Avilion (Mythago Wood #7) by Robert Holdstock
Here it is, then, the last in the Mythago Wood sequence, published in July 2009, just four months before the author’s tragic death at the age of 61. (Food poisoning! Be careful out there.) So who really knows if it was ever meant to be the final final book in the series. Because it appeared so long after the previous book, Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn, it might have represented a new lease of life. On the other hand, it might have been a mere Afterword.
So where are we in the sequence? Gate of Ivory etc. took us back in time to try to give the story of Christian Huxley before the events of Mythago Wood itself. This one fills in the story of Stephen and Guiwenneth (and their two children), after Mythago Wood but independently of Lavondyss, which is a kind of side-quest featuring the sister of a minor character in the first book.
The fact that you’re not following this is probably the point. Getting lost in the wood, lost in time and space, is what happens in the books. Time passes differently there, and space is certainly different.
Avilion is a story about duality. The Mythago sequence began with two brothers, both in love with (different iterations of) the same woman—not a human woman, but a myth-image called Guiwenneth, who is something like an Arthurian heroine and something like a Boudica. Their own father, George Huxley, was also obsessed with (a version of) Guiwenneth, and has long disappeared into the woods, never to return. Except, here he does return, but having become a mythago himself.
Stephen and Guiwenneth have children, Jack and Yssobel, who are half human and half mythago: half red (blood) and half green (wood). The spellings of their names are a clue to this: Jack is a down-to-earth human (nick)name, while Yssobel is a fancy alternative spelling of another human name. And of course the book’s title, Avilion, is a fancy alternative spelling of the Avilon of the Arthurian cycle.
Deliberately and slightly off, off to the side, out of the corner of your eye. So there’s an Odysseus in here, but he’s just slightly not the same as the one in the Odyssey. And there’s an Arthur, an off-brand Arthur, whose final battle and death are not quite the same as the legend. There’s a lake, and a sword, and a boat supposed to ferry him to the Island, but… all a bit off.
Jack is obsessed with the outside world, from where his father came; while Yssobel is obsessed with the Green, and wants to go deeper, to the heart of the wood, to find her way into the realm of the dead and somehow back out again. So there’s an off-brand version of Orpheus and Eurydice in here too.
When I say off-brand, I’m being facetious, but I’m not being pejorative. This is far too good, too clever and interesting, to be considered lesser in quality than the myths it plays with.
Because the thing about Mythago Wood is that it’s the myths we know (from our culture, our education, our inculcation) that create the characters and creatures who inhabit the wood. Mythago Wood is a vast playground, and if you went there, you might create your own Odysseus, your own Arthur, your own Guinevere. Or Merlin.
Guiwenneth has died several times. She is murdered and buried by Christian in the first book. But then she comes again, as Stephen’s Guiwenneth, but then, maybe, dies again, and is reborn. And this third Guiwenneth is not sure who she is. And when she meets a warrior who seems familiar, who refuses to give his name, she goes with him. Turns out, this warrior is a mythago of her own father, and together they travel into Lavondyss to evade Christian, who is on the hunt.
And it’s this Guiwenneth that Yssobel decides to follow—and bring back. And she meets her Odysseus and also Arthur, whose death she steals so she can reach Avilion.
Oh, and there are off-brand elves Ielven, who come to our world and kidnap children, leaving changelings behind.
While all this is happening, Jack tries to visit Oak Lodge, his father’s childhood home, which is sometimes outside and sometimes within the boundaries of Ryhope Wood. Yssobel goes in, Jack goes out. And the consequences of their journeys will pull and push them in different directions. Can Jack, half mythago, stay? Can he live in the human world? Or will the woods pull him back?
Sad to finish, glad to have read it. Not always an easy read, but always beautifully written. Should be on everyone’s list. If you have read Tolkein, you should read the Mythago sequence. It’s nothing like! But shows a different way of doing fantasy.
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