Legendary Britain : An Illustrated Journey

194 Pages·1989·50.974 MB·English

by  Bob Stewart, John Matthews

LEGENDARY
BRITAIN
An illustrated journey
• flHifeM ,
BOB STEWART &
JOHN MATTHEWS
You will remember, lady, how the morn
Came slow above the Isle of Athelnev,
And all the flat lands lying to the sky
Were shrouded sea-like in a veil of grey.
As. standing on a little rounded hill.
We placed our hands upon the Holy Thorn.
Do you remember in what hopeful fear
We gazed behind us, thinking we might see
Arthur come striding through the high, bright corn,
Or Allred resting on a Saxon spear?
And as the cold mists melted from the fields
We seemed to hear the winding of a horn.
You will remember how we walked the Vale
Through Meare and Westhay unto Godney End;
And how we said: 'Time is an endless lane
And Life a little mile without a bend.. . .
Behind us what? Before us, if we ran.
Might we not be in time to see the Grail?'
H. V. MORTON
(The Search for England, c. 1920)

An illustrated journey
Bob Stewart and John Matthews
Illustrated by Miranda Gray
Photographs by Tim Cann
V
BLANDFORD
To Rosemary Sutcliff and Mcriol Trevor
who first mapped the Legendary Lands for me
J.M.
To Rudyard Kipling-Master of Legend
And Lewis Spence - Master of Magic
B.S.
Blandford Press
An imprini of Cassell
Artillery House, Artillery Row
London SVVI P I RT
First published 1989
Text and captions copyright © 1989 R. .1. Stewart and John Matthews
Stories copyright © 1989 1C J. Stewart The Girl Who Met Merlin. The Smith King. The Goddess Speaks.
The Tongue That Cannot Lie. The Hermit. The Mystery of the Women.
and© 1989 John Matthews Drustan's Ghost. The Kingly Shadow. The Struggle for Spring.
The Death of Robin Hood. The Island of Sorrow and Joy. The Hidden Runes
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may he reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the Publisher.
Distributed in the United States by
Sterling Publishing Co. Inc.
2 Park Avenue, New York. NY 10016
Distributed in Australia by
Capricorn Link (Australia) Ply Ltd
PO Box 665. Lane Cove. NSW 2066
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Stewart, Bob
Legendary Britain: an illustrated journey.
I. Great Britain. Description b travel
1. Title II. Matthews, John, 1948-
914.1'04858
ISBN 0-7137-2027-1
Typeset by Lit ho Link Limited. Welshpool, Powys, Wales.
Printed in Portugal by Printer Portuguesa.
contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
vii
INTRODUCTION
viii
1 • WESTWARD TO LYONESSE
Arthurian Cornwall and the West Country; Tristan and I so 1 in Cornwall
1
Drustan's Ghost (by John Matthews)
1
2 • CAERLEON: THE CITY OF THE LEGIONS
The Kingly Shadow (by John Matthews)
16
3 • MERLIN AND DINAS EMRYS
Merlin and His Location; Dinas Emrys; Merlin; How Dinas Emrys Gained Its Name
The Girl Who Met Merlin (by Bob Stewart)
28
4 • WAYLAND'S SMITHY AND THE WHITEHORSE
The White Horse and Dragon Hill
The Smith King, or Three Rogues Underground (by Bob Stewart)
47
5 • AQUAE SULIS: TEMPLE OF THE UNDERWORLD,
HOME OF THE FLYING MAN
Sacred Springs and Wells; The Goddess Sulis; King Bladud;
The Legend of the Pigs; The Flaming Head; The Flying Man and the River Avon
The Goddess Speaks (by Bob Stewart)
63
6 • THE ISLAND OF GLASS
Fortress of the Holy Grail; A Grave for Arthur?
The Struggle for Spring (by John Matthews)
79
7 • ROBIN HOOD AND THE GREEN MEN
Win) Was Robin Hood?; Gentle Robyn: The Mythological Argument;
The Green Men of Sherwood; The Good Yeoman: Robin Hood in History;
The Landscape of Robin Hood
The Death of Robin Hood (by John Matthews)
93
cS • THOMAS THE RHYMER IN THE EILDON HILLS
The Fildon Hills; The Hawthorn Tree; The Underworld Initiation; Merlin's Grave;
The Ballad of Thomas the Rhymer
The Tony tie That Cannot Lie (by Bob Stewart)
1 10
9 • IONA AND THE SACRED ISLES
Pagan Origins; Celtic Christian Roots and the Arrival of St Columba;
Columba Is Exiled; The First Monastery; Death of Columba and the Fate of Iona;
The Relig Oran, Burial Place of Kings; Iona Today;
Fiona Macleod and the Island of the Grail
The Island of Sorrow and Joy (by John Matthews)
The Hermit (by Bob Stewart)
125
10 • THE ORKNEYS: ISLANDS OF THE OTHERWORLD
The Isles of the Dead; Prehistoric Orkney and the Settlement of Skara Brae;
Wolves of the Sea
The Hidden Runes (by John Matthews)
The Mystery of the Women (by Bob Stewart)
149
AFTERWORD
171
BIBLIOGRAPHY
172
INDEX
176
The authors, photographer, and artist all wish to thank Gothic Image Tours of
Glastonbury, Somerset, organisers of Magical Britain - A Journey Through the
Myths of Time. Much of the site research and photography for this book was
done during one such tour in the autumn of 1987. Acknowledgement is also
due to the various individuals and groups who joined us or, more importantly,
transported us, on exploratory trips to ancient sites between 1970 and 1987.
Bob Stewart wishes specifically to acknowledge his debt to John VVooton who
first introduced him to the ancient sites of Cornwall, and to William G. Gray
who first introduced him to the Olherworld aspects of ancient sites in the
Cotswolds, Oxfordshire, and Wiltshire. Thanks are due also to the Museum
Department of Bath City Council, who kindly gave permission to take new
photographs of Romano-Celtic monuments for this book.
B. S. and J. M.
Bath and London, 1988
IntRoouction
The concept of this book is such that many sites are not included: there is no
value judgement in this, merely the simple fact that space would not allow us
to cover more locations and legends. Rather than content ourselves with a few
paragraphs for each of a large selection of sites, we have tried to penetrate the
legendary and cultural roots of Britain through a harmonious sequence of
locations from the far south-west to the far north. This concept and its various
sub-themes are described in more detail in our Introduction.
Some of the omissions, such as the famous stone temples of Avebury or
Stonehenge, were relatively easy to make (though no such omission is ever
without regret) as they have been so extensively covered by other writers over
the years. Others, especially little-known but clearly significant locations and
sites, were far more difficult to exclude. We hope to have the opportunity to
deal with a further selection ol both major and minor sites and legends in a
second volume.
ORIGINS
R1TAIN IS A very ancient land, both geologically and
culturally. Many of the remains of its early cultures may be
traced back to the most distant prehistoric past - there are
structures in Britain that predate the pyramids of ancient
Egypt. Perhaps the most notable ancient culture, the root
culture, is the megalithic civilisation that stretched from
Orkney in the far north to the Channel Islands a thousand miles to the south,
and had settlements and extensive structures to the west in Ireland.
These mysterious people were builders of considerable sophistication and
technical skill. The outdated Victorian notion that they were savages wallowing
in ignorance and darkness is clearly nonsense when we consider their works
still standing today - and remember that these are only part of the whole
viii
picture, for many were destroyed during later centuries. Yet the concept of
hard primitivism is still upheld to a greater or lesser extent by modern
education and by some archaeologists. Stone circles and alignments, earth­
works, and (more rarely) megalithic burial and household artefacts have been
extensively examined by archaeologists, but the primal people left a more
subtle and no less substantial heritage that underpinned many later cultures.
Their sacred circles and enclosures were held in reverence for millenniums,
with successive peoples using them as worship and burial sites. Some of these
places and the associated legends handed down through enduring tradition are
described in our later chapters.
The modern conception of both ancient and historical Britain has changed
radically in the last fifty years. Indeed, as little as twelve years ago an academic
reviewer could pronounce gravely that 'British heritage had little to do with
the Celts' when commenting upon a book by one of the present authors. No
one would make such a statement and publish it today . . . but the Celts are,
after all is said and done, a relatively recent phase in the culture of Britain.
Though we have little 'proof' in the scientific sense, it seems likely that the lost
early cultures of the land contributed much to the foundations of Celtic beliefs,
ritual, and social practices. The thread of that mysterious inheritance runs
through the locations chosen for this book.
If we examine British legends and their locations - for a true legend is always
located upon a specific place or places and is never a mere tale without a home
- certain patterns and themes are generally repeated. Many detailed works on
folklore and legend have been published correlating and analysing traditional
material, and there is no intention here of repeating this type of work, no
matter how valuable. We have, instead, selected locations and legends that
seem to illustrate best the primal themes that are found in a quest for the
essence of British lore and legend. It must be no coincidence that some of these
locations are world famous and visited by thousands of people every year, yet
we have not chosen sites and legends out of mere popularity, and many of the
most significant locations in Britain are still, to this day, unvisited and difficult
to reach. We have, instead, tried to strike a balance between these sites and
areas that are relatively popular and easy to reach, and those that are so
essential to the roots of Britain legend that they should be included, regardless
of their obscurity or remote location.
The reader who wishes to visit the places selected will be pleased to hear that
none of the sites chosen is beyond the reach of basic modern travel and
determination, and that most of them are easily accessible by rail or road,
with occasional well-established ferry-crossings. Indeed, some of the most
astonishing British remains are not on remote islands but right in the heart of
modern cities, or close to major routes. Despite an astonishing wealth of history
and ancient locations, such as would amply fulfil a far greater territory. Britain
and Ireland are a relatively tiny group of islands, heavily over-populated in
many regions. This leads to the land acting as a kind of 'time machine', for the
most ancient remains and legends are found in the heart of the most modern
locations. London is a typical example of this, where we may find a temple of
the Romano-Oriental god, Mithras, within a modern business, or a sacred hill
and castle within a few metres of international politics and commerce. Indeed,
the capital city demands a separate book of its own, so great is the wealth of
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