The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1906-05-19

standing, and the Tor of Glastonbury,
In the isle of Avalon" may be seen
to this day. Glastonbury Abbey is
ruin, for the good people some CEN,
turies ago tore it down piecemeal to
build themselves houses and to Pave
the highway.
Arthur's body is said to have lain
buried near Joseph's Chapel at Glas-
tonbury until 1891, when the abbot
caused excavations to be made. AT
the depth of six feet the workmen
came upon a fiat stone, inlaid with a
leaden cross, which bore upon it's in
ner surface, next the stone, this in
scription, rudely carved in Latin:s
Here lies buried, in the island of
Avalonia, the renowned King Arthur =
Ten feet further down another stone,
bearing Arthur's name, was encounter
ed, and under. this a huge coffin fof>
followed oak. The coffin was found
to have two divisions, one containing
the bones of a man of gigantic statue,
and in the other were found the bones.
of Queen Guinevere. These remains
are said to have been removed to the
middle of the presbytery. When Ed
ward I. visited the abbey, in 1876, the
tomb was opened and the relics placed
in front of the high altar for the
alteration of the people. AS recently
! as the fifteenth century the tomb was
seen by Leland.
The sources Of Malory's ''Morte
d'Arthur" are quite another matter
from the Question of Arthurs reality.
| Before Mallory there were in existence
numerous metrical romances con-
nectedt with Arthur Many of these
| were in French, but it, has been shown:
| beyond dispute by Doctor ~Somner that
although Mallory refers occasionally to
"the frensshe book" in two instances
! at least the French book was an Eng
lish one. It has been contended that
! the Britain mentioned in the old
| chronicles was really Brittany, now
! part Of France, and that therefore the
story Of Arthur is a French legend. =
The first English. prose version Of
the romance, ssthattsWritte sbY: Mallory
IS merely a comp ofAvario
gendary tales which have little con-:
E:nection. Doctor Somner has taken the
twenty-five books of Malory's romance
and has traced to their source all but
a very small part. Some chapters in
the Launcelot episodes remain to be
accounted for in the sixth, twelfth and
nineteenth books. The whole of book
| seven is obscure. It relates to the
| adventures of Gareth, a brother of Sir
Gawayn, how he came disguised to
Arthur's court, and was nicknamed
Sir Kay ''Beaumayns."
"The whole book" says Doctor Som
ners, ''has the character of a folk-tale,
and differs greatly from the general
run of Arthurian adventures. l am
inclined to doubt it's originally belong
ing to the Arthurian cycle, to which
it may have been adapted by Mallory
or by some unknown writer before
him from some now lost French poem.
This conjecture is strengthened by the
fact that in none of the versions which
have read and which are repre-
sented in Malory's work is any, even
the slightest, reference made to
Gareth's exploits on his way to the
castle of Lady Lyonesse, or two this
lady, her sister Lynet, her brother
Grygamor by the five brothers whom
Gareth overcame and sent to Arthur's
court
According to Doctor Somner the
genealogy of Malory's work is as fol-
lows: Beginning with Nennius' "Eu-
logium Brittaniae sive Historic Brito-
mum" and Geoffrey's "Historia Brito-
num- the most important links are
WAGES Brut, Laymaon's Brut, Lang