Corbenic's valley lay hidden, in a corner of Lystenoys close by the sea, and it was not wholly by chance that any man found his way there, including Launcelot.
It was spring when he came; the hills of the valley were verdant, the gorse yellow all about, and the evening mists fragrant. She was not looking for love that day. ….
She was Elaine, daughter of the fisher king and of the lineage of the grail keepers, and the mystery of the grail, the sacred cup that lay within Corbenic's walls, was in her very blood. Nothing else could find space in her heart. Until Launcelot came.
So begins the story of Elaine of Corbenic, the daughter of the Fisher King who bears Launcelot’s son, Galahad. The novel starts with Elaine as young princess and grail bearer, deeply drawn by the grail's mystery—and utterly impervious to the young knights of her father's court. Encountering a kind stranger by the forest stream one day, however, new feelings stir within Elaine. Soon afterwards Launcelot comes to her father's hall. Recognizing him as the one she’d met by the stream, Elaine falls deeply in love with him. Launcelot's devotion, however, is to the Queen Guinevere, though he is not untouched by the simple beauty of the princess.
Based on Malory's account in Le Morte d’Arthur of the three brief encounters of Launcelot and Elaine, ELAINE OF CORBENIC is the chronicle of their poignant romance—and of Elaine's journey through abandonment and darkness to the finding of inner strength and deepening wisdom. Offering the poetry of medieval legend, the story speaks to contemporary themes of love, betrayal, abandonment, and the quest for meaning.
He opened the door.
A woman stood looking out the window, her back to him. She was clothed in blue and azure interfaced with rose, her black hair tumbling loose. It was not Guinevere. She turned at the sound of the door opening. "I had thought to find the queen here," Launcelot began. "No." Elaine's lips trembled as she spoke the single word. She wore no jewelry. The open neckline revealed the young throat he had once glimpsed wet in the stream from a distance. A quality like the moistness of dew lay upon her, yet in that moment he saw that she whom he had thought child was also woman…
ELAINE OF CORBENIC is an approach to the grail legend that reflects an evolving relationship to the mystery of the grail embodied in life itself. In the heart of the heroic Arthurian legend, it offers a deeply feminine spirituality, threading through the pain and
joys of a young girl’s heart, a single mother’s hopes and broken dreams, and a fierce determination to find the grail's meaning.
To order directly for author-signed copy (with free postage in U.S.), click below:
Suggested retail price $16.95
Also available from the publisher at http://www.savantbooksandpublications.com,
from Savant Bookstore Honolulu at http://www.savantbookstorehonolulu.com,
and from Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0991562224
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