King Arthur in Avalon

On the Illustrious Arthur
When William of Malmesbury was invited to write the early history of Glastonbury Abbey in 1129 he spent much time searching their library archive and noting the names on memorial stones in the abbey grounds but, rather tellingly, did not record any mention of Arthur’s burial there. In his chronicle the Deeds of the English Kings (Gesta Regum Anglorum, c.1125) William treats Arthur as a historical figure who the Britons still told many fables even in his own day and writes that “The sepulchre of Arthur is no where to be seen, whence ancient ballads fable that he is still to come.” 

After spending time at Glastonbury William made further additions to this chronicle which were published in later editions, this has enabled manuscript scholars such as John Scott1 to detect later interpolations in his original work, [as discussed above in Fake and Forgery at Glastonbury Abbey] but to William the location of Arthur’s grave remained a mystery and he does not associate the legendary king with Glastonbury at all. We have also seen how in the Life of Gildas, c.1130-1150, Caradoc of Llancarfan2 has a stand-off at Glastonbury between Arthur and Melvas, king of the Summer country, who has abducted Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere) and held her captive there owing to the natural protection of its reed, river and marsh. Arthur has spent a year searching for his wife then hears she being held at Glastonia. He assembles the whole armies of Cornubia and Dibneria (Latin for Cornwall and Devon) and besieges the glass city and prepares to attack. The abbot of Glastonia and Gildas the Wise manage to obtain peace between the two kings and Gwenhwyfar is released. If we are to locate the two kings from this tale then clearly Arthur is king of Devon and Cornwall, while Mevas is king of Somerset, the land of the Summer People. Therefore we can assert that Caradoc does not locate Arthur at Glastonbury either.

In his De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie (On the Antiquity of the Church of Glastonbury) William writes chapters on the Saints Gildas, Patrick, Indract, Bridget, Benignus, Columba, David and recounts many more as he lists the relics of saints and nobles deposited at Glastonbury including the translation of St Dunstan from Canterbury before adding a short chapter ‘On the Illustrious Arthur’.3

Here William recalls how we read in the deeds of the most illustrious King Arthur, which is assumed to be a reference to Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia which was originally titled De gestis Britonum (The Deeds of the Britons), how Arthur led a youth named Ider, the son of King Nuth, to Frog Mountain (Brent Knoll) to test him in battle against three giants. Ider went on ahead of Arthur without the king knowing and attacked and killed the giants. When he arrived Arthur found Ider lying lifeless and assumed he was dead. Arthur considered himself responsible for the young man’s death so when he returned to Glastonbury he established 80 monks there for his soul, generously granting them lands and gold, silver, chalices and other ecclesiastical ornaments.4

We find another version of this story in John of Glastonbury’s chronicle5 at chapter 33 but in John’s account it is the Mountain of Areynes (Mount of Spiders) in North Wales and Arthur established 24 monks but presented the same gifts of land and gold, silver, chalices and other churchly adornments. John names the lands given to Glastonbury as Brent Marsh and Polden among many others. No one knows the source of Ider’s story but it was clearly derived to explain how Glastonbury acquired the lands around Brent Knoll. If Geoffrey of Monmouth had been aware of the story he surely would have used it as he had a fascination with giants and has several giant-killing episodes in his Historia, but Geoffrey only makes a brief reference to Ider as Hyderus son of Nu (Hiderus filius Nu) in the skirmish of Autun in Arthur’s Gallic campaign.6

In the next chapter of John’s Cronica, chp 34, he mentions a convent of Holy Virgins on Wearyall where Arthur liked to stay and rest. He experiences a dream which involves a ride to the nearby chapel of St Mary at Beckery. The episode is referred to as ‘King Arthur’s Chapel Ride’ and bears a close relationship to a similar episode recorded in the opening section of Perlesvaus, or The High Book of the Holy Grail. In William Nitze’s study of the Perlesvaus he determined that John did not borrow from the Perlesvaus but both accounts derive from a common Latin original.7  We will return to Perlesvaus and its relationship with Glastonbury later. The remains of a chapel at Beckery have been discovered where burials, presumably monks, have been dated to the 5th or early 6th Century AD. Yet no evidence for a nunnery on Wearyall has ever been detected.

Scott states that the source of the story of Ider cannot be determined8 and asserts that it was obviously interpolated after the purported discovery of Arthur’s grave at Glastonbury. He adds that William indicates in Gesta Regum Anglorum that he is interested in authentic history about Arthur and would have no doubt included this story had he known and believed it. Scott dismisses the whole chapter ‘On the Illustrious King Arthur’ as a later interpolation in William’s original work.9

Rachel Bromwich names the youth as Edern mab Nud, a mythical figure, who like his brother Gwynn ap Nudd, he is a euhemerization of a Romano-British deity, Aeternus son of Nodons, who is far less prominent than in Welsh sources than his brother Gwynn ap Nudd, indeed Ider (Edern) is absent from the Triads of the Island of Britain.10 He appears in the so-called 'Arthurian Court List' in Culhwch and Olwen, in The Dream of Rhonabwy leading a group of Danes while serving as an advisor to Arthur, and also in Geraint and Enid. He was well known in Continental Arthurian Romance appearing on the Modena archivolt as Isdernus and Yder fiz Nut in Chretien de Troyes poem Erec et Enide and Yder son of Nuc in the 13th century French Romance. Evidently he was much more widely known in Continental sources than Welsh which supports Scott’s contention that he was a later addition to William’s De Antiquitate.11

Authors and Demons
The 12th century witnessed an explosion of Arthurian literature which had started with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae, c.1136). Geoffrey’s book, which contained the first full biography of the great King Arthur, was an immensely popular and influential work, although some contemporary historians had their doubts. In his Prologue to the Historia Geoffrey states that his work is a translation of a "librum vetustissimum" (a most ancient book), written in the British language and given to him by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford. Many doubt this book ever existed and Geoffrey is accused of manufacturing much of his 'history'; he seems to have taken certain elements from historical sources and embellished them with his own tales. Writing at the end of the 12th century William of Newburgh declared that "it is quite clear that everything this man wrote about Arthur ….. was made up, partly by himself and partly by others, either from an inordinate love of lying, or for the sake of pleasing the Britons." 

Another critic of Geoffrey’s work was Gerald of Wales who in his Journey through Wales (Itinerarium Kambrie) tells the story of a Welshman named Meilyr who was immediately aware if someone was lying as he saw a demon dancing on the liar's tongue. He could spot parts in books that were not correct and contained a false statement. On explaining how he did this Meilyr said the devil pointed it out with his finger. When St John’s Gospel was placed on his lap the demons fly off and disappeared. If the Gospel was then removed and Geoffrey’s History of the Kings of Britain put in in its place the demons would return.12

However, Geoffrey’s Historia was widely considered a credible history of Britain until the 16th century yet today is generally considered a work primarily of fiction, little more than a 12th century novel. During his tenure as Abbot Henry of Blois is said to have presented a copy of Geoffrey’s magnum opus to the library at Glastonbury which seems to have influenced certain actions of the monks when the need arose. But significantly Geoffrey did not associate Arthur with Glastonbury, or Glastonbury with Avalon; in his Historia Geoffrey writes that Arthur was carried off to the Isle of Avalon to be cured of his wounds.13 Geoffrey fails to elaborate on Avalon, the only previous mention he makes of it is that he states Arthur’s sword Caliburn was forged there.14 He never mentions Glastonbury in his whole text. 

Some years later Geoffrey returns to this theme in his Life of Merlin (Vita Merlini, c.1155); perhaps he felt the entry in his Historia was all too brief and required further explanation. In this much shorter work Geoffrey does not mention Avalon by name but it is clear he means the same place as he writes of the abode of Morgan and her sisters, where they took Arthur after the battle of Camlann to be cured of his wounds. In the Vita Merlini Geoffrey is clearly referring to the concept of ‘The Elysian Fields’ also known as ‘The Isles of the Blessed’ of Greek mythology located at the end of the earth in the western ocean, an afterlife paradise for those favoured by the gods. Here Geoffrey calls it the ‘Island of Apples which gets it name from the Fortunate Island’.15 Geoffrey is obviously referring to the Celtic version of Elysium, an island of plenty bearing the name for ‘apple tree’ = afallen (Welsh), aball (Irish), aballo (Gaulish). In the Brut y Brenhinedd, the Welsh versions of Geoffrey’s Historia,  the Island of Avalon is rendered as Ynys Afallach, the island of a Deity in some tales referred to as the King of Annwn, the Celtic Otherworld.

Twenty years after Geoffrey’s Historia the Norman poet Wace produced the Roman de Brut, 1155, which largely followed Geoffrey’s story, but introduced new elements such as the Round Table. These early works were known as the Brut tradition, a chronicle on British history starting with Brutus of Troy and ending with ends with the 7th century Welsh king Cadwallon ap Cadfan. The first English version was written by the priest Layamon expanding on Wace’s story.

This followed with an explosion of Arthurian literature in the last quarter of the 12th century ignited by Chretien de Troyes who after writing several Arthurian Romances introduced the Grail to the Arthurian cannon. Chretien left his work on the Grail unfinished which resulted in a multitude of ‘continuations’. Much of this Continental Romance literature focused on the exploits of Arthur’s knights with the king himself relegated to a minor role in the tales.

Glastonbury as Avalon
In conclusion, to writers of the early 12th century, such as Caradoc Llancarfan, Geoffrey of Monmouth, William of Malmesbury, Glastonbury was not associated with the mythical Island of Avalon. Similarly, King Arthur was not attached to Glastonbury living or dead. William of Malmesbury who had studied Glastonbury inside and out could not find any trace of him there and did not include him in his original De Antiquitate as he left it; we can be certain that all Arthurian references in the De Antiquitate are later interpolations.16 Geoffrey of Monmouth does not connect Arthur with Glastonbury in anyway; the King is conceived and falls in Cornwall. Caradoc of Llancarfan has Arthur preparing to attack Glastonia because Melvas is holding Gwenhwyfar there because its marshes make it impregnable.17 Caradoc was invited by the monks to write an account of Arthur associated with Glastonbury and the tale of Ider was taken from a later source and inserted into William’s original version of De Antiquitate; both accounts created to explain the monastery’s claims to its substantial land holdings, gifted by King Arthur of course.

Yet, the situation at Glastonbury and the privileges that its independence brought was about to change at the end of the 12th century with a discovery that would shake the Arthurian story to its very roots.

Notes & References
1. John Scott,The Early History of Glastonbury: An Edition, Translation, and Study of William of Malmesbury's De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie, Boydell Press, 2009,
2. Caradoc of Llangarfan: The Life of Gildas - Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University.
Hugh Williams, translator. Two Lives of Gildas by a monk of Ruys and Caradoc of Llancarfan.
First published in the Cymmrodorion Record Series, 1899.
3.  Scott, pp-87-89.
Scott has identified many later interpolations into William’s original work.
4. Scott, See Note: 77 on p.197.
5. James P Carley, The Chronicle of Glastonbury Abbey: An Edition, Translation and Study of John of Glastonbury’s Cronica sive Antiquatates Glastoniensis Ecclesie, tranlation by David Townsend, The Boydell Press, 1985, p.75.
6. Lewis Thorpe, Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Britain, Penguin Book, 1966, pp.243-46.
7. Carley, Cronica, see end note p.284
8. Scott, note 77, p.197.
9. Ibid.
10. Bromwich and D Simon Evans, Culhwch and Olwen: An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale, University of Wales Press, 1992, pp.70-71.
11. Scott, note 77, p.197.
12. Owain Wyn Jones, The Most Excellent Princes: Geoffrey of Monmouth and Medieval Welsh Historical Writing, in A Companion to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Brill, 2020, pp.257–290.
13. Thorpe, p.261.
14. Thorpe, p.217.
15. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Vita Merlini - translated by Basil Clarke, in The Life of Merlin. Cardiff: UWP, 1973. 
16. Scott, p.34.
17. Caradoc of Llangarfan: The Life of Gildas.

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