beautiful than the lovely maidens who serve her; she healed Arthur when he was brought to the court of King Avallo and now they live together.26 Her name is Morgen, though elsewhere Morgen is Arthur's sister, and Giraldus Cambrensis calls her dea phantastica; while William of Malmesbury speaks of Avalloc (Avallo) as dwelling at Avalon with his daughters. How close is the resemblance of this island to the Irish Elysium must at once be seen. It is mainly a land of women; there is no toil, but plenty; no sickness nor death, but immortal youth; and the divine women there can take the form of birds like Fand, Liban, and others. They who visit Arthur find the place full of all delights, says the Vita Merlini; and if Arthur went to Avalon to his sister, he resembles Oisin who, in one account, went with his mother to Elysium.27 In the Didot Perceval Arthur declares that he will return, so that Britons expect him and have sometimes heard him hunting in the forest;28 and Layamon, who lived in a district where Brythonic tradition must have abounded, says also that Arthur, when wounded, announced his departure to the fairest of all maidens, Argante, Queen in Avalon, who would heal him, but that he would return. A boat appeared, in which were two women, who placed him in it; and now he dwells in Avalon with the fairest of elves, the fées or goddesses of other traditions, while Britons await his coming.29 In Malory the boat is full of queens, among them Morgen, Arthur's sister, and Nimue, the Lady of the Lake, "always friendly to Arthur."
From her had come the sword Excalibur, and her home was in a wonderful palace within a rock in a lake—an Elysium water-world. All this points to the interest taken in a hero by other-world beings.
The identification of Glastonbury with Avalon may be due to two influences. Glastonbury and its Tor were surrounded by marshes, which would cause it to be considered as an island; and probably, too, the Tor was a divine abode analogous to the síd, as the legend of Gwyn suggests. Some local myth
