Avalon (mythology)

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Avalon , also Avalun (related to the Indo-European word root * aballo- for " apple "), is a mythical place that is known from the legend of King Arthur .

La Mort d'Arthur by James Archer (1860), depicting King Arthur's death, in the background the boat for the crossing to Avalon.

Etymology and Mythology

Geoffrey of Monmouth calls Avalon in his Historia Regum Britanniae (1135) in Latin Insula Avallonis . In his Vita Merlini , written in 1150, the place Insula Pomorum is called "Apple Island". Avalon comes from kymrisch abal ("apple") or aball ("apple tree"), middle kymrisch afallach , new Welsh afal , also afall (see also Afallach ). Other spellings are Ynis Avalach and Ynys yr Afallon .

It can also be assumed that the Irish legends about Manannán mac Lir and Lugh , where the place is called Emain Ablach (from ablach, "owning apples"), which was also a name for the Isle of Man in ancient Irish mythology , see also Immram Brain "Bran's Seafaring". The Gallic - Indo-European root is * abal "apple", see also Avallon in Burgundy .

According to Arthur's legend, and later the story of the Grail , Avalon was King Arthur's whereabouts after his wounding. According to Chrétien de Troyes , the healer Morgan le Fay is said to have cared for and healed her half-brother on the island of Avalon. In the Vita Merlini, Morgan is named as the eldest of nine sisters who rule Avallon.

Localization attempts

The town Glastonbury in England lays claim to be the fabled Avalon since 1,191th King Heinrich II ordered the rebuilding of the abbey, which had been destroyed by fire, in 1184. In 1191 the monks discovered a tree coffin during the renovation work on their cemetery. The two skeletons inside were referred to as the alleged tomb of King Arthur and his wife Guinevere , as a lead cross with the inscription

“Hic jacet sepultus inclitus rex Arturius cum Wenneriveria uxore sua secunda in insula Avallonia”

"The famous King Arthur is buried here with his second wife Wenneveria on the island of Avalon."

supposed to have been lying there , as Giraldus Cambrensis claims to have seen with his own eyes. The archivist and historian William Camden also describes this cross in 1607, but does not name Arthur's wife in the inscription. King Edward I had the tomb reopened and found huge and particularly beautiful bones in it ( […] ossa dicti regis mirae grossitudinis, et Gwunnarae regina mirae pulcritudinis […] ), which were reburied in front of the high altar. A medieval forgery "in the service of truth" in the sense of a "fictional science" would also be possible.

Grave slabs of Lucius Artorius Castus have been found in Croatia near Split . This shows his career, including commands in Britain and over British troops in Gaul, which shows certain, but unprovable, similarities with the personality of King Arthur.

The written tradition does not support the theory that the Celts of the British Isles and the Gauls believed their ancestors came from a continent sunk in the western sea. The Welsh call a place that is described as an island in a lake (Avallonia, Avallach) or as Bardsey Island ( Ynys Enlli ) in the bay of Pwllheli (Avallun).

Attempts to associate Avalon with the sunken Atlantis , which, according to Plato, "sank into the sea during one bad day and one single bad night" are sporadic in esoteric circles.

Abalus in the North Sea , described by Pliny d. Ä. and Pytheas of Massilia , was known to the seafaring Mediterranean peoples since the Bronze Age as a supplier of amber and copper . Heligoland is often seen as a remnant abalus, which is assumed to be much larger.

Avalon in literature

One of the oldest versions is told by Sir Thomas Malory in his Le Morte Darthur from 1470, which influenced most of the later narrators.

The most famous retelling of modern times is the fantasy novel The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley .

Other works on the subject are Pendragon cycle and Avalon return of Stephen Lawhead , Thomas A. Barron's trilogy The Great Tree of Avalon ( The Magic of Avalon ) and Gunter Arentzens 2003 published book The Chalice of Avalon .

Pierre Dietz locates the islands of Avalon in his historically researched novel "King" Artus and the secret of Avalon in Brittany.

See also

literature

  • Geoffrey Ashe: Avalon. In: Norris J. Lacy (Ed.): The new Arthurian encyclopedia. New York / London 1996, ISBN 0-8153-2303-4 , pp. 25-26.
  • Helmut Birkhan : Celts, attempt to present an overall picture of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 , 2nd corrected and expanded edition.
  • Helmut Birkhan: Post-ancient Celtic reception. Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-7069-0541-1 .
  • Avalon , in: Christopher W. Bruce: The Arthurian name dictionary. New York / London 1999, ISBN 0-8153-2865-6 , pp. 50-51.
  • Matthias Egeler: Avalon, 66 ° North. On early history and the reception of a myth. (= Supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. 95). de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2015.
  • Norris J. Lacy, Geoffrey Ashe: The Arthurian handbook (= Garland reference library of the humanities. Volume 1920). 2nd Edition. New York / London 1997, ISBN 0-8153-2081-7 .
  • Avalon . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 3 : Austria - Bisectrix . London 1910, p. 51 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 153 f.
  2. ↑ Helmut Birkhan ( Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 571.) describes as “fictional science” those texts that admittedly adopt the argumentation strategy of science, but not its claim to verifiable sources, but freely invent (“so it was, but we have no evidence [yet] ")
  3. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 748.
  4. ↑ CIL 3, 1919 , found in Stobreč : “ L (ucius) Artori [us Ca] stus | (centurio) leg (ionis) / III Gallicae item [| (centurio) le] g (ionis) VI Ferra / tae item | (centurio) leg (ionis) II Adi (utricis) [i] tem | (centurio) leg (ionis) VM [a] / c (edonicae) item p (rimus) p (ilus) eiusdem praeposito / classis Misenatium [pr] aef (ectus) leg (ionis) VI / Victricis duci (!) legg (ionum) [triu] m Britan (n) ic {i} / {mi} arum adversus Arm [oricano] s proc (uratori) cente / nario ( !) provinciae Li [burniae iure] gladi (i) vi / vus ipse sibi et suis [… ex te] st [amento]. ” CIL 3, 12791 , found in Podstrana :“ L [ucius] Artorius | Castus, p [rimus] p [ilus] | leg [ionis] VM [a] c [edonicae], pr | aefectus | leg [ionis] | VI Victric [is]. ”
  5. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Kelten, attempt at an overall representation of their culture. Pp. 523, 843, 920.
  6. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Kelten, attempt at an overall representation of their culture. P. 489 f.