Editing Glastonbury Tor (section)

==Mythology and spirituality==
[[File:Glastonbury_Tor_Looking_Up,_General_View.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Front of the tower showing mythological iconography|Front of the tower showing mythological iconography]]

The Tor seems to have been called ''Ynys Afallon'' (meaning "The Isle of Avalon") by the [[Britons (Celtic people)|Britons]] and is believed by some, including the 12th and 13th century writer [[Gerald of Wales]], to be the [[Avalon]] of [[Matter of Britain|Arthurian legend]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Gerald of Wales|url=http://www.britannia.com/history/docs/debarri.html|work=Sources of British History|publisher=Britannia|access-date=2 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131003182610/http://www.britannia.com/history/docs/debarri.html|archive-date=3 October 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Tor has been associated with the name Avalon, and identified with [[King Arthur]], since the alleged discovery of his and Queen Guinevere's neatly labelled coffins in 1191, recounted by [[Gerald of Wales]].{{sfn|Nitze|1934|pp=355–361}}{{sfn|Ditmas|1964|pp=19–33}} Author [[Christopher L. Hodapp]] asserts in his book ''The Templar Code for Dummies'' that Glastonbury Tor is one of the possible locations of the [[Holy Grail]], because it is close to the monastery that housed the [[Nanteos Cup]].{{sfn|Hodapp|Von Kannon|2007|}}

The Tor has been a place of Christian pilgrimage at least since the 11th-century and continues to be so, both because of the long-standing dedication to [[St. Michael the Archangel]] (the patron of many sacred mountains and hills) and more recently because of the martyrdoms of the three  [[Beatification|beatified]] [[Benedictine]] [[monks]] on its summit in the 16th-century [[Richard Whiting (abbot)|Abbot Whiting]], [[John Thorne (Blessed)|John Thorne]] and [[Roger James (Blessed)|Roger James]].{{sfn|Rahtz|Watts|2003|p=78}}{{sfn|Abrams|Carley|1991|p=33}}{{sfn|Koch|2006|p=816}}{{sfn|Stanton|1892|p=538}}

With the 19th-century resurgence of interest in [[Celtic mythology]], the Tor became associated with [[Gwyn ap Nudd]], the first Lord of the Otherworld ([[Annwn]]) and later King of the [[fairy|Fairies]].{{sfn|Bowman|2005|p=178}}{{sfn|Bowman|2008|p=251}} The Tor came to be represented as an entrance to Annwn or to Avalon, the land of the fairies. The Tor is supposedly a gateway into "The Land of the Dead (Avalon)".<ref>{{cite book|last=Emick|first=Jennifer|title=The Everything Celtic Wisdom Book|year=2008|publisher=Adams Media|isbn=978-1-4405-2170-6|pages=96–97|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5skKKMRUHAMC&pg=PT109}}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

A persistent myth of more recent origin is that of the [[Temple of the Stars|Glastonbury Zodiac]],{{sfn|Wylie|2002|pp=441–454}} a purported astrological [[zodiac]] of gargantuan proportions said to have been carved into the land along ancient [[hedge]]rows and trackways,<ref>{{cite web|last=Caine|first=Mary|title=The Glastonbury Giants|url=http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/GGZodiac2.html|work= [[Gandalf's Garden]]|volume= 4|year=1969}}</ref> in which the Tor forms part of the figure representing Aquarius.{{sfn|Bowman|2005|p=180}} The theory was first put forward in 1927 by [[Katharine Emma Maltwood|Katherine Maltwood]],{{sfn|Rahtz|Watts|2003|pp=65–66}}{{sfn|Rahtz|1993|p=50}} an artist with interest in the occult, who thought the zodiac was constructed approximately 5,000 years ago.{{sfn|Maltwood|1987|}} But the vast majority of the land said by Maltwood to be covered by the zodiac was under several feet of water at the proposed time of its construction,{{sfn|Ivakhiv|2001|p=112}} and many of the features such as field boundaries and roads are recent.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Glastonbury Zodiac|url=http://www.badarchaeology.com/?page_id=889|publisher=Bad Archeology|author1=Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Keith |author2=Doeser, James |access-date=2 December 2013}}</ref>{{sfn|Rahtz|Watts|2003|pp=65–66}}

The Tor and other sites in Glastonbury have also been significant in the modern-day [[Goddess movement]], with the flow from the [[Chalice Well]] seen as representing [[menstrual flow]] and the Tor being seen as either a breast or the whole figure of the Goddess. This has been celebrated with an effigy of the Goddess leading an annual procession up the Tor.{{sfn|Bowman|2004|pp=273–285}}

It is said that [[Brigid of Kildare]] is depicted milking a cow as a stone carving above one of the entrances to the tower.<ref>The Goddess in Glastonbury, by Kathy Jones, 1990 Ariadne Publications</ref>

[[File:St. Brigid milking a cow.jpg|thumb|A stone carving that is said to depict St. Brigid milking a cow.]]