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Gerald of Wales

Two Accounts of the Exhumation of Arthur's Body

Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis, as he is sometimes known) was a well-known churchman of the twelfthcentury and the author of seventeen books. He was born in either 11! or 11" of three-#uarters $orman and one-

#uarter Welsh e%traction, in &anorbier, 'embrokeshire, outh Wales. He was the reat-randson of *hys a+

ewdwr, the 'rince of outh Wales (on his mothers side), and the son of William de arri, a $orman kniht. He was

self-described as strikinly handsome and #uite tall. He +ossessed boundless enery, stron +ersonal skills and afirm belief in his own ability and im+ortance.

/ne of his uncles, 0avid it2Gerald was made isho+ of t. 0avids in 113, an event which +rovided youn Gerald

with his lifes oal. His ultimate desire was to be consecrated as isho+ of t. 0avids, without havin toacknowlede the su+remacy of the 4rchbisho+ of Canterbury, and then to have the 'o+e elevate his bisho+ric into

the 4rchbisho+ric of t. 0avids. 4lthouh, in his lon life, he was never able to satisfy this ambition, it was not for

want of effort, as he focused all his considerable eneries toward it from the late 1156s throuh the early days of the

rein of 7in 8ohn.

9n the course of thins, he was offered, but refused to acce+t, four other bisho+rics in 9reland and Wales, and, thus

had to content himself with the lesser +ost of 4rchdeacon of recon, which he described by sayin,

:9n this most tem+erate area 9 myself have been a++ointed to a +ost of some im+ortance, to use the ;aron with

which we are all so familiar, but it affords me no reat +romise of wealth and certainly no e%+ectation of ever+layin my +art in the traic +om+s and ceremonies of this world.

ecause of his $orman blood and connection with Welsh royalty, Gerald was well ac#uainted with those in +ower,

and had many o++ortunities to serve at the hihest levels of twelfth century society. $o doubt, it was in connectionwith that service that he was at Glastonbury in 11

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wo thirds of the coffin, the +art towards the to+ end, held the husbands bones, and the other section, at his feet,

contained those of his wife. 4 tress of womans hair, blond, and still fresh and briht in colour, was found in the

coffin. /ne of the monks snatched it u+ and it immediately disinterated into dust.

here had been some indications in the 4bbey records that the body would be discovered on this s+ot, and another

clue was +rovided by letterin carved on the +yramids, but this had been almost com+letely erased by the +assae of

the years. he holy monks and other reliious had seen visions and revelations. However, it was Henry 99, 7in of

Bnland, who had told the monks that, accordin to a story which he had heard from some old ritish soothsayer,they would find 4rthurs body buried at least si%teen feet in the round, not in a stone coffin but in a hollowed-out

oak bole. 9t had been sunk as dee+ as that, and carefully concealed, so that it could never be discovered by the

a%ons, whom 4rthur had attacked relentlessly as lon as he lived and whom, indeed, he had almost wi+ed out, but

who occu+ied the island Dof ritainE after his death.

hat was why the inscri+tion, which was eventually to reveal the truth, had been cut into the inside of the cross and

turned inwards towards the stone. or many a lon year this inscri+tion was to kee+ the secret of what the coffin

contained, but eventually, when time and circumstance were both o++ortune the letterin revealed what it had solon concealed.

What is now known as Glastonbury used, in ancient times, to he called the 9sle of 4valon. 9t is virtually an island,

for it is com+letely surrounded by marshlands. 9n Welsh it is called Fnys 4vallon, which means the 9sland of

4++les and this fruit used to row there in reat abundance. 4fter the attle of Camlann, a noblewoman called&oran, who was the ruler and +atroness of these +arts as well as bein a close blood-relation of 7in 4rthur,

carried him off to the island, now known as Glastonbury, so that his wounds could be cared for. Fears ao the district

had also been called Fnys Gutrin in Welsh, that is the 9sland of Glass, and from these words the invadin a%onslater coined the +lace-name Glastinebury. he word lass in their lanuae means vitrum in =atin, and bury

means castrum or civitas.

Fou must know that the bones of 4rthurs body which were discovered there were so bi that, in them, the +oetswords seem to be fulfilledA

4ll men will e%claim at the si2e of the bones theyve e%humed (?iril, :Georics,: 9.

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anyone else could do so and to touch it with his hand. his was a fair indication of his wanton thouhts, for female

hair is a snare for the feeble-minded, althouh those with any strenth of +ur+ose can resist it.

Hair is considered to be im+erishable, in that it has no fleshy content and no humidity of its own, but as he held it inhis hand after +ickin it u+ and stood a2in at it in ra+ture, it immediately disinterated into fine +owder. 4ll those

who were watchin were astounded by what had ha++ened. y some sort of miracle, not to say. . ., it ;ust

disa++eared, as if suddenly chaned back into atoms, for it could never have been uncoiled and e%amined closely. .

.this showed that it was even more +erishable than most thins, +rovin that all +hysical beauty is a transitory thinfor us to stare at with our vacant eyes or to ro+e for in our lustful moments, em+ty and availin nothin. 4s the

+hiloso+her saysA 'hysical beauty is short-lived, it disa++ears so soon it fades more #uickly than the flowers in

s+rintime.

&any tales are told and many leends have been invented about 7in 4rthur and his mysterious endin. 9n their

stu+idity the ritish +eo+le maintain that he is still alive. $ow that the truth is known, 9 have taken the trouble to add

a few more details in this +resent cha+ter. he fairy-tales have been snuffed out, and the true and indubitable facts

are made known, so that what really ha++ened must be made crystal clear to all and se+arated from the myths whichhave accumulated on the sub;ect.

4fter the attle of Camlann. . .killed his uncle. . .4rthurA the se#uel was that the body of 4rthur, who had been

mortally wounded, was carried off by a certain noble matron, called &oran, who was his cousin, to the 9sle of

4valon, which is now known as Glastonbury. nder &orans su+ervision the cor+se was buried in the churchyardthere. 4s a result, the credulous ritons and their bards invented the leend that a fantastic sorceress called &oran

had removed 4rthurs body to the 9sle of 4valon, so that she miht cure his wounds there. 4ccordin to them, once

he has recovered from his wounds this stron and all-+owerful 7in will return to rule over the ritons in thenormal way. he result of all this is that they really e%+ect him to come back, ;ust as the 8ews, led astray by even

reater stu+idity, misfortune and mis+laced faith, really e%+ect their &essiah to return.

9t is worth notin. . .;ust as, indeed. . .+laced by all, as. . .are called islands and are known to be situated in salt water,that is to say in the sea. 9t is called 4valon, either from the Welsh word aval, which means a++le, because a++letrees

and a++les are very common there, or from the name of a certain ?allo who used to rule over the area lon ao. 9n

remote times, the +lace used to be called Fnys Gutrin in the Welsh lanuae, that is the 9sland of Glass, no doubt

from the lassy colour of the river which flows round it in the marshland. 4s a result, the a%ons who occu+ied thearea later on called it Glastonia in their lanuae, for in a%on or Bnlish lass corres+onds to the =atin word

vitrum. rom what 9 have said, you can see why it was called first the 9sle of 4valon and then Glastonia. 9t is alsoclear how this fantastic sorceress came to be ado+ted by the story-tellers.

9t is worthy of note that the 4bbot called. . .also from the letters inscribed on it, althouh they had been almostobliterated lon ao by the +assin of the years, and he had the aforesaid 7in Henry to +rovide the main evidence.

he 7in had told the 4bbot on a number of occasions that he had learnt from the historical accounts of the ritons

and from their bards that 4rthur had been buried in the churchyard there between two +yramids which had beenerected subse#uently, very dee+ in the round for fear lest the a%ons, who had striven to occu+y the whole island

after his death, miht ravae the dead body in their evil lust for veneance. 4rthur had attacked them on a reat

number of occasions and had e%+elled them from the 9sland of ritain, but his dastardly ne+hew &ordred had called

them back aain to fiht aainst him. o avoid such a frihtful continency, to a lare stone slab, found in the tombby those who were diin it u+, some seven feet. . .a leaden cross had been fi%ed, not on to+ of the stone, but

underneath it, bearin this inscri+tionA

HB*B 9$ HB 9=B / 4?4=/$ =9B *9B0 HB *B$/W$B0 79$G 4*H*, W9H G9$B?B*B, H9BC/$0 W9Bhey +rised this cross away from the stone, and 4bbot Henry, about whom 9 have told you, showed it to me. 9

e%amined it closely and 9 read the inscri+tion. he cross had been attached to the under side of the stone and, to

make it even less easy to find, the surface with the letterin had been turned towards the stone. /ne can only wonder

at the industry and the e%traordinary +rudence of the men of that +eriod, who were determined to +rotect at all costsand for all time the body of this reat man, their leader and the ruler of this area, from the +ossibility of sudden

desecration. 4t the same time they ensured that at some moment in the future, when the troubles were over, the

evidence of the letterin cut into the cross miht be discovered as an indication of what they had done.

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. . .it had indicated, so 4rthurs body was discovered, not in a stone sarco+haus, carved out of rock or of 'arian

marble, as would have been seemly for so famous a 7in, but in wood, in an oak bole hollowed out for this +ur+ose

and buried dee+ in the earth, si%teen feet or more down, for the burial of so reat a 'rince, hurried, no doubt, rather

than +erformed with due +om+ and ceremony, as this +eriod of +ressin disturbance made only too necessary.

When the body was discovered from the indications +rovided by 7in Henry, the 4bbot whom 9 have named had a

s+lendid marble tomb built for it, as was only +ro+er, for so distinuished a ruler of the area, who, moreover, had

shown more favour to this church than to any other in his kindom, and had endowed it with wide and e%tensivelands. y the ;udement of God, which is always ;ust and which in this case was certainly not un;ustified, who

rewards all ood deeds not only in Heaven above but on this earth and in our terrestrial 9ife. . .,

church. . .others of his kindom. . .the enuine DremainsE and the body. . .of 4rthur to be buried in a seemly fashion. .

.and loriously. . .and. . .inhumed.

ranslation of Gerald of Wales by =ewis hor+e