Priestess of Avalon (Paperback, New Ed)

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)

'This is the story of a Legend'

With her mother's dying breath, Eilan, the fifth child of the High Priestess of Avalon, takes life.

The baby is taken to her father, King Coel, and raised in the Roman way as Helena, but in the year A.D. 259 the ten-year-old girl is returned to the mystical place of her birth. There she begins her training as a priestess, in the face of her Aunt Ganeda's determination that she shall fail.

Despite Ganelda's hostility, fired by her resentment over the death of Helena's mother, the child grows to be a gifted priestess, and on the moonlit night of her initiation she has a vision of the Roman, Constantius, the man she will love for the rest of her life. Her vision also reveals that he will father the one whose light will blaze across the world, the one who will free Brittannia from Roman tyranny. But to be with him she must betray her sisters and turn her back on the security of Avalon, to build a new life in the danger-filled city of the enemy.

Published posthumously, this spellbinding historical romance is the conclusion to the enchanting Avalon series.

"Bradley 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

General

Imprint:	Voyager
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	2001
Authors:	Marion Zimmer Bradley
Dimensions:	178 x 111 x 25mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	382
Edition:	New Ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-00-648376-2
Categories:	Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Fantasy
LSN:	0-00-648376-3
Barcode:	9780006483762

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