Visiting Rodney who has now moved to Somerset I had thoughts of visiting Wells a few miles away to have a walk around the Palace down there. The whole thing turned out to be a surprise as Rodney wanted to show us Glastonbury on the Sunday which sort of turned into a Dan Brown hunt the Holy Grail.
We visited Glastonbury Abbey and not taken much notice of the King Arthur myths in the past it became quite interesting walking around with a guide.
The Abbey when first built had pilgrims visiting and they were only let in to repent if they offered, money, Jewellery or land.
Then the original Abbey burned down and rebuilding it in the 1100's was quite slow with getting funds.
From reading articles, to get people coming in with money the monks first said they had found St Patrick's body in the grounds but people did not believe it, as most were aware he died in Ireland.
Six years later, one of the abbey's monks last dying wish was to be buried in a plot near what is now the Lady's chapel.
In 1191 on digging down 5 feet they came across a large stone slab and underneath was a metal cross with the inscription 'here lies the body of Arthur and his Lady Guinevere King of the isle of Avalon'. Sixteen feet down was the body of a huge man and a lady with golden hair in a hollowed out log.
This is a replica of the cross found that would have been a foot long
Now Arthur was said to have fought many battles for Wales and said to have lived in the era of 500-600 AD and little is known or written about Britain after the Roman's had left.
Some experts have said it could have been a way of making the Abbey popular as more pilgrims would make the effort to go there.
However, some others say at that time the monks made no attempt to make the story go worldwide which would have been the obvious thing to do but to me certain things do not add up.
Anyway, one would have to wonder what remains of a log would have been there after 500-600 years.
In 1278 Edward 1 came and saw the inscribed cross and he and his queen witnessed the bodies being placed in a marble tomb in the abbey itself with the cross underneath.
For then on the Abbey became the second richest place behind Westminister and remained that way until Henry viii took it over in 1536.
The Abbot and two monks refused to comply and they were executed all suffering a horrible death for treason on Glastonbury Mount.
Henry v111 had the Abbey stripped of wealth stripping the roof and valuables. Arthur's tomb disappeared but there is said to be just a piece of the remains of it in the Abbey museum which dates correctly.
This is the spot where the tomb was placed in the Abbey
The cross which was said to be a foot long has been witnessed by several people and the last record of it was by a poet who saw it in the hands of the Hughes the Chancellor of Wells in the 1600's who lived at the treasury in Vicar's Close lol and the cross disappeared after that.
I turned up there the day before lol
Isles of Avalon was mentioned on the inscription of the cross and people believe that the Glastonbury Mount in view of the Abbey was said to have been an island in the 500's as Somerset was flooded.
This is where the Holy Grail is said to be. The Mount (St Micheal mount) has had some investigation and it has been used by tribes for centuries before. I understand there are Labyrinths underneath which have been sealed but nothing of Arthur has been discovered.
Some believed the Myth that Arthur would return and finding the body in 1191 it was said to be Henry II's favour because having witnessed the body he could control the people. However, Henry died two years before the date Arthur was discovered so another anomaly with that theory.
The Holy Gail is a second Myth
Jesus's uncle the person who moved Christ's body after death was said to have brought the Holy Grail back to England and beneath the tor is a well that the Holy Grail was said to have been thrown down. The river beneath the well runs red from iron ore but people believed this was the blood of Christ.
The whole town of Glastonbury is like living in another world with fortune tellers, tardot and peace shops none of them would survive in another town
A new kid on the block has found readings in the Oxford Library and believes Arthur is buried at Baschurch Shropshire and is waiting permission to dig on the site. He said it is a pity both the cross and the bodies have disappeared as modern technology could have proved the myth wrong or right. Where is the cross ? seen by a number of people and why has it disappeared in the Chancellor's hands
If the Myth of Arthur is a hoax then the Abbey have told lies to make money. It started to rain so the attempt to walk to the Mount was called off but the fascination has got me on the hunt lol
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Thu Oct 26, 2017 2:13 pm
