The Island of Avalon has been associated with the tor at Glastonbury because the monks at the medieval abbey exaggerated the previous association with Joseph of Arimathea to attract pilgrims. The myth that Glastonbury tor is somehow connected or even synonymous with the Island of Avalon is probably down to a man called Henry Blois, better known as Master Blihis, who was an abbot at Glastonbury abbey.
The author has deciphered the meaning behind the riddle known as Melkin's prophecy, upon which the mythical status of Glastonbury is founded. It is due to the fragment of Melkin's prophecy that Glastonbury polemicists, recognizing its antiquity, desperately contrived an association with Joseph of Arimathea's burial site and that of King Arthur.
This was possible due to everyone's ignorance in the middle ages of the location of Avalon. The subtle translocation of the isle of Avalon can be witnessed in the evolving interpolation of the prophecy by Glastonbury chroniclers keen to promote the connection with the uncle of Jesus. The 'Vaus d'Avaron' of French Grail literature is described in the story line in some Grail romances as pertaining to a region of valleys south of Dartmoor and the island of Avalon fits the description of Burgh Island. The genuine historical Avalon had beaches; it was tidal and had ships that visited it...... unlike Glastonbury or its environs.
The monks riddle which he left for posterity, when deciphered, clearly indicates with pinpoint geometrical accuracy, the whereabouts of the resting place of King Arthur and Joseph of Arimathea in the Island of Avalon. This is evidently not at Glastonbury.
The strange thing is that the geometric puzzle left by Melkin describes directions that are derived from the Saint Michael line of churches which runs across southern England.
For the skeptic, the fact that a 'bifurcated line' mentioned in Melkin's prophecy (Joseph lies on a bifurcated line), is the Saint Michael line..... causes many to assume there could be no link between the two. Most researchers have assumed the directions are local and relative to the old church at Glastonbury Abbey. This is all part of the interpolation purposely propagated by the Glastonbury establishment's chroniclers, in an attempt to be accounted the resting place of such an illustrious person.
The churches and chapels, built upon an ancient line of earthworks that demarcate the St. Michael line has been put there by design. When interlinked with other St. Michael churches (not on the Michael line), these Michaeline chapels act as markers on a map, leading to the lost island of Avalon. They clearly show that the chapels have be built as a devise to coincide with the precise instructional data provided by the prophecy of Melkin.
This site will show how this huge display of geometrical precision across the British landscape was understood and known to exist as late as late the 1300’s.
The accuracy of the geometry confirms that in antiquity, the presence of the St. Michael line was known about by Melkin in the sixth century..... long before the churches and chapels dedicated to the prince of the heavenly host were built. The array of churches dedicated to the archangel were built upon this ancient line of earthworks to point out to posterity the location of the tomb of Jesus by the ‘illuminati’ of the Templar order with the dual intent...... to mark the spot where they buried their treasure.
This hitherto hidden location is called the Island of Avalon and Melkin visited this island nowadays is known as Burgh Island. It becomes apparent that Melkin was present at the death of Britain’s famous King Arthur and he states who and what he saw in the Tomb.
In the tomb, Melkin found arcane information from the Temple in Jerusalem which had been brought to England by Joseph of Arimathea. This information, with an account of the Holy Family's arrival with Mary Magdalene, was written in a book composed by Melkin. This book gave account of the time from the arrival of these early Christians through a bloodline of 'Grail Keepers'...... up until the time of King Arthur.
The book became known as 'The Grail book', which found its way to France, Evidence points to Melkin who may well have established an early hermitage on Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy.
'The book of the Grail', through the troubadour family of the counts of Pitou and Aquitaine, gave rise to the wide array of Grail stories propagated through the medieval courts of France. A close family connection to Eleanor of Aquitaine in the person of Henry Blois (or as many knew him 'Monseigneur Blois'), became the 'Master Blohis' who was Abbot of Glastonbury. He was the first to expound from the French Grail literature by compiling the 'Perlesvaus', but he also was aware of the English traditions of the prophecy of Melkin which existed at Glastonbury and was aware of other manuscripts written by Melkin that became the source of Welsh Arthurian literature.
Henry of Blois however never knew the location of Avalon, but it was him who left the clue regarding Joseph of Arimathea being 'carefully hidden' at Montacute. This essential confirmational clue, not mentioned in the original prophecy, eventually came into the possession of Father William Good. It confirms Melkin's directions to the Island of Avalon and also endorses the proposition that the Michaeline chapels were constructed upon an older network of prominent earth mounds.
Unfortunately many researchers have denied the existence of alignment in the design of these ancient earthworks which became known as Ley lines. The mention of a Ley line for the majority of researchers has led to the refusal to accept the obvious parallels with the Michaeline structures and the denial of any association with the precision of Melkin's geometry. In fact some professed archaeologists refuse the existence of the ancient alignment of Avebury, Glastonbury tor, Burrow Mump and the Hurlers (to give but a few), simply because it is called a 'Ley line' and they don't understand the reasons behind the alignment.
‘And did those feet’, a book by Michael Goldsworthy, clearly shows that the body of Jesus is in fact buried with Joseph of Arimathea within this newly determined Avalon island in Devon. The Island used to be known as the fabled Island of Ictis by classical Greek and Latin chroniclers. However the Island contains within it an ancient tin vault. This hewn out tin storage deposit, which was used by the 'emporium' tin trading island of Ictis..... became the tomb for Jesus, Joseph and a collection of British nobles from antiquity . It had originally been used to store tin ingots when the Island of Ictis monopolised the trade of tin through the Phoenicians to the ancient world.
The confirmation of the whereabouts of this tomb is given by precise geometrical instructions upon the British landscape. These directions left in the obtuse Latin puzzle by the monk Melkin, (once deciphered), lead us to the grave site. The islands position is verified by the clue given to the Jesuit priest, Father Good, who lived in the sixteenth century. He deposited this vital corroborative clue concerning the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea in the English college in Rome.
Father Good however, was unaware of the significance of the clue he was given concerning how Joseph of Arimathea was 'Carefully hidden' in Montacute. However, someone else knew of the island's location and how its location was determined by these St. Michael dedicated sites. Since the time that the Templars visited the island with three treasure ships, to bury their treasure some one or some organisation has tried to hide the evidence that was rigourously guarded and passed to posterity by William Good. The reason for this seems to be that should we not have decoded Melkin's instructions..... the island might have been discovered sooner by the geometry which pertains to the Michaeline structures alone i.e both Burgh Island and Montecute both being prominent hill top features like the other St. Michael sites.
The three copies of 'Maihew's Trophea' have all had this information concerning Montacute removed. Were it not for a copy that existed in a private collection..... the chapel that existed atop St. Michael's hill would not have been known to act as a corroborative marker within the array of Michaeline chapels. These act as geometric points, that, when joined up in straight lines, confirm the angle and measurement that points to the Island and the tomb indicated by Melkin as the burial Island of Joseph of Arimathea.
The Templars in the middle ages were aware of the location of this tomb and deposited their treasure in the same sepulchre on Christmas day 1307. They were also aware of the instructional data within Melkin's prophecy. Thus the Templars were responsible for re-defining the line that Melkin had referred to by the re-dedication of church sites.
The line of St. Michael churches built upon an ancient alignment that includes Glastonbury was probably instigated by the Megalithic builders of Avebury. What function this line had is at the moment unanswered, but the fact that St. Michael's hill at Montacute is similar to both the prominent hilltop sites of Glastonbury and Burrow Mump would indicate by its subsequent dedication to St.Michael that it, (before Melkin's geometry was known), could have been part of this alignment from the early Megalith culture of Britain.
However, the Templars removed one item from the old hewn out vault within the island, which, because science has been unable to explain its formation..... has been classed as a fake. This artifact mentioned in the Gospels and throughout Grail literature has now become known as the Turin Shroud.
The Turin Shroud is described perfectly in Melkin's Latin puzzle once the solution is unravelled.
'Habet enim secum Ioseph in sarcophago duo fassula alba & argentea, cruore prophete Jhesu & sudore perimpleta': Joseph has with him in the sarcophagus a doubled white swaddling cloth covered with the blood and sweat of the prophet Jesus that was folded around him.
It must not be forgotten by the pedant that Melkin had purposely constructed an obtuse riddle which needed to be unraveled. It is for this reason the Glastonbury establishment found it easy to convince the gullible that the old church at the abbey and some superfluous line (that was supposedly indicated by a bronze plaque on a pillar), was relevant to the resting place of Joseph.
This fairly precise description of the shroud was given six hundred years before the shroud supposedly first appeared at Lirey in France. This was just fifty years after the Templar's visit to Burgh Island....... so how could it be a fake?!!! This artifact, described to exist in the tomb with Joseph can be derived from Melkin’s description as 'duo fassula.' This was due to misinterpretation encouraged at Glastonbury and so the arbitrary understanding of two jugs, later became synonymous with the Holy Grail.
This misconception occurred mostly by ignorance of the intended meaning of the puzzle. Thus the two vessels which were misunderstood to contain the blood and sweat of Jesus, became synonymous with the object of the Holy Grail. This misleading interpretation has transpired by the subtle twists of the prophecy's interpretation at Glastonbury by polemicists and of course the intended subtlety of Melkin...... designing his prophecy as a riddle to be decoded.
The reader will learn on this site, that the Holy Grail is in fact something inestimably more valuable and these pages set out to explain what the Grail is and how the Grail stories came about.
The body of Jesus, around which the Turin Shroud was once wrapped, remained in the tin vault, steeped in Cedar oil. It is by being submerged in the oil that the image on the Turin Shroud was formed over a period of six hundred years. The image formation was caused by the interaction of Aneorobic detritus and Brownian motion within the oil as the shroud enveloped the body of Jesus.
Judging by Melkin’s description of the shroud and the fact that the whole cloth is covered with a yellow varnish like encrustation, left over from the evaporated oil, the shroud was most probably removed from the body around 5- 600AD by Melkin. The dried out cloth which had managed to transfer the faintest facial imprint to the back side image as it dried….. was then later removed from the Isle of Avalon by the Templars.
The Turin Shroud was essentially formed within what became known as the Grail Arc which is the tin lined coffin of Jesus. This is the box Joseph of Arimathea used to transport the body of Jesus to England that was filled with embalming fluid and from which it is said the ancient British kings were anointed. Both the shroud and the coffin are mentioned in the Grail Stories in numerous subliminal references with many references to the sweet smelling Cedar oil. This Grail ark or coffin brought to England by Joseph was not (for obvious reasons) mentioned specifically in the Grail romances, but is subliminally indicated as the tomb of an unidentified person. Eventually Joseph was laid to rest within the same Sepulchre.
The reason this Island which used to be called Ictis was chosen to house what is the holiest relic of all..... is because it was not widely known about in the ancient world and its location was kept secret from the Romans. It was rumoured to exist through a report by one of the first Greek explorers to Britain named Pytheas.
Devon and Cornwall have a history in the tin industry and it was from this island that tin was traded with Joseph of Arimathea.... who, Cornish tradition has always maintained, was a tin merchant and was accompanied on his trading missions by Jesus.
Diodorus Siculus gives us a clear description of this same island which Pytheas had named Ictis or 'Fish Island' due to the vast quantities of pilchards caught off the Island. Through Pytheas’ account of what he encountered at the tin trading island, Diodorus relates that ‘large quantities of tin’ were taken over to the island in carts across the sand bar at low tide.
The proposition that Joseph of Arimathea owned this island as 'Ictis' came under pressure from Roman hegemony, becomes plausible when we consider he was sometimes known as the Fisher king and could have recieved this name as owner of the island called Fish Island. Also when we consider the discrepancies of the Gospel accounts of a hewn out tomb owned by Joseph in which no one had been previously laid....... the Grail stories may in fact be giving a more precise rendition of accounts of a voyage related by Rabanus. The four Gospel writers are seen to be rationalising a virgin birth with a father called Joseph who disappears from the gopel accounts while at the same time relating that Joseph (of Arimathea) has taken possesion of the body of Jesus. The proposition that after the crucifixion a rumour started, that Jesus was to be buried in a hewed out tomb owned by Joseph might explain each gospel writers conflicting evidence. Nowhere in the Gospels is a singular event given account of with such variance by the four Gospel writers. the main conflicting points are about the discovery of the body. Our proposition is that it was brought back to England to an unused tin storage vault by Joseph of Arimathea (his real father).
These pages uncover an ancient Biblical link to the Devon and Cornish peninsula through a bloodline from the first born of Judah, one of the twelve sons of Israel, called Zarah. It is from Judah’s heritage a line of Kings emanated in the South West of England known as the kings of Sarras which culminated with the famous King Arthur.
This does seem fantastic, but when the reader views the evidence related on this web site, one will find that King Arthur, Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea are waiting to be unearthed on the Island today called Burgh Island. If this is not enough for the conspiracy theorist or the skeptic...... there is also the Templar treasure secreted in the tomb.
'And Did those feet, ' a book which answers Blake’s question posited in his famous anthem 'Jerusalem', traces these events. The book pulls together a wide source of detail, linking the most powerful people in Europe such as Eleanor of Aquitaine, the earliest traceable owner of the ‘Book of the Grail’, written by Melkin.
Furthermore, which seems to stretch credulity even further, a sound position may be maintained that Leonardo Da Vinci visited this island in the last three years of his life. He left clues within four paintings, which show the geographical and geological features of the Island. He also let the world know by his picture puzzle (rebus) in the Windsor Library, that he was showing us a great mystery.
Da Vinci even went as far as to say he would show where it is, in his two paintings of the Yarnwinder. The two Yarnwinder paintings known to have been by Leonardo’s hand, when merged together, show the Island of Avalon at the mouth of the river Avon below Dartmoor in geographical perspective.
Finally if the Grail quester is in any doubt as to whether a tomb exists on this island, we can see compelling evidence in the story of the Perlesvaus.
The Perlesvaux is a compilation of an early oral tradition and is derived from some of the earliest troubadours. It is from these men that the romances emanated. We can still hear the topographical detail attached to the storylines in this Grail literature that show that the Island of Avalon is synonymous with Burgh Island and the Isle of Avalon is not located at Glastonbury.
The implication and ramifications of the unearthing of this tomb will have consequences across the world. In fact this is why this ancient extract known as Melkin's prophecy which is found replicated in John of Glastonbury’s Cronica is thought to be a prophecy. Not only does Melkin leave geometrical datum which leads us to the tomb, but he unequivocally and specifically states that the discovery of the tomb will have worldwide ramifications.
This King Arthur website is not specifically about King Arthur, but includes the role of the fraudulent unearthing at Glastonbury of King Arthur’s remains. This one act has played a significant role in distorting the historical truths related by the Grail literature and our understanding of these events. This faked dis-interment of King Arthur has warped the understanding of how these events originally transpired so that the Grail stories are considered to relate no historical fact. These pages that follow uncover the relationship between the unveiling of Arthur's tomb at Glastonbury and how it has prevented the discovery of the bodies of Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea.
It is also a very strange irony that while the world looked on at the Olympic ceremony, the Island of Avalon ( as modern perception has understood) was imitated as Glastonbury tor. At the same time Blake's Anthem entitled 'Jerusalem’ was brought into popular consciousness as it was sung at the opening ceremony and seen by millions across the Globe. The Irony being that even today the question is still asked 'Did the feet of Jesus walk upon England's green and pleasant land'.
The reason the information on this site and the conclusions drawn, concerning the discovery of this tomb, have yet to be uncovered, are twofold. The first is that the proprietors of the hotel on the Island known as Burgh Island have refused any permission to uncover the entrance after many requests from various people. The conspiracy theorist would think back to the disappearance of the pages in Maihew’s Trophea and ponder....... that if someone in the sixteenth century was actively intent upon obscuring the unveiling of the tomb site…….. are there still those today who wish to prevent the tomb’s opening. However, sadly, the answer is probably a lot more mundane.
The second reason and more importantly is that scholars, researchers and archaeologists have all assumed Melkin and his prophecy to be a thirteenth century fraud and are unwilling to retract pronouncements made not only about Melkin, but a whole swathe of literature falsely rationalised upon propaganda initiated at Glastonbury in the Middle ages.
However, the prophecy, which specifically speaks of Joseph of Arimathea finding his rest in the Island of Avalon….. would have to be a very well thought out fraud which shoots in the foot the supposed promulgator who designed it to benefit Glastonbury. Especially since the instructions within it, accurately located an Island so well described in the Grail Stories at which the Fisher king (otherwise known as Joseph of Arimathea) was said to be buried.
It is these Romances that actually tell the story of Joseph of Arimathea’s arrival in Britain and were written by the same man who concerns himself with the same island and personages (Jesus and Joseph) in his British prophecy . One must then have to ask...... if the prophecy were invented for use to convince pilgrims of the presence of the gravesite of Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury...... why then does every pertinent instructional detail, geometrically pin point an Island in Devon. Surely even the skeptics or the sedentary academic would see this as a coincidence too far especially when not one of the 104 knights or 144,000 saints have been unearthed to date.
Melkins directions are so clear once the riddle is decoded. The subject of Melkin’s puzzle is the Island of Avalon....... the object is the whereabouts of Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb and the consequences of it being found.
There are so few instructional directions within this short prophecy that if it were a thirteenth century invention it would be extraordinary that every one of the clues lend additional information which geometrically locates Burgh Island. Previously, not one commentator has given a valid reason for the essential clues: ‘bifurcated line’,’ 104 miles’, ‘13 degrees,’ and ‘sperula’ for Avebury.
If these numerical and objective clues such as a 'spherical' Avebury stone circle (circular) and 'line' (made up of St. Michael churches) did not match the 104 mile distance and the angle of 'bifurcation' was not 13 degrees...... we might be able to go along with convention and assume the Grail stories were misguided in their description of the location of Avalon. This of course would make little sense, as we have explained the reasons for Glastonbury usurping the name Avalon.
Melkin hints that we look for a line to bifurcate. The most obvious line is the Michael Line in southern England. He also intones, (once the riddle is understood as Melkin intended it), when the line is found…within a circle (sperula), which is Avebury......... one needs to measure 104 Nautical miles at 13 degrees to the (Michael) line and one has located Avalon.
This is where he indicates we will find Joseph and the Holy Grail and is the sole purpose of his riddle.
Many have pondered as to why or how Melkin is able to give distances in nautical miles, but he does refer to them as miles 'milibus'. The fact that he could understand this nautical mile measurement has prevented many researchers accepting the 104 as a precise measurement,(even since the riddle has been decoded) and have maintained that the number must be relevant only in the context of a 13th century fraud. How does this number of 104 or the number13 mentioned in the prophecy help a supposed fraudulent monk. Surely if the prophecy were indeed a fraud, he would have stated 'saints' not milibus. However, Melkin who was real and transferring a message to decode in the future says in a subtle way 13 degrees.
Melkin has set out his code and if the reader is not able to decode this part of the riddle, one is not going to obtain the direction of 13 degrees from the St. Michael Ley line through Montacute to Burgh Island along the Joseph line. Melkin plays on the original use of the word ‘sperulis’, from which we derived sphere, which at the beginning of the prophecy related to the stone circle of Avebury. Melkin then refers back to ‘sperulis’ by using the word “aforementioned” (the normal meaning of 'supradictis') trying to convince the reader that the two words ‘sperulis’ and ‘sperulatis’ have one and the same meaning. However his use of the word for the second time has not the same sense as in circle or sphere, but rather in its composition, being comprised of degrees. Melkin surely meant ‘sperulatis’ as a diminutive form and of the symbol for degrees i.e. 13°……. the symbol being a small circle °. Funnily enough the word supradictis is meant to be split in 'supra ad ictis' which confirms the tomb is 'up high in Ictis'
Many assume the ancients were ignorant of basic mapping and Navigational skills but this is obviously inaccurate and is attested to by the Phoenician voyages to Britain. Even Pytheas in 350 BC knew of the necessary breakdown of 60 nautical miles into 1 degree as an immutable and unchangeable law calibrated by the confines of the circumference of the globe.
This conclusion that the ancients recognised 60 nautical miles as 1 degree is easily drawn if we split the globe into the four quadrants of 90 degrees giving the 360 degrees encompassed in a circular line of Latitude or Longitude. By what other means could Pytheas measure the declination of the sun. Don’t forget there are chroniclers that attest that Melkin was not only a geometer, but an astronomer also, who was interested in Comets.
Island of Avalon, coveting the pagans in death, above all others (places) in the world for their entombment there, it is before the circle(sperula) that predicts prophesy (Avebury) and in the future will be adorned by those that give praise to the highest. The father’s pearl, (Jesus) virtuous through the new wine, the noblest of pagans, sleeps 104 miles from it (Avebury), by whom he received interment by the sea from Joseph named from Arimathea, and has taken his eternal rest there, and he lies on a line that is two forked between that and a meridian, in an angle on a coastal Tor, in a crater, that was already prepared and above is where one prays which one can go at the extremity of the verge, high up in Ictis is the place they abide to the south at thirteen degrees.
Insula auallonis auida funere paganorum, pre ceteris in orbe ad sepulturam eorum omnium sperulis propheciae vaticinantibus decorata, & in futurum ornata erit altissimum laudantibus. Abbadare, potens in Saphat, paganorum nobilissimus, cum centum et quatuor milibus domiicionem ibi accepit. Inter quos ioseph de marmore, ab Armathia nomine, cepit sompnum perpetuum; Et iacet in linea bifurcata iuxta meridianum angulum oratori, cratibus praeparatis, super potentem adorandam virginem, supradictis sperulatis locum habitantibus tredecim. Habet enim secum Ioseph in sarcophago duo fassula alba & argentea, cruore prophete Jhesu & sudore perimpleta. Cum reperietur ejus sarcofagum, integrum illibatum in futuris videbitur, & erit apertum toto orbi terrarium. Ex tunc aqua, nec ros coeli insulam nobilissimam habitantibus poterit deficere. Per multum tempus ante diem Judioialem in iosaphat erunt aperta haec, & viventibus declarata.
How the prophecy has been variously translated in the past completely misunderstanding the geometric references
‘The Isle of Avalon, greedy for the death of pagans, more than all others in the world, for their entombment, decorated beyond all others by portentous spheres of prophecy, and in the future, adorned shall it be, by them that praise the most high. Abbadare, mighty in judgement, noblest of pagans, has fallen asleep there with 104,000 others (or 104 knights), among these, Joseph of Arimathea has found perpetual sleep in a marble tomb, and he lies on a two forked line, next to the southern angle of an oratory, where the wattle is prepared above the mighty maiden and in the place of the 13 spheres.
For Joseph has with him in his sarcophagus two white and silver vessels, filled with the blood and sweat of the prophet Jesus and when his sarcophagus is uncovered, it will be seen whole and undisturbed, and will be opened to the whole world.
Thenceforth those who dwell in that noble isle, will lack neither water nor the dew of heaven. For a long while before the day of judgment (ludioialem) in Josaphat, open shall these things be and declared to the living’.
If you do not wish to commit to reading the whole exposé you will find the breakdown of the instructional part of Melkin’s prophecy enlightening.......... confirming the geometry shown above.
http://isleofavallon.blogspot.co.uk #3
We have up to this point seen the way that Glastonbury was suddenly made
prosperous after the arrival of Henry of Blois otherwise known as Monseigneur
Blois (1101–1171), who became Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey from 1126. If we are
correct in assuming that he is our Master Blihis that knew all about the
stories of the Graal, then we must assume that the author referenced in the
last chapter of the High History is copying the work of Henry of Blois and this
is borne out by the copyist, ’ For the Lord of Neele made the Lord of Cambrein this book be written,
that never before this was treated in Romance but one single time besides this (this
is the copy that Master Blihis put together, Perlesvaus) and the book that
was made before that is so ancient that only with great pains may one make out
the letter (this is the original copy in
Latin that Melkin brought to France).And let Messire Johan de Neele well
understand that he ought to hold this story dear, nor ought he to tell nought
thereof to misunderstanding folk, for a good thing that is spread amongst bad
people is never recorded faithfully.
The Messire Johan, Seingnor of Neele, can only be ‘John de Nesle’ who
was present at the battle of Bouvines in 1214. This ‘Seingnor of Neele’ can be found in Migne, Dictionnaire des
Abbayes et Monastères, and relates to the founding of the Abbaye aux Bois, near Nesle, in 1202 (or 1200) by‘Jean,seigneur de Neele, chatelain de Bouges
(Bruges) et Eustachie de St.Paul (Pol), sa femme.’ Their marriage is also
later confirmed, so we are talking of the same person.This is written after the discovery of Arthur at Glastonbury and 30
years after the fire but this is a copy of Henry’s ‘Perlesvaux’ written earlier
around 1150. There are certain bits in the ‘high history’ that may have been
used by Henry to convince people that Glastonbury was Avalon, even before the
great necessity to do so after the fire, by the subsequent Glastonbury
polemicists. However he stuck to the story which for the most part revolves
around a Chapel on a Tidal Island near a valley and a river. Hardly an exact
description of Glastonbury tor.
We must not forget that William of Malmesbury did not know where Avalon
was but if anyone could get away with this transformation, (or even later find
it convenient to promote such a position), it would be the one person who knew
all the tales of the Graal. Although Henry never directly sets out to say that
Glastonbury is Avalon and can be seen to translate the tales of King Arthur and
the Grail Keepers faithfully from Melkin’s text, there are certain ways of
persuading others, if one does not listen attentively to the geographical
descriptions in the Branches of the History. After all to title the entire work
Perlesvaus or‘through the vales’ indicates that all the stories in the Branches,
take place in a certain region and revolve around geographical descriptions
that apply to a kingdom specifically located by the title of the book;
especially with the main protagonist called 'Perceval' (through this Valley).
Some commentators have thought that a French version before Henry compiled his,
might have been from a mistranslation of Pellesvaus or the vales of King Pelles
the sometimes fisher king. As we posited earlier, Joseph could have owned the
Island and there are accounts of Arviragus giving him it. As we shall cover at
the end of this investigation it is this Island that is mentioned in a charter
as being accompanied by fisheries and Castles known as an area called Venn, (or
Vales).
However, the worst misdirection that scholars have come up with is
derived purely from the assumption that the Grail stories and the Perlesvaus in
particular, have absolutely no historical basis and are thought of as poems or
prose of a didactic nature. This can be seen here:
The Perlesvaus belongs to the
second group and owes its origin to the religious dissentions in England
between the Saxons, converts to Roman Christianity, and the Britons, adherents
of the heretic Irish Church. The Grail and the Lance, we are told, were
originally the national emblems of the Britons. As such they were cherished
even after the Britons had accepted Christianity from the Irish. Finally,
through the influence of St. Augustine and his followers, they were identified
with Christian relics (those of Calvary), and thus they became symbols of the
Church. In the Perlesvaus, they are the special insignia of the true faith and
the bone of contention between Saxon and British Christians. The theme of the
romance is clearly indicated in the words : effacer la mauvaise hi et exhausser
la loi nouvelle ; Perceval is the champion of the true faith, and his mission
is to overcome and convert the infidels ; viz., the heretic Britons.
James Carley, however, (without whom, much of the research on
Glastonbury material would be unavailable) has formed the sceptical opinion
that the Melkin prophecy is probably a fabrication and others have followed
like Subdeacon Paul Ashdown ……the enigmatic ‘Prophecy of
Melkin’, included in the Chronica of the monk John ‘of Glastonbury’ (John
Sheen) of 1342, which built upon the work of William of Malmesbury and Adam of
Domerham. The previously unheard-of character of Melkin, who was ‘before
Merlin,’ is presented in the same vaticinatory pseudo-Welsh tradition as the
Arthurian seer (Merlin) as imagined
by Geoffrey of Monmouth, and the Latin is therefore deliberately cryptic. Here
we read for the first time of the burial of Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury,
in a hidden tomb which will be revealed at a millennial future time before the
Day of Judgement. He lies (as I have argued elsewhere ) in a folded linen
shroud, probably to be identified with that of Christ, and with two vessels
containing (presumably one of each) Christ’s blood and sweat’. Yet translates the Prophecy:
The Isle of Avalon, avid before
others in the world for the death of pagans, decorated at the sepulchre of them
all with vaticinatory little spheres of prophecy, and in future it will be
adorned with those who praise the Most High. Abbadare, powerful in Saphat,
noblest of pagans, took his sleep there with 104,000. Among them Joseph named
‘of Arimathea’, took perpetual sleep in [a] marble [tomb]. And he lies in a
doubled linen [cloth] by the southern corner of the oratory fashioned of
wattles, above the powerful adorable Virgin, the aforesaid thirteen sphered
[things] inhabiting the place. For Joseph has with him in the sarcophagus two
white and silver vessels filled with the blood and sweat of the prophet Jesus.
When his sarcophagus is found, it will be seen whole and undefiled in the
future, and will be open to all the orb of the earth. From then on, neither
water nor heavenly dew will can be lacking for those who inhabit the most noble
island. For a long time before the Day of Judgement in Josaphat these things
will be open and declared to the living.
It goes on to say: This rigmarole may well incorporate older elements but, in the form in
which we have it, is datable to the aftermath of Edward I’s visit through the
inclusion of the figure of Abbadare. As first suggested in 1981 by James
Carley, he is to be identified with Baybars (in Arabic al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn
al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari), Sultan of Egypt and Syria, Edward’s formidable
adversary during the Ninth Crusade, who had captured the fortress of Safed,
Melkin’s ‘Saphat,’ (and with it the Galilee) from the Templars in 1266, and
died of poisoning in July 1277, in the year before Edward’s visit to
Glastonbury. I have argued elsewhere that Melkin’s reference originated in some
satirical lay which had consigned the deceased Baybars and his paladins to one
of the alternative Mediterranean, Oriental or Antipodean locations of an Avalon
which has here been repatriated, along (uncomprehendingly) with the Sultan, to
its British origin.
Included among the sleeping
‘pagans’ (i.e., in contemporary usage, Muslims),
perhaps because of his status as a wealthy Jew, is Joseph of Arimathea.
Although ‘Melkin’ is the oldest source to tell of his burial at Glastonbury,
his tomb’s exact location is clearly regarded as an occult secret. It seems
most unlikely that John Sheen was himself the author of the Melkin doggerel.
Indeed, he seems to have been the first to confuse the mysteriouslinea bifurcata, which I have interpreted as a
shroud, with some kind of esoteric line in church or churchyard.
So it is easy to see, with these pronouncements debunking the Prophecy
(that short of being granted permission by the owners of the Island to show
them where the entrance is, which we shall get to later), we need to look at
further evidence provided by the second oldest authority…… from Henry Blois.
This, although no-one has ever tried to fit the descriptions in any of the
Branches to a location, seems a good way of confirming if Melkin, after all is
pointing to the Island described in the text.
It can be seen in the Perlesvaus, (even though the various stories that
Henry Blois is recounting seem intermingled) that the geography of the area
seems to be constant. This can be explained by accounts that Henry heard orally
maintaining these features as part of the logic of the story line or maybe he
himself sourced some material in written form. The one puzzling feature about
many of the Grail stories is that even though the stories may have different
characters the back drop is always similar. Melkin’s original work of different
generations living in one locale i.e the vales south of Dartmoor is one way of
looking at it. Elucidation by the troubadours of Melkin’s Grail book may go far
back but the stories are never far from their geographical setting even though,
once a locale is visualised, (as in our proposed location) the accounts may not
accurately match as this was accounted as extraneous detail by the trobadours
who focused more on character detail; but for the most part enough relevant
material has survived attaching itself to the storyline that lets us know that
the Island of Avalon is certainly not at Glastonbury.
The story would not flow in tandem with its original portrayal, if the
Castle is not opposite the Island of Avalon as it appears in several varying
accounts. What is happening is that Melkin is relating accounts all in the same
area around Avalon situated in Devon and troubadours have mixed the generations
and stories that Melkin had originally laid down to explain the period from the
arrival of Joseph up until the death of King Arthur. This is not to say though,
that Melkin’s Grail book is a purely historical account as most or all of his
information that he wanted passed to posterity still exists in one form or
another, but I don’t think he ever outwardly stated that the Grail was Jesus
(exept in his prophecy). Rather, he formed stories segmented into branches that
subliminally transferred information just like his English prophecy did. These
levels of understanding transmitted historical stories from the time of Joseph
through the generations of a royal ramily and also related material pertinent
to how these events play out in the elevation of Consciousness of Mankind but
couched in didactic form to be acted out by our Grail Heroes.
It must never be forgotten that Melkin, the originator of all Grail
material did not want anyone at the time he was alive to know where Avalon was.
This is borne out by the way he constructed his prophecy. So, he is hardly
going to describe precisely where the island is in the Grail book or exactly
the purport of his exposé, but every detail of what we have proposed as a total
scenario(from crucifixion to Arthur) so far, is somewhere mentioned or
subliminally related in the various texts. Melkin determined to set the rich
tapestry of drama in the very vales in which they historically transpired and
the original book records the travails of a kingdom and bloodline through the
Roman era up to and including the Saxon invasion.
Although Melkin’s prophecy was supposed to be a puzzle, it would appear
as if the reference in the High History to the difficulty in reading the Latin
in Melkin’s original book could be one reason for the troubadours
misunderstanding of his work. With the misunderstanding or misinterpretation
came embellishment according to the tastes of the storyteller focusing on
battle scenes by some if they had a particular interest or penchant. The
spiritual nature of the Grail may have been highlighted by others or the quest
or the particular relationships between warring relatives, but the geography is
inescapable just as much as all the content in the storylines; it is about a
body and a cloth that got put in a tomb on an island by Joseph of Arimathea and
this island is in Devon or the Vaus d'Avaron.
It is very much advised to the reader to read the various Branches of
the Perlesvaus. After doing so, one can only conclude that what we have
elucidated upon up until now, as regarding Joseph having brought a body to
England and this body is presently on Avalon........ is exposed in many places
throughout the text.
Let us firstly reassert that the High history is given the authority of
the original story from a certain Josephus. This is essentially due to the fact
that Melkin asserts (in his Latin text) that his account is derived from original
detail supplied by Joseph of Arimathea. The strange thing is that the writer of
the High history refers to him as a narrator not as Joseph the eyewitness,
protagonist and author from which the record is derived.
Now is the story silent of
Perceval and cometh back to King Arthur, the very matter thereof, as testifies
the history, that in no place is corrupted and the Latin lie not.
And all these adventures that you
hear in this high record came to pass, Josephus telleth us, for the setting
forward the law of the Saviour.
How else could it have been related if it is not an historical record
from Joseph. If it is not historical then there is no Avalon anyway……… and no
point in the monks at Glastobury trying to make Glastonbury appear to be
synonymous with a purely mythical island. If this were the case, it would be
even more fantastic that a supposed fabricated text called the Prophecy of
Melkin gives precise directions to an Island (that is also incidentally called
Avalon), that so concisely geographically fits the description of Avalon as
described in the High History of the Grail. Then the further coincidence of the
same story that tells of a mysterious object that was brought to the same
Island by Joseph of Arimathea. Then it just so happens that the prophecy which
is supposed to be a fabrication, tells us that Joseph and the Grail are buried
within this fictitious Island.
Anyway, Joseph is appealed to as the authority of the High History. What
most scholars tend to be misled by, is the fact that Melkin is also relating
history after Joseph’s death that take into account the subsequent years and
thus in their minds disqualifies Joseph of Arimathea, as being the one appealed
to. Don’t forget that most scholars think there is no historical content in the
Grail literature, but it all evolved as a twelfth century fiction. How, if one
takes this view, were the French responsible for propagating such a fiction
about a mythical island in Britain and what would be the reasoning behind it.
and how is it the topography of the island described in these French tales
corresponds to the Island pointed out by this fictitious monk known for his
Geometry.
Obviously, as we saw in the Alliterative poem from which we derived the
eyewitness account of the Grail which we came across earlier, these must have
come from Joseph himself, as this deals with the remainder of the holy family’s
actual arrival and the incidents that transpired immediately afterward.
Josephus telleth us in the
scripture he recordeth for us, whereof this history was drawn out of Latin into
Romance, that none need be in doubt that these adventures befell at that time
in Great Britain and in all the other kingdoms, and plenty enow more befell
than I record, but these were the most certain.
Scholars
claim Robert de Boron wrote after Chrétien, but Robert says that he wrote his
book before 1180, meaning he wrote his book around the time Chrétien was
writing Eric and Enide and before
he wrote Percival. Whoever
scholars believe was the first medieval writer, Robert and Chrétien claim they
were guided by a pre-existing, book and so does the Perlesvaus. So it all comes
down to Melkin as these writers are writing probably 3-400 years after Arthur
(a bit late to suddenly start fabricating myths). Most scholars recognise this
fact and rationalise the whole Grail edifice as having some relevance to
Medieval religious squabbles. This might be the case with later infusion, but
how is it that Joseph is giving first hand accounts (which obviously Melkin
discovered) that pertains to events 1000 years before any of them wrote. Robert
De Boron’s Le liuro de
Josep de Arimthea translation from Portuguese says the book he used
was ’secret’ and that:
‘I dare not and could not tell at the time of
writing, but that I had the secret book before me wherein the histories are
written by the great clerks of all time. Therein are the great mysteries, which
are called the Graal’.
This would seem to be a reference to Joseph and Melkin in antiquity.
Whether or not Henry is the compiler of the Perlesvaus from Melkin’s material,
we can see that the island of Avalon was never meant as being applicable to
Glastonbury except by those with a motive of self-promotion at Glastonbury. As
we have discovered, much in Glastonbury was made to concur with Melkin’s
prophecy, but from a different perspective, as we look through the text of the
High History about allusions to Logres (supposedly Glastonbury) and the chapel
dedicated to the Virgin Mary……we can see that, to the gullible, the link might
be made, but most emphatically the Island of Avalon is in the sea and the
description in the text fits Burgh Island. No matter how tenuous the connection
in the High History that the region in which the story is set might apply to
Glastonbury, it is surely how it has been understood for the last 800 years.
But before we move on specifically to the
Perlesvaus passages, let us just have a look if the geography of Chretien de
troyes is different and try to understand some of his descriptions that have
been delivered unintentionally and yet seem to fit with the Perlesvaus version.
Let us not forget however neither Chretien or Henry Blois had a clue where
Avalon was or its surrounding topography.
He summoned the best artisans in
the land, and commanded them to build a tower, and exert themselves to build it
well. The stone was quarried by the seaside; for near Gorre on this side there
runs a big broad arm of the sea, in the midst of which an island stood, as
Meleagant well knew. He ordered the stone to be carried thither and the
material for the construction of the tower. In less than fifty-seven days the
tower was completely built, high and thick and well-founded. When it was
completed, he had Lancelot brought thither by night, and after putting him in
the tower, he ordered the doors to be walled up, and made all the masons swear
that they would never utter a word about this tower.
The Grail Chapel or Castle as it is variously known is on the Island of
Avalon and the tidal causeway as at Burgh Island is the Bridge of varying
descriptions in many Grail versions. In the ‘Knight and the Cart’Chretien who
really has never seen it is struggling to describe something in the text he is
sourcing.
One is called the water-bridge,
because the bridge is under water, and there is the same amount of water
beneath it as above it, so that the bridge is exactly in the middle; and it is
only a foot and a half in width and in thickness.
Figure 78. The disappearing bridge that is once narrow and then widens
In this island no thunder is
heard, no lightning strikes, nor tempests rage, nor do toads or serpents exist
there, nor is it ever too hot or too cold. Graislemier of Fine Posterne brought
twenty companions, and had with him his brother Guigomar, lord of the Isle of
Avalon. Chretien
Let us now look at the Perlesvaus:
Opposite Avalon was a castle that must have been in ‘Bigbury on sea’ and
this, with the Folly hill site became known as Camelot. As we have discussed
Camelot never existed as a place and thus it existed in two places in the
Perlesvaus and may have been confused with where Arthur had held court (either
at Avalon or in Tintagel), nevertheless the original transcriber had seen this
word in Melkin’s text and included it as being synonymous with a place name.
Behind the castle was a river, as the history testifieth, whereby all
good things came to the castle, and this river was right fair and plenteous.
Josephus witnesseth us that it came from the Earthly Paradise and compassed the
castle around and ran on through the forest as far as the house of a worshipful
hermit (Shipley Bridge) and there
lost the course and had peace in the earth. All along the valley thereof was
great plenty of everything continually, and nought was ever lacking in the rich
castle that Perceval had won. The castle, so says the history, had three names.
One of the names was Eden, the second, Castle of Joy, and the third, Castle of
Souls. Now Josephus saith that none never passed away therein but his soul went
to Paradise.
Showing what might be the
location of the house of the worshipful Hermit at Shipley Bridge.
The Text starts:
Hear ye the history of the most
holy vessel that is called Graal, wherein the precious blood of the Saviour was
received on the day that He was put on rood and crucified in order that He
might redeem His people from the pains of hell. Josephus set it in remembrance
by annunciation of the voice of an angel, for that the truth should be known by
his record of good knights, and good worshipful men how they were willing to
suffer pain and to work for the setting forward of the Law of Jesus Christ,
that He has willed to make new by His death and by His crucifixion.
The High history is an account of the travails of family relations
connected to the holy family that arrived in Britain and the adventures of
knights and property owners that occupied the region around the south coast of
Devon in particular, but extending through Somerset and Cornwall. These include
accounts in Arthur’s court at Tintagel and escapades to Penzance and as far up
as the kingdom of Logres which is accounted by most to be synonymous with
Glastonbury. Protection of castles by knights and services offered to damsels
in distress that interact with colourful characters from across the English
channel and the Channel Islands are integrated into an account of Joseph’s
effect on having brought such a sacred object to the region.
These adventures or‘Histoires’ fit in through the ages from the time the
Grail was brought to Avalon up until the Death of king Arthur. The whole
history, if it is not looked at as some intellectual exercise in conceptual
critique and as having some deeper meaning………is just a record of the comings
and goings of interrelated families that were established originally in the old
Law of the residue of the tin mining Jews and the blood relatives of Jesus.
‘God hath guided and led the ship
by day and by night until that she arrived at an island where was a castle
right ancient, but it seemed not to be over-rich, rather it showed as had it
been of great lordship in days of yore’.
‘Certes, I know not to tell you, for the tomb hath been here or ever
that my father's father was born, and never have I heard tell of none that might
know who it is therein, save only that the letters that are on the coffin say
that when the Best Knight in the world shall come hither the coffin will open
and the joinings all fall asunder, and then will it be seen who it is that
lieth therein.'
There are two things to note that can only be accounted to Melkin
directly that he purposely obfuscates……… the exact location of Avalon and the
precise nature of the Grail. The first he has given so precisely in his
prophecy once it is decoded and also, by faithfully transcribing details of the
lay of the land in the valleys of Avalon.
The second he has hinted at by having the questor’s not asking the
question ‘Who does the Grail serve’. We are told it is achievable as this
covers the aspect of its relevance to consciousness, but this leaves only one
response subliminally and must be that ‘it serves Jesus’………as Joseph of
Arimathea is involved and the Grail is intimately connected to Jesus which ever
form it takes. However by posing this question, this subconsciously releases
the real question that is behind the essence of the Grail quest as presented in
all its literal forms…… ‘Who is the Grail’? The Grail is Jesus who serves all
of Mankind.
As we have already determined by the prophecy, Jesus is buried in
Avalon, so let us see whether the Grail is the body of Jesus that sometimes is
subterranean to the Grail chapel in the Island of Avalon. It would be an
extraordinary coincidence if the faked twelfth century prophecy that says the
shroud and the body of Jesus are on Avalon, concurs with French Grail material
that speaks of a tomb, a shroud and of Joseph of Arimathea also on the Island
of Avalon. We should look into the text and see if the High History points to
an Island that is the same as pointed out in Melkin’s prophecy.
It would be very strange if it wasn’t since both sources derive from
Melkin.
This high history witnesses to us
and records that Joseph, who makes remembrance thereof, was the priest who
first sacrificed to the body of Our Lord and for this, one ought to believe the
words that come from him. You have heard tell how Perceval was of the lineage
of Joseph of Abarimacie, whom God so greatly loved for that he took down His
body hanging on the cross………Ab Arimacie shows the original
scribal error from the latin ‘of Arimathea’ by Henry.
What the ‘High History’does not ever explicitly express is the names of
the people in the historical sense and everyone abides in a castle or hermitage
throughout. Whereas the Fisher king seems to be Joseph of Arimathea, the
dolourous wound in connection to the loss of a son or nephew and the dripping
spear always suggests Jesus. The tomb in which no one knows who the knight is
that lies therein; is sometimes understood to be Joseph of Arimathea, or
explicitly explained as Lohot, the son of King Arthur, but never Jesus, as this
is the intended subliminal meaning being hinted at. The Widow lady who has a
castle right opposite the Island of Avalon up on Folly Hill that overlooks
Bantham is never mentioned as being Mary Magdalene and is purposely obfuscated
as being synonymous with the Virgin Mary, at times defined by where her castle
is in relation to Avalon and under which pseudonym she goes under in the
various branches (such as the queen of Maidens or Widow Lady). Melkin as we
have discussed is probably of this royal line and has cameo parts as the
Hermit.
.JPG)
The hazardous tides that are relentless at the heads where the river
Avon exits in view of the of the Island of Avalon underneath the position of
the Widows Castle..JPG)
So we know that there is a Chapel and holy house on Avalon sometimes
referred to as the castle of the Fisher king,
‘the
sweetness of his castle wherein I have often done service in the chapel where
the Holy Graal appeareth’.
We know that the Fisherman’s castle of Avalon is in the Sea
"Sir," says the Queen, "just as he challenges me for my
castle , so I am in aid of King Fisherman, and every week cometh he from an
island that is in this sea……”
What is the castle?"
"Sir, the good King Fisherman's, that is surrounded with great waters and plenteous in all things good, so the lord were in joy.
"Sir, the good King Fisherman's, that is surrounded with great waters and plenteous in all things good, so the lord were in joy.
We Know that the Widow Queen can see the Island and has her vessels down
in Bantham Harbour, ‘She takes Perceval by the hand and leads him to the windows of the hall
that were closest to the sea. "Sir," she says, "Now you can see
the island, there, where your uncle comes to in a galley, and in this island he
stays until he has seen where to aim his blow and laid his plans. And here
below, see, are my galleys that defend us thereof.’ Her Castle is on the cliffs above Bantham harbour entrance i.e the
heads where the river mouth flows into the sea.
Both Chretien and the Perlesvaus describe the trip
down through the forest when both Perceval and Lancelot meet people in a boat
on the river that give the same instructions to the Grail Castle. In both
stories, to be able to talk, their contact point in reality must have been
along the Tidal road in Aveton Gifford and hence the ensuing topographically
correct directions to Bigbury on sea and Avalon.
Perceval is in search of his mother, when he comes to a river en la vallee d'une engarde
The river is swift and deep, and he fears to cross it. Proceeding along
the bank to a cliff, which apparently blocks the road (the end of the tidal
road), he suddenly beholds a boat on the river, in which are two men. Perceval
enquires the way of those in the boat and is directed, by the fisher, to the
top of the cliff from where, he is told, he will see a castle in the valley
beyond, près de rivière
et près de bois.
Perceval rides to the summit of the cliff but perceiving at first only
land and sky, he blames the fisher for misdirecting him. Finally, however, the
tower of a castle hard by comes to view. Perceval is not long in reaching the
castle where he is royally welcomed by the host of the castle, who is in fact
the fisher. The misdirection that the fisher was maligned for is explained as
one clears the summit up from the Tidal road one cannot see the Folly hill site
for some considerable time, until one starts to descend toward Bigbury on Sea
where it will have come into plain view.
We find the passage for comparison in Lancelot's Grail quest:
Lancelot comes one
day to a stream flowing through a meadow. The meadow, which is skirted by a
forest on two sides, is covered with flowers. In front of him, on the stream,
Lancelot sees a boat in which there are two white-haired knights and a damsel,
holding a human head in her lap. In the centre of the boat there is a knight
catching many fish. The boat has a smaller one in tow into which the knight is
throwing his fish. At the sight of the group, Lancelot stops to ask where he
might find shelter nearby. In reply, they direct him to a castle beyond a
mountain. In a short time Lancelot has reached the foot of this mountain, and
comes upon the cell of a hermit, where he enters the cell to confess his sins.
So both lancelot and Perceval arrive at the Grail castle in Bigbury on
sea which as we know has the island of Avalon and the Grail chapel just
opposite. Too much of a coincidence that both Grail searchers, from different
raconteurs, find the same Grail castle in a location where, at the end of the
tidal road one would have to rise up the hill (mountain) to get to Avalon or
Bigbury on sea. Certainly arriving at the summit all one sees is ‘land and Sky’
until going further down where the castle was situated. What this shows is that
even what we understand to be the first Grail literature there was a common
source before this; exemplified by this variation of a singular account.
The Lonely Forest, which would have hidden Avalon in all the vales below
the moors, is mentioned in the Perlesvaus as ‘la soteinne forest’ or ‘la forest
souteinne’ or by Chretièn as ‘De la foriest soutaine’. We can deduce that both Chretien
and Henry Blois are sourcing from a common source that supplies the same
topographical detail that holds together their stories, which, unless they can
be identified as being applicable to a certain locality, they might just seem
incidental.
The Elucidationwas conceived as a
prologue to Chrétien de Troyes' unfinished romance Perceval, le Conte du
Graal, but actually gives details that offer contradictory material so it
is doubtful that it is was written at the same time. In the elucidation it
cites a Master Blihis as a source for its contents. As we have discussed Henry
Blois would not want to have it known that he wrote this material and even
gives himself a cameo role when Gawain defeats the knight Blihos Bliheris. Sent
to Arthur's court, Blihos(H. Blois), reveals that the maidens descend from the
Maidens of the Wells. Arthur and his knights then seek out the Fisher King and
his castle. If Henry 1098-1171 who as we have said was well connected and heard
all these tales in his formative years in France is the most likely candidate.
He is very likely to have put together a volume that thereafter in the
Elucidation was credited as one source for Chrètien who between 1160 and 1172
served at the court of his patroness Marie
of France, Countess of Champagne, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Another reason for the peculiarity of the mix up of
Avalon and Glastonbury is that it was never tidal nor had beaches,
‘He dared no longer endure his
blows, but rather he turns quickly toward his galley, and leaps straight in. He
pushes out from the shore incontinent, and Perceval follows him right to the
beach, feeling low that he has got away from him’.
Where the Queen of the Maidens castle is supposed to be, relative to
Glastonbury tor, is not fathomable, nor is the fact that this saga is taking
place by the sea where a Castle looks down on the Island of Avalon.
"Sir," says the hermit,
"I know not who he is, save only that the sea is hard by here, where the
ship runs past often wherein the knight is, and he goes to an island that is
under the castle of the Queen of the Maidens,
How can Glastonbury ever have been misconstrued as existing by the sea
and we know the castle, sometimes synonymous with Camelot has an island
opposite . It exists beside a river as certain knights rode to it while others
were seen rowing down river to it.
‘He rode until he came to the
castle of the Queen of the Maidens. When she knew that it was Messire Gawain,
she made thereof great joy, and pointed him out the island whither Perceval had
gone, and from where he had driven his uncle’.
‘Thereof has Messire Gawain right
great joy, and so departs from the knight and the knight from him, and goes
back toward the sea a great gallop. But Messire Gawain saw not the ship into
which he entered, because it was anchored underneath the cliff. The knight
entered into it and put out to sea as he had wont to do’.
.JPG)
The Folly Hill site which back in the fourth or fifth century was where
the castle of the Queen of Maidens or the Widow Lady existed, where one can see
the Island, but has cliffs below it..JPG)
‘Lords, think not that it is this
Camelot whereof these tellers of tales do tell their tales, there, where King
Arthur so often held his court. This Camelot that was the Widow Lady's stood
upon the uttermost headland of the wildest isle of Wales by the sea to the
West. Nought was there save the hold and the forest and the waters that were
round about it. The other Camelot, of King Arthur's, was situate at the
entrance of the kingdom of Logres, and was peopled of folk and was seated at
the head of the King's land, for that he had in his governance all the lands
that on that side marched with his own.’
The translator has obviously translated Celtica or Galles as pertaining
to Wales, but as one can see the peninsula where Avalon exists (which is right
by the widow's castle) is the headland described as the 'Avaron' in the vales
of the west i.e to the south of Dartmoor.
These coastal scenes and escapades show that the whole drama is played
out in Valleys or the vales of the west which matches the topography of the
area we have been investigating since the beginning of this expose and are
clearly the valleys and rivers running off southern Dartmoor. This is the area
known as ‘Vennshire’ in the Charter signed by Edward the Confessor for the
Monks of Mont-Saint-Michel bestowing the Island called ‘St. Michael by the sea’
and this entire area....... but we will get to that later.
‘She followeth him weeping, and
pointeth out to him the Valleys of Camelot and the castles that were shut in by
combes and mountains, and the broad meadow-lands and the forest that girded
them about.’
The forest which is so prevalent throughout the text would have
enshrouded the whole Southern peninsula from Dartmouth round to Plymouth
bordered by the coastline meadows to the south and the moors to the north.
‘She hath ridden so far of her
journeys that she is come to the Valley of Camelot, and seeth her mother's
castle that was surrounded of great rivers, and seeth Perceval, that was
alighted under the shadow of a tree at the top of the forest in order that he
might behold his mother's castle.’
Devon is renowned for its red soil and we have a Knight from the ‘Red
Launde’ and a 'Lord of the Moors' who feature in this rich text which
unintentionally divulges the real location. If Glastonbury became synonymous
with Arthur’s kingdom it is only through occasional sentences such as this:
‘for King Arthur sendeth me in
quest of him, and Lancelot hath also gone to seek him in another part of the
kingdom of Logres’.
Again we are made to assume that the story has its authority of a
Josephus as a narrator, rather than the real authority of Joseph:
‘And all
these adventures that you hear in this high record came to pass, Josephus tells
us, for the setting forward the law of the Saviour’.
It is almost as if the whole fable is designed so that subconsciously
one makes the necessary connections to figure out who is who. Even where the
narrator is concerned as being exterior to the textual content, this supposedly
unknown source bears the same appellation as the only Joseph who could have
supplied the account of the Grail’s arrival, but Joseph now becomes a separated
persona from the Fisher king.
‘and he came, as you have heard,
of the most holy lineage of Josephus and the good King Fisherman’.
‘Josephus recordeth us by this
evil king that was so traitorous and false and yet was of the lineage of the
Good Soldier Joseph of Abarimacie. This Joseph, as the scripture witnesseth,
was his uncle, and this evil king was brother-german of King Fisherman, and
brother of the good King Pelles that had abandoned his land, in order that he
might serve God, and brother of the Widow Lady that was Perceval's mother, the
most loyal that was ever in Great Britain. All these lineages were in the
service of Our Lord from the beginning of their lives unto the end, save only
this evil King that perished, so evilly as you have heard’.
The Geneology is a can of worms...... probably not originally, but
through the oral transference from memory which would pay less attention to the
accuracy of relationship and more to the actions carried out by the various
characters.
It must not be forgotten that Melkin has seen the Shroud and called it
the ‘duo fassula’ in his English prophecy, but throughout the Perlesvaus icons
change situations, the Perilous chapel shape shifts as the Grail chapel amongst
other appellations and changes in location, but also the Shroud is mentioned in
many ways. Nowhere is the text ever explicit in saying that the body over which
the image on the cloth was formed is now in England.
"Sir," she says,
"I have made vow thereof, and moreover a holy hermit hath told me that the
knight that makes war upon us may not be overcome by another knight, except
that I bring him some of the cloth wherewith the altar in the chapel of the
Grave-yard Perilous is covered. The cloth is of the most holiest, for our Lord
God was covered therewith in the Holy Sepulchre, on the third day when He came
back from death to life.
Here we have one of the only connections with the Lady chapel at
Glastonbury that are made through the Grail chapel existing on an island and
also paying respect to his sweet mother or ‘Our lady’ that confirms the
‘virginem adorandam’ as being synonymous with the Lady chapel, which we know
was latterly dedicated to conform with Grail descriptions.
‘The damsel signs herself of the
cross and commends her to the Saviour and to His sweet Mother. She looks before
her to the head of the grave-yard, and sees the chapel, small and ancient. She
hits her mule with her whip, and comes toward it and gets off. She entered
within and found a great brightness of light. Within was an image of Our Lady,
to whom she prays right sweetly that She will preserve her senses and her life
and enable her to depart in safety from this perilous place.’
‘But or ever the King departed he
made the head be brought into the Isle of Avalon, to a chapel of Our Lady that
was there, where was a worshipful holy hermit that was well loved of Our Lord.’
‘He cutteth off the half of the
cloth wherein he is enshrouded, and the coffin beginneth to make a crashing so
passing loud that it seemed the chapel were falling. When he hath the piece of
the cloth and the sword he closeth the coffin again, and forthwith cometh to
the door of the chapel.’
‘He was named Ahuret the
Bastard," saith the knight; "And he had but one arm and one hand, and
the other was smitten off at a castle that Messire Gawain gave Meliot of Logres
when he succoured him against this knight that lieth in the coffin. And Meliot
of Logres hath slain the knight that had assieged the castle, but the knight
wounded him sore, so that he may not be whole save he have the sword wherewith
he wounded him, that lieth in the coffin at his side, and some of the cloth
wherein he is enshrouded; and, so God grant me to meet one of the knights,
gladly will I convey unto him the damsel's message.’
The cloth is prevalent throughout in many places, but the point of the
stories which obviously came from Melkin seems to be to mention the Icons like
the tomb, above which a chapel was built, the Grail which is Jesus’ coffin, the
shroud, the sepulchre with an unknown occupant, Joseph of Arimathea and the
royal line that stems from him. Really the intended purport is to subtly have
the widow as Mary Magdaleine and the following bloodline. Never at any time
does Melkin directly say anything to confute the Roman dogma of a resurrected
body by implying that the Grail is the body of Jesus or that the widow or queen
of maidens was either Jesus' mother or his wife.
‘You are her affiance and her
succour, and therefore ought you to remember that the good knight Joseph of
Abarimacie, that took down your Body when it hung upon the rood, was her own
uncle. Better loved he to take down your Body than all the gold and all the fee
that Pilate might give him. Lord, good right of very truth had he so to do, for
he took you in his arms beside the rood, and laid your Body in the holy
sepulchre, wherein were you covered of the sovran cloth for the which have I
come in hither.’
‘Josephus telleth us of a truth,
that never did none enter into the chapel that might touch the cloth save only
this one damsel.’
‘For the good King Fisherman is dead that made every day our service be
done in the most holy chapel there where the most Holy Graal every day
appeared, and where the Mother of God abode from the Saturday until the Monday
that the service was finished. And now has the King of Castle Mortal seized the
castle in such sort that never since then has the Holy Graal appeared, and all
the other hallows are hidden, so that none knoweth what hath become of the
priests that served in the chapel, nor the twelve ancient knights, nor the
damsels that were therein.’
As for the geographical location of Avalon as an Island by the sea…… it
is expressed not only in the prophecy of Melkin itself ‘Marmore’, but by the
various descriptions in the High History. Each branch has its own twist, but
the island of Avalon is tidal by the sea with beaches to which sea going
vessels frequent and is situated on the headland of an area full of valleys.
‘Perceval is far from land so
that he seeth nought but sea only, and the ship speedeth onward, and God
guideth him, as one that believeth in Him and loveth Him and serveth Him of a
good heart. The ship ran on by night and by day as it pleased God, until that
they saw a castle and an island of the sea. He asked his pilot if he knew what
castle it was. "Certes," saith he, "Not I, for so far have we
run that I know not neither the sea nor the stars." They come nigh the
castle, and saw four that sounded bells at the four corners of the town, right
sweetly, and they that sounded them were clad in white garments. They are come
thither.’
‘So soon as the ship had taken haven
under the castle, the sea withdraweth itself back, so that the ship is left on
dry land. None were therein save Perceval, his horse, and the pilot. They
issued forth of the ship and went by the side of the sea toward the castle, and
therein were the fairest halls and the fairest mansions that any might see
ever.’
‘I saw the Graal," saith the
Master, "or ever Joseph, that was uncle to King Fisherman, collected
therein the blood of Jesus Christ. Know that well am I acquainted with all your
lineage, and of what folk you were born. For your good knighthood and for your
good cleanness and for your good valour came you in hither, for such was Our
Lord's will, and take heed that you be ready when place shall be, and time
shall come, and you shall see the ship apparelled.’
"Sir," saith he to
Messire Gawain, "I am the King for whom you slew the giant, whereby you
had the sword wherewith St John was beheaded, that I see on this altar. I made
baptize me before you and all those of my kingdom, and turn to the New Law, and
thereafter I went to a hermitage by the sea, far from folk, where I have been
of a long space. I rose one night at matins and looked under my hermitage and
saw that a ship had taken haven there. I went thither when the sea was
retreated, and found within the ship three priests and their clerks, that told
me their names and how they were called in baptism.
We should also be aware of how often the word rich
is used in the text and in regards to castles and objects and clothing and
tombs etc...... this most probably by foreign trade in tin. Robert de Boron
however has 'Rich Fishermen' and Bron has the title Rich fisher King. It is all
fairly idecipherable as regards to how characters interrelate, but I think the
fact that the Fisher king dies in the Perlesvaus reflects the death of Joseph
of Arimathea and the commencement of family quarrels.
The Pilchard inn on Burgh Island.
As we know the Pilchards were plentiful even in Pytheas' time and the
'Plenty' that surrounds the Island, could refer to the fishing or tin. The
river today abounds in fish, mussels and oysters. We know they are at the Grail
castle and in the tin district of Devon by the fabrication of Bells that causes
much wonderment elsewhere in the text, but it is the forested land of the vales,
south of Dartmoor, that provides the backdrop for many of the encounters.
She followeth him weeping, and
pointeth out to him the Valleys of Camelot and the castles that were shut in by
combes and mountains, and the broad meadow-lands and the forest that girded
them about.'
Figure 68a. The combes of Devon and the various river valleys of the
area described as the vales of Avalon or Vaus d'Avaron. 
The description of a journey leaving the forest as they enter onto the
uninhabited moors is just one example:
‘They were
right well lodged the night and lay in the hold until the morrow, when they
departed thence, and rode right busily on their journeys until they came into a
very different land, scarce inhabited of any folk, and found a little castle in
a combe’.
The coffin, tomb or sepulchre features heavily as an icon throughout the
various branches:
......and how none might know yet
who lay in the coffin until such time as the Best Knight of the world should
come thither, but that then should it be known. Perceval would fain have passed
by the chapel, but the damsel says to him: "Sir, no knight passes hereby
save he go first to see the coffin within the chapel.’
‘He showeth them the tomb of King
Fisherman, and telleth them that none had set the tabernacle there above the
coffin, but only the commandment of Our Lord, and he showeth them a rich pall
that is upon the coffin, and telleth them that every day they see a new one
there not less rich than is this one. King Arthur looketh. at the sepulchre and
saith that never before hath he seen none so costly. A smell issueth therefrom
full delicate and sweet of savour. The King sojourneth in the castle and is
highly honoured, and beholdeth the richesse and the lordship and the great
abundance that is everywhere in the castle, insomuch that therein is nought
wanting that is needful for the bodies of noble folk’.
‘For otherwise never would the
coffin have opened, nor would any have known who he is that you now see
openly.’
‘She makes her chaplain take
certain letters that were sealed with gold in the coffin. He looks thereat and
reads, and then says that these letters witness of him that lies in the coffin
that he was one of them that helped to un-nail Our Lord from the cross. They
looked beside him and found the pincers all bloody wherewith the nails were
drawn, but they might not take them away, nor the body, nor the coffin,
according as Josephus tells us, for as soon as Perceval was forth of the
chapel, the coffin closed again and joined together even as it was before’.
‘About a couple of bowshots above
the bridge(the tidal causeway) was a chapel fashioned like the one at Camelot,
wherein was a sepulchre, and none knew who lay therein’.
'the first bridge is a bowshot in
length and in breadth not more than a foot. Strait seemeth the bridge and the
water deep and swift and wide. He knoweth not what he may do, for it seemeth
him that none may pass it, neither afoot nor on horse’.
The
bridge which disappears as one looks back on the way to the Grail Chapel and
which Gawain crosses on his way to the Grail Castle is called the ‘pont de
l’Anguile’. This could have been Melkin’s appelation for the bridge of the
'Angel island' or 'Ange Ile', but whatever way it is construed or embellished
as being more than one; it was originally the sand causeway. It was probably
Melkin himself who obscured this detail because as we know, it was him that has
obscured this entire area from being recognised until now.
‘Thereupon, lo you, a knight that issueth forth of the castle and cometh
as far as the head of the bridge, that was called the Bridge of the Eel, and
shouteth aloud: "Sir Knight, pass quickly before it shall be already
night, for they of the castle are awaiting us."
"Ha," saith Messire Gawain, "Fair sir, but teach me how I may pass hereby."
"Certes, Sir Knight, no passage know I to this entrance other than this, and if you desire to come to the castle, pass on without misgiving."
Messire Gawain hath shame for that he hath stayed so long, and forthinketh him of this that the Hermit told him, that of no mortal thing need he be troubled at the entrance of the castle, and therewithal that he is truly confessed of his sins, wherefore behoveth him be the less adread of death. He crosseth and blesseth himself and commendeth himself to God as he that thinketh to die, and so smiteth his horse with his spurs and findeth the bridge wide and large as soon as he goeth forward, for by this passing were proven most of the knights that were fain to enter therein. Much marvelled he that he found the bridge so wide that had seemed him so narrow’.
Sand ‘eels’ are still dug up for bait on the beach below the island at
low tide and the size of the bridge is ever changing."Ha," saith Messire Gawain, "Fair sir, but teach me how I may pass hereby."
"Certes, Sir Knight, no passage know I to this entrance other than this, and if you desire to come to the castle, pass on without misgiving."
Messire Gawain hath shame for that he hath stayed so long, and forthinketh him of this that the Hermit told him, that of no mortal thing need he be troubled at the entrance of the castle, and therewithal that he is truly confessed of his sins, wherefore behoveth him be the less adread of death. He crosseth and blesseth himself and commendeth himself to God as he that thinketh to die, and so smiteth his horse with his spurs and findeth the bridge wide and large as soon as he goeth forward, for by this passing were proven most of the knights that were fain to enter therein. Much marvelled he that he found the bridge so wide that had seemed him so narrow’.
Thereupon the Widow Lady ariseth
up and her daughter likewise, and they go over the bridge of the castle and see
Messire Gawain that was yet looking on the coffin within the chapel.
The bridge, by the way seems to be thin and then get wider which
possibly is the analogy of the tidal causeway to the island, but again, back to
the coffin that is ever prevalent throughout:
‘The Widow Lady had made bear thither the body that lay in the coffin
before the castle of Camelot in the rich chapel that she had builded there. His
sister brought the cerecloth that she took in the Waste Chapel, and presented
there where the Graal was. Perceval made bring the coffin of the other knight
that was at the entrance of his castle within the chapel likewise, and place it
beside the coffin of his uncle, nor never thereafter might it be removed.
Josephus telleth us that Perceval was in this castle long time, nor never once
moved therefrom in quest of no adventure; rather was his courage so attorned to
the Saviour of the World and His sweet Mother, that he and his sister and the
damsel that was therein led a holy life and a religious.’
A 'cerecloth' is a waxed or oiled cloth used for covering bodies but
uncannily by adding a ‘d’which, surely given Melkin’s penchant for subliminal
information, would have been a ‘cedre’ cloth or cedar cloth, especially as we
are informed it was sweet smelling.
He beholdeth the sepulchre, that
was right fair, and forthwith the sepulchre openeth and the corners parted and
the stone lifts up in such wise that a man might see the knight that lay
within, of whom came forth a smell of so sweet savour that it seemed to the
good men that were looking on that it had been all embalmed. They found a
letter which testified that this knight was named Josephus.’
In this instance the tomb is Joseph’s even though no one knows who is in
it. You can see how things have got so mixed up that the narrator who is
supposedly Josephus is now synoymous with Joseph of Arimathea. The smell of the
coffin that is remarked upon many times in the text is the embalming cedar oil
that the Grail ark contained. As always, in the text, the coffin ‘who no one
knew who was inside’,is said to contain Joseph the Fisher king or the son of
Arthur a knight, but never Jesus.
‘At the tomb shall we be well able to see whether it be he!"
They go to the chapel right speedily, and Messire Gawain seeth them coming and alighteth. "Lady, saith he, "Welcome may you be, you and your company."
The Lady answereth never a word until that they are come to the tomb. When she findeth it not open she falleth down in a swoon. And Messire Gawain is sore afraid when he seeth it.’
They go to the chapel right speedily, and Messire Gawain seeth them coming and alighteth. "Lady, saith he, "Welcome may you be, you and your company."
The Lady answereth never a word until that they are come to the tomb. When she findeth it not open she falleth down in a swoon. And Messire Gawain is sore afraid when he seeth it.’
‘The coffin was rich and the
tabernacle costly and loaded of precious stones. And the priests and knights
bear witness that as soon as the body was placed in the coffin and they were
departed thence, they found on their return that it was covered by the
tabernacle all dight as richly as it is now to be seen, nor might they know who
had set it there save only the commandment of Our Lord’.
‘She followeth him weeping, and
pointeth out to him the Valleys of Camelot and the castles that were shut in by
combes and mountains, and the broad meadow-lands and the forest that girded
them about.’
When considering Arthur’s Kingdom, it does, as we have maintained
before, seem to cover the whole extent West of Saxon Wessex. So Cardoil was
Tintagel in Cornwall which also doubled as the court of Camelot as well as the
Folly Hill Camelot where the Widows castle was situated and the ‘Fu venuz de vers Carlion / Li rois Artus et
tenu ot / Cort molt riche a Camaalot’, from Chrétien provided the link to
Caerleon of South Wales for the Welsh protagonists and polemisists.
Could it be that Master Blihis, wrote the Perlesvaus before Chrétien de
Troyes? Most scholars think that the Perlesvaus is the continuation of Chrétien
de Troyes unfinished ‘Perceval, the Story of the Grail’, but what is more
likely is they were both using Melkin’s book or common troubadour sources. This
next excerpt shows that the descriptions are relatively accurate because this
is still how Tintagel looks today.
They came thitherward and saw
that the enclosure of the castle was sunk down into an abysm, so that none
might approach it on that side, but it had a right fair gateway and a door tall
and wide whereby one entered. They beheld a chapel that was right fair and
rich, and below was a great ancient hall. They saw a priest appear in the midst
of the castle, bald and old, that had come forth of the chapel. They are come
thither and alighted, and asked the priest what the castle was, and he told
them that it was the great Tintagel. "Damsel," saith he, "My
name is Arthur, and I am of Tincardoil."
Arthur and Lancelot have heard
the tidings, there will they be. He goeth thitherward as fast as he may, and as
straight, and scarce hath he ridden away or ever he met a squire that seemed
right weary, and his hackney sore worn of the way. Messire Gawain asked him
whence he came, and the squire said to him. "From the land of King Arthur,
where is great war toward, for that none knoweth not what hath become of him.
Many folk go about saying that he is dead, for never since that he departed
from Cardoil, and Messire Gawain and Lancelot with him, have no tidings been
heard of him; and he left the Queen at Cardoil to take his place, and also on
account of her son's death, and the most part say that he is dead.
‘The knights that may not leave
Cardoil lest Briant of the Isles should seize the city, they sent me to the
kingdom of Logres.’
But Camelot was not at Tintagel and the Grail was not there but on an
Island near the other Camelot. As we have discussed already the inclusion of
Camelot in the story is solely its connection as ‘Shirei ha Ma'a lot’ and thus
the unsure nature becoming a place but having two different locations.
"Sir," saith Lancelot
to the King, "So it please you, and Messire Gawain be willing, I will go
back toward Cardoil, and help to defend your land to the best I may, for sore
is it discounselled, until such time as you shall be come from the Graal."
The central theme and many accessory episodes are
similar to Chrètien’s Perceval and its first two continuations. However the
story of the Chess board is elongated in Gautier’s continuation of Perceval,
but barely mentioned in Perlesvaus, the Welsh text making no mention of the
board. How this allusion to the chess board fits in,(thinking historically) as
it is not just an arbitrary icon, is not clear; unless in the subliminal sense
the chess board originally in the book of the Grail was alluding to the valleys
of Avaron as the board where Kings, Queens, Holy men(Bishops), Knights and
Castles, (which all the grail literature incorporates) was somehow incorporated
in some misunderstood sense as part of the story from its original potent
meaning. Chrètien’s exemption could be for many reasons, but Gautier’s
embellishment does imply the Perlesvaus as primary and of equal or older than
Chretien. I think that Henry heard much of his Grail material in the court
circles of France as a youngster and may have put alot of material together
from memory. It would seem that in the end the Grail which may have moved from
the Island at one time and was located in a chapel above ground was in the end
secreted due to outside and family feuds.
He
hath won the land that belonged to good King Fisherman from the evil King of
Castle Mortal, that did away thence the good believe, and therefore was it that
the Graal was hidden.
At what stage after
Joseph arrives these feuds appear is not certain as all the characters seem so
interchangeable along with how they are related but the offspring of the Holy
family are concerned with the guardianship of the Grail and known as Grail Keepers.
It would seem that Arthur after his last battle was brought for the most
part down the Tamar as William of Malmesbury portrays and this might even be
from a source extant in England as we know Melkin had written another book
about Arthur that is not the Grail Book.
Illuc post bellum Camblani vulnere lesum duximus Arcturum nos conducente
Barintho, equora cui fuerant et celi sydera nota. Hoc rectore ratis cum
principe venimus illuc, et nos quo decuit Morgen suscepit honore, inque suis
talamis posuit super aurea regem fulcra manuque sibi detexit vulnus honesta
inspexitque diu, tandemque redire salute posse sibi dixit, si secum tempore
longo esset et ipsius vellet mendicamine fungi. Gaudentes igitur regem
commisimus illi et dedimus ventis redeundo vela secundis.
‘To that place after the battle
of Camblan we brought Arthur, hurt by wounds, with Barinthus leading us, to
whom the waters and the stars of the sky were known. With this guide for our
raft we came to that place with our leader, and with what was fitting Morgan
did honor to us, and in her rooms she placed the king upon a golden couch and
with her own honourable hand she uncovered his wound and inspected it for a
long time, and at last she said that health could return to him, if he were
with her for a long time and wished to undergo her treatment. Therefore
rejoicing we committed the king to her and returning gave sails to the
assisting winds.’
Wherever William obtained his account from he surely would not have
envisaged Glastonbury as the place where Arthur was sailed to when he was
wounded. What we can understand is that Avalon was a remote location and he was
left there to try to heal (maybe assisted by the miraculous) and this is how
all the rumours started as only a few knew where he was. Obviously he did not
survive and was buried on the island as the story goes, alongside Guinevere and
the other illustrious occupants.
We hear that before Arthur’s death Guinevere was buried in Avalon and
thus the necessity to include her presence into the fabrication of Arthur’s
disinterment at Glastonbury.
‘There were three hermits
therewithin that had sung their vespers, and came over against Lancelot. They
bowed their heads to him and he saluted them, and then asked of them what place
was this? And they told him that the place there was Avalon. They make stable
his horse. He left his arms without the chapel and entereth therein, and saith
that never hath he seen none so fair nor so rich. There were within three other
places, right fair and seemly dight of rich cloths of silk and rich corners and
fringes of gold. He seeth the images and the crucifixes all newly fashioned,
and the chapel illumined of rich colours; and moreover in the midst thereof
were two coffins, one against the other, and at the four corners four tall wax
tapers burning, that were right rich, in four right rich candlesticks. The
coffins were covered with two pails, and there were clerks that chanted psalms
in turn on the one side and the other.’
"Sir," says Lancelot to
one of the hermits, "For whom were these coffins made?" "For
King Arthur and Queen Guenievre." "King Arthur is not yet dead,"
says Lancelot.
"No, in truth, please God!
but the body of the Queen lies in the coffin before us and in the other is the
head of her son, until such time as the King shall be ended, unto whom God
grant long life! But the Queen bade at her death that his body should be set beside
her own when he shall end. Hereof have we the letters and her seal in this
chapel, and this place made she be builded new on this wise or ever she
died." But no semblant of grief durst he make other than such as might not be
perceived, and right great comfort to him was it that there was an image of Our
Lady at the head of the coffin.’
Here we have the evidence that the queen is buried in Avalon (which is
next to one of the Camelots) and king Arthur is off to Tintagel (the other
Camelot).
‘Of Meliot the story is here
silent, and saith that King Arthur and Messire Gawain have ridden so far that
they are come into the Isle of Avalon, there where the Queen lieth. They lodge
the night with the hermits, that made them right great cheer. But you may well
say that the King is no whit joyful when he seeth the coffin where the Queen
lieth and that wherein the head of his son lieth. Thereof is his dole renewed,
and he saith that this holy place of this holy chapel ought he of right to love
better than all other places on earth. They depart on the morrow when they have
heard mass. The King goeth the quickest he may toward Cardoil’…..,
‘The King sojourned at Cardoil of
a long space. He believed in God and His sweet Mother right well. He brought
thither from the castle where the Graal was the pattern whereby chalices should
be made, and commanded make them throughout all the land so as that the Saviour
of the world should be served more worshipfully. He commanded also that bells
be cast throughout his land after the fashion of the one he had brought, and
that each church should have one according to the means thereof. This much
pleased the people of his kingdom, for thereby was the land somewhat amended.’
Here we witness the advent of Bells made obviously of bronze. In this
era, the copper mines of Dartmoor were in full production and this may well
have been some of the reason that the Monks of Mont-Saint-Michel so craved the
area of Venn which they cajoled Edward to hand over to them before the Norman
conquest. The tin and copper were highly sought later across Europe for bell
making.
We can see here that the Camelot of the queen of Maidens or the Widow’s
castle of the Folly hill site, (which we know was in sight of the Island of
Avalon) is overlooking the chapel on the Island. Also on the Island is the same
house of religion or monastery attested to have been on Burgh island at one
time and later was to become known as ‘St. Michael by the sea’.
‘His mother
remained long time, and his sister, at Camelot, and led a good life and a holy.
The lady made make a chapel right rich about the sepulchre that lay by the
forest and Camelot, and had it adorned of rich vestments, and established a
chaplain that should sing mass there every day. Since then has the place been
so builded up as that there is an abbey there and folk of religion, and many
bear witness that there it is still, right fair.’
The Abbey is obviously synonymous with the rumoured monastic buildings
of which no trace persists from the sixth century. As mentioned before the more
recent St. Michael chapel leave no physical trace either. The head of the
forest where Avalon exists is the same as the island that exists at the head of
hazardous tides.
‘They rode until they came to the
head of the forest and caught sight of the sea that was nigh enough before
them, and saw that there was a great clashing of arms at the brink of the sea.
A single knight was doing battle with all them that would fain have entered
into a ship, and held stour so stiffly against them that he toppled the more
part into the sea. They went thither as fast as they might, and when they drew
nigh to the ship they knew that it was Perceval by his arms and his shield. Or
ever they reached it, the ship was put off into the midst of the sea, wherein
he was launched of his own great hardiment, and they went on fighting against
him within the ship.
The Island of Avalon in Bigbury Bay.
It seems that in the end, reading between the lines, that most of the
holy family that were the offspring of either Joseph or Mary Magdalene were
also buried in the same vault under the Grail chapel. From thereafter because
the rich and varied transformations of the characters, the icons and the
geographical references that became so intermingled……… the Island of Avalon
became not a part of history but a part of Legend.
The Widow Lady had made bear
thither the body that lay in the coffin before the castle of Camelot in the
rich chapel that she had builded there. His sister brought the cerecloth that
she took in the Waste Chapel, and presented there where the Graal was. Perceval
made bring the coffin of the other knight that was at the entrance of his castle
within the chapel likewise, and place it beside the coffin of his uncle, nor
never thereafter might it be removed. Josephus telleth us that Perceval was in
this castle long time, nor never once moved therefrom in quest of no adventure;
rather was his courage so attorned to the Saviour of the World and His sweet
Mother, that he and his sister and the damsel that was therein led a holy life
and a religious. Therein abode they even as it pleased God, until that his
mother passed away and his sister and all they that were therein save he alone.
The hermits that were nigh the castle buried them and sang their masses, and
came every day and took counsel of him for the holiness they saw him do and the
good life that he led there. So one day whilst he was in the holy chapel where
the hallows were, forthwith, behold you, a Voice that cometh down therein:
"Perceval," saith the Voice, "Not long shall you abide herein;
wherefore it is God's will that you dispart the hallows amongst the hermits of
the forest, there where these bodies shall be served and worshipped, and the
most Holy Graal shall appear herein no more, but within a brief space shall you
know well the place where it shall be."
When the Voice departed, all the
coffins that were therein crashed so passing loud that it seemed the
master-hall had fallen. He crosseth and blesseth him and commendeth him to God.
On a day the hermits came to him. He disparted the holy relics among them, and
they builded above them holy churches and houses of religion that are seen in the
lands and in the islands. Joseus the son of King Hermit, remained therein with
Perceval, for he well knew that he would be departing thence betimes.
Perceval heard one day a bell
sound loud and high without the manor toward the sea. He came to the windows of
the hall and saw the ship come with the white sail and the Red Cross thereon,
and within were the fairest folk that ever he might behold, and they were all
robed in such manner as though they should sing mass. When the ship was
anchored under the hall they went to pray in the most holy chapel. They brought
the richest vessels of gold and silver that any might ever see, like as it were
coffins, and set therein one of the three bodies of knights that had been
brought into the chapel, and the body of King Fisherman, and of the mother of
Perceval. But no savour in the world smelleth so sweet. Perceval took leave of
Joseus and commended him to the Saviour of the World, and took leave of the
household, from whom he departed in like manner. The worshipful men that were
in the ship signed them of the cross and blessed them likewise. The ship
wherein Perceval was drew far away, and a Voice that issued from the manor as
she departed commended them to God and to His sweet Mother. Josephus recordeth
us that Perceval departed in such wise, nor never thereafter did no earthly man
know what became of him, nor doth the history speak of him more. But the
history telleth us that Joseus abode in the castle that had been King
Fisherman's, and shut himself up therein so that none might enter, and lived
upon that the Lord God might send him. He dwelt there long time after that
Perceval had departed, and ended therein. After his end, the dwelling began to
fall. Natheless never was the chapel wasted nor decayed, but was as whole
thereafter as tofore and is so still. The place was far from folk, and the
place seemed withal to be somewhat different. When it was fallen into decay,
many folk of the lands and islands that were nighest thereunto marvel them what
may be in this manor. They dare a many that they should go see what was
therein, and sundry folk went thither from all the lands, but none durst never
enter there again save two Welsh knights that had heard tell of it. Full comely
knights they were, young and joyous hearted. So either pledged him to other
that they would go thither by way of gay adventure; but therein remained they
of a long space after, and when again they came forth they led the life of
hermits, and clad them in hair shirts, and went by the forest and so ate nought
save roots only, and led a right hard life; yet ever they made as though they
were glad, and if that any should ask whereof they rejoiced in such wise,
"Go," said they to them that asked, "thither where we have been,
and you shall know the wherefore.
Here endeth the story of the most
Holy Graal. Josephus, by whom it is placed on record, giveth the benison of Our
Lord to all that hear and honour it. The Latin from whence this history was
drawn into Romance was taken in the Isle of Avalon, in a holy house of religion
that standeth at the head of the hazardous tide, there where King Arthur and
Queen Guenievre lie, according to the witness of the good men religious that
are therein, that have the whole history thereof, true from the beginning even
to the end. After this same history beginneth the story how Briant of the Isles
renounced King Arthur on account of Lancelot whom he loved not, and how he
assured King Claudas that reft King Ban of Benoic of his land. This story
telleth how he conquered him and by what means, and how Galobrus of the Red
Launde came to King Arthur's court to help Lancelot, for that he was of his
lineage. This story is right long and right adventurous and weighty, but the
book will now forthwith be silent thereof until another time.’
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