The Once and Future Queen

by Nicole Evelina

  But before these authors could allow Guinevere to triumph, there would be one more weak characterization, albeit in a book of strong women.

  * * *

  371 Bonner, "Guinevere as Heroine," 75.

  372 Cornell University held the first women’s studies course in America in 1970. It was called “The Evolution of Female Personality.” For more information, see Ju, Anne, “Women’s Studies at Cornell Evolves over 40-year History to include Sexual Minorities,” Cornell Chronicle, 2009.

  373 Cooley, "Re-vision from the Mists," 16.

  374 Hoberg, "In Her Own Right," 68.

  375 Davidson, Roberta. “When King Arthur Is PG 13.” Arthuriana, vol. 22, no. 3 (2012), 6.

  376 Walters, “Introduction,” xlv.

  377 Hoberg, Tom,“In Her Own Right: The Guenevere of Parke Godwin,” in Popular Arthurian Traditions, ed. Sally K. Slocum. (Bowling Green: Bowling Green State U Popular P, 1992), 68.

  378 Gordon-Wise, The Reclamation of a Queen, 99.

  379 Walters, “Introduction,” xlv.

  380 Gordon-Wise, The Reclamation of a Queen, 98.

  381 Hoberg, "In Her Own Right," 68.

  382 Howey, "Once and Future Women," 30.

  383 Ibid., 44-45.

  384 Ibid.,46.

  385 Walters, “Introduction,” xlv.

  386 Stewart, Mary, The Merlin Trilogy (New York: Eos, 2004), 273.

  387 Cooley, "Re-vision from the Mists," 6.

  388 Ibid.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Marion Zimmer Bradley—The Mists of Avalon

  “‘If all goes as I plan, you’ll wed the High King himself.’

  Guinevere shrinks away, saying, ‘I’d be afraid to be High Queen.’

  ‘You’re afraid of everything, anyway…that’s why you need a man to take care of you…. You must trust me to know what’s best for you. That’s what I am here for, to look after you and make a good marriage with a trusty man for my pretty featherhead.’”389

  — The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

  Women in the Fore

  Marion Zimmer Bradley was the first author to attempt a major feminist reinvention of Arthurian legend in her groundbreaking 1983 novel, The Mists of Avalon. It was different from any work that came before it in its clear intent to tell the stories of the women in King Arthur’s court. The Mists of Avalon resonates because Bradley has reinvented “the underlying mythology of the Arthurian legends,”390 writes Meredith Ross in her dissertation on the restructuring of Arthurian legend in modern novels. The original New York Times review of The Mists of Avalon says almost the same thing verbatim, adding, “Nor is it a surprise to find at this time a rewriting of the ‘matter of Britain’ from the female perspective, as Jean M. Auel’s Children of Earth series has begun to rewrite prehistory the same way. Looking at the Arthurian legend from the other side, as in one of Morgaine’s magic weavings, we see all the interconnecting threads, not merely the artful pattern.”391

  In addition, The Mists of Avalon shifts the setting from the Malory-influenced medieval Christian court that so informs earlier iterations of the legend to a semi-historical pagan Britain that is very different from prior cultural-religious contexts, subtly changing the emphasis from the male members of the court to the female. Because of this, Johnson notes the book “immediately shocks the reader of traditional Arthurian legend with a startling change in setting….In Bradley’s heretofore pagan England, women were held in the highest esteem and even venerated as the embodiment of the Goddess. This idea complemented the growing neo-paganism that was emerging in the latter twentieth century, as well as the general awareness of female potential and equality.”392

  As with so many other things in Arthurian legend, this is in keeping with the trends of the times. By the early 1980s, Wicca393 was taking hold among a certain segment of the population as an alternative to the oppression of Christianity, especially among women who sought power and acceptance in religion. One of its myriad traditions, Dianic Wicca, was a goddess-only religion that sought to remove the power of the patriarchy by removing men from its worship and consideration completely. Cooley explains how this religious movement may have influenced Bradley’s writing: “The introduction of Goddess-worship, paganism, the ‘Old Ways,’ or any other female-centric pre-Christian religious practice…is a direct result of the combination of the resurgence of Goddess worship as a feminist spiritual reclamation and Celtic Reconstructionism, which makes it possible to incorporate a ‘realistic’ portrayal of sub-Roman British religious practice.”394 Ironically, Bradley’s novel would go on to inspire several branches of Arthurian, Avalonian, and Celtic Wicca in the decades after the book’s publication.395

  Guinevere: Christian in a Pagan World

  During this period, Arthurian legend was slowly moving from the realms of myth and legend into the genre of historical fiction, which provided its own set of problems. Historians and archeologists were advancing theories that placed a historical Arthur, if such could ever be proven to exist, in post-Roman Britain, a time period for which little hard evidence is available, even less so about women. It was difficult to write about “pseudo-historical women living in a period from which there is little solid historical evidence about the nature of women’s lives,” but Cooley notes this provided female writers with a great creative opportunity. “Rather than restricting Arthurian feminist authors to ‘historically accurate’ portrayals of their female characters, however, the lack of unbiased historical evidence provides these authors the perfect opportunity to re-envision the lives of Guinevere, Morgan, Lynett, and others in ways that were relevant to twentieth century women but remained in a speculative sub-Roman British society.”396

  That is exactly what The Mists of Avalon did. “Bradley focalizes her narrative through several women; her writing is one of the most often identified by commentators as feminist,”397 notes Howey. However, it wasn’t the raging feminist manifesto a reader might expect, at least not where the character of Guinevere is concerned. Bonner pointedly calls out the misleading nature of the promotional copy of the novel: “The cover of [Bradley’s] paperback novel reads, ‘The magical saga of the women behind King Arthur’s throne.’ One might thus expect Bradley’s novel to introduce a very different Guinevere… However, Bradley’s Guinevere is the antithesis of the liberated woman.”398 Serving as an example of what powerful men make women into, this Guinevere is shy, always panicking and fearful. She is wracked by guilt, consistently feeling that she is never good enough. This docile, weak personality was likely influenced by her upbringing in a thoroughly Christian convent education, where she learned little but the womanly skills of cooking, herbs, and healing, and most of all, a fear of God. In case Guinevere’s tepid personality doesn’t shine through strongly enough, Bradley gave her the twin afflictions of myopia and agoraphobia, branding her “narrow-sighted and by extension, narrow-minded.”399

  This Guinevere has no desire to rule, nor has she any self-esteem. She seeks only to please the men in her life, even going so far as to speak in a soft voice because a loud one offends her father.400 Her father clearly has no expectations for or confidence in her, calling her “my pretty little featherhead.”401 Any thoughts of moving against the patriarchal society in which she lives are stifled by fear of her father,402 which Johnson sees as consistent with Guinevere’s larger purpose in the book: “Lee Ann Tobin suggests that Guinevere’s primary role in The Mists of Avalon ‘is to show how women lost their power in Western civilization. In Guinevere, Bradley describes a woman whose upbringing has been traditional in that she is trained to be submissive by her family and her Christian church.’ Accordingly, Guinevere is meek and acknowledges her father’s decision as if he were, in fact, speaking the words of God.”403 A timid girl, a shrewish wife and lover, a
religious fanatic, and a queen who has no interest in ruling, Gwenhwyfar is, for all intents and purposes, “the villain of Bradley’s novel and a character with whom few readers find it easy to empathize.”404

  Like so many medieval women before her, Guinevere’s main duty is to provide an heir. In keeping with Arthurian tradition, she has trouble in this area. Howey explains: “Gwenhwyfar is desperate to have a son. She wishes to bear Arthur’s heir in order to give herself more power, knowing that Arthur has promised to do anything for her, should she bear him a son. This is ironic since he offered her joint rule of the kingdom when they were first wed and she refused”405 out of fear.

  It is Arthur who suggests she might wish to sleep with someone close to him in order to have a child, resulting in the ground-breaking threesome the book is remembered for. However, as Johnson notes, the scene is not there for shock value; it helps drive the growth of Guinevere’s character. “Arthur’s proposal sends Guinevere into a moral quandary. The same religion that says she should obey her husband also says the act he wants her to commit is a sin, and she wonders: ‘How could she, a woman, make that decision?’”406 Though we know she eventually takes her husband’s advice, it is not out of obedience to him, as we would expect. Rather, Guinevere chooses to ask Morgaine for a charm “so that she had no choice but to love Lancelot, then she would be freed of that fearful choice.”407 Just as she is scared of everything, she fears taking responsibility for her actions. Johnson points out that despite her fear, Guinevere’s decision ends up being freeing for her. “Guinevere decides that since neither God nor her husband rescued her from the devastating experience with Melegrant, she will not feel guilty being with the man who does save her.” She willingly has sex with Lancelot, choosing never to hide her love for him ever again.408

  This is one of the few controversial acts of Guinevere’s life. For the most part, and even in this case, she goes along with what the men in her life, most notably Arthur, wish for her. According to Bonner, “Guinevere is merely part of Arthur’s domestic backdrop; he exists and acts in the world without her say or even her knowledge.”409 Though the scandalous ménage à trois may seem a subversive act on her part, Guinevere is really just once again obeying her husband by living out his idea.

  Guinevere only twice attempts to act independently, and both end in tragedy. Her choice to return to Caerleon during the Saxon invasion eventually results in her miscarriage and her attempt to negotiate with Malegrant on her own ends in him raping her. Johnson sees a definite correlation between Guinevere’s choices and the repercussions she suffers. “Guinevere is literally beaten and defiled for daring to step out of the submissive mold demanded by her church. The Queen realizes after the rape that her religion, with its abhorrence of women, has so poorly equipped her to deal with life without the benefit of man that she is incapable of making decisions based on sound judgment. This episode becomes a defining moment for Guinevere as she contemplates what she feels is an injustice forced on her by virtue of her gender, her God and her marriage.”410

  In the end, it is Guinevere’s stubborn clinging to her Christian upbringing that causes her undoing. According to Johnson, “Throughout the novel, Guinevere struggles to do what is right as determined by her upbringing and church, all while inwardly resenting her loss of self.”411 While some critics praise her iron will in this regard as well as her success in converting Arthur to Christianity,412 Gordon-Wise sees it as questionable at best. “In this revisionist treatment, it is not her love for Lancelot that causes the downfall of Camelot; instead it is her powerful will which has embraced patriarchal Christianity.”413 She convinces Arthur to turn his back on Avalon and give up the rites of the Goddess. Later she reveals Arthur’s illegitimate son and forces Arthur to confess to a priest who gives him a public penance.414

  Even when Bradley takes the unusual step of giving Guinevere the chance to run away with Lancelot, Guinevere ultimately succumbs to the martyrdom expected by her patriarchal Christian culture. She experiences happiness at her possible freedom with Lancelot for less than a page before changing her mind and deciding to sacrifice herself for the good of Arthur and Lancelot. Instead of being pushed off the page by her author, as earlier Guinevere’s were, Bonner points out that she “willingly ushers herself out of the story. She does not attempt to seize her own desires; instead she steps aside to create peace in the world of men.”415 By not fleeing with Lancelot, Guinevere chooses to live out her days in a nunnery, even though the idea terrifies her, becoming a willing sacrifice for the good of Arthur and others.

  Feminist or Feminot?

  Why is there such a weak Guinevere in an otherwise feministic book? It seems to be a function of Guinevere’s being Morgan/Morgaine’s antithesis. Howey argues that “Bradley’s portrayal of the unfairness of Gwenhwyfar’s position is compromised…by the implicit comparison between Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar.”416 Whether Ms. Bradley wrote her that way consciously or not is impossible to say, but Guinevere clearly is everything Morgaine is not. She is weak whereas Morgaine is strong; agoraphobic whereas Morgaine takes on the world; simpering whereas Morgaine is bold; not to mention Christian and dutiful whereas Morgaine wields the powers of Avalon and answers to no one. Gordon-Wise writes that Bradley “offers her female readers two alternatives—be independent of men, as Morgaine is, or be ruled by them, as Guinevere is.”417

  To the reader, this contrast can feel as though Bradley thought she had to make the two women diametrical opposites in order to get her point across that Morgan has been wronged through the centuries and to give her the redemption she deserves. Gordon-Wise has another theory: that Bradley is making a statement on the relationship between gender and power in history. “By contrasting the figure of Gwynwyfar to that of Morgaine, Bradley has created a powerful foil who makes telling comment on the patriarchal versus the matriarchal vision of life…In this way, Gwynwyfar carries a significance never even hinted at in earlier Arthurian material.”418 Whereas Morgaine is the feminist ideal, this Guinevere brings to light the type of women all females would be if no one had rebelled against the long-held belief that men were superior; while she may not be the modern woman’s role model, Bradley’s Guinevere is a warning, the image that causes the female reader to whisper, “there but by the grace of God go I.”

  * * *

  389 Bradley, Marion Zimmer, The Mists of Avalon (New York: Random House Publishing Group, 2001), 256.

  390 Ross, "The Sublime to the Ridiculous," 447.

  391 Quilligan, Maureen, “Arthur’s Sister’s Story,” The New York Times, January 30, 1983.

  392 Johnson, “Guenevere's Conflict," 6.

  393 Wicca’s founder Gerald Gardner claimed the religion had ancient roots despite the fact that it was established as a neo-pagan religion in the 1960s.

  394 Cooley, "Re-vision from the Mists," 17.

  395 One of which is the Sisterhood of Avalon, founded by Jhenah Telyndru.

  396 Ibid., 7-8.

  397 Howey, "Once and Future Women," 30.

  398 Bonner, "Guinevere as Heroine," 75-76.

  399 Cited in Bonner, "Guinevere as Heroine," 10.

  400 Gordon-Wise, The Reclamation of a Queen, 143.

  401 Bradley, "The Mists of Avalon," 256.

  402 Ibid.,144.

  403 Johnson, “Guenevere's Conflict," 22.

  404 Noble, James, "Guinevere, the Superwoman,", 199.

  405 Howey, "Once and Future Women," 96.

  406 Johnson, “Guenevere's Conflict," 31.

  407 Bradley, "The Mists of Avalon," 336.

  408 Johnson, “Guenevere's Conflict," 36.

  409 Bonner, "Guinevere as Heroine," 82.

  410 Johnson, “Guenevere's Conflict," 27.

  411 Ibid., 23.

 
412 Noble, James, "Guinevere, the Superwoman," 202.

  413 Gordon-Wise, The Reclamation of a Queen, 147.

  414 Ibid., 146.

  415 Bonner, "Guinevere as Heroine," 83.

  416 Howey, "Once and Future Women," 62.

  417 Bonner, "Guinevere as Heroine," 76.

  418 Gordon-Wise, The Reclamation of a Queen, 142, 144.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Parke Godwin and Gillian Bradshaw