Avalonian Quest

Georffrey Ashe

Published by Methuen, hardcover with dustjacket, illustrated

Over the past few decades, Glastonbury in Somerset — England's `ancient Avalon' —has attracted ever-increasing interest. Tourists pour in to visit its ruined Abbey, rich in Christian and Arthurian legend, and to climb the Tor, the strange hill above the town. Thousands assemble here for the annual church-sponsored pilgrimages. But many others come for mystical or occult reasons, seeing Glastonbury as a focus of spiritual power.

In this, his second book on the theme, Geoffrey Ashe surveys what has happened since he wrote King Arthur's Avalon, and considers how Glastonbury ought now to be regarded. He starts by show ing its real and surprising importance in the religion, polities, culture and literature of England. A new scrutiny of its bestknown legends — those concerning Joseph of Arimathea and the Grail, and King Arthur's burial — proves that these remain mysterious, and the explanations favoured by scholars need radical re-thinking.

After reviewing the speculations of modern mystics, the author notes the conviction felt by many people that this was a sacred site before Christianity. He presents the results of his own field-work, disclosing the likely truth: that a huge ritual maze once encircled the Tbr, and its remains are stilt traceable. Despite some support from archaeologists, this theory has never before been fully worked out. Instances of the same maze-pattern in other countries, two or three thousand years old, offer fresh clues to the far-off background of Glastonbury's mythology. Here alone in Britain, perhaps, a great pagan sanctuary comparable to Avebury or Stonehenge became a great Christian one.

However wide-ranging, the discussion never loses touch with present realities —the town, its people, its visitors and visionaries. Glastonbury emerges as a place that is subtly, powerfully alive, with a distinctive future as well as an astonishing past.