The Lady of the Sea (39 page)

List of Places

Avalon
                  Sacred isle in the Summer Country, center of Goddess worship, home of the Lady of the Lake, modern Glastonbury in Somerset

Bel Content, Castle
                  Name chosen by Tristan to replace the name of Castle Pleure when he became lord of the fortress of Sir Greuze Sans Pitie

Camelot
                  Capital of the Summer Country, home of the Round Table, modern Cadbury in Somerset

Castle Bel Content
                  See Bel Content, Castle

Castle Dore
                  Stronghold of King Mark, on the east coast of Cornwall

Castle Dun Haven
                  See Dun Haven, Castle

Castle of Unnowne
                  See Unnowne, Castle of

Castle Pleure
                  Ancient fortress and grange deep in the heart of the wood, retreat of the cruel Sir Greuze Sans Pitie until his defeat and death at Tristan’s hands, renamed Castle Bel Content by Tristan when he became its lord

Cornwall
                  Kingdom of Arthur’s mother, Queen Igraine, and of her vassal King Mark, neighboring country to Lyonesse

Dubh Lein
                  Stronghold of the Queens of Ireland, modern Dublin, “the Black Pool”

Dun Haven, Csatle
                  Fortress of the King of Dun Haven in Cornwall, much decayed

Erin
                  Ancient name of Ireland after its Goddess Eriu

Gaul
                  Large country of the continental Celts, incorporating much of modern France and Germany

Hill of Queens
                  Primeval burial ground of the Queens of Ireland since time began

Island of the West
                  Modern Ireland, the sacred island of the Druids and home to Goddess worship and a uniquely Celtic form of Christianity, also known as the Western Isle

Little Britain
                  Territory in France, location of the kingdoms of King Hoel and Sir Lancelot, modern Brittany

Lyonesse
                  Kingdom below Cornwall, home of Tristan, formerly under the rule of Tristan’s father, King Meliodas and now Tristan’s kingdom

Middle Kingdom
                  Arthur’s ancestral kingdom lying between the Summer Country and Wales, modern Gwent, Glamorgan, and Herefordshire

Orkneys, Islands of
                  Cluster of most northerly islands of the British Isles and site of King Lot’s kingdom, home of Sir Gawain and his brothers Agravain, Gaheris, and Gareth

Outre Mer
                  Fabled kingdom that lies
outre mer,
“over the sea”

Pictland
                  Kingdom of the Picts in the north of modern Scotland

Saxon Shore, the
                  East coast of mainland Britain, site of the invasions from the tribes of modern Scandinavia and east Germany

Summer Country
                  Guenevere’s kingdom, ancient center of Goddess worship, modern Somerset

Tintagel
                  Castle of Queen Igraine on the north coast of Cornwall

Unnowne, Castle of
                  Castle of the Lady Unnowne in the depths of the forest, home to the sick lady Tristan encounters on his way through the wood

Welshlands
                  Home to Merlin and Brangwain, modern Wales

Western Isle
                  See Island of the West

Womenswold
                  Fishing village in Ireland that has lost all its men, now run by the women alone under their leader, Medhebar

The Celtic Wheel of the Year

The Christian Wheel of the Year

The Lady of The Sea

The Third of the Tristan and Isolde Novels

Rosalind Miles

Tristan and Isolde, star-crossed lovers in the time of King Arthur, have been celebrated in poetry, song and legend throughout the ages. In her stunning new trilogy, Rosalind Miles—bestselling author of the dazzling Guenevere series—sets the fated duo in a dynamic, freshly imagined epic of conquest, betrayal and desire. Book One introduced the intoxicating Isolde, renowned healer and princess, and Tristan, her powerful yet tender-hearted knight, as their all-consuming love blossomed against a backdrop of international war and court scandal. Book Two saw Isolde crowned Queen of Ireland and besieged by foes determined to undermine her power, while Tristan journeyed to the edge of madness in his quest to reunite with his one true love. Now, in the trilogy’s heartstopping finale, Isolde confronts deadly invaders who threaten Ireland’s autonomy, even as she and Tristan plan an act of revolt that will win them their long-overdue freedom—but may cost them their lives. This guide is designed to help direct your reading group’s discussion of master storyteller Rosalind Miles’s breathtaking
The Lady of the Sea
.

A
BOUT THE
B
OOK

Thoroughly disgusted with her twenty-year political marriage to Mark of Cornwall, Isolde returns to her beloved Ireland for good, only to find its shores terrorized by warring Picti from the north. At their head is Darath, a fierce young king whose taste for blood swiftly becomes a taste for flesh when he meets the mesmerizing Isolde and determines to make her his bride—an offer that tantalizes Isolde more than she cares to admit.

Meanwhile, (mis)guided by ruthless Christian counselors whose delight is the downfall of the Mother-right, Mark becomes convinced that impregnating his reluctant wife is the key to Cornwall’s future. But when Tristan and Isolde make their illicit love affair impossible to ignore, Mark unleashes a rage that threatens to kill them both. Only the Lady of the Sea and her fathomless compassion can save the imperiled couple as they journey toward their awesome fate.

Q
UESTIONS FOR
D
ISCUSSION

1. How does the relationship between Merlin and the Lady of the Sea frame the novel? Does their discourse read as power struggle or love affair? Ultimately, these two mighty forces have the same goals. Why, then, is Merlin open to the whims of the Christians while the Lady is vehemently not?

2. At a certain point in the novel, Mark shifts from being a weak, impressionable, almost comical character, to being a terrifying, truly dark-hearted menace. What causes this change? How does the author build tension around Mark’s transformation?

3. Knowing all that he does about Mark, why does Tristan cling to his fealty to the rascally monarch? Does his resistance to Isoldes’s plan to abandon Cornwall stem from chivalry, or fear?

4. How does the author weave comedy into the relationship between Dominian and Arraganzo?

5. Isolde is well-schooled in the ways of the Mother-right and the fact that, as Queen, she is entitled to a “chosen one” whenever she wants and however many times she wants. Why, then, is she desperate for Cormac’s approval of her leaving Mark? What link to her past does Cormac represent?

6. Tristan suffers from a crippling lack of faith in Isolde’s opinion of him. He worries that if she accidentally dies in the woods, “she would have thought of him as a faithless man. If he never again contacted her after that, she would be sure he was a recreant knight who had broken his oath to them both, and simply slipped away to find an easier life.” Is there any basis for this fear? Is Isolde aware of his fragile grip on trust?

7. Darath presents two faces: one, a man hopelessly in love, who defies his own war ethics in the pursuit of Isolde; and two, a man who would happily slaughter Isolde after bedding her and winning her lands. Which one do you believe?

8. Why does Andred join Arraganzo and Dominion in encouraging Mark to marry one of the Dun Haven princesses, if his ultimate plot is to be named sole heir to the throne?

9. What is the source of Merlin’s obsession with “Tristan—Arthur—all these sorrowful lost boys. Motherless, fatherless, nameless, and homeless, too, flying boys becoming wounded men”? Is Merlin successful at helping these hapless boys?

10. Where does the author harness natural phenomena like the weather as a storytelling device? How does this contribute to the mood of the novel?

11. Tristan and Isolde agree to return to Castle Dore with the intention to “make a clean and honorable break with the past, then afterward we can live as we want.” Why are they suddenly naïve about Mark’s capacity for justice? Do they honestly believe they’ll sway the king, or are they trying to assuage their own sense of guilt? Are they doing the right thing?

12. How does the theme of abandonment play out in the characters of Dominian, Gawaine, and Igraine?

13. How do townsfolk help Gawaine solve the riddle of Tristan and Isolde’s so-called deaths? Why does his well-intentioned visit to them spell disaster?

14. Dominian is charged with helping to oust the “pagan” Isolde from the throne of Cornwall. Why, then, does he challenge Isolde’s assertion that her marriage to Mark is null and void?

15. How is Isolde’s mother’s curse—“May all those he loves, and all who ever love him, suffer until the sea kisses the sky, and the trees bow down their heads at his cursed feet!”—fulfilled, while leaving Tristan and Isolde unscathed?