Mists of Avalon as an Epic

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley is a popular novel built around the epic legend of King Arthur. The novel brings a new take on the legend of Arthur by focusing on how the story affects the female characters commonly associated with the legend. Oddly enough, the novel takes on a very epic format. Structure, characterization, and the way the plot occurs against the background of an accepted legend all follow the parameters of an epic. While it shouldn’t be argued that Mists is an actual epic, it may be possible to argue that the novel is very epic-like in its delivery, and any reader stands to learn a great deal by reading the book as if it is an epic.
Arthurian legend makes a perfect epic past with which to write the story. One of the qualifications of the epic is that it takes place in a time that has come and gone, which is generally known by the audience. The legend of King Arthur is the closest thing to mythology that the British people still have, so it i...