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Nothing too much trouble and best nights sleep! "
Karen and Alan Bennett, Co. Antrim |
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 Glastonbury Tor
During the Dark Ages, when Arthur lived, most of Somerset was marshland and sheets of water cut off the Tor during floods and very high tides. In fact, the pagan Celts called it 'Ynys-witrin' – 'the Island of Glass', and regarded it as a sacred site, as they did all islands.
It is easy to imagine a wounded King landing on Glastonbury Tor, and this belief was bolstered in the 12th-century when the monks of St Michael's Chapel discovered the bones of a tall man and a woman with yellow hair. It was claimed that a lead cross was also found in the grave, inscribed 'Here in the Isle of Avalon the famous King Arthur lies buried.'
Of course, it might have been a genuine find, but scholars agree that it comes from a later time than Arthur's although it was apparently too old to be a 12th-century fake.
Sir Thomas Malory, who was one of the many medieval writers to be fascinated by the story of King Arthur wrote his own romantic version that had a different inscription for Arthur's grave. According to him, it reads 'Here lies Arthur, the Once and Future King' - the King who will rise again whenever he is needed.
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