Glastonbury
Glastonbury appears in Le Morte d'Arthur as both a site of Arthurian heritage and a place of religious refuge during the realm's collapse.
Glastonbury appears in Le Morte d'Arthur as both a site of Arthurian heritage and a place of religious refuge during the realm's collapse. Its two citations bracket the narrative -- one from Caxton's Preface, one from the final book -- framing Glastonbury as a place where Arthur's story begins and ends.
In the Preface, Caxton invites readers to verify Arthur's historical existence: "First ye may see his sepulchre in the monastery of Glastonbury" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Preface of William Caxton). The claim grounds the romance in a physical location, presenting the monastery as material evidence for the king's reality.
In the closing movement of the narrative, when Mordred seizes power, the Bishop "fled, and took part of his goods with him, and went nigh unto Glastonbury; and there he was as priest hermit in a chapel, and lived in poverty and in holy prayers, for well he understood that mischievous war was at hand" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI, Chapter I). Glastonbury here serves as a sanctuary from political catastrophe -- a place where religious retreat is the only rational response to the approaching destruction of the Arthurian world. The two references together cast Glastonbury as both monument and refuge: where Arthur's body rests and where the faithful withdraw when his kingdom falls.
Appears in: Places, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition