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Avalon (probably from the Celtic word abal: apple) is a legendary island somewhere in the British Isles, famous for its beautiful apples. The concept of such an "Isle of the Blessed" has parallels in other Indo-European mythology, in particular Tír na nÓg and the Greek Hesperides, the latter also noted for its apples.Avalon is sometimes referred to as the legendary location where Jesus visited the British Isles with Joseph of Arimathea and that it was later the site of the first church in Britain. This location of the Isle of Avalon is usually associated with present day Glastonbury.
It is also said to be the place where the body of King Arthur is buried. He was supposedly brought there via boat by his half sister, Morgan le Fay. According to some legends Arthur merely sleeps there, to awaken at some future time.
As early at least as the beginning of the 11th century the tradition that Arthur was buried at Glastonbury Tor appears to have taken shape. Before the surrounding fenland in the Somerset Levels was drained, Glastonbury Tor's high round bulk rose out of the water-meadows like an island. In the reign of Henry II, according to the chronicler Gerald of Wales and others, the abbot Henry de Blois commissioned a search, apparently discovering at the depth of 5 m (16 feet) a massive oak trunk or coffin with an inscription Hic jacet sepultus inclitus rex Arthurus in insula Avalonia. ("Here lies King Arthur in the island of Avalon"). The remains were reinterred with great ceremony, attended by King Edward I and his queen, before the High Altar at Glastonbury Abbey, where they were the focus of pilgrimages until the Reformation.
A nearby valley is named the Vale of Avalon.
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» The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy
» The Isle of Avalon Sacred Mysteries of Arthur and Glastonbury