The Guns of Avalon, chapter 2

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. Unless you're the sort of person who likes skipping to the last page, go read the book first.

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Prince Corwin of Amber has escaped after his brother Eric took the throne of Amber, blinded him, and threw him in the dungeon for three years. Travelling through Shadow, looking for a former kingdom of his called Avalon, he encounters a wounded knight named Lance and takes him to the Keep of Ganelon—under an alias, since he had exiled Ganelon from Avalon 600 years earlier. He learns that Ganelon's realm, Lorraine, is home to a darkened circle of land from which evil beings emerge to attack the surrounding area. Ganelon hires Corwin as an arms trainer for his troops.

Corwin meets a woman, also named Lorraine, and they begin a relationship. During a dinner date, he senses that someone is trying to locate him using his Trump, but he successfully resists, not wanting to give himself away to his enemies. Lorraine, however, has a touch of second sight, and she has a vision of the person trying to make contact. It was Corwin's father. They are attacked by a winged creature from the dark Circle calling itself Strygalldwir, whom Corwin kills.

Two weeks later, Ganelon and Corwin reconnoitre the dark Circle and decide to attack it. When they return to the Keep, Lorraine tells Corwin that she has had a dream of him and the horned creature at the centre of the Circle locked in combat.

In the previous chapter, Ganelon tells Corwin about the origin of the Circle. It began as a fairy circle of toadstools, but one with a deadly effect: a little girl was found dead within it, and her father died a few days later after he found her. They were Lorraine's daughter and husband. The Circle has deleterious effects on people: anyone who entered it died or fell sick. King Uther rode against the Circle and fell, which is how Ganelon came to be the steward of the kingdom.

When Ganelon and his men attacked the Circle, they came across a group of men sacrificing a goat on an altar. They tied one of them to the altar and killed him, but he transformed into a goat creature and unleashed a horde of evil beasts. The goat-man may be the leader or champion of the creatures in the Circle. Corwin and Ganelon believe defeating him will end the threat it poses. Corwin believes it is his responsibility to conquer the goat-man, because he himself is responsible for the Circle: "In a fit of passion, compounded of rage, horror, and pain, I had unleashed this thing, and it was reflected somewhere in every earth in existence. Such is the blood curse of a Prince of Amber," which Corwin spoke against Eric in the previous book, and doing so, unintentionally opened up a similar rift within Amber itself.

Lance says that Corwin used to rule Lorraine as a "demon lordling," until he abdicated and fled. Corwin says (in his narrative, not to Ganelon) that it wasn't true. Corwin may be powerful enough that he casts Shadows of his own, and so there are possibly imitation Corwins in many worlds. He remembers a Lancelot in Avalon, but Lance in Lorraine is not the same individual.

I'm still curious about the significance of the note Corwin sent himself, and Ganelon is still thinking about what it means as well. Does his former lord in Avalon mean to come to his aid, or is he playing some kind of joke? Obviously by sending the message to himself, to be seen by someone else, Corwin is working some kind of Machiavellian scheme. What will happen when Ganelon recognizes "Sir Corey" as Corwin himself? Doubtless Zelazny will reveal the answers in time, but it will have to wait until at least next Thursday.