Ancestors of Avalon

Infobox Book |
name = Ancestors of Avalon
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Marion Zimmer Bradley (completed by Diana L. Paxson)
cover_artist = Dominic Harman
country = United States
language = English
series = Avalon Series
genre = Fantasy, Historical novel
publisher = Penguin Books
release_date = June 2004
media_type = Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
pages = 363 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-670-03314-6
preceded_by = The Fall of Atlantis (Web of Light/Web of Darkness)
followed_by = Ravens of Avalon

"Ancestors of Avalon" is a 2004 fantasy novel written by Diana L. Paxson, and based on an idea of the late Marion Zimmer Bradley.

The book is one of 5 prequels to Bradley's popular fantasy novel Mists of Avalon. The characters of Ancestors of Avalon have appeared earlier in Bradley's fantasy novel "The Fall of Atlantis". "Ancestors" is the missing link to the implied connection to the mythical Atlantis in Bradley's Avalon-series.

Plot summary

2500 years BC, Tiriki, Priestess of Light and of the Earth-goddess Ni-Terat, and her husband Micail, Priest of Light and Prince of the Atlantean state Atharrath, have to save themselves from the destruction of Atlantis and are forced to board different ships to the Isles of Tin (Britain). When they finally reach the British coast, they are far away from each other and they both believe that the other one is dead.

Tiriki and other Atlanteans who came with her, settle down in the swamplands surrounding the Holy Mountain (which is later going to be called the Isle of Avalon). She realizes that the cult of the Great Goddess is much stronger here than it was in Atlantis, so she and her companions start living with the indigenous people and build up a new religion, where the Atlantean knowledge and the Old Faith of the British people merge.

Micail and Tjalan, Prince of Alkonath, on the other hand, try to rebuild the lost glory of Atlantis and start building a huge stone circle -which will later be known as Stonehenge - in order to turn the people of Britain to slaves by using its tremendous powers.

When Tiriki and her followers finally come in contact with the other Atlantean settlement, conflicts arise immediately.

Trivia

Tiriki and Micail are early incarnations of the characters Igraine and Uther Pendragon from "Mists of Avalon", and of Gawen and Sianna in Lady of Avalon.