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‘...the island-valley of Avilion; where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow…’Lord Tennyson, From his poem "The Passion of Arthur"
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A paradise where it was always spring and no one grew old; where there was everlasting peace; and where no toil was needed because the land remained ever fruitful: this was Avalon. As well as resembling other mythical realms, such as Atlantis, where the inhabitants enjoyed a Golden Age existence, Avalon became known as the place to which the British hero King Arthur was carried to be healed of his wounds after his last battle of Camlaan. Avalon is first mentioned in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae. According to Sir Thomas Malory, writing in the 15th century, Arthur was taken to Avalon in a mysterious boat in which were women in lack hoods--among them three queens.Today, the island of Avalon has been identified with Glastonbury, Somerset, since the alleged discovery of Arthur's grave at Glastonbury Abbey in 1191. Glastonbury Tor, rising above marshy land often covered with standing water, in early times likely gave the impression of being an island.
Like Camelot, Avalon is everywhere and nowhere--it is contrary to its spirit to try to pin it down. It lies in the dimension of myth, where truth is manifold. The historical Arthur may have been buried at Glastonbury; but the real Arthur waits in that place where "healing does not fail"--the place which Geoffrey called Avalon.