The Mists of Avalon

Morgaine:
No-one knows the real story of the great King Arthur of Camelot. Most of what you think you know about Camelot, Gwenhwyfar, Lancelot and the evil sorceress known as Morgaine le Fay, is nothing but lies. I should know, for I am Morgaine le Fay, priestess of the Isle of Avalon, where the ancient religion of the Mother Goddess was born.

Igraine:
But I'm married to the Duke of Cornwall, I've borne him a child! I will not betray him! I gave him my vows!

Viviane:
You gave them first to Avalon.

Viviane:
No man or woman can live another's fate.

Ambrosius:
Woman, are after all, carriers of Original Sin.

Bishop Patricius:
That's not quite how we advance it, sir.

Igraine:
Do you not say that women are the means by which evil came into the world? There is in your bible a fantastic tale about an apple and a snake.

Igraine:
Think, before you strike me, Gorlois. Or I will teach you that a daughter of the holy isle is a servant of no man.

Morgaine:
All the unhappiness of the past seemed to be swept away when I saw my little brother Arthur for the first time.

Morgaine:
As Lancelot made his decision, deep within me there stood something I had felt for no man before. Within days, on the orders of Viviane, I was on my way to take part in the fertility rites known as the Beltane feast. The ceremony she called, "The Great Marriage." To whom I would be given, I did not know. But Viviane assured me that the future of Avalon depended on my playing the role of the Virgin Huntress. And that my partner would be the man that killed the King Stag. As I returned to the holy isle, a great longing gripped my heart. I hoped that the man at the Beltane rites had been Lancelot, but I had never seen his face. There had been no hint as to who he really was.

[Arthur is trapped in a burning house during a Saxon seige]

Arthur:
I call on the powers of Heaven and Earth, aid me now! I call upon the God of Heaven, and the Goddess of the Earth, help me now!

Viviane:
You call upon the God, and the Goddess? It is the Goddess who answers.

Gwenhwyfar:
I dreamt of you in Glastonbury. You... you opened a curtain into Avalon, and lifted me in.

Lancelot:
It wasn't a dream. I was there, with Morgaine. She lifted you in. But I asked her to do it.

Gwenhwyfar:
So you felt it too.

Lancelot:
But I am sworn to Arthur.

Gwenhwyfar:
As am I.

Lancelot:
So we have nothing to confess.

Gwenhwyfar:
But I have sinned with you in my thoughts.

Lancelot:
Thoughts, are not deeds.

Gwenhwyfar:
But the Bishop says, to think, is to do.

Lancelot:
My thoughts don't answer to the Bishop. If they did, I would burn in Hell a thousand years everytime I see you walk past!

Viviane:
Morgause thinks of nothing and no-one but herself.

Morgaine:
Your motives may be nobler than hers, but you still move us around like pieces on a game board. What has my mother given up for your Avalon? My father died at Uther's hands because of you. My poor innocent brother Arthur, who was a baby on my lap, and loved me as no other! And I loved him! Look what you've done to us. You've twisted our love, and turned it into shame, all for the sake of Avalon! No! I will not kill the child within me, but I will not let you take him to Avalon! I will not let you twist and bend him to your will!

Viviane:
I can train him to be the greatest ruler Britain has ever seen.

Morgaine:
He will never set foot in Avalon, Viviane! He will not be one of your pawns, and nor will I!

Viviane:
You have sworn to obey the Goddess through me!

Morgaine:
My vows were to her, not to you. I renounce you! Do you hear me? I will never set foot in Avalon again!

Gwenhwyfar:
There are herbs... that can make a woman conceive, are there not?

Morgaine:
Is that what you want?

Gwenhwyfar:
Please, do not make this harder than it already is.

Morgaine:
There is a charm that is sometimes used. But you surely would never touch it.

Gwenhwyfar:
Tell me, that you are not a witch. Tell me it is not the Devil's own spell. And that I will not burn for it. This time, this one time, I will believe you.

Lancelot:
The King himself asked me into his bed, with the Queen.

Morgaine:
All *three* of you?

Gwenhwyfar:
I took poison from a witch. I slept with you and your friend, and gave myself to your lust and ungodliness, and all for nothing! All for nothing! No baby, no baby. Where is my baby, Arthur?

Arthur:
It is God's hands now, not ours. Don't cry.

Gwenhwyfar:
God does not reward sinners.

Gwenhwyfar:
You say you are a good man, but you condemn your wife to barrenness for the sake of an oath to painted savages. I despise you, Arthur Pendragon! Neither good Christian, nor good pagan, nor a good husband to me.

Mordred:
I do not like to think that this great King, this great man, my father, is my enemy. And then for the sake of Avalon I must bring him down to nothing. I would rather love him, as all men do. I would like to look on my mother, Lady Morgaine, I would like to look on her who bore me, as my mother. Not as the priestess or the Goddess. I am so weary of Gods and Goddesses, I am weary of my fate.

Mordred:
Who was yonder old Roman, who said call no man happy until he is dead?

Morgause:
You will be drunk, dear one.

Mordred:
So I will be drunk! Let it be. I drink to death, and dishonour.

Lancelot:
Would it not be a comfort, just for a time, to believe that we create our own Heavens, and our own Hells?

Igraine:
My daughter! My daughter! Where have you been, my child?

Morgaine:
Oh, Mother, I've had such sadness.

[saying goodbye to Guenivere]

Lancelot:
I pray that there is a heaven. And that when I die, you would be an angel in it, so we can be together at last.