King Arthur and his Round Table … Is this a chivalric romance, a beautiful legend or a historical fact? And has there ever existed in the world the mysterious island of Avalon, where the legendary king supposedly lived? After all, not a single geographical map confirms this. However, English archaeologists recently found a grave at Glastonbury Abbey, where, in their opinion, the bodies of Arthur and his wife Guenever are buried.
The first legends about the great king appeared in the 6th century AD. e. Those stories are rich in stories about the incredible exploits of the Knights of the Round Table.
According to the main version, King Arthur, having united with the remnants of the descendants of the Romans, heroically defended the British Isles from the treacherous Germans. And, although the invaders managed to inflict a number of defeats on them, nevertheless, by 1600, most of the islands were defended.
The legend sends the mortally wounded king to the fantastic island of Avalon, where fairies and elves live. And time flows there so slowly that those who got there, perhaps, live in this paradise now …
Some mystics of the Middle Ages believed that Avalon disappeared from the face of the earth in a sacred sense. He seemed to have passed into another dimension, away from human eyes, like Russian Kitezh. Historians of the 19th century believed that Avalon died due to a banal flood. Their hypothesis was confirmed by real history from the 11th century.
There was a small island in the English Channel, well protected by locks and dams. But one day the drunken guards forgot to close them. The tidal water covered the city and the sea swallowed the island. All died in the waves. And only the king escaped by swimming on a horse. It was this historically reliable incident that led historians to believe that Avalon could suffer the same fate.
Hans Christian Andersen has a spooky tale, Ven and Glen, about the fate of two twin islands. The depths of the sea swallowed Ven, and the inhabitants of Glen lost their peace, expecting this every night. But Glen Island disappeared for a different reason. Man-made embankments connected it to the mainland. A similar could happen to Avalon, if, for example, he was not far from the coast of Britain.
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In the book by MA Orlov "The History of the Relationship of Man with the Devil" in 1904, there is a detailed description of Avalon with reference to the ancient French poets. It says that this island was incredibly rich. The roofs of the houses there were covered with gold, and the doors of ivory were decorated with precious stones. Avalonian medicine can cure absolutely all diseases, and the locals do not know worries and spend time in endless happiness. But where was this island?
According to one of the hypotheses - in Glastonbury Abbey, in the very west of Great Britain. Until the 16th century, this mountainous volcanic area resembled an island due to the many swamps. Archaeologists have found here the remains of settlements from the era of the Roman invasion of the islands. The remains of a medieval church have been preserved here to this day. Legend has it that it was the Glastonbury rock that was the habitat of King Arthur, as well as the secret entrance to the kingdom of the elf lord.
They say that once in a local well, built by the Druids, Saint Joseph threw the Holy Grail that belonged to Jesus. No one has been able to find this magical item. It is believed that when the Holy Grail disappeared from the human world, then King Arthur's Round Table disintegrated.
In 1184, a terrible fire destroyed the abbey almost to the ground. But there is no such thing as a silver lining. During the reconstruction, the monks started looking for Arthur's grave and found it in 1190! A hollow chamber was discovered under the stone slabs of the floor, at a depth of three meters. And in it there are two large coffins impregnated with special preservative resins. In one coffin lay the remains of a tall (2 m 25 cm) man with a damaged skull, in the other - the remains of a woman with well-preserved blond hair. The monks reburied the royal spouses, and on a huge lead cross they wrote: "Here, on the island of Avalon, rests the remains of the famous King Arthur and his wife Guenever."
Modern scientific excavations at Glastonbury began in 1907. The expedition led by the Englishman Frederick B. Bond made great strides. The remains of an unknown chapel were found, which was built according to the laws of sacred Egyptian geometry. True, Bond recklessly stated that he received all the instructions for the search, communicating with the souls of the deceased monks. For this he was fired.
Only many years later were the results of his research rethought. It was revealed that Frederick Bond outlined the energetic relationship between Glastonbury and Stonehenge in his report. The so-called place of surges of unknown energy, which connects these two places, passes next to the mystical path of dead people to the afterlife. It was on this line that the burial place of Arthur and Guenever was found by monks in the XII century.
Another attempt to uncover the Glastonbury mystery was made in the 1920s. London scientists became interested in the ancient observatory, the so-called Star Temple, located south of the abbey. In fact, these are 12 large zodiac signs beautifully paved on the ground. For the first time, his description is found in the court astrologer of Queen Elizabeth I, John Dee (1527-1608).
By the end of the twentieth century, English scientists decided to answer all the questions that the mysterious abbey had put before them for many centuries. A reopening of Arthur's burial was carried out, and the information from the chronicles of the ancient monks was fully confirmed. The remains of the king and his wife were subjected to a medical examination, which showed that they belong to the 5th-6th centuries AD. e. - the time when King Arthur lived.
