Gwyn Read online

  I’m not sticking my neck out and saying that the legend of Joseph of Arimathea is untrue (I said in my Introduction that I believe that all of Glastonbury’s legends, at least, had half truths.) But Joseph of Arimathea’s historicity is seriously lacking in evidence and requires a devotee’s ‘leap of faith’.

  To confound the Arimathean legend even more, archaeologically speaking, there is not a single scrap of evidence of any Christianity being practiced on Ynys Witrin, or anywhere near it, until the late 5th century. In fact, for the first 300 years of Roman Britain, Paganism flourished with hundreds of temples up and down the country, dedicated to a whole plethora of gods and goddesses!

  In early London, the Egyptian goddess Isis was worshipped at a major temple, so too, it is believed, was Gwyn’s father Nudd, at Ludgate. The Romans worshipped many deities and brought those deities and beliefs with them to Britain. Devotion to the sun god Mithras (Sol Invictus) was very popular -so popular in fact, that early Christianity adopted much Mithraic culture into its practices. The birth of Jesus being the 25th of December is seemingly an adopted Mithraic festival. (Note: the Bible gives no date for the birth of Jesus at Christmas).

  The great Roman road (the Fosse Way) that cuts through the eastern side of the Glastonbury Zodiac joined the Roman town of Lindinis (Ilchester) to Aquae Sulis (Bath). At Aquae Sulis the local goddess Sul was worshipped in the guise of the goddess Minerva. There were Roman temples in the countryside all around Ynys Witrin and the Somerset wetlands. On the Polden Ridge, there was a temple (of unknown dedication) at Pedwell and on ‘Pagans Hill’ on the Mendips a temple believed to have been dedicated to the sun god Apollo. On Brean Down there was another temple of unknown dedication, probably to the goddess Bride. And let us not forget Gwyn’s father’s temple at Lydney on the River Severn, to name a few.

  It is absurd to imagine Ynys Witrin as no longer functioning in some sort of capacity as ‘sacred ground’ to the now ‘Romano British’. The Tor absolutely dominates the surrounding landscape. How could it not have continued to function with a spiritual purpose?

  Furthermore, throughout the Roman Empire, there was active dislike and persecution of the early Christians. As recorded by Tacitus (the 1st century Roman historian) in his ‘Annals’, after the great fire of Rome, in 64 A.D. (the year after Joseph of Arimithea is said to have been given Ynys Witrin) the Emperor Nero characterised Christians as the enemies of Rome;

  “Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace”

  (Tacitus, Annals XV)

  Christians were actively persecuted throughout the Roman Empire until the early 4th century. Many were stoned to death, crucified, or thrown to lions as entertainment! The Roman Empire actively encouraged the hatred of Christianity. The idea that Ynys Witrin, during the first couple of centuries of Roman rule, was ‘allowed’ to be Christian, really is most unlikely. Christians were not given the rights to worship in the Roman Empire until 313 A.D. If there were any Christians in Somerset before then, they’d only have been so in secret - not settling upon ancient sacred ground and building a church just five miles from one of the most busy Roman roads in the country!

  The alternative to Ynys Witrin in Roman times being the abode of Joseph of Arimathea is that it continued (under Roman allowance) being a sacred island, with sacred wells and ‘mountain’, retaining some kind of connection to the Otherworld and with Gwyn (by name or a Romano variant) still acting as a god of paradise. Just as his father was still venerated at Lydney, on the Severn, and Sul being venerated at Bath.

  It is also very likely that the British goddess ‘Bride’ or ‘Brig’ was venerated on or near Ynys Witrin. All around the Bristol Channel there is plenty of evidence of the goddess being celebrated in this area. She is the namesake of Bristol, which was originally called ‘Brigstow’ (meaning ‘Brig’s Town’) the centre of which is still called ‘Bridewell’ to this day. The Romano British name of the Bristol Channel (Brig’s Channel) was the ‘Sabrina Sea’.

  ‘Sabrina’ is derived from ‘Sancta Brean’ (ie ‘Sacred Brina’). The Roman temple upon Brean Down was probably dedicated to her (‘Brean’ being the same ‘breen’ sound in ‘Sa-brin-a Sea’.) Thus, we can only speculate if she has given her name to the ‘Brent Knoll’ hillfort, which is very close to Brean and Brean Down. All along the south coast of Wales there are numerous ‘St Brides’ places, finishing in the west with ‘St Brides Bay’. One of Bride’s chief symbols is the swan, and this may explain why Swansea, at the northern edge of the ‘Sabrina Sea’, is called the ‘Swan’s Sea’.

  Back at Ynys Witrin, upon the north of the island, the place name of Brindham (‘Brin’), and the site of Brides Mound on the west of Ynys Witrin suggests that there was a very early (at least 7th century) veneration of St Bridget; both Brindham and Brides Mound are very supportive of the goddess Bride’s presence in the area.

  Brig or Bride (pronounced ‘Breed’) had a similar psychopomp ‘soul carrying’ role as Gwyn. She is known to have acted as a midwife, and so would be venerated with birth and souls coming into the world; whereas Gwyn manages the souls leaving the world! Between them, they govern the coming and going of human souls between our realm and the Otherworld. Bride is celebrated on the 1st of February, festival of ‘Imbolc’, which means ‘in the womb’ thus showing her connection with pre birth activity.

  Both Gwyn and Bride’s roles represent Ynys Witrin being a threshold to the Otherworld very well.

  Is there evidence of a Roman temple on Ynys Witrin? It’s certainly very likely. At every archaeological excavation done in Glastonbury, pieces of Roman sherds (pottery) have been found. Upon Wearyall Hill, Roman building materials have been found (tiles etc; and the road that stretches the length of that side of the hill, is still today called ‘The Roman Way’.) Upon the Abbey ground itself were found two old wells believed to be possibly of Roman origin (Churches are usually built upon the sites of previous places of pagan worship; a very well known fact.) Bride’s Mound has evidence too, pottery of Roman activity.

  There is also evidence of an old chapel or oratory (or temple) upon the top of Glastonbury Tor, discovered it is told, by St. Patrick in the 5th century (see chapter 8 for full details of Patrick’s activities upon the Tor.) Again, churches upon older sacred sites the successive building of Saxon and medieval churches on top of the Tor have destroyed any archaeological evidence that may have confirmed this early ‘temple’.

  It would appear that Ynys Witrin stayed pagan, at least until 433 A.D. when it is said that St. Patrick came here. The very first evidence of any Christianity in the area was unearthed in Shepton Mallet (about ten miles from Glastonbury). A round silver pendant was found, bearing the ‘chi-rho’ symbol of early Christianity; it dates to the late 4th, or early 5th century. A period of history that fits neatly with Roman Britain.

  It was the Emperor Constantine the Great who reformed a crumbling empire and adopted Christianity as the state religion. This was done at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. and for a while paganism, throughout the empire, was openly tolerated. He knew people’s beliefs did not change over night.

  There were only seventy-five years of Roman Britain being officially Christian. But that was long enough for the ‘seeds’ of what would become ‘Celtic Christianity’ to be planted. At the end of the 4th century, because of the Empire crumbling in Europe, the Roman Legions started to leave the British Isles. In 410 A. D. the Romans left Britain, and the Emperor Honorius told the British leaders to defend themselves!

  The Romano Britons were left without a substantial army or any supreme leader. It became the period of history we call the ‘Dark Ages’.

  The Dark Ages are romantically referred to as the ‘Age of Arthur’. After the Romans left the British Isles, there were many power struggles within the land. Some people wanted to return to British tribal existence, others wanted to try and keep the style of ‘civilisation’ that they had l
earnt to enjoy whilst being a part of the Empire. But with no supreme power or law in the land there was no unity. Old tribal structures came back into being, and each territory became a ‘kingdom’ with its own ‘petty king’ or chief.

  It would be too complicated to go into all the ‘who’s who’ of the Dark Ages here and now. But it is from this period that characters from Arthurian legend begin to appear upon the pages of history. Just twenty years after the Romans left, 430 A.D. there is a powerful ruler called Emrys (Ambrosius) and another known ‘king’ is Vortigern, who in 449 A.D. invited the Jutes Hengist and Horsa to help him fight the Picts in exchange for land. This deed of Vortigern is often blamed as the moment when the Saxons began to invade Britain. However, this isn’t completely true, as the Saxons had already started raiding the east coast of Britain as early as 280 A.D. and the Roman Empire had many Germanic soldiers, which had already settled their families in the south east of Britain before the Romans left.

  King Arthur is remembered as a British war leader who managed to unite some of the petty kings (knights in the later Arthurian Romances) into stopping the Saxons from taking Britain. Of course, this is more legend than history. We have already seen in Welsh mythology that Arthur is much more than a man. He is a demi-god who fixed Gwyn and Gwythyr into their annual Beltane battle. Arthur is a hero who walks with gods, goddesses, and Otherworld beings and yet he’s also a man of history; the saviour of Britain.

  Who or what Arthur was (man or myth) will forever be debated. And in my own lifetime I have kept changing my mind about who I think he is (was), and I’ll probably continue to do so. Maybe he is best viewed as a ‘figurehead’, a symbol. He represents the native British collective, which evolved from the world of Roman Britain. He is a champion of both the old gods as well as the early Celtic Church that existed originally in co-operation with each other, trying to hold a country together against an overwhelming and aggressive invading force. For a while he may have succeeded.

  He is said to have lead the British at the Battle of Badon (516 A.D.) in which the Saxons suffered a massive defeat. He is also said to have been killed at the Battle of Camlan in 537 A.D. after which, according to legend, he was taken to Ynys Witrin (Avalon) to be healed by Morgan le Fay, until his country needed him again. (We will consider Glastonbury’s second ‘super legend’ - Arthur’s Grave, in chapter 8.)

  “I have been where Llacheu was slain,

  The son of Arthur, extolled in songs,

  When the ravens screamed over blood.

  I have been where Meurig was killed

  The son of Goholeth, the accomplished,

  The resister of Lloegyr, the son of Lleynawg.”

  (Gwyn speaks, in the Black Book of Carmarthen.)

  The poem speaks of ‘The resister of Lloegyr . . . ‘ Lloegyr is the old British word for Saxon England and it is Welsh for ‘The Lost Lands’. We must remember that the Saxons called the British ‘Welsh’ (‘the foreigners’) and the British called England ‘the lost land.’

  The poem of Gwyn in the ‘Black Book of Carmarthen’ is quite clearly the British ‘Hunter God’ lamenting the death of British heroes and mourning a lost land.

  What became of Ynys Witrin in the Dark Ages can only be guessed at. The first saints of the Celtic Church start to appear in this period of history. St. Patrick, St. Finian and St. David, to name just a few, were kept very busy converting people to the new faith. (Because most of Britain was still pagan; if there had been a church in Glastonbury in the 1st century, it had converted very few people.) If the story of St. Patrick is true, he brought Celtic Christianity to Ynys Witrin in 433 A.D. But, if there is any truth to the legend of Arthur being taken to Avalon, then Ynys Witrin must have still been functioning, (magically/ spiritually) as an entrance to the Otherworld as late as 537 A.D. when Arthur is said to have fallen at the battle of Camlan.

  I suspect that the island was big enough for both the ‘Old Ways’ of Gwyn (and Bride) as well as the new Celtic Church.

  There has to be an adaptation period. People were converting to Christianity, but still needing to be buried (or lain to rest) where their loved ones and ancestors had gone before them. Death, and specifically, what becomes of us after we die, is probably the most important thing of any religion; the main ‘selling point’, as it were. If Glastonbury is the location of the very first church in Britain, then it is so because it was probably the most important entrance to the Otherworld in the native British mindset.

  A Celtic Christian community may have evolved in Glastonbury from the 4th to 5th century. But it would be short lived and by the 8th century it would be replaced by the Saxons and the Roman Catholic Church. Soon, the Britons (both pagan and Celtic Christian) would lose Avalon and be forced away, across the Sabrina Sea. Their sacred island, Otherworld paradise absorbed into the ever swelling kingdom of Lloegyr - ‘the Lost Lands’.

  Chapter Seven

  The Vale of Neath and Saint Nectan’s Glen

  “. . . In the name ‘Dorset’ we can still see the Celtic tribal name of the Durotriges (‘Kings of Strength’) who occupied the area, a rich trading people whose lands stretched into Wiltshire and Somerset. We have evidence that some of the old pre-Roman Celtic hill-forts in Dorset had been refortifed at this period: South Cadbury, for example, was still occupied by the Celts at the start of the seventh century.”

  (Peter Berresford Ellis, ‘Celt & Saxon’)

  About the year 446 A.D. some of the leaders of the Romanised Britons sent a letter to Consul Flavius Aetius the ‘Supreme Commander of the Army of the Western Empire of Rome’, seeking help against the constant attacks by Saxon Raiders;

  “. . . the barbarians drive us to the sea and the sea drives us back to the barbarians; death comes by one means or another; we are either slain or drowned.”

  (Gildas; ‘The Ruin and Conquest of Britain’.)

  The Romans had left Britain thirty-six years before this plea to Flavius Aetius was sent. Yet many leading British families must have been hoping that one day the Empire would return, and that ‘civilisation’ and life as it should be, would get back to normal. But it wasn’t to be. Thirty years after the letter was written (476 A.D.) the Roman Empire fell and never rose again.

  With the fall of the Empire, Britain was left as stranded as a sitting duck. Always there had been the chance that the Empire would return, but the Saxons and other Germanic people (Angles, Frisians and Jutes) who had previously only risked piracy and raiding, were now emboldened! With the threat of Rome removed, they decided to invade and just take Britain for themselves.

  By the end of the 5th century the Saxons had claimed massive areas of land, of what would become Essex, Kent, Sussex and Wessex which now became ‘lost land’ to the Britons. The first migrations were forced upon the natives and they retreated to the west of Britain, to Ireland and to Armorica (what would become Brittany.) If Britain ever needed a hero, it was now, and it’s in this period of history that Arthur appears to protect Britain.

  The 9th century historian, Nennius, described Arthur as ‘dux bellorum’ , that is a ‘leader of battles’ or ‘warlord’, rather than a ‘King’.

  “Arthur fought against the Saxons alongside the kings of the Britons but he himself was the leader in the battle.”

  (Nennius, ‘Historia Britonum’)

  Nennius lists Arthur having twelve significant battles against the Saxons, and that the twelfth, the ‘Battle of Mount Badon’ was Arthur’s greatest victory against the Saxons. It is also seen as a success of Christianity (the Celtic Church) overcoming paganism. The Saxons were still ‘Sons of Odin’, yet to be converted to the new faith. For twenty years or more, it is believed that the Saxons were held at bay, kept back by the beating that they took at Mount Badon in 516 A.D. There is still much debate as to where Mount Badon was. Badon in old literature is spelt ‘Baddon’ and just like the ‘dd’ in Nudd is pronounced ‘th’ - so Baddon should be ‘Bathon’. Thus Bath, near Bristol, is the most popular choice for the locati
on of Arthur’s greatest victory; just 30 miles north of Ynys Witrin!

  “. . . there fell in one onslaught of Arthur’s, nine hundred and sixty men; and none slew them but he alone, and in all his battles he remained the victor.”

  (Nennius, ‘Historia Britonum’ )

  This success of Arthur halted the Saxon invasion for an entire generation and gave the Britons some time to sort out their defences. The Britons believed the Saxons to be uneducated barbarians. They had neither been ‘civilised’ as part of the Roman Empire, and nor were they of the new faith. The Britons believed they had the moral high ground and were righteous. More than this of course, this was their land and always had been. So they refortified the ancient hill forts (un-used since the Romans had invaded five hundred years earlier and got ready to stand up to the Saxon tide.

  But the Saxons gathered up their strength and came back with a vengeance, and the Britons were dealt a massive psychological blow. In 537 A.D. (twenty-one years after his great success at Mount Badon) Arthur was killed at the Battle of Camlan. According to another legend, he was mortally wounded and taken to Avalon to be healed of his wounds.