Glastonbury, a small town in Somerset, is as shrouded in legend as it is in fog.  Throughout the ages, it has claimed national and international importance by asserting itself as the burial place of important saints and King Arthur.  Glastonbury Abbey has been a propaganda factory, inventing legends and mythology to draw in pilgrims and funds for over a thousand years.  Although the stories about Joseph of Arimathea, King Arthur, and important saints are probably false, Glastonbury has still played an important role in creating a unique British identity.

Stories about early Glastonbury record its beginning in the first century AD, a truth that the first page of the Glastonbury Abbey informational booklet still claims.  The booklet explains that according to Somerset tradition, Joseph of Arimathea (the man who carried the Cross, laid Jesus in the tomb, and kept the Holy Grail as a memento) visited Glastonbury with the boy Jesus and there built the first church in England.  However, its writer C.A. Ralegh Radford acknowledges that the church was more likely created in the second century AD by King Lucius and his missionaries, who converted the locals and built the “Old Church” out of wattle and daub (Radford 5).  Yet in spite of this archaeological evidence, the Glastonbury Abbey visitor center still prominently displays this myth.  Another popular legend about St Joseph revolves around Glastonbury, since he allegedly brought the Holy Grail to Britain with him and buried it near the Chalice Well.  To add to the confusion, there are two “Chalice Wells” in Glastonbury—one in a small, fenced-off hole in the crypt of the Lady Chapel and the other in a “world peace garden” below the Tor.  Unfortunately, all of Glastonbury’s claims about its mythic origins are undermined by archaeological and documentary evidence which shows that the abbey was founded around 700, “and that the place was then of some, though not unusual, sanctity in the south-west” (Wood 52).  The modern mythmakers at Glastonbury seem undeterred by this evidence, and include both versions—the historical and legendary—in their informational booklet. 

By the Middle Ages, Glastonbury actually had emerged as an important pilgrimage site, drawing believers from not only England, but also from Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.  Glastonbury Abbey especially campaigned for Irish pilgrims by claiming to be the burial place of St Patrick “the Younger.”  Indeed, according to historian Clark H. Slover, Glastonbury’s claim as the resting place of St Patrick was so strong that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Ireland felt compelled to create a second saint of the same name (St Patrick “the Younger”) in conjunction with the Abbey, instead of denying the claim outright (Slover 151).  In addition, Glastonbury claimed to be the burial place of St Brigid and St Columba (both among the most important saints in Ireland), and St David (the patron saint of Wales).  Glastonbury created stories about these saints to draw pilgrims and wealth to its church.

Today, all of these saints have been overshadowed by the Once-and-Future King.  Although it still maintains that it is the birthplace of Christianity in Britain, the Abbey’s main claim to fame is the tomb of King Arthur and his Guinevere.  Glastonbury does not only claim Arthur after his death, but it also asserts that Arthur came to the area to rescue his wife from her kidnapper and to search for the Holy Grail.  The Glastonbury Abbey booklet mentions an early legend about how Guinevere was captured by King Melwas of Summer Land (Somerset) and imprisoned in a tower on the nearby Tor until she was rescued by Arthur.  According to Radford, this story is how Arthurian legend became interwoven with the quest for the Holy Grail (Radford 6).  Yet Slover is skeptical about this story, stating: “We can say no more than that the earliest written text setting forth the abduction of Guenevere comes to us as a Glastonbury story, and furthermore, in a story artificially introduced into a saint’s life in the interests of specific local propaganda” (Slover 155).

Arthur was not connected to the Abbey through literary sources until the twelfth century when his body was discovered there.  In 1191, the monks allegedly excavated Arthur’s body.  The highly public event conveniently occurred shortly after a fire destroyed most of the monastery in 1184.  According to Radford, the monks discovered a grave of definite Celtic origin that was accompanied by a leaden cross proclaiming the body buried beneath to belong to King Arthur.  Of course, Radford neglects to mention that modern re-excavation has dated the original grave to the seventh century, which is two centuries after the supposed time of King Arthur (Wood 26).  Indeed, historian Michael Wood goes so far to claim the “discovery” of Arthur’s body as an attempt to prove him dead and re-invent him as a tourist attraction (Wood 25).

However, in the sixteenth century, the Abbey and its elaborate mythology were dismantled.  After the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, Glastonbury Abbot Whiting was killed on the Tor with two of his loyal monks, and Glastonbury was closed.  Under Elizabeth I, the Abbey land was sold off as real estate, and the church was dismantled to build the town and roads to neighboring villages (Wood 64).  The Abbey and the church on the Tor were allowed to decay until the site was purchased for £30,000 on behalf of the Church of England in 1907.  After 15 years of reconstruction work, the site was again open to tourists and pilgrims (Radford 22).  Today, Glastonbury receives 100,000 modern-day pilgrims and tourists a year. 

Although Glastonbury has marketed itself for over a thousand years by creating an impressive history and mythology, Wood sees this as part of the process of building the nation of England: “However fantastic, such literary products were reflections of a real process by which Celtic Britain became, in part, England, and England became part of Britain; the long and continuing interaction of Celtic and English culture which started in the fifth century…” (Wood 69).  For the British, who seem to otherwise lack any origin mythology of their own, the stories of King Arthur not only created a unifying and noble past, but they also created the hope of a unified future.  As a nation made up of many distinct and different regions, perhaps it is comforting to believe that the Once-and-Future King will return to settle internal disputes and lead Britain into another period of glory.

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© Copyright Shea Davis 2007