Arthur Tour to mysterious southwest England

April 20-May 2, 2003

Early Booking Price, before December 20, 2002: $3145

Regular Price, from December 20, 2002: $3445

Single Supplement $430, Deposit $600

Tour Director: Professor Peter Gravgaard

Introduction

Plantagenet Tours usually organize historical tours, but we cannot claim that The Arthur Tour is a historical tour to Arthurian Britain. No such historical tour is possible, since no history of Arthur exists. There are only stories about Arthur, and although numerous scholars are attempting to transform legend into history, their work is still in its early stages. So the tour we invite you to join is more a quest for Arthur, an exploration of southwestern England as the possible scene for a possible history of a British king in the darkest Middle Ages. While travelling through the landscape you are invited to recall the Arthurian stories as they have been created by the storytellers; and before joining the tour you are invited to read or re-read the Arthurian romances by Sir Thomas Malory, Chretien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach and T.H. White.

Itinerary

Day 1 (April 20, 2003)

Fly to London, England. (Please make sure that your travel agent books you a flight arriving in London between 08:00 am and 11:00 am on Day 2 of the tour)

Day 2 (April 21, 2003)

Meet your tour director, Professor Peter Gravgaard, at the London Embassy Hotel (150 Bayswater Road, London, W2 4RT, Tel 0171-229-1212.) Meeting time 12.00 noon. He will take you to Winchester in his tour bus. (If you would like us to book you a room at the London Embassy Hotel for one or two nights before or after the Arthur Tour, Mrs Sue Gravgaard will be happy to help you.) Welcome Dinner at our Winchester hotel. The tour director will explain the tour program.

Day 3 (April 22, 2003)

First we will visit the Great Hall, practically all that remains of Winchester Castle, which was once the seat of government for King Alfred, Canute the Great and William the Conqueror. It later became the courthouse where Sir Walter Raleigh was sentenced and where Judge Jeffreys held his "Bloody Assizes" to try the followers of the Duke of Monmouth in 1685. Here you will see the table-top of the Round Table, probably dating back to 1340 when Edward III had it made to celebrate his "Order of the Knights of the Round Table". The painting on the wall commemorates those same knights and was painted to celebrate the visit of the Emperor, Charles V, to King Henry VIII. In Winchester you will also see the Cathedral, built by Bishop Walkelin in 1079. (Jane Austen is buried here.) Winchester College was founded by Bishop William of Wykeham in 1382 and inspired Henry VI to found Eton College.

From Winchester we will take you to Salisbury (or New Sarum) in Wiltshire, where you will see Salisbury Cathedral, built from 1220 to 1258. The surrounding Cathedral Close is one of the most beautiful in England. The novelist, Henry Fielding, once had a house here and the former prime minister, Edward Heath, presently resides in the Close. The former Bishop's Palace is now the Cathedral School. From New Sarum I will take you to Old Sarum, the earlier site of the settlement which the bishop evacuated in 1220 when conflict with the military inspired him to move church and city to their present, larger site - Salisbury.

Our last visit today is to nearby Stonehenge, where we will visit the neolithic monument which was erected around 2000 BC. Its purpose is not clear, but seems to have been religious, connected with the agricultural year, the passing of the seasons and the movements of the sun and stars: briefly, a temple to unknown gods. (I refer you to the bibliography.) From Stonehenge I will take you to our hotel in Devizes, Wiltshire, for dinner and bed.

Day 4 (April 23, 2003)

Devizes is a little town with fine houses (see Alec Clifton-Taylor, Another Six English Towns). We will go for a walk here in the morning before driving to Avebury, a larger stone monument than Stonehenge, though built of smaller stones (it seems). (John Aubrey, the antiquarian, thought it exceeded Stonehenge as a cathedral does a parish church.) In close proximity it is possible to see the Stone Circle as well as Silbury Hill, (the largest man-made hill in Europe, probably built around 3000 BC), West Kennett Barrow (ca 3000-1600 BC) and Windmill Hill, populated by neolithic farmers from the European continent ca 3000 BC. The Alexander Keiller Museum explains it all.

Our next stop is Corsham Court, a beautiful manor house in attractive golden stone, with fine gables and mullioned windows, a good collection of 18th century furniture, British, Spanish, Italian and Flemish Old Masters and park and gardens laid out by "Capability" Brown and Humphrey Repton.

I will show you the medieval inn, The George, in Norton St Philip, where Monmouth had a skirmish with the King's soldiers in 1685. From here we will proceed to our hotel in Martock.

Day 5 (April 24, 2003)

This morning I will take you to Glastonbury to see the great Abbey and the Glastonbury Tor. In the afternoon we will visit the ancient surrounding sanctuaries and the islands of Avalon.

The landscape of Glastonbury is unique: if you approach the little town and the tor, as I once did, through the mists after a recent rainfall, then you understand how it came to be called "the holiest earth of England" in the Middle Ages. This place is divine: as the Greeks would say, "There are gods here". The landscape lends itself to a religious interpretation, the tor can be seen as the World Mountain, pointing towards the Polar Star as the axis around which the world turns. John Michell said that, "its precincts were sanctified as a model of earthly paradise, where the souls of the dead found their easiest passage to heaven". And if the tor points to Heaven then you may easily think about how tunnels and passages beneath it may lead you to Hell. In Norse mythology the tree Yggdrasil played this role, holding the world in its branches, reaching from heaven to hell. It is therefore understandable that pre-Christian religions would have established themselves here. The Druids probably had a college here before the Romans arrived in Britain, and worship of the sun has left place names all over the West Country.

In this landscape the spiritual center is the tor, and one can imagine how Arthur was originally understood to be the "spiritus loci", the spirit of the place. Perhaps he was buried here, originally. But then he might only be sleeping; there were such beliefs about Arthur. He was the "Once and Future King", "quondam et futurus". In this respect he is not unique: in Germany the Emperor Frederick II or Barbarossa sleeps beneath the Kyffhauser Mountain and will return at the end of time. In Denmark Holger the Dane (Ogier le Danois) sleeps beneath Kronborg Castle and will return when the fatherland is in need. The spirit of the place seems to be identified with a buried historical figure. The archangel Michael seems often to be the Christian character who takes over from local place spirits: the giant Gargantua who dwelt in the Monte Gargano (on Italy's spur) was interpreted as Saint Michael when he appeared to the visiting Normans. He also demanded that Hadrian's Mausoleum in Rome should be dedicated to himself and that Mont-Saint-Michel in France should be built.

It is my contention that places which were originally associated with Arthur later became connected with Saint Michael. Notice that the church on Glastonbury Tor is indeed called St Michael's. I think it likely that Arthur was orininally thought to be dwelling in Glastonbury Tor but that later, more precisely in 1190, when Richard Lionheart was king of England, and Eleanor of Aquitaine was promoting the Arthurian cause, the "official" tomb of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere was revealed in the abbey grounds at Glastonbury…

That the monks should have found (or faked) the tomb of Arthur (and Queen Guinevere?) within the walls of the Glastonbury Abbey church is significant because they must obviously have felt that, after all the stories about Arthur, it was time for the historical person to be counted. Notice the year - 1190. The year before, Queen Eleanor had been restored to liberty and given her own court after many years of imprisonment by her husband, King Henry II Plantagenet. Their son, Richard Lionheart, was now king of England, and his mother, Eleanor, could now take up her cultural policy of promoting the glory of King Arthur and the political advantages of representing the head branch of the different Norman rulers in Europe.

There was lively cultural communication between the Plantagenet Empire of Britain and western France and the Norman kings of Sicily. What could be more natural than that the very next year (1191), Richard Lionheart would make a present to Tancred of Sicily of nothing less than the sword of King Arthur! (This, presumably, had also been found at Glastonbury and had NOT been handed back to the lady in the Dozmary Pool.) But then Richard had not had time to read the Arthurian romances, many of which his mother had not yet had time to promote…

The importance of Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine for the popularity of the Arthurian legends (the Matter of Britain) cannot be overestimated: it was immense. She did for King Arthur what her grandfather, Duke William IX of Aquitaine, had done for Love and for the Poetry of Love: they secured their life by giving them form. I quote Denis de Rougement, Love in the Western World,

"The whole of European poetry has come out of courtly love and out of the Arthurian romances derived from this love." (p.151)

Courtly Love, according to Rougemont, is the doctrine of the troubadours as expressed first by William of Poitiers: again Rougemont:

"Reto Bezzola (…) asks one of the most difficult questions in the history of Western literature and manners: the sudden appearance in five or six songs of William of Poitiers, of the major themes that would be present in all the poets of love to follow - the troubadours - 'and after them, in hundreds and thousands of poets in all of Europe'" (p.352)

May I stress here the importance of troubadour poetry (going back to William IX of Aquitaine) and of Arthurian romance (going back to Eleanor of Aquitaine) for the basic concepts of love and heroism in the Western world, and refer you again to Denis de Rougemont for further insights.

For some of the major sources of the Arthurian legend may I briefly mention the following significant writers:

1136 - Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain
1155 - Wace, Roman de Brut
1170 to 1183 - Chretien de Troyes, Lancelot and other romances
1191 to 1199 - Beroul, Romance of Tristan
1200 - Robert de Boron, Conte du Graal
1214 to 1220 - (psudo) Walter Map, La Queste del Saint Graal
1214 to 1220 - La Mort du Roi Artu
1486 - Sir Thomas Malory, Morte d'Arthur

This afternoon we will visit the surroundings of Glastonbury, or the "Twelve Hides of Glastonbury" - John Michell (in his precious New Light on the Ancient Mystery of Glastonbury, p.ii, explains): "The traditional origin of Glastonbury's privileges is that a pagan ruler, King Arviragus, in the first century AD, bestowed twelve hides or 1440 acres of land upon twelve early Christian missionaries, led by St Joseph of Arimathea."

Michell states (p.9) that "Seven of the islands within Glastonbury's Twelve Hides were of special significance and were held sacred from the earliest times." He gives their names as the Isle of Avalon, Beckery, Godney, Martinsea, Meare, Panborough and Nyland. In the Middle Ages each of these islands had its own chapel. Michell points out the significance of these seven islands:

"Why these particular seven islands were so distinguished has long been a mystery (…) The answer emerges when the seven islands are plotted together on a map. They form a pattern which closely approximates to the pattern of the seven stars in the Great Bear constellation." (p.13)

It is enough to warrant the importance of Glastonbury's seven sacred islands to point out that they mirror on the Earth the seven stars of the Great Bear (Ursa Major) constellation in the Sky, (in America this constellation is often called the Big Dipper.) Not only is the constellation often called Arthur's Wain, but traditional Astrological writers such as Rene Guenon, Philippe Lavenu and Julius Evola point out that, in traditional thinking, Arthur is the Bear, Celtic Arth, (Incidentally, MacArthur means Son of the Bear.) It is not possible to go into detail here, but let me add that, if Arthur is the Bear/Warrior, then Merlin is the Boar/Druid.

In this context two other topics should be mentioned. For many writers King Arthur's Round Table is the cosmos: he is the world-king, or even the lord of the Zodiac, so that his twelve knights are connected with the constellations. This idea has travelled a long way, having originated with King Solomon of Israel. According to Arabic writers, Solomon's table was taken to Rome by the Roman emperor, Vespasian. It was subsequently seized by the Vandals and taken to Carthage and was reportedly sighted in Toledo and Mecca before being returned to Jerusalem. Similar stories about the treasures of the Temple in Jerusalem are resurfacing in our own time: just think how the Ark of the Covenant and the Order of the Templars have recently proved to be bestselling formulae.

The other topic which we can follow ("in the field", so to speak) is that of the Saint Michael Alignment of Sacred Sites across Southern Britain. (See Hamish Miller and Paul Broadhurst, The Sun and the Serpent)

After visiting the seven islands of Avalon we will return to our hotel in Martock.

Day 6 (April 25, 2003)

Today we will make an excursion from Martock to South Cadbury, to see what most historians consider to be King Arthur's Camelot. You should not expect to find a castle in the sense in which Windsor Castle is one. Let Geoffrey Ashe, (Mythology of the British Isles, p.205) speak: "Cadbury is an Iron Age hill-fort near Sparkford in Somerset. There was never a castle on the site in the medieval sense. The hill itself is the castle. It has four lines of bank-and-ditch defences, now largely overgrown with woods, encircling an eighteen-acre enclosure that rises to a summit plateau. In 1542, the traveller John Leland referred to it as Camelot. Local lore of doubtful age is related to this belief. On a certain night of the year, some say Midsummer Eve, the ghosts of the King and his horsemen ride over the hilltop. The highest part is called Arthur's Palace."

The existence of Cadbury is one of the strongest arguments for the existence of an important ruler in Britain in the period we expect to be Arthurian. Again I refer you to Ashe (op. cit. p.206), " Cadbury was reoccupied and refortified at roughly the date ascribed to Arthur, ie in the 460s or later, but probably not much after 500. The topmost bank was surmounted by a fresh rampart sixteen feet thick, made of stones (some taken from Roman buildings) in a framework of wooden beams. Nearly three-quarters of a mile in circuit, this wall protected the whole enclosure, with a gate-house at the southwest entrance. A timber hall of the same period stood on the plateau in the 'Arthur's Palace' area."

"Cadbury's massive refortification implies an occupant with great resources of manpower. The use of timber and stones echoes the story of Vortigern's abortive fortress in Wales, which was likewise to have been built of timber and stones. (…) Cadbury looks like the headquarters of a king with resources unparalled, so far as present knowledge goes, in the Britain of his time. (…) The only documented candidate as the royal refortifier is the aforementioned 'King of the Britons' who led an expedition to Gaul in 468-70. His army, stated to have numbered twelve thousand, proves that he had the manpower, and his cross-Channel contact may indicate a presence in the West Country. His peculiar interest lies, of course, in his canditature as the original Arthur, the legend's starting point, on quite separate grounds."

After our visit to Camelot/Cadbury we will visit some of the sites on the Saint Michael's alignment: the St Michael's Church in Othery, the Burrowbridge Mump; and, time permitting, it would also be fun to see the famous calvados-style cider brandy distillery. Then back to Martock.

Day 7 (April 26, 2003)

Today I will take you from Martock to Bideford. Our first stop will be Sedgemoor where, in 1685, the Duke of Monmouth was defeated by the Royalist Army under the command of John Churchill, the later Duke of Marlborough. Monmouth's supporters came from the West Country, and the notorious Judge Jeffreys tried and hanged the prisoners at the "Bloody Assizes" at Dorchester, Exeter, Taunton and Bristol.

Our next stop will be Bridgwater, whose citizens had proclaimed Monmouth King of England, shortly before the battle of Sedgemoor. We next visit the abbey at Stogursey, through which information about Celtic lore - the "matter of Britain" would have been transmitted from Britain to Normandy. Stogursey belonged to the great Benedictine monastery in Normandy, Notre-Dame de Lonlay. This is located close to Domfront, where Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine held court while her writers, such as Chretien de Troyes, composed the Arthurian romances.

We continue to Dunster where Arthur, according to one tradition, may have been a Roman officer. From Dunster we drive along a picturesque route via Minehead, Porlock and Lynton to Bideford, where we will spend the night. This is authentic Somerset Cider Country, where the pagan custom of wassailing (wishing the spirit of the apple tree good health) is still kept alive by the villagers of Carhampton on old Twelfth Night (Jan.17). Bear in mind that Avalon, where King Arthur went after his death, means "Apple Land".

Day 8 (April 27, 2003)

Today we drive from Bideford to Fowey in Cornwall, where we will stay for three nights. After a visit to the town center of Bideford, we will drive to Westward Ho and the uniquely beautiful village of Clovelly. Next we visit the area around Hartland, with fantastic cliffs and rock formations, a beautiful 14th century church dedicated to the Celtic St Nectan, and the fine Hartland Abbey, built around 1157 as a monastery and later, in 1539, given by Henry VIII to his wine cellar sergeant.

We continue southwards to the Arthurian sites of Tintagel and Slaughter Bridge. Tintagel is the castle where Duke Gorlois of Cornwall hid away his beautiful wife Ygerna from King Uther Pendragon's amorous attentions; but with Merlin's help, Uther took on Gorlois's form and begot Arthur. (The source of this story is Geoffrey of Monmouth.) Two things to notice: the hero (Arthur) has two fathers - like Jesus; and Merlin is the artist as Pandar - like Daedalus.

Tristan's father had just died when his mother, Blanchefleur, gave birth to him and then herself died. Her brother, King Mark of Cornwall, brought Tristan up in the castle of Tintagel. (For the Tristan story see Joseph Bedier, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult, and also Denis de Rougemont, Love in the Western World).

Slaughter Bridge, where I will now take you, is the traditional site of Arthur's last and fatal battle. His opponent was Mordred, who was the lover of Queen Guinevere. Her better-known affair, however, was with Lancelot. (See Chretien de Troyes, Lancelot.) Geoffrey Ashe points to Guinevere's independence as a Celtic trait: she was a ruler in her own right, and her sexual freedom was equally legitimate. One feels that, by supporting Chretien de Troyes in Domfront, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine was making him her own epic advocate and champion.

After Slaughter Bridge I will take you to Dozemary Pool to see where Arthur's sword, Excalibur, was cast away by Sir Bedivere. Time permitting, we might even see Killiwic Castle (or Castle Killibury) near Wadebridge, before reaching our hotel in Fowey.

Day 9 (April 28, 2003)

Fowey (pronounced "Foy") is a charming little town with narrow streets and a busy port. In the 14th and 15th centuries it carried out its own campaign against the port cities of Northern France in the best Viking tradition: the "Fowey Gallants" raided France and, in 1457, Fowey was itself the victim of French retaliation. (There are still remnants of forts at the river mouth where formerly a chain barred enemy access to the port, rather like at Constantinople and at La Rochelle.) After a walk through the little streets we will drive to see Castle Dore and the Drustanus stone to Tristan.

Next stop is St Austell, where you will see the enchanting Menacuddle Well. Here great rhododendrons grow among giant beeches and a stream, made milk-white by china clay, pours over small waterfalls. A bridge over it leads to a tiny granite shrine over a holy well - idyllic.

North of here we drive to Roche Rocks, a group of rocks topped by the tiny ruined chapel of St Michael. Closeby we can visit Castle-an-Dinas, the most elaborate fort in Cornwall, with three great rings of earthworks. Finally I will take you to Truro, the cathedral city of Cornwall, before returning to Fowey.

Day 10 (April 29, 2003)

This day's program is a visit to Land's End and St Michael's Mount. We will start from Fowey, drive to St Ives, then to Zennor and St Just-in-Penwith before reaching Land's End. The land between Land's End and the Scilly Isles and under Mount's Bay was originally Lyonesse, a small Atlantis of which Tristan was the prince. At some time the sea has covered it, like the Godwin Sands off the southeastern coast of England.

We have lunch in Mousehole (pronounced Mowzell) and visit St Michael's Mount in the afternoon. This was originally a Benedictine monastery, founded in 1044 and owned by the monks of Mont-St-Michel in France. St Michael's Mount is the culmination of the St Michael's Alignment. There is, at this moment, no acceptable explanation of the alignment: you might compare it to the Road to Compostela, or you might see it as a ghostly way, a straight line for the souls of the dead to take from one high point, St Michael's or Lugh's or Arthur's to the next high point. Return to Fowey.

Day 11 (April 30, 2003)

From Fowey we drive east to Dorchester. Visits to the Hurlers Stone Circle and the Cheesewring on Bodmin Moor. If possible we will visit Cotehele Manorhouse and Brent Tor before coming to Exeter, where you will see the magnificent cathedral. We will have dinner in Judge Jeffrey's House in Dorchester. It was he who expedited Monmouth's supporters to the next world.

Day 12 (May 1, 2003)

First thing today is a walk through Dorchester (the Casterbridge of Thomas Hardy's novels). Then to Maiden Castle, the colossal Stone Age fortress which was inhabited thousands of years before the Romans came to Britain. From here to Shaftesbury, famous for its Steep Hill, which you may recognize from the Far from the Madding Crowd movie. Nearby is the great timber tithe barn at Tisbury, remarkable because it gives an idea of what an Iron Age mead hall might have looked like. (Rudyard Kipling is buried in the churchyard here.)

Our next, by now traditional, stop is the White Hart Inn at Ringwood, where Sue Gravgaard usually joins us for lunch. From Ringwood we take you to your hotel in Ruislip, near Heathrow Airport. This evening we have our Farewell Dinner.

Day 13 (May 2, 2003)

Last day of the Arthur Tour. We will take you to the airport. Please ask your travel agent in the USA to book you a return flight leaving Heathrow Airport no earlier than 10.00 am.

BON VOYAGE. Safe journey home.

Bibliography

L. Alcock Arthur's Britain, 1971
Anon, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Geoffrey Ashe, The Discovery of King Arthur, 1985
Geoffrey Ashe, Mythology of the British Isles, London, 1990
R J C Atkinson, Stonehenge & Avebury & Neighbouring Monuments, 1965
Aubrey Burl, Prehistoric Avebury, Yale UP, 1979
Same, The Stonehenge People, 1989
E.K.Chambers, Arthur of Britain
Chretien de Troyes, Yvain; Perceval; Lancelot
Paul Devereux, Symbolic Landscapes. 1992
Nevill Drury, The Shaman and the Magician, 1982
Mircea Eliade, Shamanism, 1951
Same, A History of Religious Ideas, 1979
J.G. Frazer, Balder the Beautiful: the Fire Festivals of Europe & the Doctrine of the External Soul, 1930
Leo Frobenius, Das Zeitalter des Sonnengottes
Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain, Penguin
Same, Life of Merlin
Gottfried of Strassburg, Tristran, Penguin
Rene Guenon, La Crise de Monde Moderne
Hartmann von Aue, Erec; Iwein
Roger S. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance.
Sir Thomas Malory, Complete Works
Caitlin Matthews, Arthur and the Sovereignty of Britain
Same, Mabon and the Mysteries of Britain
Jean Marx, La legende arthurienne et le Graal, 1952
John Michell, New Light on the Ancient Mystery of Glastonbury, Glastonbury , 1997
G.F.Mylonas, Eleusis and Eleusinian Mysteries, Princeton, 1961
Denis de Rougemont, Love in the Western World, Princeton, 1983
Vincent Scully, The Earth, the Temple and the Gods, 1962
Marie-Louis Sjoestedt, Gods and Heroes of the Celts, 1962
Tennyson, The Idylls of the King
Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic
Nikolai Tolstoy, The Quest for Merlin, 1985
Eugene Vinaver, The Rise of Romance, Oxford, 1971
W. Evans Wentz , The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countriess
T.H. White, The Once and Future King Same, The Sword in the Stone
Charles Williams, The Arthuriad
Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival