Recently, a friend and I were discussing how amazing it is that there are so many people drawn to Avalon. Yet, through various encounters we’ve experienced, it became obvious to us that many of the people drawn to Avalon don’t actually know what it is. It is as though the very word Avalon embodies a mysterious and an innate spiritual meaning to those who hear it.
Obviously, a lot of people have figured this out. As mentioned before on this blog, there are a ton of places named Avalon. And Toyota has seen fit to name a car after it. And as one who loves lyrical quality in words, I can say Avalon fits that bill. And now, it would seem that just knowing that a spiritual tradition is named Avalon is enough to get folks to interested.
This is quite different from most people I know who joined the tradition years ago who either knew many of the Arthurian and Celtic myths and symbols coming into it – or at least were inspired after reading Mists of Avalon.
So, it seemed appropriate to uncover the origins of Avalon for those who are just beginning on this path.
The very first known mention of Avalon is in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain written in 1136. Yes, that would be more than 800 years ago.
This rather creative “history” spans 2,000 years – from Brutus founding Britain to the Saxons invading it. Of course, this span includes the time of Arthur and his father. Starting the well-known conception story for the future king, the text also features Arthur’s end after he receives a mortal wound at the Battle of Camblam (later called Camlann):
“Arthur himself, our renowned King, was mortally wounded and was carried off to the Isle of Avalon, so that his wounds might be attended to. He handed the crown of Britain over to his cousin Constantine, the son of Cador Duke of Cornwall: this in the year 542 after our Lord’s Incarnation.” (pg 261)
That’s it. Yup, that one brief mention is the beginning to the legend of Avalon.
However, Geoffrey later wrote The Life of Merlin where he goes into greater detail about the Isle:
“The island of apples which men call ‘The Fortunate Isle’ gets its name from the fact that it produces all things of itself; the fields there have no need of the ploughs of the farmers and all cultivation is lacking except what nature provides. Of its own accord it produces grain and grapes, and apple trees grow in its woods from the close-clipped grass. The ground of its own accord produces everything instead of merely grass, and people live there a hundred years or more.”
Geoffrey also discusses those who dwell there and details the healing and shapeshifting abilities of Morgen:
“There nine sisters rule by a pleasing set of laws those who come to them from our country. She who is first of them is more skilled in the healing art, and excels her sisters in the beauty of her person. Morgen is her name, and she has learned what useful properties all the herbs contain, so that she can cure sick bodies. She also knows an art by which to change her shape, and to cleave the air on new wings like Daedalus; when she wishes she is at Brest, Chartres, or Pavia, and when she will she slips down from the air onto your shores. And men say that she has taught mathematics to her sisters, Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, Thitis; Thitis best known for her cither.”
And, finally, we see more detail about Arthur’s passage to the Isle:
“Thither after the battle of Camlan we took the wounded Arthur, guided by Barinthus to whom the waters and the stars of heaven were well known. With him steering the ship we arrived there with the prince, and Morgen received us with fitting honour, and in her chamber she placed the king on a golden bed and with her own hand she uncovered his honourable wound and gazed at it for a long time. At length she said that health could be restored to him if he stayed with her for a long time and made use of her healing art. Rejoicing, therefore, we entrusted the king to her and returning spread our sails to the favouring winds.”
It’s hard to believe, but these sparse words are what began the intrigue and spiritual nature that Avalon brings to the Arthurian cycle – and to us today. Over hundreds of years, writers have added to and changed the story until we reached that time when such insightful writers as Mists author Marion Zimmer Bradley (and others) could bring a fully realized concept of Avalon to the printed page.
So you may ask what was Geoffrey’s source for Avalon? To be honest, it’s a bit of a mystery. However, on Friday we will look at some other mythic islands that may have influenced Geoffrey’s writings.
Image is Mort D’Arthur by Irish painter Daniel Maclise
Sources
Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain. Translated by Lewis Thorpe. New York, New York: Penguin Books USA Inc, 1966.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, The Life of Merlin. http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/vm/vmeng.htm
© 2011 PJ Graham
Parting the Mists 
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