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The Lost Land of King Arthur

Chapter 2: FOREWORD
By John Cuming Walters
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History - BritishMythology, Legends & Folklore

About This Book

This work is an impressionistic travel and antiquarian study of locations in southwest England associated with Arthurian legend. Combining close readings of medieval chronicles with on-site descriptions and illustrations, it surveys sites—Tintagel, Caerleon, Glastonbury, and others—discussing local traditions, landscape features, and surviving monuments while weighing historical evidence versus romance. Chapters trace legends of Merlin, the Round Table, Camelot, and the Grail, and consider how folklore, topography, and literary sources have shaped the enduring Arthurian landscape.

FOREWORD

Within a small area in the West Country may be found the principal places mentioned in the written chronicles of King Arthur—places with strange long histories and of natural charm. In these pages an impressionist view is given of the region once called Cameliard and Lyonnesse. We have ventured into by-ways seldom entered, and we trust to have gathered a few details which may not be wholly without interest in their place. Facts are meagre about King Arthur, and romance has so overlaid reality that his realm seems now to be veritably a part of fairy-land. In this respect the journey is profitless, save that, by taking Malory as a guide, we are led to a few delightful and half-forgotten localities out of the ordinary route, from which romance has not been wholly dislodged and where tradition survives and is strong.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
I. OF THE KING AND HIS CHRONICLERS 1
II. OF LYONNESSE AND CAMELIARD 32
III. OF ARTHUR THE KING AND MERLIN THE ENCHANTER 61
IV. OF TINTAGEL 86
V. OF CAERLEON-UPON-USK 113
VI. OF THE ROUND TABLE AND KING ARTHUR’S BATTLES 130
VII. OF CAMELOT AND ALMESBURY 159
VIII. OF ST. KNIGHTON’S KIEVE AND THE HOLY GRAIL 183
IX. OF CAMELFORD AND THE LAST BATTLE 194
X. OF GLASTONBURY AND THE PASSING OF ARTHUR 216

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing page
King Arthur’s Castle and Execution Rock, Tintagel Frontispiece
The Rocky Valley, Tintagel 40
Merlin’s Cave, Tintagel 70
King Arthur’s Castle, Tintagel 96
The Elephant Rock, Bossiney Cove 102
Barras Head, Tintagel 110
The Rocky Valley, Tintagel 150
St. Knighton’s Kieve, Tintagel 184
St. Knighton’s Glen 192
Mouth of Rocky Valley and Long Island, Tintagel 202
St. Michael’s Tower, Glastonbury 218
The Olde Pilgrim’s Inn, Glastonbury 222
St. Joseph’s Chapel, Glastonbury Abbey 224
Wells Cathedral 236
The Abbey Barn, Glastonbury 248
Ruins of St. Joseph’s Chapel, Glastonbury 254