SCRIPT, Page Eight Corresponding Gallery
INT. NUNNERY RECEIVING room - DAY
The barred gate that leads from the receiving room into the dark interior of the nunnery is swinging to. Lancelot looks after the retreating form of Gwenhwyfar with agonized eyes and makes as if to go after her. The Mother Superior gently interposes herself. As she speaks we realize she is - Igraine.
IGRAINE
Do not grieve, nephew. She will be far from the pain and temptations of the world here.
LANCELOT
How have you borne it, all these years?
IGRAINE
Borne it? Borne the peace and the beauty of the scriptures and the companionship of other good women working in harmony to know the mind of God? Easily, is the answer.
LANCELOT
Gwenhwyfar is too young ...
IGRAINE
Gwenhwyfar has had enough of the world, Lancelot. Anyone can see that.
LANCELOT
But, Igraine - Mother Igraine: I love her.
IGRAINE
And she is wife to your liege lord. There is no other place than here she can hope to save her immortal soul, Lance.
LANCELOT
What about my soul?
IGRAINE
Your soul, nephew, you must care for yourself.
There is sudden commotion outside; raised voices.
NUN (V.O.)
No! You cannot see the Mother Superior now: she is admitting a postulant. Wait quietly.
VOICE (V.O.)
There will be no order to admit postulants to unless you let me see her. Now!
The door bursts open and Morgaine enters, radiating authority and power.
IGRAINE
Morgaine! What are you doing here?
MORGAINE
I have come to warn you, Mother -
(sees Lancelot)
Lance?
LANCELOT
(Staring at her in amazement)
Gwenhwyfar has fled from Arthur. She - she decided to take the veil.
MORGAINE
Just the timing I would have expected of Gwenhwyfar.
(to Igraine)
The Saxon army has landed; they are marching inland a hundred thousand strong: this convent is in their line of march.
IGRAINE
How do you know this?
MORGAINE
From wandering around the countryside like an old beggar woman. And listening. Come along, Mother: you must pack up the nuns now, and get them off into the forest.
IGRAINE
The Good Lord will protect us ...
MORGAINE
As he's protected all the other monasteries and convents the Saxons have destroyed? By all means rely on God to protect you - but let him do it in the forest.
LANCELOT
She's right, Igraine: the Saxons will be drawn to a convent like wasps to honey.
(realizing)
I can't leave Gwenhwyfar here now!
IGRAINE
You can and must leave Gwenhwyfar: you and she have taken leave of each other once - that is enough. She will help me get the younger women out of here. Your duty is clear, Lancelot. Is it not, Morgaine?
MORGAINE
Yes, Mother, I think it is.
They both look at him. He knows exactly what they mean.
LANCELOT
How can I face him?
IGRAINE
How can you not? My son needs you, Lancelot. As never before.
(to Morgaine)
And he needs his sister, does he not, Morgaine?
EXT. COUNTRYSIDE - DAY
Lancelot and Morgaine are riding across country towards Camelot.
LANCELOT
Happy ... you look happy. How can you look happy when all our worst fears are about to come true? When all that Arthur and the companions strove to build is about to come crashing down?
MORGAINE
Because I'm at the center of the storm again, Lance.
(spurs her horse)
And I no longer feel my heart turn over every time I see your damn handsome profile.
(At the top of her voice)
Goddess - that feels good.
And she spurs her horse into a gallop, and races away across the turf.
EXT. VALLEY - DAY
Lancelot and Morgaine are then forced to slow to a walk as they reach the narrow valley floor. Morgaine, in the lead, glances back to see Lancelot deep in thought.
MORGAINE
Stop worrying about Gwenhwyfar, Lancelot. She and my mother will be a perfect team. The Saxons will never find those nuns in a thousand years.
LANCELOT
I wasn't thinking about Gwenhwyfar, Morgaine. I was thinking about you.
MORGAINE
Ha! Well it's too late, Lance. Didn't you hear me? I don't love you anymore!
But the words die on her lips as she looks ahead of her, and sees a line of black-clad Mordred men barring her path. As she looks behind, she realizes there are troops waiting on either side of the valley, and behind them. And from the midst of them, Mordred rides out.
MORDRED
Ah, Mother: welcome to Camelot. Morgaine takes in the situation.
MORGAINE
Mordred ...?
MORDRED
Well done ... to recognize your own son, after all the years that have passed since you abandoned him. That shows true maternal affection.
MORGAINE
Morgause provided you with plenty of that, by all accounts.
MORDRED
She did, she did: she is enjoying her just reward at Camelot even as we speak. And speaking of just rewards ...
(indicating Lancelot)
Kill him.
MORGAINE
What?
MORDRED
Arthur's own orders, my dear: Lancelot eloped with the High Queen. If Arthur does not bring him to justice, he forfeits all authority in the land.
LANCELOT
I took the Queen Gwenhwyfar to a nunnery, Duke Mordred.
MORDRED
A touching story, but unconvincing. Bayr - do it.
But as Bayr moves in for the kill - Morgaine suddenly puts herself very close to Mordred, leaning against him with a deadly knife in her hand.
MORGAINE
(softly)
I gave life to you, Mordred. I can give you death, too. Choose.
Mordred, taken by surprise, looks down at her: their eyes meet - and there is the clash of two supercharged wills.
In the midst of which Lancelot whips out his sword, slices Bayr through the chest, and gallops straight up the hillside through the soldiers on the ridge. Mordred - relaxes.
MORDRED
He deserves his reputation.
(to Morgaine)
So do you. You remind me of me.
(spurring his horse)
Let's go see the King.
And with Morgaine in their midst, they ride up out of the valley.
MORDRED
You will find, Mother, that the Christians do not have quite the influence in Camelot that they used to.
deleted
EXT. castle COURTYARD (Camelot)- SUNSET (gallery)
This is something of an understatement. The courtyard of Camelot looks like a scene from Apocalypse Now. Several bonfires burn in different parts of it; there are poles erected with primitive-looking gods on top, animals waiting to be sacrificed, and dozens of blue-painted, skin-clad tribesmen and women dancing frenetically to the sound of hypnotically beating drums.
On a balcony overlooking the scene Morgause presides over the rites, looking like some slightly overblown fertility Goddess, with a largely naked young man on either arm.
She smiles as Morgaine and Mordred come into the courtyard.
MORGAUSE
Rejoice, Morgaine: the old ways are back. The Goddess you worship rules once more!
Morgaine looks around her in horror.
MORGAINE
This is ... an abomination.
MORDRED
Isn't this what the old religion is supposed to be about, Morgaine? Celebrating our human appetites instead of condemning them? Speaking to our deepest desires instead of suppressing them. Isn't that what the Goddess wants?
MORGAINE
No, it is not. It is nothing like that.
MORDRED
Ah, well, she told me different. And who am I to ignore her?
And then as he strides through the courtyard, half-naked women writhe themselves around him to welcome him back.
INT. GREAT HALL (CAMELOT) - NIGHT (gallery)
Arthur sits at the Round Table, a wreck of his former self. Unwashed, unshaven, his hair uncombed, he suddenly looks like an old man. There are plenty of jugs full of wine for him, and he has made use of them. Morgaine comes into the room and strides down the length of it towards him.
MORGAINE
Brother, bestir yourself: I bear tidings. The Saxon host has landed and is marching on Birtoswald. The invasion has begun.
Arthur looks up at her blearily.
ARTHUR
And you think I'm fit to resist it?
MORGAINE
You are the High King, Arthur. You are Britain's one hope.
ARTHUR
I am a man who slept with his sister, who loved his sister as he loved no other woman. Who was father to his own brother. Is such a man fit to be High King of anywhere?
Morgaine sits down beside him.
MORGAINE
Fit or no, you have your duty to do. You have your land to protect.
ARTHUR
Against the pagan horse gods of the Saxons? Have you seen what's going on out there?
MORGAINE
Only that you let it.
ARTHUR
What moral authority do I have to stop it? What moral authority have you and the Lady of the Lake left me?
MORGAINE
(leaning close)
Only that moral authority you give yourself, brother. Viviane used us. She used me and she used you and she took our good, pure love for each other and twisted it to serve her ends. But we're not going to let her do it, Arthur. We're not going to let her destroy what is good in you and in me. God knows, Goddess knows, we've both sinned. But are we going to let those sins drag us down as the Christians would have it, and send us crawling on our knees asking for forgiveness? Or are we going to rise above them, in all our imperfection, and do what we were put on this earth to do.
ARTHUR
And what were we put on this earth to do, Morgaine?
MORGAINE
You were put on this earth to lead your people, Arthur. And I was put on this earth to give you the strength to do it. Cast aside all the rest. That is the truth we hold to.
And she grasps him by the shoulder and raises him to his feet. He staggers for a moment - and then looks into her eyes. And all the strength of personality in her soul flashes into his like a radiant light, and inch by inch he straightens up, and sweeps his hand through his tangled hair - and from the debris at his feet, draws out ... Excalibur.
EXT. castle COURTYARD (CAMELOT) - NIGHT (gallery)
Outside in the courtyard, a powerful wind surges around the largest bonfire - and the flame snaps out as if a candle had been snuffed.
As the tribesmen and dancers step back in alarm - Viviane appears. The drummers stop; the courtyard falls silent. Viviane looks slowly around her at the scene. Morgause calls down to her.
MORGAUSE
Welcome, sister. You see, after all, the old ways are not dead.
Beat.
VIVIANE
They are not dead, Morgause - they are defiled.
A great in-drawing of breath around the courtyard.
MORDRED
Say not that, Lady of the Lake. They are - revived. As you bade us do.
VIVIANE
Not as I bade you to, Mordred. Avalon reaches to a world beyond this one. What you are doing here is reaching down into one we have left behind.
MORDRED
Lady, do you spoil the festivities - for on the morrow these tribesmen of ours go out to do battle with the Saxons - and their blood must be up.
VIVIANE
You are no better than the Saxons, Mordred. This is savagery.
MORDRED
But the savagery of the Goddess, of the horned one: our savagery, Lady of the Lake.
VIVIANE
Your savagery, Mordred. Your bestiality. Better the pious hopes of the Christians than this.
MORGAUSE
Better you went back to Avalon, Viviane, and disappeared into the mists with it. Mordred and I are hauling this country back to the old ways by the hair; if you are too squeamish for it - begone!
Suddenly Viviane draws herself to her full height and uses her full power on Morgause, her pointing finger seeming to catch her sister in a beam of light.
VIVIANE
He could have been a great man, Morgause. He could have led us back into the light. But you corrupted him. You turned all the strength I bred in him to evil. You have betrayed the Goddess.
And as her finger points, the balcony on which Morgause and her paramours are standing crumbles away - and Morgause, with a dreadful scream, plunges to her death on the stones of the courtyard.
Mordred can scarcely believe his eyes - he runs towards the rubble and then stops: there is nothing he can do.
He kneels down and takes Morgause dead hand where it sticks out from beneath a piece of masonry. He brings it to his lips.
MORDRED
I loved her!
And seizing an axe from a henchman, he rises to his feet and swings it in a wide arc at Viviane.
MORDRED
Go back to the Goddess, Lady of the Lake.
The axe slices through Viviane's neck, sending her head flying over the courtyard and onto one of the bonfires.
A great wind rushes through the courtyard, and a great cry goes up from the assembled throng.
As Arthur appears at the head of the steps - with Excalibur in his hands.
ARTHUR
Put down the axe, Mordred, or prepare to die.
A smile spreads across Mordred's face as Arthur comes down the steps toward him.
MORDRED
Die, My Lord? You would take the life of your only begotten son?
Arthur hefts Excalibur.
ARTHUR
In a moment.
MORDRED
I give you fair warning, old man: The tribesmen follow me now. If you harm a hair of my head, they will tear you limb from limb. And the battlements are ringed with men who will shoot you down like a dog at a word from me. So, why not -
(circling)
- give Excalibur to me?
ARTHUR
Certainly.
And he swings the great sword at Mordred. Mordred parries it with his axe, and for a few terrifying seconds the courtyard rings with the sound of steel on steel - and then the sound of steel biting into flesh.
Arthur gives a cry of pain - and Excalibur clatters to the ground.
MORDRED
Ah, Father, how sad it should come to this. It is like some time-hallowed ritual, is it not? The son slaying the father to take the crown. Unless ...
ARTHUR
Unless what?
MORDRED
Unless you proclaim me your heir and we ride into battle under the banner of the Goddess.
Morgaine dives for the sword, picks it up, and places herself between Mordred and Arthur.
MORGAINE
It is no Goddess you serve, Mordred: and you will never wield Excalibur.
Using the sword to keep Mordred at bay, she helps Arthur to his feet - and they begin to back up a stone staircase leading to the battlements.
MORDRED
Hold your tongue, Mother. And put down the sword. You have not the strength to wield it.
Arthur and Morgaine continue to back up the staircase.
But as Mordred takes the first step up after them - horns sound in the distance - and one of his men hurries up.
GUARD
My Lord! The King's Companions! They are come!
Mordred looks at him, shocked.
GUARD
(sotto voce)
Unless we leave now - we are trapped.
Mordred looks up the staircase. Morgaine and Arthur have gone.
deleted
EXT. castle COURTYARD (CAMELOT) - dawn
Lancelot and the companions ride into the courtyard among the debris of the orgy, looking at each other, appalled.
And then see Morgaine and Arthur, gray-faced with exhaustion and pain, coming down the staircase.
Lancelot leaps from his horse and comes to kneel before Arthur.
LANCELOT
Forgive me, Sire. I submit myself to your justice.
Arthur looks down at him for a long moment and then (with difficulty because of his wound) raises him to his feet and clasps him to his bosom.
ARTHUR
There is nothing to forgive, Lancelot. Nothing.
And he holds Lancelot against him.
LANCELOT
(softly)
Gwenhwyfar is with Igraine; she has taken the veil.
One by one the surviving companions dismount and kneel around Arthur. He looks at them with brimming eyes.
ARTHUR
So, my friends, we are united again. For the last battle.
LANCELOT
The Saxon host will be at the River Irthing by tomorrow night. I have sent out messengers across the land: every able-bodied man in Britain is coming to face them.
ARTHUR
I have my companions. The fellowship is forged anew. It is enough.
(turns to Morgaine)
What says the Lady of the Lake? For you are Viviane's heir, are you not?
MORGAINE
It is the last battle, Arthur. The future hangs on it. May God and the Goddess go with us all.
EXT. COUNTRYSIDE - DAY
Arthur's army is marching to battle, with Arthur and the companions, and Morgaine at their head, carrying the banners of Christ and the Pendragon. The column winds over the rich green countryside, drums beating.
EXT. DOWNLAND - DAY
The Saxon host is marching to meet them: Fiercer and wilder than ever, poles dangling with scalps being carried beneath effigies of bloodthirsty horse-gods. They sing as they march: a guttural, primitive war- chant. As they march, we see some of them have severed heads at their belts.
EXT. HILL ABOVE BATTLEFIELD - DAY (gallery)
Arthur and his companions rein in their horses on a ridge. On the far ridge, across the valley of the River Irthing, they can see the Saxon host on the skyline.
ARTHUR
I think we may be a match for them, Lancelot.
LANCELOT
I think, at least, it may be an equal fight. I wish the tribes were with us, though.
ARTHUR
The tribes have gone with Mordred, into the wilds. We will fight on without them.
(to Morgaine)
Pray to the Goddess for us, Morgaine.
MORGAINE
I will, My Lord.
But she has seen something that distracts her attention.
MORGAINE
By your leave.
And leaving Arthur and the companions to their last- minute planning, she spurs her horse toward a body of troops that has just ridden up to the ridge-top. It is Accolon and the men of Wales. As Morgaine approaches, she is suddenly overcome with disquiet.
MORGAINE
Accolon ...
ACCOLON
Morgaine! What are you -
MORGAINE
It is the last battle. I must be at my brother's side.
They stare at each other.
ACCOLON
I understand now why you left. For many moons I was consumed by bitterness: and then I came to understand.
MORGAINE
And Uriens?
ACCOLON
His eyes never opened again after you left the room. He died at peace.
MORGAINE
Then it was worth it.
ACCOLON
I have missed you, Morgaine.
MORGAINE
And I you, Accolon. God and the Goddess came between us.
ACCOLON
They need come between us no more. When this battle is over ...
Morgaine looks at him with infinite compassion and sadness.
MORGAINE
Aye, Accolon: then I will embrace you again.
And she kisses him on the cheek and rides away. Pan along the ranks of waiting soldiers. The tension mounts as the moment of action approaches. We reach Arthur: he looks at Lancelot. Lancelot nods. Arthur raises Excalibur.
ARTHUR
For Britain! Today and forever!
And he leads the charge down the hill - as the Saxons charge down the other side of the valley.
EXT. BATTLEFIELD - DAY
The two sides meet in a great clash of arms. Swords clang against each other, axes whirl, arrows fly; horsemen and foot soldiers thunder into one another.
On Arthur as he hews down a great Saxon war-chief with Excalibur.
On Lancelot as he spears another, riding into him as if he was at a tournament.
We see each of the companions grappling with their enemies, some triumphing, some falling beneath their blades.
EXT. WOODLAND - DAY
Morgaine rides swiftly up a wooded valley, the sounds of the battle still audible behind her. She stops and closes her eyes, focusing all her mental energy - and, thus guided, spurs her horse up to the right.
EXT. HIDDEN VALLEY - DAY
Morgaine rides into a hidden valley and sees, as she divined, the massed ranks of the tribes. She reins in her horse and raises her arms.
MORGAINE
People of the tribes! It is I, Lady of the Lake, successor to Viviane, voice of Avalon in Britain. I command you to come to Arthur in his time of need. It is the last battle for Britain. Arthur needs you; the Goddess needs you.
There is no response. She rides up and down the ranks of the painted men, who shuffle uneasily. Finally she is in front of one taller then the rest, decked out in deerskin and several layers of blue pigment.
TRIBESMAN
If we fight for Arthur, we fight for the Christians, lady. He is a priest's man, and the priests hate us.
MORGAINE
He fights for all Britain against the Saxons, friend.
MORDRED (O.S.)
Does he, Mother?
She turns to see Mordred on the hillside above her: he is now dressed in the full panoply of his dark, sinister version of the old religion. And beside him rides a phalanx of Saxon warriors.
MORDRED
The Saxons are closer to us than the Christians, Mother. And I have grown closer still to them in the years since I left the North Country. When this battle is won, with the aid of my painted people, I will be heir to the Saxon throne.
MORGAINE
You would betray your own country for a throne?
MORDRED
Arthur's country is not my country, lady. Nor is your country mine. Did you take me into it with you? Never: you left me to my own devices. So be it. I have forged my own faith out of the wreckage of Avalon and the fierce pride of the Saxons. It is a faith that will sweep this land even as I stride across it like a colossus.
MORGAINE
Mordred, no -
MORDRED
Out of my way, woman. Your time has come and gone. A new age begins.
And he raises his arm in a signal: and the tribesmen roar their approval as he starts to lead them out of the valley.
EXT. BATTLEFIELD - DAY (gallery)
The battle is now so much bloody slogging: the initial ardor has been spent; both sides are concentrating all their energy on simply holding the field. Lancelot and Arthur are in the thick of it; both have sustained several wounds.
ARTHUR
How goes it, Lance?
LANCELOT
This is where it tells: we have fought each other to a standstill. The question is - who can stand longest?
ARTHUR
This is when I would bring in the tribes - if we had them.
LANCELOT
We will prevail without the tribes, Arthur. We will prevail because -
He looks up and sees something on the far ridge-top.
LANCELOT
The tribes! It is the tribes, Arthur - they have come.
But Arthur sees more.
ARTHUR
With Mordred leading them.
(beat)
On the Saxon side.
LANCELOT
No!
ARTHUR
So is the past rising up to swallow us all.
He spurs his horse around.
ARTHUR
We must meet them head on. Charge!
And he leads them off towards the advancing tribesmen.
EXT. STREAM BED - DAY
We are in the thick of the fighting; Saxons, Mordred's men, tribesmen. Arthur's knights, Accolon's Welshmen, Scots, Cornishmen.
Accolon throws himself at Mordred, and is struck down.
EXT. HILLSIDE - DAY
Morgaine hears Accolon's cry of pain above the din of battle - and spurs her horse down towards the maelstrom.
EXT. BATTLEFIELD - DAY
As Morgaine rides across the battlefield, it is clear that the Saxons are beginning to prevail: the entry of Mordred and the tribesmen has tipped the balance.
EXT. STREAM BED - DAY (gallery)
Morgaine holds Accolon in her arms as he breathes his last.
MORGAINE
Goodbye, my love. Goodbye.
He tries to speak, and cannot; his head lolls to one side. Morgaine looks up through tear-filled eyes to see Arthur and Mordred fighting, hand to hand. The tide of battle has rolled away from this spot, but the two are totally engrossed in one another, hacking and cutting as if nothing else mattered.
MORGAINE
No ...
She lays Accolon down and goes towards them - as a bloody hand reaches out from the piles of corpses and clutches at her. She looks down and sees - Lancelot.
LANCELOT
Morgaine ...
She kneels down beside him.
MORGAINE
Lance ... my poor Lance.
LANCELOT
It's all over, isn't it? Everything we tried to ...
MORGAINE
Not yet.
And she eases his sword out of his stiffening hand.
MORGAINE
Not yet.
She begins to walk across the slippery ground towards where Mordred and Arthur are hacking at each other - and Arthur is weakening.
MORDRED
Give up, old man: your hour has come. The world begins anew this day.
ARTHUR
Not your world, Mordred. Not your world.
MORDRED
My world.
And lets fall the fatal blow. Only to look up and see Morgaine racing toward him with the sword.
MORGAINE
No!
And as Mordred turns to her Arthur thrusts his sword up under Mordred's rib cage and into his lungs.
Mordred cries out, falls to the ground, blood pouring from his mouth.
MORGAINE (V.O.)
And so we struck down the fruit of our loins - even as he brought our world down with him.
In his death agony, Mordred reaches out for her.
MORDRED
Mother ...
She hesitates - and then takes his hand.
MORGAINE
My son ... my son ...
And Mordred dies. Morgaine looks out over the battlefield: The Saxons are pursuing the remnants of Arthur's army over the ridge-top. She turns to the dying Arthur.
MORGAINE
You held them at bay as long as you could, my love. As long as you could.
EXT. STREAM - DAY
With difficulty, getting the dying Arthur into a little boat. The sounds of battle, echoing trumpets and beating war drums still echo from the distance, but for a moment, they are alone.
EXT. DOWNSTREAM - DAY
The boat is being carried downstream by the current. Morgaine steers from the stern. Arthur lies in the thwarts, white as death, but still just breathing.
EXT. WOODED HILLSIDE - DAY
A little group of nuns are singing a hymn in a glade high on a wooded hillside. Igraine is leading the service. As she sings she notices one of the kneeling women is looking away from her, down at the river that winds through the forest. It is Gwenhwyfar. Inexorably, Igraine's gaze goes in the same direction.
Down to the river, where it winds around a bend, as a small boat, with a woman in the stern and the body of a man lying in the thwarts, slides through the forest gloom.
EXT. LAKE of Avalon - DAY (gallery)
The boat glides through the mists of the lake of Avalon. Morgaine stands up, and raises her arms: but as before, nothing happens.
ARTHUR
Are we shut out of Avalon, sister?
MORGAINE
I fear the Goddess has rejected me, Arthur. As I rejected her.
ARTHUR
Perhaps she needs an offering.
He reaches for something beneath his cloak - but it is too painful.
ARTHUR
Help me, Morgaine.
Morgaine reaches beneath him - and pulls out Excalibur. She looks at him in surprise.
ARTHUR
Give it back to the Goddess, Morgaine. It is hers now.
Morgaine stands, takes a deep breath - and throws the sword in a great arc out into the lake.
As it disappears without a sound beneath the waters, the mists part, and Avalon lies before them once more.
MORGAINE
Home. We have come home.
EXT. LAKESHORE OF AVALON - DAY
The white-robed priestesses come down to the water with a bier. They lift Arthur out of the boat and onto the bier. Then they begin to walk through the orchard towards the tor. One of the priestesses speaks confidentially to Morgaine.
PRIESTESS
No one has come through the mists for a long time. We thought ...
MORGAINE
Everything is changing? It is, my dear, it is.
She looks up towards the Tree of Avalon. It is now quite dead.
EXT. TOR - DAY
Arthur's bier has been laid on the tor amidst the circle of standing stones. Morgaine is beside him as he looks out over the mists of the lake.
ARTHUR
It is drifting away, is it not? Avalon?
MORGAINE
Yes, Arthur. It is drifting out of this world. We kept the two together as long as we could: it can no longer be done.
PRIESTESS
But what will become of the old religion, lady, without Avalon?
MORGAINE
It will be transformed into something new, my dear. It always is. The old world has passed away. The new one is beginning.
ARTHUR
So we failed. I failed.
MORGAINE
We strove, Arthur. You strove with all your heart and soul. That will echo down the annals of this land long after we are gone.
ARTHUR
Hold my hand, Morgaine.
Morgaine looks down: she is already holding his hand. The end is very near. She leans down and kisses his brow.
MORGAINE
I love you, Arthur. I always will.
Arthur smiles - and his eyes close. Morgaine's head falls on his breast, and she weeps.
mix TO:
EXT. TOR - DAY
Morgaine walks slowly, steadily across the empty tor, away from the standing stones.
MORGAINE (V.O.)
So Camelot fell, the Saxons triumphed and the barbarians spread over Britain like a seething ocean. Avalon did fade into the mists, until even the adept could see it no more. And where the sacred ring had stood atop the tor ...
Along the ridge we can see the chapel that is in the other world.
MORGAINE (V.O.)
Only the Christian church was visible. Gradually, king by king, heathen by heathen, the Christians brought the barbarians into the fold: and the Goddess was forgotten.
Morgaine walks down the hill towards the chapel. The airseems to ripple as she passes between the dimensions.
MORGAINE (V.O.)
Or so I was convinced ...
INT. Glastonbury CHAPEL - DAY (gallery)
Morgaine enters the chapel to see people at prayer: Britons, Scots, Saxons, all on their knees. They do not see her - she is insubstantial to them, like a wraith.
MORGAINE (V.O.)
For years I believed that all the sufferings I and my mother Igraine, the lady Viviane, Lancelot and Arthur himself had endured, everything we had striven for - had been in vain: a cruel contest between heedless gods.
Children come into the church bearing branches of scarlet autumn leaves and baskets of autumn fruit. It is the harvest festival.
MORGAINE (V.O.)
And then at last I realized ...
Morgaine suddenly sees a wooden statue in a little niche. Tight on her puzzled face as she recognizes it - and as a child comes up and lights a candle in front of her.
CHILD
Virgin Mary, Mother of God - pray for me ...
Morgaine smiles, realizing. Her vision as she sees that the wooden statue of the Virgin Mary is the same statue she saw in the cave when she was initiated as a priestess.
It is the Mother Goddess.
MORGAINE (V.O.)
The Goddess had survived. The truth had not shrunk, but grown. And one day, in the future, it would blaze up again anew.
And as the fruits and vegetables pile up, blazing with color, the Goddess looks benignly down on them, smiling her enigmatic smile.
FADE OUT.
THE END
Gavin Scott, June 9th, 1999