The Forest House

Infobox Book |
name = The Forest House


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Marion Zimmer Bradley
cover_artist = John Jude Palencar
country = United States
language = English
genre = Fantasy novel
publisher = Viking Press
release_date = 1 April, 1994
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 432 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-670-84454-3
preceded_by = Ancestors of Avalon
followed_by = Lady of Avalon

"The Forest House" is a fantasy novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It is a prequel to her best-selling Arthurian novel "The Mists of Avalon".

The plot of "The Forest House" is based on that of the opera "Norma", relocated from Gaul to Britain, but sharing the basic plot outline of a love affair between a Druidic priestess and a Roman officer.

Plot introduction

The Forest House is set in the first century A.D. in the West of Britain, which was then part of the Roman Empire. Ms. Bradley wrote of the conquest of the Celtic tribes and the political and religious implications of the occupation. The novel revolves around the Druidic priestesses who serve the Goddess and keep the ancient rites of learning, healing, and magic lore in their sanctuary, "The Forest House". The forbidden love between the priestess Eilan and the Roman officer Gaius is one of the book's principal story lines. Bradley tells the story from both the British, female, druidic perspective, and the Roman, male, legionary perspective, and does so without apparent prejudice, in a style characteristic of her Avalon Series. The complexity of the plot and characters in this novel is somewhat less than that of "The Mists of Avalon".

Plot summary

In the early days of the conquest, when the Roman Legions are aggressively persecuting the Druids, the sanctuary of the Goddess on the isle Mona is destroyed and its Druids are murdered and its priestesses are raped. The raped priestesses that conceive children kill all of the girl children but leave the boys alive that are born and then kill themselves rather than live with the atrocities done to them; the males later became a rebel group known as the Ravens, which swore vengeance against Rome. Lhiannon,one of the remaining priestesses, re-establishes a new sanctuary in Vernemeton(Most Holy Grove) or The Forest House which is partially controlled and protected by the Romans.

The novel tells the story of Eilan, daughter of a noble druid family. She hears the calling of the Goddess and is chosen to become a priestess at Vernemeton, and later to succeed the dying Lhiannon as High Priestess. However, before her calling, she hears the voice of her heart, and during the magic night of Beltaine, conceives a son with Roman officer Gaius Macellius, son of the high-ranking Camp Prefect at nearby Deva. Gaius is an inheritant of royal blood through his Celtic mother of a southern tribe, the Silures. Eilan knows their son, Gawen, who shares blood from the Dragon (Celtic royal), the Eagle (Roman Empire) and from the Wise (Druids) will play a crucial role in Britain's future and accepts high sacrifices to protect his youth.

A major shift in the balance of power is in the air; Eilan senses that the death of her peace-loving Arch-Druid grandfather will cause it. She tells her friend Caillean (who was rescued from her uncaring mother in Hibernia by Lhiannon) to take a group of young priestesses to the isle of Avalon to found a new sanctuary and become the first high-priestess of Avalon. In Vernemeton Eilan is increasingly pressured by the new Arch-Druid, her father, to stop promoting peace and collaboration with the Romans. In a dramatic showdown she sacrifices herself (along with her love Gaius) to avoid a bloody insurgency and, in particular, to save the life of her son Gawen.

Allusions/references to other works

Probably Marion Zimmer Bradleys most famous single novel is "The Mists of Avalon", a retelling of the King Arthur myth from a feminist point of view. Over the years it grew into a series of books: "The Forest House" (1994), "Lady of Avalon" (1997), "Priestess of Avalon" (1997) and the "The Mists of Avalon" (1979).