Pilgrim Ways

he kicks his heels against a bell while striking another with a hammer. His nodding head nods away the hours.

On entering the cathedral the pilgrim should look eastward, down the nave, to where an arch was erected in the fourteenth century to support the tottering tower. It forms the initial of the Greek word Christos and is the shape of the cross on which St.Andrew wa s martyred. The cathedral is dedicated to St.Andrew. The diffusion of light into the quire floods in gloriously through the Jesse or Golden Window. This window dates from about 1339 and depicts the genealogy of Jesus, linked in a family tree to King David and his line.

The Tor. The grandness of Wells Cathedral is a good preparation for the ruins of Glastonbury, not least because it reminds you of the scale of medieval ecclesiastical building. It is said that the medieval pilgrims who came here were drawn from all over Britain but that those who travelled from Ireland and Wales came to Barnstaple, in North Devon, which until the 1700s was a major port. Researchers have suggested that a series of holy wells and standing crosses marked stopping places at twenty mile intervals, at Braunton, at North Molton, Barlynch, Cothelstone, Wembdon, Chilton Polden and Shapwick. On arriving in sight of Glastonbury the first thing that they would have seen - as modern pilgrims do - is the towering conical hill called the Tor. The Tor, which is situated behind the ruins of the abbey, bears traces of an ancient maze pathway, and has many associations with the occult. As a centre of pagan ritual it would inevitably have drawn early Christians who saw their mission as bringing light into the places of darkness. To reach the summit of the Tor pilgrims need to brace themselves for a steep climb. Best reached along the Pilgrim‟s Path, which runs along the Tor‟s spine, the summit affords wonderful views of the surrounding countryside. All that remains of the fourteenthcentury Church of the Archangel Michael, is a small tower which stands at the top of the Tor. Nearby is evidence of the cells which were once occupied by Celtic hermits who lived on and around the summit of the Tor. It is sometimes possible, depending on the light, to make out the remains of prehistoric circles of terraces which covered the Tor and whose religious significance can only be guessed at.

In some ancient Welsh bardic verses, the Triads, Glastonbury is identified with Stonehenge and Llantwit Major as one of the three places where perpetual choirs chanted their way through the cycle of the seasons. There is also evidence of an ancient spirit path through which pagans believed that the souls of the dead passed from an ancient temple (possibly situated where the abbey was built) westward to Avalon and from there to the world beyond.

England‟s Jerusalem Glastonbury, sometimes known as England‟s Jerusalem, was originally called Avalon. It came by this name because of the abundance of apples - still so much a part of the staple of Somerset‟s rich productive tradition. In many of the ancient folk stories of Avalon, particularly those associated with Merlin and the Arthurian legends - the old British name of Ynis Witrin is the one which is used. It means grassy island (in the Saxon becoming, Glastney). The whole of this lowland area was regularly awash with water and Glastonbury lay at the heart of a maze of waterways. Geological changes, thought to have occurred in the ninth century, raised the lie of the land and the monks of Glastonbury were responsible for