The Mists of Avalon

After a brief return to Tintagel, Gorlois leaves again, hoping to ambush Uther’s army. Igraine feels that he is acting irrationally, and that “he would deprive all Britain of her High King […] all because he was not man enough for his wife and feared that Uther would be” (87).

Igraine waits for Uther to find her at Midwinter. On a particularly frigid night, Igraine invites an old peasant woman inside, hoping to gain some idea of the outside world. She says that battle has overtaken Britain, and that the combined chaos of the infighting between the dukes and Saxon invasion has reached the Holy Isle, where she lives. She mentions that Viviane has given birth to a baby boy, Galahad. Viviane says that Galahad, whose father is King Ban of Less Britain, will serve another king’s child, suggesting that Igraine’s fate will come to pass.

Igraine decides to use sorcery to warn Uther. She recalls her brief training at Avalon and projects her soul through the land of dreams. Igraine sees Gorlois’s camp and hears him discussing how the Cornish weather will likely thwart Uther. She is shocked into returning to her physical body at Tintagel.