The view from Glastonbury Tor to the Mendip Hills in the distance.
The Somerset Levels, Somerset, England
The Somerset Levels are an area of flat lowland stretching out between the Mendip and the Quantock hills and out to the sea. Once, the sea would have flooded the whole area in winter, creating marshy ground in the summer months. The local hills, including Glastonbury Tor, would form islands of dry ground surrounded by mist.
The area we see now was drained in the seventeenth century. Drainage ditches known as "rhynes" are used to keep out the water, although the area is still prone to flooding. This leaves the Tors to stand out isolated and alone on the low plain, individual hills that seem unnatural as they rise up out of this flat land.
Unsurprisingly, with all this water associated with the Levels, there are many springs in the area. Many of them are considered to be holy, such as those at Glastonbury and Wells. People came to the region for healing and in the Christian period, for pilgrimage to the shrines in the area.
By the Bronze Age people had settled this region and lived here in Lake Villages. These were settlements built out into the water on artificial islands connected by wooden causeways raised up on stilts. They would have supported themselves by hunting and fishing in the water that surrounded their homes.
This then is an atmospheric landscape, ripe for the rich legends that grew up here of King Arthur and his knights. It is even thought that he would have held his court at the local hill fort at Cadbury. However, it is Glastonbury, thought to be the Avalon of the legend, where the mythology connects together.
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Glastonbury