"The Last Enchantment" by Mary Stewart

The final volume of her Merlin trilogy, where Mary Stewart connects all the dots and gives her own particular twist on ancient legend. Stewart has poetic way with the words, with her its not so much about the action - which at the times crawls like a lonesome traveller trough hills and valleys on foot - but about the senses, smells, lights, sounds of the river, mist above the lake and distant harp echoing in the cave. Occasionally, when Merlin sings to himself, reader gets transported to another dimension. Personally, I probably wouldn't mind different pacing and less description of nature, but because character of Merlin is outsider - hermit who sees things in the fire, rather than being in the thick of it - we find out about things more from others, little shepherd boy or blacksmith who know all the news. 

Say whatever you want, but Stewart don't really care for female characters - here, they are merely decorative (Guinevere), functional (someones wife and cook) or pure evil (Morgause, Morgan) - in fact, Arthur's sisters turn out to be his main antagonists and I can't help but wonder is it because they are not content to melt in the background but have strength, ambition and will to stand up to men who would otherwise lock them up. We don't really get to understand their motives and can just guess why they behave the way they do but there is interesting suggestion that women with power are dangerous. Later in the novel, there is another female character but she is utterly unconvincing to me, like something Stewart had to do in order to keep close to the basic roots of the story - good thing (and quite marvellous) is the way she plays around the myth and creates her own variations of the story, circling around it but never quite following exactly what we expect, there is always some new, interesting version of it (at the end of the novel Stewart explains where she got these ideas, mostly from pre-medieval sources). The story is so multi-layered that it makes reader dizzy, as it gets further and further from our perception built on medieval embellishments. 

The most touching characters - and scenes - are not what you would expect, but small supporting roles of servants and shepherds Merlin encounters on his disguised journeys, particularly gentle little dreamer slave Ninian (who really stole my heart), unfortunate mute Casso (who would later be very important) and unnamed little bare footed shepherd with his silver coin, I felt very strong affection for these guys destined to live their lives at the mercy of the world, without protection of luxurious Camelot and royal splendour. I even felt some sympathy for young, teenage Mordred summoned to the royal court with his entire family, just a young boy protective of his mother. The last scene with Morgause was very interesting, because until now we were told she was very dangerous witch but once the news broke to the king, she was left alone and quite unceremoniously dumped in the courtyard: "For the first time since I had known her, I saw her, no more than a frightened woman, making the sign against strong enchantment."