Themes

Well, I said I would introduce some other aspects of the legends that took me half-way around the world all those years ago so here we go...


King Arthur

I watched John Boorman's 1981 film 'Excalibur' last weekend. I hadn't seen it for about fifteen years when I lived in Wellington and they showed it on the big screen. I was too young to see it when it first came out in 1981 so that was a real treat. For anyone wishing to see a condensed (but lushly-filmed) version of some modern Arthurian literature, then this is a good place to start. It's based on Sir Thomas Malory's 15th century epic Le Morte d'Arthur (yes it is one of the modern ones!).

The film introduces these themes:

1. The dawn of Christianity and the end of the old Pagan system.

2. Arthur's court including Camelot, the Round Table and the Guinevere/Lancelot betrayal.

3. The quest for The Holy Grail.

It's worth watching just to see Nicol Williamson's energetic and eccentric portayal of Merlin! I'm holding back watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail again before I fly out...

Boorman's 'Christian' Arthur is actually very 'Pagan' and is forever linked to the land. If he starts wasting away, so does the land he rules over; as he prospers so does the land and its people. The symbolism here is of the potent young Sun God in his prime, fertile and strong at the start of his reign (Spring and Summer) who then begins to wane and die at the end (Autumn Winter).



The Grail Tradition

This is important not only for the Arthurian cycles but for anyone who is seeking something. When I embarked on my quest in 1994, in many ways it was as testing as any knight's quest (it just had better shopping). At dawn on 10 September 1995, after spending an entire night on Glastonbury Tor (and before sprinting down its slopes to the nearest public convenience) I realised that the Grail was me and I was the Grail. This kind of revelation is not new. Countless people have travelled vast distances and fought many 'dragons' only to realise the truth has been with them all along and it just took a challenge or quest to find it.

The Grail quest represents much. There is a long tradition of grail-like objects or concepts in many mythologies. For some it is a cup or bowl, for others a jewel and for others still, it is the embodiment of all that is pure and sacred to their own beliefs. A well-known legend tells of Joseph of Arimathea who collects Christ's blood and sweat as his body is being prepared for interment. After a long period of imprisonment during which he is kept alive by the Grail, Joseph is rescued and with a small band of followers, heads to Albion (England) and founds the first Christian church at Glastonbury. Sometimes this legend includes an earlier time where Joseph, as uncle to Jesus, takes him to England as a teenager during Christ's undocumented years. William Blake's Jerusalem honours this: 'And did those feet in ancient times walk upon England's mountains green...'.



Glastonbury Abbey, the Chalice Well and Crafty Monks

One of my favourite twists is the link to Glastonbury Abbey and the Chalice Well (also known as the Blood Spring) near Glastonbury Tor. The Grail was supposed to have been hidden in the Well (which daily pumps hundreds of litres of red iron-stained water). When I drank the water at the Well on one visit, let us say that my body was purified and I again sprinted to that public convenience...

In the twelfth century, the crafty monks at Glastonbury, their fortunes suffering the effects of a recent fire, decided to announce to the world that they had found the tombs of Arthur and Guinevere. Yes! Two skeletons were found and re-buried by the then king, but it was all a little too convenient really. Briefly, Arthur and the other characters are literary creations, based more-or-less on semi-mythical warlords, bards and others. Who knows who those skeletons belonged to.

I'll stop here before I launch into the Arthurian literature. If you are still awake, let me just say that it's good to share this with you as it awakens these things in me again, as I count down the final day until I head to 'The Lands Adventurous'!