Avalon holds a special place in the hearts of anyone interested in the magical and supernatural. While it first appeared in the stories of the Arthurian legends, it grew in the popular imagination with the publication of Marion Summer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon in 1983. She retells the Arthurian legends from the female perspective, following Morgana le Fay as a Celtic priestess of Avalon working to defend her beliefs against the onslaught of Christianity. But what do the original stories actually tell us about the mysterious realm of Avalon?
Mystical Wealth
The very earliest reference to Avalon comes from a French poem called Couronnement de Louis, written in 1130. The poem talks about the crowning of the French King Louis, and briefly mentions “all the gold of Avalon,” hinting at the island’s richness. It also shows that an idea of Avalon existed in popular culture beyond the Arthurian legends.
The English writer Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his Historia Regum Britanniae around 1137, and this is one of our earliest sources for Arthur. He introduces the idea that Arthur’s sword Excalibur was made on the Isle of Avalon. This suggests that Avalon may have been a place where the best weapons were made, not unlike Svartalfheim in the Norse cosmos.
He mentioned Avalon again later when describing the civil war between Arthur and his nephew Mordred, which culminated at the Battle of Camlann, during which Arthur was mortally wounded. The author says that Arthur was taken to Avalon, where he could be cured of his wounds. This again suggests that there is something special about Avalon, as it was only here that Arthur could survive.
Isle of the Priestesses
Writing a little over a decade later, Geoffrey of Monmouth again mentions Avalon in his Vita Merlini or Life of Merlin. Here it is referred to as the “Isle of Apples,” as it was known in the Welsh tradition. A bard named Taliesin says that Avalon is also known as the “Fortunate Isle” and that crops grew there without the need for human cultivation, and that people there lived to a hundred years old or more.
Verifying that this was the island where Arthur was taken to heal, Taliesin also says that the island is ruled over by nine sisters, the eldest and greatest of whom is Morgana. She is the one who used the plants of the island and her magical abilities to heal Arthur.
There is an argument that the Isle of Avalon appears in sources around a millennium before these early literary references. Pomponius Mela was a Roman geographer writing around 43 CE. He mentions an island off the coast of Armorica, which is modern Brittany in France. Calling Sena, identified with the modern Ile de Sein, he said that it was dedicated to a Gallic divinity and was famous for an oracle. Importantly, he mentions nine priestesses with special powers, including healing and shapeshifting. This seems to link directly to Morgana and her sisters.
This shapeshifting ability is mentioned in the story of Perceval’s Grail Quest, as he fights a flock of ravens that turn out to be the sisters of Avalon.
Late versions of the story from the 15th century suggest that after Morgana and Arthur travelled to Avalon, she shrouded it in an enchanted mist so that no one else could find the isle.
Avalon as Annwn
In Welsh mythology, the Otherworld of the fairies and supernatural is called Annwn, and it also seems to be linked with Avalon. A Welsh poem called Prdiddeu Annwn written around 750, describes Arthur voyaging to Annwn, where he encounters a magical cauldron kindled by the breath of nine maidens.
But this does not seem to be the same island where Arthur was taken for healing, as instead, he is described as sailing there at the head of an army who the intention of conquering it.
Perhaps this suggests a tradition in which Arthur initially thought he could take on the supernatural and conquer their island, but upon visiting discovered that its wonders were beyond him. But later in life, he was invited back to the island to be healed from his wounds and life, not dissimilar from how Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were invited to go to the mystical Undying Lands of Valinor at the end of The Lord of the Rings.
In later stories, many supernatural beings, especially women, are linked to Avalon. In a collection of French prose from around 1276 called Les Propheties de Merlin, a woman named the Lady of Avalon, a student of Merlin and a rival of Morgana, who is also cast as one of Merlin’s students in this story, is described as an enchantress from Avalon. In another story, this same enchantress is a fairy and the mother of the evil sorceress Elergia. In the story of Sir Balin, this or another Lady of Avalon brings a cursed sword to Avalon.
Glastonbury as Avalon
While it may seem surprising, arguments have been made that Glastonbury was the original Avalon. Before the 12th century, the high canonical bulk of Glastonbury Tor, located about 15 miles from the sea, was an island surrounded by marsh and sea. The Welsh called it the Isle of Glass.
Writing at the end of the 12th century, Gerald of Wales specifically says that in ancient times, Glastonbury was known as the Isle of Avalon, which means the Isle of Apples, as it was known in Welsh. He also mentions Morgana taking Arthur there after the Battle of Camlann.
Then, in 1190, monks at Glastonbury Abbey claimed to have discovered the bones of Arthur and his wife, Guinevere, in an unmarked tomb with a massive tree trunk coffin and a lead cross with the inscription: Here lies entombed the renowned king Arthur of the island of Avalon. The cross does not survive, and other descriptions say that it described Arthur as the “once and future king.”
Today, it is assumed that the monks faked the find to raise money. Nevertheless, the remains were reburied with great ceremony before the High Altar at Glastonbury Abbey.
Today, Avalon has become mixed up in neopaganism and Celtic revival. It has become associated with the druids, though this is not apparent in the sources. Their sacred island was Anglesey, sacked by the Romans in the 1st century CE. It has also evolved into a metaphor for female power and the feminine spiritual path in modern neopaganism.
