Drifting from the pattern : the changing treatment of religion in the novels of Guy Gavriel Kay.
Date
1994
Authors
Walsh, Kathleen Susan Maeve
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Abstract
High fantasy is characterized by its setting in fictitious, secondary worlds. In order to render these worlds intelligible, such fantasy requires the invention and assertion of transcendental knowledge, so that religion assumes a certain importance within the genre. The fantasy novels of Guy Gavnel Kay are all centrally concerned with religion, yet reflect an evolving treatment of this theme. While each of Kay's novels plays out the timeless conflict between the forces of good and the forces of evil, Kay moves from grand mythic drama to a context more closely connected to reality.
The first chapter considers the three books comprising The Fionavar Tapestry, The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road. Kay's establishment of Fionavar as the first of all worlds claims for this trilogy a mythopoeic importance, even as his incorporation and adaptation of various mythological motifs further inflates the stature of the tale. Because The Fionavar Tapestry deals with the ultimate battle between the ultimate forces of Good and Evil, the nature and resolution of this conflict directly expresses Kay's metaphysical vision. The second chapter discusses the novel Tigana. Again, the conflict of good and evil 1s shown to provide the genesis of the action. In this novel, however, Kay depicts humanity as dislocated from the d1vme Tigana's ironic treatment of the heroic quest illustrates at once the futility and valour of human morality. The final chapter considers religion in A Song for Arbonne. Kay uses religious conflict as a focal point for the major tensions in the text, and demonstrates the manifold ways in which religious beliefs shape society. In particular, Arbonne's goddess-based religion is revealed as a vehicle for the exploration of the historical impact of the troubadours and courtly on the status of women in medieval Provence.