A wonderful historical saga of the tenth century. Rumon, descendaant of Charlemagne and King Arthur journeys from his native Provence to England, which is being torn apart by rifts between Christian and pagan, and violent invasions and raids by Vikings and Danes.
He meets the beautiful and valiant Merewyn, in Cornwall, but is bewitched by the evil Queen Alfreda, who after Edgar's death has Edgar's older son Edward assassinated, and replaced by Alfreda's own son Ethelred.
Merewyn is later captured by vikings and the epic takes us to Iceland, Greenland and North America.
A fine work of engaging and event-filled historical fiction and romance, taking us to the heart of 10th century England and beyond.
Impossible to put down, I finished it in a weekend and loved it.

I couldn't put this book down! I love Anya Seton and her books. It is a wonderful story, detailed and interesting. I read one review where someone said that it's a tale of 2 people's love, I don't agree-there is so much more to it! Plus, Merewyn did love her Viking husband...I won't say anything else, just read the book & you'll know.

Well, much like many of the other reviewers, I had read Katherine and was very excited when this one came in the mail. I was disappointed, however, in the last third or so of the book. The first two-thirds were promising, containing much of what I love about historical fiction, but after that, I seriously wanted to give up. The characters were getting flatter and flatter and the story line itself 'jumped the shark' - so to speak. Save your money...

This was one of the best books I have read! I am new to Seton's work and look forward to reading more of her books. I wouldn't really call it a romance though. It was very plausible that Merewyn, as a young girl, would develop a crush on Rumon. However, it seemed strange that he wouldn't care much for her and then suddenly fall head over heels in love with her. So much in love that he travelled many miles and years to find her. I don't think the whole romance was very well developed.

What really made this book so good was the adventure and the descriptions of life in tenth century England, Iceland, and Greenland. They were awesome and made me feel like I was there. Also, I don't want to give too much of the story away, but Seton made it totally believable that Europeans came to the Americas and settled with the indians long before Columbus.

I find it very odd that the publishers of this book would print a forward like the one in this book by Phillipa Gregory. It contained some praise for Seton and the book, however, it was for the most part critical of the book. How is that supposed to help the publisher sell books?

If you like historical fiction I highly recommend this book. I was sad to see it end and wish that I could find more books written about this time period in history.

I don't know how many times I have read Avalon, and I love it every time I read it. For some strange reason I want to read it when I get depressed, which is very odd considering the ill-fated tragedy of Rumon and Merewyn's love. I suppose I'm hoping that one day I'm going to read it and Rumon will find Merewyn in time to rescue her from Ketil. ;) But the book is so fascinating that you just want more of it...then when you finish it, you want to look up all the characters (a majority of them were real people) in the encylopedia and read all about them.