The figures beneath each entry give reference numbers for the Bibliography
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# 156: A small town in Somerset, the site of a medieval abbey, which was variously said to have been founded by Deruvian and Phagan, missionaries sent by the Pope to the British king, Lucius, and by Saint Patrick before his mission to the Irish. There is in fact no real evidence for an abbey there before the seventh century. In the romance PERLESVAUS, Glastonbury is identified with Avalon. Saint Joseph of Arimathea was thought to have founded the old Church there. In the Middle Ages, bones, which were identified by their discoverers as those of Arthur and Guinevere, were discovered there. Although most authorities regard the find as a hoax, this is not necessarily the case. According to a story found in the LIFE OF GILDAS, Melvas (Meleagaunce) abducted Guinevere and took her to Glastonbury, but Gildas mediated between him and Arthur. See: GILDAS, SAINT.
# 456: Glastonbury continues to attract pilgrims and visitors from all over the world and its unique aura of sanctity and mystery persists with undimmed potency. It has been so for centuries, as the wide-ranging anthology reveals. Scholars, mystics, occultists, antiquarians and seekers of all persuasions have been drawn to 'England's Ancient Avalon' in search of historical facts or spiritual enlightenment, and as John Matthews says in the introduction to A GLASTONBURY READER, 'The one word that can never be applied to Glastonbury is "ordinary"... What is undoubtedly true is the curious aura of "oddness" that surrounds the place...from the moment one enters Glastonbury one knows one is entering a sacred enclosure. "Welcome to England's Ancient Avalon" announces the sign as one approaches, showing that even the local authorities recognize the mystery of the place. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, antiquarian and mystical interests came together in the works of such people as Frederick Bligh Bond and Katherine Maltwood. Bond discovered, through psychic archaeology, the location of the lost Lady Chapel in Glastonbury's great abbey, while Maltwood claimed a vast terrestial zodiac impressed into landscape around the sacred site. Early in this century the esotericist Dion Fortune resided in Glastonbury and found inspiration for much of her magical work there'. And John Michell add these words: 'There are many mysteries at Glastonbury, but they are all rooted in one great mystery: how is it that this small place, isolated among the Somerset marches, plays such a leading part in the spiritual history of Britain? Other religious centres, Canterbury, Westminster, Winchester, have had their periods of glory, but the fame of Glastonbury is unique and has endured longer than that of any other English sanctuary. In medieval Christendom the site of the first English church, at the west end of Glastonbury Abbey, was called the "holiest earth of England", and its precincts were sanctified as a model of earthly paradise, where the souls of the dead found their easiest passage to heaven. No traces have been found of any buildings from that period, but the great prehistoric earthwork, known as Ponter's Ball, which runs across high ground about two miles east of Glastonbury, is thought to have marked one of the boundaries of the sacred precinct. It is likely, therefore, that Glastonbury's special status as a heavenly sanctuary, beyond the ordinary laws of the land, was acknowledged long before the introduction of Christianity.'
# 24 - 25 - 100 - 248 - 261 - 456 - 469 - 563
A cross unearthed at the excavation of Arthur's supposed grave at Glastonbury in 1191. The inscription on the cross read HIC IACET SEPULTUS INCLITUS REX ARTURIUS IN INSULA AVALONIA. The cross was lost but, in recent times, a pattern-maker named Derek Mahoney claimed to have found it and reburied it.
# 156
A thorn which was said to have come from a staff, planted by Joseph of Arimathea on Wearyall Hill, and which became a thorn tree, flowering every year at Christmas. The thorn is first mentioned in the LYFE OF JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA (c.1502). The trunk of the tree was cut down by a Puritan zealot. The tree has a number of descendants alive today, notably in front of the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Glastonbury. They bloom in late December or early January.
# 156
An ancient sacred hill with many legendary attributes. In Celtic tradition it is the home of Gwyn ap Nudd, Lord of the Underworld and Master of the Wild Hunt. Like many hilltop sacred sites, the Christian dedication is to Saint Michael, (the Archangel Michael), who replaced the old Celtic god of Light, known as Bel or Belenos. centre, as a cosmic power point, as a point for predicting indicates the existence of a prehistoric culture deeply were depended upon, utilised, celebrated and understood in a way which has yet to be fully re-discovered.
# 628 p 103 - 326 p 9.
# 421: In recent years detailed archaeological study has shown that in many parts of the world prehistoric man had a far deeper understanding of astronomy than traditional historians were willing to accept. "The Round Table was constructed, not without great significance, upon the advice of Merlin. By its name the Round Table is meant to signify the round world and round canopy of the planets and the elements in the firmament, where are to be seen the stars and many other things." LA QUESTE DEL SAINT GRAAL. Time and opportunity are given to few to quest Merlin's Round Table of the Grail in the Valleys of Avalon. Glastonbury, the heart of legends of chivalry and sanctity dating back far beyond written records, has long excited the interest of scholars and seers. It was, however, not until the advent of aerial photography that its most dramatic secret was revealed. From studying these photographs and comparing them with the evidence of myth and detailed maps, Katherine Maltwood discovered a vast and complex pattern of figures in the contours and landmarks of the area. They form, in fact, a huge land of chart of the Zodiac.
# 156: According to a theory which was advanced by K. Maltwood in A GUIDE TO GLASTONBURY'S TEMPLE OF THE STARS, carved in the landscape around Glastonbury are giant figures, delineated by various markings which correspond to the signs of the Zodiac in the sky above them. She related these figures to episodes in the Grail Quest. The existence of the Zodiac has not won scolarly recognition, though the idea has a number of adherents.
# 126 - 156 - 326 - 420 - 421
# 562
# 156: Arthur's porter in CULHWCH, to whom the epithet Gafaelfawr (great grasp) is applied. In the poem PA GUR, he figures as the gatekeeper who will not admit Arthur unless he identifies himself and his followers. See: TWENTY-FOUR KNIGHTS.
# 156: Arthur's porter in CULHWCH, to whom the epithet Gafaelfawr (great grasp) is applied. In the poem PA GUR, he figures as the gatekeeper who will not admit Arthur unless he identifies himself and his followers. See: TWENTY-FOUR KNIGHTS.
# 454: He is the porter 'at the calends of January' - a task which he shared with four other men, according to CULHWCH AND OLWEN, wherein he has a riddling dialogue with Culhwch. There is a direct parallel between this exchange and that which Lugh is submitted to when he seeks to gain entrance to the hall of Nuadu.
# 156 - 272 - 439 - 453 - 454
# 156
The Queene of Faerie in Edmund Spenser's poem. In Spenser's allegory, he painted a portrait of Queen Elisabeth I of England.
# 614
# 562: The second task in CULHWCH AND OLWEN is fulfilled when Mabon is released from prison in Gloucester. The 'nine worked evils on the relatives of Peredur and he had been shown these evils things to incite him to avenge the wrong, and to prove his fitness for the task. On learning these matters Peredur, with the help of Arthur, attacked the sorceresses, who were slain every one, and the vengeance was accomplished.
# 702: In the Cathedral of Gloucester is a beautifully preserved lifesize effigy of Edward II, built by his son Edward III. The face of the effigy is said to have been copied from a death mask which had been made almost as soon as the King had died under the red-hot spit used by his torturers; this explains the grimace and sense of pain within the immobile features. The story of this effigy, resting in its exquisitely sculpted canopy, is one of the strangest in history, for it merges into mythology and magic in a unique way. The story begins with the murder of the ineffectual Edward II at Berkeley Castle in 1327 on the orders of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer. The abbeys nearest to Berkeley - Bristol and Malmesbury - refused to bury the body, mainly for fear of the two powerful murderers, and by the time the Abbot of Gloucester, 'moved by pity', allowed it to be interred in the cathedral, the corpse was already far decayed. It was soon rumoured that the tomb was a miracle-worker, and that sick people could be cured magically by being placed near to it, with the result that the dead Edward, who had been ineffectual in life, became effectual in death as a Saint. His son, Edward III, who had been born at Windsor in 1312, was more adroit in political and military matters and introduced order into the chaos which his father had left behind. It was he who commisioned and paid for the tomb of his father in Gloucester, to mark the place of pilgrimage of the sick to the 'martyr Edward', leaving behind one of the most impressive alabaster effigies in Britain. It is said that pilgrims to this tomb were so numerous that the small charges made were sufficient to enable the Abbot to reconstruct the east end, the clerestory, and parts of the nave of the Cathedral itself. The castle at Berkeley, where the foul murder of Edward II was committed, is said still to be haunted by the spirit of the troubled king. Edward had not been one of the wisest of rulers, preferring the companionship of low-born men to that of his peers (for example, he appears to have befriended Robin Hood) - nor was he one of the most competent of fighting men. When he led an army of conquest against Scotland in 1314, he managed to have 28,000 men defeated by about a third of that number under Robert the Bruce at the English disaster of Bannockburn.
# 562 - 702
The strong man of the Wee Folk.
# 562
The builder of Ehangwen, the hall used by Arthur for feasting. T. F. O'Rahilly suggests his name may be a form of Gwydion, that of a Celtic god, the son of Nodens.
# 156
One of Pwyll's hunt went by in the woods of Glyn Cuch.
# 562
Brother of Kian and Sawan; corresponds to Wayland Smith in Germanic legend; Ollav Fôla compared with Goban The Smith. Analogous to Goibniu and Gofannon. He lives on as Gobhan Saor, a crafty smith or mason whose skill outwits the unwary. He is favourite character in Irish folk-stories.
# 173 - 454 - 562
(fifth century) To escape a family feud, the young Gobnet left her home in County Clare to live on one of the Aran islands. There she had a vision in which she learnt that this was not to be her final home, but that she must settle in the place where she found nine white deer grazing. So she came back to the mainland and journeyed to the south-east, until she saw such a herd near Dungarvan. There she founded a nunnery, overlooking the sea from the slopes of the Monavillagh Mountains, at the place which now bears her name, Kilgobnet. She was to become renowned for her skill as a bee-keeper.
# 678
# 156: An Irish smith god who may have been identical in origin with Gwydion. See: TREBUCHET, and GOBAN THE SMITH.
# 678: Goibhniu, Luchta, Creidhne. There was a triad of Irish craftgods who belonged to the Tuatha De Danann: these were Goibhniu the smith, the most important of the three, Luchta the wright and Creidhne the metalworker. The three gods are called upon to forge weapons for Lugh and the Tuatha in the Second Battle of Magh Tuiredh, fought against the Fomorians. Each god makes a different part of the weapons: Goibhniu the head or blade, Luchta the shaft and Creidhne the rivets. Goibhniu's weapons are guaranteed always to fly true and always to inflict a fatal wound. Goighniu had another role, that of host of the Otherworld Feast: at this meal, the god provides a special ale, and those who drink it become immortal.
# 156 - 678
The totality of being as it now exists is represented by three concentric circles. The innermost of them, where life sprang from Annwn, is called 'Abred', and is the stage of struggle and evolution - the contest of life with Cythrawl. The next is the circle of 'Gwynfyd,' or Purity, in which life is manifested as a pure, rejoicing force, having attained its triumph over evil. The last and outermost circle is called 'Ceugant,' or Infinity. Here all predicates fail us, and this circle, represented graphically not by a bounding line, but by divergent rays, is inhabited by God alone. The following extract from BARDDAS in which the alleged bardic teaching is conveyed in catechism form, will serve to show the order of ideas in which the writer's mind moved:
There is much here that reminds us of Gnostic or Oriental thought. It is certainly very unlike Christian orthodoxy of the sixteenth century. As a product of the Cymric mind of that period the reader may take it for what it is worth, without troubling himself either with antiquarian theories or with their refutations. But where 'Barddas' is mentioning Annwn as the state where life begins, the original Gnosticism doesn't operate with a beginning (because, if there is a beginning there also has to be an end) but with an eternal spiral which is life (i.e. God) and within this spiral are all the lesser (pulmonary) circulations or spirals, which contains evolutionary, individually but still indivisible lifes, who develop through the stages of mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms and again as pure spirit, ending each lesser spiral being 'One with God'. This stage may last for eons of 'time' but will automatically leads to another lesser spiral where it starts all over again, but always in a higher degree, and so on in eternity. Micro- Middle- and Macrocosm has and will always exist inside eachother). These thoughts can be read in the Danish writer Martinus'(1890-1981) work THE THIRD TESTAMENT (# 431) and may complete the Cymric (i.e. Celtic) cosmogony, and thus include Cythrawl as a part of Gods being, which some interpretations of Druidism also contains.
# 111 - 431 - 562 - 612
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