Glastonbury: Maker of Myths - Softcover

Howard-Gordon, Frances

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0906362733 ISBN 13: 9780906362730

Publisher: Gothic Image Publications, 2010

Synopsis

First published in 1982, this new edition of an old favourite has been substantially updated and new chapters have been added as more information and research has come to light. For the visitor, the armchair traveller, or the reader who simply wonders what continues to attract so many thousands to this ancient sacred place, this guidebook will provide an inspiring introduction.

About this title

About the Author:

Frances Howard-Gordon has lived in Glastonbury for over 35 years after growing up in Notting Hill, London, then living in Morocco for several years. Her career in London was as film director for BBC TV Current Affairs programmes. She owns and runs Gothic Image Bookshop, Publishing and Tours with her husband Jamie George. She is a Russian speaker and organises tours to Russia, the Caucasus and Siberia.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

THE TOR

The myths associated with Glastonbury Tor are extraordinary. It has been called a magic mountain, a faeries' glass hill, a spiral castle, a Grail castle, the Land of the Dead, Hades, a Druid initiation centre, an Arthurian hill-fort, a magnetic power-point, a crossroads of leys, a place of Goddess fertility rituals and celebrations, a converging point for UFOs.

These myths are still very much alive today, although they are constantly being built upon and undergoing change. This is not surprising, given that this 500-foot-high conical hill is a most striking and inspiring landmark - visible at vast distances and yet invisible at certain angles close-by.

If you climb the Tor on a clear day, you will be astonished by the extent of the views: to the north you will see the Mendip Hills together with the city of Wells and its cathedral; to the west the island of Steep Holm in the Bristol Channel; Brent Knoll to the northwest; the Polden and Quantock Hills to the southwest, and the Black mountains of Wales in the far distance; the Hood Monument and Dorset to the south; to the east Cadbury Hill, Alfred's Tower on the borders of Wiltshire, and Cley Hill - a hill famous for UFO sightings.

On a misty day you can experience for yourself what it must have been like when Glastonbury was an island - the Isle of Glass. From the summit of the Tor you will see only the swirling mists of Avalon with patches of green in between. What is now the flatness of the Somerset Moors and Levels has become watery marshes once again.

Prehistory

The mythology of the Tor reaches so far back into ancient times that it is impossible to give it a beginning. But if we try to look beyond Christianity and beyond the Celtic Druids, we may discover some answers concerning its origins and purpose. All kinds of information and interpretations are shedding new light on what was previously dismissed as the old religion. As each new cult or religion supersedes another, so it tries to blot out or deny what came before. Such is the nature of conversion. This is what could have happened in the case of Goddess worship, a way of life which may have existed all over the world until around the fifth millennium BC.

The emphasis on the divine female is largely based on the larger number of female carvings and figurines found in the old European culture compared to a relative lack of male forms which appeared later when males were the hunters in hunter-gatherer societies.

About this edition

• Publisher: Gothic Image Publications
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0906362733
• ISBN 13: 9780906362730
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192