Reading the Chunksters discussion

How is the quest for the Grail a diversion for the goddess and her will?

So many characters in this novel are deceived or do the deceiving, what are we supposed to think about liars and lies?

I liked that Kevin said that he felt that what is was doing was the will of the goddess. How do we know what is the will of the goddess and what is the will of man?

The quest for the Grail distracts Arthur's knights and disbands the brotherhood on a mission that cannot be completed.

I found Nimue's assignment so painful. She went in knowing the consequences of her actions and how it would affect her own emotions. In the end, Morgaine manipulated Nimue the same way that Viviane manipulated Morgaine to be with Arthur. I thought that it was better this time at least because Nimue was aware of her own actions. Morgaine treated Nimue as an autonomous being to follow the will of the Goddess, not just another person to be manipulated.

I gues it's impossible to distinguish what the will of the goddess is vs. the will of the man. Over and over, we hear that people are doing the will of the goddess, but their actions conflict with others. Like modern religion, there is always the matter of interpretation. How reliable are the people that pass on the message?

The question of what is truly the will of the Goddess or gods is a conflict which is dealt with throughout the book, and both Vivian and Morgaine at times have debated this question within themselves and questioned themselves if they are truly following the will of the goddess of if thier own will has become wrapped up in thier actions.

That is the problem that there is no true way of knowing which does cause a fast amount of problems and difficulties, as I think that both Vivian and Morgaine need to beleive they are acting upon the will of the goddess.

Though I think that the Goddess manifesting herself in Morgaine and flinging the holy relics out of reach of men after infusing them with thier own visions to send them upon the grail quest is a pretty strong sign of what the Goddess wills. One could make the argument that it was in fact all Morgaine's own power, and not truly the touch of the goddess, but even if that were so I do not think that Morgaine was acting with intention or was consciously aware of that power within herself, I think she does sincerely beleive that the goddess was acting through her and I think the visions which they each saw were self-deceptions. It was them seeing what they truly wanted to see, what they needed to believe.

I think that the case of Nimue was a tragic one, but I do think the different between Nimue and Morgaine and Morgaine and Vivian, is the fact that Nimue did go into with eyes wide open, knowing exactly what it was expected of her to do, and what the end result of it would be. She had the free will to choose to back down before it was too late, or to given Kevin warning, but she made the choose to follow what she believed was the will of the goddess over the will of her own heart. While Morgaine did make use of her I do not see that she truly deceived Nimue, and I do not think that even Morgaine herself fully accounted for the way in which the spell would work upon Nimue as well.