The first true sacrifice occurs when Viviane betrays Morgaine by compromising the young maiden of Avalon’s personal morals. Viviane sets the stage for Morgaine and her half-brother Arthur to participate in a carnal festival celebrating sex (Feast of Beltane) with each other. Viviane explains her actions that a sacrifice was needed for the sake of preserving Avalon and it’s religion. In the end, however, not only was Avalon adversely affected by Viviane’s actions, but so were the politics of Camelot.
As a result of this sexual encounter, Morgaine gave birth to Mordred, the bastard child of King Arthur. Her aunt Morgause asked to care for Mordred while he grew up so that Morgaine could return to Camelot and be by Arthur’s side. She gave her son to be under Morgause’s care and in doing so sacrificed witnessing and being a part of his childhood. Because of Viviane’s deception, Morgaine turned from Avalon and its religion and vowed to never return there or allow her son to travel there.
In Camelot there are more problems, unfortunately. Gwenhwyfar becomes Queen when she marries Arthur but cannot bear him an heir because Morgause has cast a curse on her womb. Morgause hopes to gain the throne herself through her actions. The curse causes Gwenhwyfar to resort to sin with an amulet blessed by Avalon. The sin spreads further as Arthur asks Gwenhwyfar and Lancelot to sleep together in the King’s bed so that an heir might be born.
Morgaine spends that same night with a young warrior knight named Accolon with whom she later she falls in love.
Gwenhwyfar begins to hate Morgaine when she realizes that even Avalon can not help her. So she convinces Arthur to marry Morgaine to Accolon’s father, Uriens of Wales. Morgaine is tricked however, and never realizes it until after she has accepted the proposal of marriage. Instead of embarrassing her brother by denying the marriage to the father of her lover Accolon, and possibly costing the loyalty of Uriens to Arthur, she continues through with the marriage and moves to Wales, sacrificing her love of Accolon to be with his father.
Years pass and Morgause is still raising Mordred to be a hateful ruler after Arthur dies. After Uriens dies Morgaine decides that she wants to travel back to Avalon, having previously shunned her past and her religious studies there. She is unable to part the mists though and must instead travel back to Camelot. What she encounters there is a chaos created by her own son Mordred. He has broken Arthur down along with the people of Camelot. He has forced Lancelot to leave the kingdom and Gwenhwyfar to stay in the haven of Glastonbury by revealing their love affair behind Arthur’s back. Viviane arrives with Morgaine to see the ending of Camelot and a skirmish between blood relatives ensues. Viviane kills Morgause for her evil doings against the kingdom, Mordred murders Viviane for killing his foster mother, and Mordred flees the kingdom. Morgaine then goes to her brother, to try and set right what their son had done wrong.
In the end, Camelot falls as Arthur leads his troops against Mordred and the Saxons. Father and son wound each other on a battlefield strewn with blood and very few living. Morgaine tries to stop it but arrives too late as Mordred dies. She takes Arthur to the Lake and tries again to part the mist to Avalon, a land that Arthur has never seen. But Morgaine’s power is lost forever because she shunned Avalon and the Lady of the Lake. Arthur dies after Excalibur is thrown back into the Lake and Morgaine goes to live her days in Glastonbury under a new religion.
Morgaine’s convoluted life as told above from The Mists of Avalon demonstrated sacrifices made by women in the Arthurian Romance legends of the Medieval time period. She lost her personal morals and respect for her religion when Viviane acted on the will of Avalon and asked Morgaine to participate in the festival with her own brother. Morgaine lost a childhood that could have been spent with Arthur and her mother Igraine when she was sent to Avalon for tutelage in the religion of Avalon. To protect the interests of Camelot and her brother’s reign as king Morgaine gave up her love to Accolon and married his father Uriens, even though she was tricked into it. Avalon was lost to her forever as well when she shunned it after Viviane’s betrayal with Arthur.
Gwenhwyfar as well lost her innocence through sacrifices made for king and country. Despite her deep religiousness, she did as her King requested and slept with Lancelot to help produce an heir. She also went to Avalon, a pagan religion to her, for help with fertility. Gwenhwyfar gave up her Christian beliefs and sinned to protect Arthur’s reign.
Viviane lost the love and trust of Morgaine when she followed the will of Avalon. Also, she lost the love of her sister’s Igraine and Morgause. Igraine never really forgave her for taking Morgaine away to Avalon and keeping her there, and Morgause became spiteful that Viviane had more power than she did. Viviane pressed on, though, continuing in her faith and watching over her successor despite being shunned by Morgaine.
Women had rough lives in the medieval time period as told through The Mists of Avalon. Religion played a large part in the lives of women as well as their husbands, lovers, countries, and leaders. They had to decide for themselves which was important and what they must sacrifice to remain true to that element.
