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    Glastonbury Tor: A Guide to the History & Legends
    Glastonbury Tor: A Guide to the History & Legends
    Glastonbury Tor: A Guide to the History & Legends
    Ebook133 pages1 hour

    Glastonbury Tor: A Guide to the History & Legends

    By Nicholas R. Mann

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    About this ebook

    A full picture of the mysterious landmark, Glastonbury Tor, including the Monastery of St. Michael, the labyrinth, the astronomical alignments, the underground water, the geology, and the associated myths and legends, as well as history and prehistory.

    • Fully revised and updated edition
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTemple Publications
    Release dateAug 10, 2020
    ISBN9780957211391
    Glastonbury Tor: A Guide to the History & Legends
    Author

    Nicholas R. Mann

    is a Geomancer and the author of Glastonbury Tor, The Isle of Avalon, Energy Secrets of Glastonbury Tor, Druid Magic, The Silver Branch Cards and The Sacred Geometry of Washington DC and The Star Temple of Avalon.

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      Book preview

      Glastonbury Tor - Nicholas R. Mann

      northeast.

      INTRODUCTION

      Glastonbury Tor is a natural hill whose prominent shape has been determined by both geological and human activities. Sitting upon the low hills that form the fabled Isle of Avalon, Glastonbury Tor rises 520 feet (158 metres) above the surrounding Somerset Levels. Viewed from north and south, with its long, whale-backed ridge sloping away to the southwest, the Tor has a streamlined shape; but when viewed from east and west, along its axis, it appears as a steep conical hill, while the church tower at its summit is described by local pilots as a nipple. Huge, artificial and unusual terraces that cast deep shadows are cut into every flank of the Tor, creating the impression of a stepped pyramid. From some perspectives there appear to be seven main terraces, but in fact there are many more.

      On the summit once stood a cluster of medieval buildings that formed the monastery of St. Michael on the Tor. Possibly founded as early as 600, but more likely by 800 CE, this structure existed until Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1539. Now all that remains is the fourteenth-century church tower. Judging from the earlier archaeological record, with evidence of iron-working and copious meat-eating, the summit of the Tor was once occupied for military purposes. The history and legends around this Dark Age fortress have been associated with King Arthur.

      Excavations have uncovered the foundations both of a twelfth-century church and of an earlier cross, but also hinted at the possibility of a Romano-British shrine or temple, flanked by pagan graves. Individual items found on the Tor have included a medieval pilgrim’s badge and a Neolithic greenstone axe. Recent evidence of a different kind has suggested that people constructed some of the terraces for astronomical purposes, possibly in the Bronze Age or even the Neolithic.

      The purpose of the terraces on Glastonbury Tor is mysterious. The terraces wrapped round the southern flanks of the Tor and those to the east and west, were unquestionably used for agricultural purposes by the Glastonbury monks: their use as arable lynchets continued into the late nineteenth century. But it seems at least some of the terraces were intended to make the Tor into a symbolic statement. Visually, these terraces form a winding path, defining the Tor as a seven-tiered pyramid or castle. From some directions, especially from the air, their serpentine or labia-like forms resemble a three-dimensional labyrinth, accessed by a spiral or coiled path.

      The medieval monks of the Monastery of St. Michael who farmed the terraces around the Tor may have been trying to shape the Tor into a Calvary mount. Such seven-tiered mounts were popular with pilgrims in medieval Europe. Pilgrims ascended such mounts, often on their knees, via the Stations of the Cross, symbolically traveling the road to Purgatory or even Hell before finding eventual salvation on the summit. But Calvary mounts were typically man-made, and none were on the scale of the Tor. And although the monks may have wanted Glastonbury Tor to be a symbol of their faith, it seems unlikely that the monks built all the terraces.

      Recent research has revealed a curious phenomenon. When Glastonbury Tor is viewed at sunrise on December 21st from a mound on the summit of St. Edmund’s Hill, situated just under a mile to the northwest, the sun rises at its foot and rolls up its steep northern flank. This spectacular winter solstice event lasts over half an hour. Before 1600 BCE, however, the sun would have risen just below the northern flank, allowing the top rim of the rising sun to flash in any terrace carved into it. The terraces high upon the agriculturally least valuable side of the Tor may therefore have been cut for astronomical purposes at the same date as the mound, that is, before 1600 BCE. All that can be said at present is that the Tor’s uniquely dramatic form has been shaped over the millennia by a combination of geological, agricultural, astronomical, symbolic and spiritual activities.

      Tor from Wearyall Hill, one mile southwest.

      THE ISLAND

      Glastonbury lies about fifteen miles from the sea on the eastern edge of the Somerset Levels in southwest Britain. The Somerset Levels were once a great marsh and before that, when sea levels rose after the last Ice Age, a shallow inland sea. This is now low, flat, peaty, farming country, subject to frequent flooding. For thousands of years Glastonbury was therefore a virtual island surrounded on three sides by the watery Levels. In the twelfth century, the cleric and author Caradoc of Llancarfan called it the glassy city, which took its name from glass. The Celtic Ynis Witrin, the ‘Isle of Glass’ survives in the name of the 7th or 8th century Saxon town, Glestingaburg, or Glass-town-borough. This may allude to the calm and glassy waters of the inland sea, or more likely to a founder known as Glest or Glasteing. But as a place where apples grew bountifully, the location was also frequently described as the Isle of Avalon, a name which may derive from the Welsh for ‘apple orchard.’

      The bridge over Ponter’s Ball, guarded by soldiers circa 600 CE. Was there a pagan temple in this or the preceding Roman period upon the Tor? Drawing by Alan Royce.

      The ‘island’ was connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of land to the east. This entranceway was cut across by a massive, easterly facing ditch and embankment known as Ponter’s Ball—from pontis vallum, the ‘bridge over the channel.’ When full of water this ditch effectively made Glastonbury, or Avalon, an island. It is unclear when Ponter’s Ball was built. It may have been the Celts, the Saxons, or the monks of the Abbey. Whoever controlled this eastern bridge would have controlled all land trade with and travel to the island.

      To the west, only a short stretch of water separated the ancient island from the mainland, but a river ran through here; the bridge which crossed it has long been called Pomparles Bridge—from pont perilis, the ‘bridge perilous’ encountered in Arthurian legend—and mentioned by John Leland the Tudor antiquary.

      The island is roughly circular and consists of four hills. The first, the Tor—a West Country name usually given to a rocky outcropping on a hilltop—is steep and terraced. The second, Chalice Hill, is gently rounded. The third, Wearyall Hill, forms an elongated limb extending out to the southwest. The final hill, St. Edmund’s or Windmill Hill, is not as distinctive, apart from the artificial mound on its western end; to the east it merges with another elevation, Stonedown. Yet the Tor stands out above these other hills, dramatically dominating the entire plain.

      Today, the marsh has gone and the plain is drained and fertile, although still subject to occasional flooding, while the town of Glastonbury, with a population of about 8500, spreads over the western part of the original island.

      The Peat Bogs & Sea

      As the ice sheets retreated after the last glacial age and sea levels rose the broad vale around Glastonbury filled with sea water. For thousands of years there was a precarious balance between salt and fresh water. High tides in the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary (up to 20ft above mean sea level) meant the sea frequently flooded the land, but as fresh water ran off the surrounding hills flooded valleys slowly silted up, and vast reed beds began to form. As the sea retreated further, the continual growing and dying of vegetation laid down a substantial depth of peat. People began to use

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