De Principis Instrucione (c. 1195)

From the Autobiography of Giraldus Cambrenius, ed. and trans. H. E. Butler
(London: Jonathan Cape, 1937).

Now the body of King Arthur, which legend has feigned to have been tansferred at his
passing, as it were inghostly form, by spirits to a distant place and to have been exempt from
death, was found in these our days at Glastonbury deep down in earth and encoffined in hollow oak
between two stones pyramids erected long ago in the consecrated graveyard, the site being revealed
by strange and almost miraculous signs; and it was afterwards transported with honour to the Church
and decently consigned to a marble tomb. Now in grave there was found a cross of lead, placed under
 a stone and not above it, as is now customary, but fixed on the lower side. This cross I myself
have seen; for I have felt the letters engraved thereon, which do not project or stand out, but are
turned inwards toward the stone. They run as follows.

Here lies buried the renowned King Arthur
with Guenevere his second wife
in the isle of Avalon

Now in regard to this there are many things worthy of note. For he had two wives, the last of whom
was buried with him, and her bones were found together with his, but separated from them and thus;
two parts of the tomb, to wit, the head, were allotted to the bones of them man, while teh remaining
third towards the foot contained the bones of the woman in a place apart; and there was found a yellow
tress of woman's hair still retaining its colour and its freshness; but when a certain monk snatched
it and lifted it with greedy hand, it straightway all of it fell into dust. Now whereas there were
certain indictions in their writings that the body would be found there, and others in the letters
engraven upon teh pyramids, though they were given in visions and revelations vouchsafed to good men
and religious, yet it was above all King Henry II of England that most clearly informed the monks, as
he had heard from an ancient Welsh bard, a singer of the past, that they would find  the body at least
sixteen feet beneath the earth, not in a tomb of stone, but in a hollow oak. And this is reason why
the body was placed so deep and hidden away, to wit, that it might not be any means be discovered by
the Saxons who occupiied the island after his death; and for the same reason those letters, witnessing
to the truth, that were stamped upon the cross, were turned inwards towards teh stone, that they might
at that time conceal what the tomb contained, and yet in due time and place might some day reveal the
truth.

Now the palce which is now called Glaston, was in ancient times called the isle of Avalon. For it is
as it were an isle, covered with marshes, wherefore in the British tongue it was called Inis Avallon,
that is the 'apple-bearing island.' Wherefore Morganis, a noble matron and the ruler and lady of those
parts, who moreover was kin by blood to King Arthur, carried him away after the war of Camlan to the
island that is now called 'Inis Gutrin' in the British tongue, that is, the glassy isle, wherefore
when the Saxons afterwards came thither they call that place Glastingeburi. For 'Glas' in their
language has the same meaning as uitrum, while 'buri' means castrum or ciuitas.

You must also know that the bones of Arthur thus discovered were so huge that the words of the poet
seemed to be fulfilled:

'And he shall marvel at huge bones
In tombs his spade has riven' (Virg. Georg. I, 497).

For his shank-bone, when placed against that of the tallest man in that place and planted in the
earth near his foot, reached (as the Abbot showed us) a good three inches above his knee. And the
skull was so large and capacious as to be a portent or prodigy; for teh eyesocket was a good palm
in width. Moreover, there were ten wounds or more, all of which were scarred over, save one larger
than the rest, which had made a large hole.