Glastonbury Tor
Glastonbury Tor lies outside the small village of Glastonbury in Somerset, England, the most prominent of the cluster of volcanic hills in the area. The Tor can be visited and climbed without without an admission fee of any kind. There are two routes to the summit of this remarkable site. A worn footpath leads to the summit, and on the slopes of the Tor are what appear to be terraces, but which are, in fact , the traces of a classic seven circuit labyrinth which winds around the Tor and eventually reaches the summit. Traversing either route is a physical challenge, but the clear view of the surrounding countryside from the top makes the journey worthwhile. As the saying goes, "On a clear day, you can see forever." There always seems to be a wind blowing when one is standing on the Tor, and it is usually from the West.Throngs of people climb the Tor every year, and many feel mysteriously compelled to take the long route and navigate the seven worn circuits of the ancient labyrinth leading to the summit. For many visitors, the Tor embodies the remarkable spiritual, historical and mystical qualities which Glastonbury has possessed since the very beginning.
In the old language of Somerset, the word 'tor' means a hill or rocky peak, and the word is also common in Dorset and Cornwall (UK). Tor also means "protruding hill" in Gaelic, and this is doubtless where the word originated.
As a feature of the landscape, Glastonbury Tor has always been fascinating to geologists, appearing to be a series of grassy terraces about 160 meters high (525 feet), above an underlying structure of old volcanic rock. On the top stands a tower where once there was a medieval church built by monks or a warlord during the Middle Ages. The original structure was destroyed by an earthquake and landslide on September 11, 1275 CE, and the tower which now stands on the summit was built as a replacement in the 1360's and dedicated to St. Michael (soldier of God and victor over Paganism).
After three seasons spent exploring the Tor, the archaeologist Philip Raht came to the conclusion that the site had originally been a monastic settlement and not a fortress at all. Excavations carried out in the 1960's suggested that a sixth century fortress, stronghold or a monastery once stood on the site of the Tor. These findings lend credence to at least one legend connected with the Tor, that it was the legendary stronghold of King Melwas, named in the Arthurian legends as the man who abducted Queen Guinivere.
There are so many legends about the Tor that it is difficult to keep them all sorted out, one about it being the stronghold (Camelot) of King Arthur and another which says that the Tor guards the entrance to the Underworld, known as Annwn. Another legend says that the Tor is the home of Gwynn ap Nudd, the 'The Fairy King' of British folklore. There is also a legend in which Avallach (Avalon) was the Underworld and Gwynn ap Nudd was Lord of the Underworld. During the twelfth century, local folk tales were written down for the first time and many speak of the Tor as being a place of visions and magic. There have always been stories about the Tor being one of the old hollow hills, and such stories may have been the basis of the legend that the Tor was the entrance to the Underworld or the place of the 'Sleeping Lord'.
Scholars believe that the monk (later Saint) Collen had a hermitage on the slopes of the Tor close to a spring. there. At the base of the Tor is Chalice Well, where according to legend Joseph of Arimathea threw the Chalice of the Last Supper or the Holy Grail. It has been argued by Miller & Broadhurst (1989 CE) that the valley between the Tor and Chalice Hill originally held two springs called the Blood Spring and the White Spring and that the two springs conjoined in the area called Chalice Well Gardens. The chambers which lie at the back of the spring there were tentatively explored by cavers a few centuries ago, and they found evidence which seemed to indicate that the chambers may once have been an entrance to the Tor. This too tends to support the legends that the Tor is hollow, or once was hollow. It is no longer possible to explore the caves as many have collapsed during the last century.
Weary All Hill is also located near the Tor. Another of the local legends says that it was here Joseph of Arimathea thrust his staff into the ground whereupon it took root and grew into the Holy Thorn tree of Glastonbury which blossoms only at Christmas or Yuletide. The tree exists and is actually a kind of hawthorn whose true name is 'Crataegus oxyacantha'. Although the original Holy Thorn was cut down during the reign of the appalling Oliver Cromwell, cuttings from it still grow in and around the Glastonbury area and they blossom at Christmas and Easter. There is a Holy Thorn on the grounds of St. John's Church in Glastonbury, and each year at Christmas time, flowering branches are cut from it and sent to the Queen to be placed on the breakfast table at Buckingham Palace on Christmas Day. This custom dates back to the reign of Queen Anne, the Winter Queen.
Dion Fortune, the occultist and novelist who lived in Glastonbury town for many years, firmly believed that the Tor was a place of great power and an entrance to the Otherworld.
While the village and the area around it contain a multitude of ancient ruins and other sites of interest, it is the Tor which dominates the landscape and compels both one's attention and imagination, no matter what one's beliefs are. The site certainly possesses power, but the effect of that power varies from visitor to visitor. Some visitors, standing motionless on the summit, claim they can feel the power of the earth vibrating beneath their feet and that they are able to connect with the ancient spiritual power of the place. Whatever, one's experience on the Tor, the place really does have energizing or restorative powers of some kind; one may come to the tor feeling weary and depleted, but usually one leaves it feeling energized, replenished and refreshed.
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