism, though. Instead, it’s a claim for what I’d call syncretism, for the argument that the “enemy” isn’t some form of Satan but rather intolerance of what we cannot understand in our limited human perspective. We get lots of quotes exonerating Christ from the work of extirpating the traditional religion, with the blame going instead to “His priests.” (As such, St. Patrick, here as Patricius, is much more the ‘bad guy’ than Morgaine herself.)

The idea for Bradley, that is, is that we find the best in ourselves as humans when we embrace the good wherever we find it. She’s hardly anti-Christian, yet she embraces the sense that the nature-worshipping druids had important virtues as well. The challenge is always to find a balance, to accept that catechism – the mindless listing of what we ought to believe and how we ought to conduct ourselves – is the enemy of real faith. That’s as true for seeing the power within women as it is in the context of faith.

In a way, then, she offers what may be the most important theological take on the fantastic in the interval between Tolkien and George R.R. Martin. Tolkien (and C.S. Lewis, of course) used fantasy to explore a clear vision of a benign, monotheistic space where evil nonetheless existed. At the other end, Martin has unveiled a world where there is no “true north” of faith, a world where the supernatural is present but a range of god-like figures vie with one another for amoral victory.

It’s fascinating, then, to see Bradley as a middle-ground, as someone intent on using the genre to imagine a space between catechism and amorality. At its best, that’s precisely what her exhaustive take on these legends accomplishes. The Grail of her account, for instance, may or may not be the cup of Christ, but it is clearly something long used in druidical worship that Merlin, that traitor to the druidical cause, has stolen for Christian purposes. It’s not an angel that the knights see holding it but rather Morgaine herself, channeling the powers of the goddess for a brief moment, who sets them off to discover a vision of the holy that they can imagine only within a Christian vocabulary.

As a concept, as a motive for revisiting stories most of us know in one form or another, I love all that. And parts of this, especially the opening pages, are wonderfully done. There’s a reason this was a best-seller when it came out, and there’s a reason it lingers around the edges of the genre’s canon even as Bradley has come to be held to account for a lot of disturbing things from her lifetime.

All that said, though, this can’t entirely escape what seems the original sin of the genre. This is simply too long by at least a third. What works in the first few hundred pages – the scene-setting, tension-building, character-developing work – becomes tedious by the end. We all know what’s going to happen; I’d like to see her get to the parts that matter to her sooner: the collapse of the Round Table as a sign of the failure of syncretism, the trapping of Merlin as simultaneously a feminist reclamation of the goddess and a pyrrhic victory for the druidical cult, and the final vision of Arthur as representing a “Camelot” moment that we can look to for inspiration even as we cannot recreate it.

I’m glad I read this – it came in handy as the semester wound down and I needed something thoughtful and distracting to listen to as I drove to work and walked the dogs – but I’m glad to be finished as well.

A Long Slog, But The Ending is GORGEOUS

At close to 900 pages and 51 hours, this book is something of a daunting endeavor, but I can assure you the ending makes it worth it. Indeed, the ending has as much power as it does BECAUSE so much time and space is devoting to constructing Arthur's Britain. I highly recommend this book. Truly a seminal piece of work in feminist fantasy, but also in Arthurian adaptions.

Fantastic Narration by Davina Porter!

What did you love best about The Mists of Avalon?

What I loved the best was the whole atmosphere that continues throughout the book. It's calm and serene, even in the most tumultuous parts. You can feel from the very beginning, the mysticism of the place and people. Davina Porter's voice is perfect for that calmness. Her character voices are superb, and you can sometimes forget that you're listening to just one person!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Well, of course, my favorite character was Morgaine because she is the one that you are right there with throughout the book. We hear her innermost thoughts, and so we cannot help but be on her side! She is mystical and powerful, even in the times she thinks she is not. Now, on the other side of things, the character I loved to hate was Guinevere! She was so bratty, selfish, and shallow! Everytime we heard things from her point of view, I really wished someone would just push her off a cliff.

Which scene was your favorite?

The parts of the book that really stuck with me for some reason were the very first two paragraphs, when Morgaine says,

"In my time I have been called many things: sister, lover, wise-woman, queen."

All the way through to,

"And now, when the world has changed and Arthur - my brother, my lover, king who was, and king who shall be - lies dead (the common folk say sleeping) in the Holy Isle of Avalon, the tale should be told as it was before the priests of the White Christ came to cover it all with their saints and legends."

I think it completely sets the tone for the entire book, and Davina Porter's voice really brings it to life.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I didn't have any extreme reactions to this book, mostly because even the sad parts were cloaked in mystery and sereneness. You sort of glide through from beginning to end in an enchanted haze. It was different!

Any additional comments?

Before listening to this book, I had already listened to the entire Outlander series, which Davina Porter also narrated. Each audiobook is very long, so in total, I'd listened to about 326 hours of Davina telling the Outlander tale. I was craving more of Outlander after that, so I looked at what else she had narrated. The Mists of Avalon caught my eye, and even though I was hoping the narration would remind me of Outlander, it didn't! Her voice wasn't that different, but I found that I never thought about Outlander while listening to this book! That, to me, was an impressive thing! I was sucked in by the story, and not just the voice.

Spellbinding. Truly.

Where does The Mists of Avalon rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Oooh. Top ten, I think. Counting all the Sherlock dramatisations as one.
Mostly for the length (don't be intimidated, it's a really easy listen) - you get a *lot* of book for your £7 credit (and it downloads in parts, so each part doesn't take ages).

I had been working my way through Tolkien, Susan Cooper (Dark is Rising) and the Alan Garner books - the last two authors fond memories from childhood, listened/bought for old times' sake (still good!). I was looking for other things based on folk tales/Arthurian/Norse/Celtic mythology (in a bid to get away from traffic jams and checkout queues) and this was a "other listeners bought..." suggestion by Audible.
Well done Audible, and many thanks!

What did you like best about this story?

Content - it's a retelling of the Arthurian legend (in accessible language) but with a slightly different focus - re-told from the perspective of the women in the tale (Morgaine, Igraine, the Lady of the Lake). The writing and language is good (no glaring anachronisms) - convincing but accessible. Some books you get to the end of a sentence and cannot remember what the beginning was about - not so with this one.
The setting and history of the characters is good - a lot of the characters make much more sense to me now (although it isn't dry like a factual book). The juxtaposition of the demise of paganism (feminist/matriarchal society) and rise of Christianity (masculinist/patriarchal society) provides a good historical background and context for struggles.
You do get transported to another world (exactly what I'm looking for whilst cleaning the bathroom).

Which scene did you most enjoy?

So far, the Uther and Igraine scene. You know, if you've watched Excalibur (not in a rude way though - there's no toe curling stuff).

Any additional comments?

Narrator. Absolutely brilliant. Have had a few dud ones recently but Davina Porter is great - will look for more books narrated by her.

If you like Philippa Gregory, Ken Follet, Bernard Cornwell, Jean Plaidy, Tolkien and you are willing to listen to a different take on a legend, you might enjoy this.

Enter into another world

What made the experience of listening to The Mists of Avalon the most enjoyable?

The story and the brilliant reader.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Morgaine. Much misrepresented in other Arthurian stories as the villainess, here she is a woman in the grip of fate she did not make, and its consequences. A believable well-rounded character, not an archetype of the wicked witch.

Have you listened to any of Davina Porter’s other performances? How does this one compare?

I would like to listen to more. She is one of the best readers I have come across, and it really does make all the difference.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, I have read the book, so I know the story. I wanted to savour this, and I know I'll listen to it again.

Any additional comments?

If you want to dive in to Arthur and the Celtic imagination, here would be a good place to start.

A life time

I read this book over 25 years ago and it made an impression. Never did i think listening to it, the book would still provoke those emotions within. Well worth taking the time to listen to the Goddess in this book.

Masterful retelling

If you could sum up The Mists of Avalon in three words, what would they be?

Heartbreaking, empowering, well-crafted

What other book might you compare The Mists of Avalon to, and why?

The Once and Future King, for its masterful retelling of Arthurian legend that brings the timeless tales into a new light.

What does Davina Porter bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

She really gives voices to all the characters - I never felt uncertain about who was speaking. She also keeps my attention amazingly.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No way

Any additional comments?

The one downside is that I found the ending quite anti-climactic, and I also questioned some of the characters' actions, finding them out of character.

The best version of the Arthurian legends

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

It will make you think about many topics and question your understanding.

What did you like best about this story?

The fact that's is such a long story yet the narrative keeps it interesting to the end.

Any additional comments?

This story is written from the point of view of the women of the legends, roles are reversed and deserved homage is given to the 'old' religion and it's tolerance of 'new' religions.

superb and magical

What an amazing book. This has easily become one of the best books I have ever read or listened too. superb and it get 10 out of 10 from me. just magical.

Family and friends.

At the moment the length of story is a bit daunting. But it puts a new spin on this legend. You also need to watch for all the twists and turns and remember that people had different views, beliefs and maybe morals than us. Good book and good narration.

Excellent Arthurian story

This is one of my favourite books and I never tire of listening to it. It's rare and compelling to find a retelling of the Arthurian legends told from the woman's viewpoint. We get a real insight into the emotions and lives of the characters, alongside a very atmospheric detailed recreation of the times.

The one and only criticism that I have is the narrator is a little emotionless. It's a sweeping saga encompassing anguish, pain, joy and all that. The characters are often portrayed screaming in anger or desperate intensity, in pain, tearful, weeping or excited, but the polite, cultured voice of Davina Porter carries on in the same measured tones throughout. I wouldn't say expressionless, but certainly pretty emotionless. She never screams /cries /weeps/ has a break in her voice, despite very clear directions in the text requiring the narrator to show extreme emotions. She also ignores text cues such as "she said in a shaky little voice", "his voice broke", "she said tearfully" or "spoken in a North country accent" etc - everything is spoken in the same polite level tones, which does detract somewhat from the drama. She also misses cues that would help with the intonation of sentences, so the emphasis falls on the wrong word several times on every page. She barely changes tone between the male and female characters, so often you can't tell who is speaking until we hear their name. The only exception to this is King Lot and his sons, who are from Orkney. Here she attempts a badly mangled Scottish accent.... although Gwydian, who is fostered with this family, ends up with a Yorkshire accent!?? (which is described in the text as north country). I can't figure this out at all, as he would surely have a Scottish accent - he lived until early adolescence in Scotland and then went to Avalon. Possibly this why she doesn't attempt any more ambitious accents! Davina's cultured, gentle voice, while certainly suitable for the subject of the book, could be a little more expressive and she needs to have read through the book more carefully first.

Great story

I love this book. It’s a great story of love and loss and betrayal. Will definitely listen again and again

Blessed

Something I had been searching for,
a deeper connection and awakening of what is already a part of us