|
Avalon
Alternatively Avillion.
A Celtic name, possibly related
to the Celtic king of the dead named Avalloc or Afallach, and
traditionally interpreted in Welsh mythology as 'Island of Apples' — in Celtic mythology, the 'Island of
Blessed Souls'.
According to British legend, Avalon is the mythical land of immortal heroes
wherein the enchanted sword Excalibur was forged and to where a
mortally wounded
King Arthur was taken on a boat by his half sister, Morgan le Fay, after a bloody battle in which he
killed Mordred. According to some traditions, Arthur sleeps there merely to
awaken at some future time.
There was a tradition that
Glastonbury
was the Isle of Avalon, and much of the area round Glastonbury was
water-logged and marshy. In 1191, the monks of Glastonbury unearthed an oak
coffin from 16 feet underground, which they claimed to be Arthur's. They
showed an inscription, 'Here lies buried the renowned King Arthur with
Guinevere his second wife in the Isle of Avalon', on a lead cross which they
said had been found inside the coffin. Today, replicas of the cross are sold
at
Glastonbury Abbey.
Although the stories of Camelot,
Arthur, and the Knights of the Round Table are probably only myths, there
are actual sites on which Avalon may well have been based. Some sources
suggest that Avalon lies off the coast of Great Britain or is possibly the
island of
Greenland. Others have considered
Arran, an island off the coast
of Scotland, as a possible model for Avalon.
See
King Arthur,
Glastonbury,
Camelot,
Lyonesse,
Casting Black Magic Spells,
Commanding Spirits,
The Tarot Store and
Divination & Scrying Tools and
Supplies.
Sources: (1) Spence, Lewis,
An Encyclopedia of
Occultism, Carol Publishing Group;
(2)
Lacy, Norris J.,
The New Arthurian Encyclopedia,
Routledge
Publishing; (3)
Steiger, Brad and Sherry
Hansen,
The Gale Encyclopedia of
the Unusual and Unexplained,
Thomson Gale
Publishing; (4) Coghlan, Ronan,
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Arthurian
Legends, Houghton Mifflin
Publishing.
|
|
|
