© AlamyGlastonbury Abbey: Not the stuff and myths and legends
Archaeologists find that Glastonbury's links to Jesus and King Arthur were concocted to attract pilgrimsIt is a revelation that will strike a blow to the heart of the generations of pilgrims drawn to Glastonbury for its Christian legend and new age myths.
But a
four-year academic study has unceremoniously debunked the series of oft-repeated myths that have cemented Glastonbury Abbey's reputation as one of the most romantic religious sites in the UK.
The feet immortalised in William Blake's poem Jerusalem never did walk on its green and pleasant land, King Arthur's grave is little more than a pile of a rubble and the oldest church in England was not built by Jesus's disciples but by monks desperate to raise some cold, hard cash.
The groundbreaking study, by 31 archaeology experts, discovered that the creative monks, faced with a financial crisis when their abbey burnt down in 1184, also dreamt up the legend that Jesus had visited the site as a boy with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, whose walking stick
transformed into a tree that flowers every year at Christmas and Easter.
The evidence that the myths were created as no more than a money-spinner to draw pilgrims to the site will be deemed the antithesis of everything Glastonbury is said to stand for.
But the researchers insisted that they did not want to take anything away from the "remarkable" Somerset abbey and acknowledged that a thousand years of beliefs and legend were at the heart of its history.
© AlamyKing Arthur
Roberta Gilchrist, professor of archaeology at Reading University, and her team, examined the unpublished records of archaeological excavations that took place between 1904 and 1979. They conducted a chemical and compositional analysis of glass, metal and pottery and undertook a comprehensive new geophysical survey of the Abbey grounds.
They found that
in the wake of the devastating fire, the monks decided to lay claim to the popular myth of King Arthur.
They carefully rebuilt the church in a wooden, archaic style to make it appear far older than it was and forged a lead cross bearing the name of the king to suggest that he and his queen, Guinevere, had been buried there.
Prof Gilchrist said: "The monks needed to raise money by increasing the numbers of visiting pilgrims, and that meant keeping the myths and legends alive.
"We found evidence that the monks laid out the buildings in a very distinctive way to emphasise the "earliest church" story. This occupied the site of the legendary early church allegedly founded by Joseph of Arimathea.
"The monks deliberately designed the rebuilt church to look older to demonstrate its ancient heritage. This swelled pilgrim numbers, and the abbey's coffers. It was a strategy that paid off: Glastonbury abbey became the second richest monastery in England by the end of the Middle Ages."She said that while there was a possibility of genuine misunderstanding with other legends, with King Arthur and Guinevere there was "no question" that "the monks just made them up."
Prof Gilchrist is said to have found no evidence of a special tree in the abbey dating back to this time and that the common hawthorn in its grounds naturally flowers in midsummer and midwinter.
It casts doubt on a legend so entrenched in history that
a sprig from the Holy Thorn has been sent to the Queen every December since the 1920s for her Christmas morning breakfast table.
The project, conducted alongside Trustees of Glastonbury Abbey and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, suggests that many experts had been taken in by the myths over the decades, among them Ralegh Radford, the archaeologist who excavated Glastonbury Abbey in the 1950s and 1960s.
He believed he had found the location of Arthur's grave allegedly discovered by the Glastonbury monks and the oldest Saxon cloister in England.
But Prof Gilchrist said it was in fact a pit containing builders' rubble from the 11th to 15th century and that according to the foundations, the walls of the cloister do not line up and so are almost certainly not a cloister at all.
On the plus side for pilgrims, the study did discover evidence that Glastonbury was occupied 200 years earlier than previously thoughts and was the site of an 8th century glassworks.
The discoveries will be incorporated into a new guidebook.
© Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Myths versus new evidenceMyth: Glastonbury Abbey is the site of the earliest Church in Britain, thought to have been founded by Joseph of Arimathea, who visited the site with a young Jesus
Fact: 12th Century monks keen to attract pilgrims to the site to raise money after a fire, deliberately designed the rebuilt church to look older in order to demonstrate its ancient heritage and pre-eminent place in monastic history
Myth: Joseph of Arimathea came to Glastonbury from the Holy Land, and planted his walking stick which still miraculously flowers at Christmas and Easter
Fact: No evidence was found of the thorn's existence before the 17th century. The current Glastonbury Thorn is a common hawthorn that naturally flowers twice a year
Myth: King Arthur, creator of the Knights of the Round Table, and Queen Guinevere were buried there
Fact: The site of Arthur's 'grave' was revealed to be a pit in the cemetery containing material dating from the 11th to 15th centuries, with no evidence linking to the era of the legendary age of Camelot
Myth: The abbey is the site of Britain's most ancient cemetery, a Saxon cloister found by Ralegh Radford
Fact: The graves that the pioneering archaeologist judged to be "Dark Age" were later shown to be newer than the Saxon church and cemetery. Prof Gilchrist believes Radford may have been influenced by Glastonbury legends
Myth: 12th-Century historian, William of Malmesbury, left a description of an ancient wooden church he had seen
Fact: His original account had extra material inserted into it in later versions, probably by monks seeking to boost their claims of ancient historical status
Myth: Science is all-knowing, and unbiased.
Fact: Experiments often go with an intention, and mould all evidence to meet that intention.
Myth: Glastonbury is a pilgrim place for Christians.
Fact: Glastonbury is filled with nearly 60 differing religions, and hardly anywhere can you read about Joseph of Arimathea or Jesus Christ. The supposed "Christian" religions in Glastonbury are often New Age re-moulds of modern Christianity, which support veganism and other New Age mumbo-jumbo, where they exclude the teachings of Christ and prefer to study "newly found" gospels where equality and kindness are of secondary importance to diet and "goddess worshipping". The most popular religion in the 'Isle of Avalon' (colloquial name for Glastonbury, meaning the Isle of Apples) is the "goddess" religion (meaning, women who believe they are "gods"... strange, wasn't there a woman in ancient myths who was promised to become a "god" if she ate an apple???) It's the oldest religion in the world (the "New Age" goddess religion), and in Glastonbury it is HUGE, dwarfing Christianity 9,999 to 1 (and I'm probably being leniant here).
The Glastonbury Hawthorn is not a 'common' hawthorn to the British Isles, it is a hawthorn from the Middle East... 'common' in the Middle East perhaps, but not for Glastonbury.
In nearby Priddy on the Mendips Hill, there are still many old folk tales (though quickly dying off, because of the rise in house prices and modernity, hardly any native farming people in the area are able to buy a house in the countryside which they grew up in, and where their ancestors lived for millennia.) Nevertheless, the saying still goes in Priddy : As sure as our Lord came to Priddy. The older locals (the very few that are left) firmly hold the belief that Christ came here before AND after his resurrection.
Between Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet, there is a stone on the side of the road that is an old boundary stone. That same boundary mark is written in the Doomsday book, written late 11th century, where it states that the land of Glastonbury were signed over to hebrew settlers.
Don't believe me, check out for yourself, this old documentary is a good starting place...
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In 2010, the Glastonbury Hawthorn was cut down, and now it is a dead stump. Science and society are on a crusade to remove all true Christian values from society and the hearts of the people... for instance, in the UK, it is actually illegal for the Salvation Army and the Hare Krishnas to give food away to homeless people... by law, people must pay... Charity is ILLEGAL in the UK. The UK is one of the least Christian countries in the world, where the people prefer instead the "New Age" promise of becoming gods and goddess'.
In my opinion, this article does not prove that science has disproven the existence of the Christ in the Celtic lands, if anything it only proves that science and society are against the Christ, ANTI-Christ.
May the Kalki Avatar, or the Christ, or King Arthur, come back and expel the traitors of humankind, as promised! (That's why they tremble at these myths and go to such lengths to disprove them.)
HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE
...On a final note, it is true that medieval monks invented the legends of King Arthur connected to Glastonbury. At the time, the English had a VERY strong anti-welsh sentiment, and it is in South Wales where the real "legends" of King Arthur can be found... Check out the investigations of the following truest historian, Alan Wilson, who discovered in recent years that the "legends and myths" of King Arthur turned out to be real, with true evidence...
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The myths of King Arthur were imposed onto Glastonbury, to make money, but also to take the spiritual force away from Wales. Also, the King Arthur forgery has only strengthened the now-firmly held belief that Jeshua and Joseph's visits to Albion (old name for Britain) was also a forgery.