page_title: A Glastonbury Romance
section_title: Introduction and summary of the plot
hierarchical_section_title: A Glastonbury Romance / Introduction and summary of the plot
caption_attribution_description: en:Glastonbury, en:Somerset, UK seen from the nearby settlement of Street. The town is built on the fringes of hills rising above the en:Somerset Levels. To the right is Glastonbury Tor and to the left, Wearyall Hill where one of the Glastonbury thorns grows. Most of the town lies behind this hill. Taken by wurzeller on 6 Apr 2004 and hereby published under the terms of the GFDL. en:Category:Images of England
context_page_description: A Glastonbury Romance was written by John Cowper Powys in rural upstate New York and first published by Simon and Schuster in New York City in March 1932. An English edition published by John Lane followed in 1933. It is the second of Powys's Wessex novels, along with Wolf Solent, Weymouth Sands and Maiden Castle. Powys was an admirer of Thomas Hardy and these novels are set in Somerset and Dorset parts of Hardy's mythical Wessex. The action occurs over roughly a year, and the first two chapters of A Glastonbury Romance take place in Norfolk, where the late Canon William Crow's will is read, and the Crow family learn that his secretary-valet John Geard has inherited his wealth. Also in Norfolk, a romance begins between cousins, John and Mary Crow. However, after an important scene at the ancient monument of Stonehenge, the rest of the action takes place in or near the Somerset town of Glastonbury, which is some twenty miles north of the village of Montacute. Powys's father, the Reverend Charles Francis Powys, was parish priest of Montacute from 1885 to 1918, and it was here that Powys grew up.
context_section_description: In Powys's words this novel's "heroine is the Grail", and its central concern is with the various myths and legends along with history associated with Glastonbury.  It is also possible to see most of the main characters, John Geard, Sam Dekker, John Crow, and Owen Evans as undertaking a Grail quest. 
  Not only is A Glastonbury Romance concerned with the legend that Joseph of Arimathea brought the Grail, a vessel containing the blood of Christ, to the town, but the further tradition that King Arthur was buried there. In addition one of the novels main characters, the Welshman Owen Evans, introduces the idea that the Grail has a Welsh (Celtic), pagan pre-Christian origin. The main sources for Powys's ideas on mythology and the Grail legend are Sir John Rhys's Studies in the Arthurian Legend, R. S. Loomis's Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance, and the works of Jessie L. Weston, including From Ritual to Romance.  T. S. Eliot's  The Waste Land is another probable influence. A central aspect of A Glastonbury Romance is the attempt by John Geard, ex-minister now the mayor of Glastonbury, to restore Glastonbury to its medieval glory as a place of religious pilgrimage. On the other hand, the Glastonbury industrialist Philip Crow, along with John and Mary Crow, and Tom Barter, who, like him, are from Norfolk, view the myths and legends of the town with contempt. Philip's vision is of  a future with more mines and more factories. John Crow, however, as he is penniless, takes on the task of organizing a pageant for Geard. At the same time an alliance of Anarchists, Marxists, and Jacobins try to turn Glastonbury into a commune.
  A Glastonbury Romance is also the first of several novels by Powys that reflect his growing interest in Welsh mythology, the others are Maiden Castle (1935), Morwyn (1937), Owen Glendower (1941), and Porius (1951). Like Powys, Owen Evans is a devoted student of Welsh mythology. He also resembles Powys in that he has strong urges toward violence and sadism, and is often tempted by sadistic pornography. But Evans is not the only character that resembles his creator, as both John Geard and John Crow reflect, in different ways, aspects of Powys's personality.
  A Glastonbury Romance has several climactic moments, before the major final one. Firstly there is Sam Dekker's decision, following his Grail vision, to give-up of his adulterous affair with Nell Zoyland, and to lead a monk-like existence. Then there's Evans' failed attempt to destroy his sadistic urge, by playing the part of Christ on the Cross at the Easter Pageant. Followed, however, by his wife Cordelia's ability to defeat his desire to witness a murder. The attempted murder of John Crow is equally climatic. But this involves Tom Barter's death, when he saves his friend John Crow, who is Mad Bet's intended victim. Finally the novel concludes with the a flooding of the low lying country surrounding Glastonbury, so that it becomes once again the legendary Isle of Avalon. This causes the death of Geard, and ends his ambitious plans for Glastonbury. However, the ending is ambiguous, rather than tragic, because just before he dies, Geard asks John Crow: "do you suppose anyone's ever committed suicide out of an excess of life, simply to enjoy the last experience in full consciousness?" (1955 edition, p. 1041).
caption: Glastonbury Tor from Street, Somerset
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon DIGITAL IXUS 330", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2004:04:06 18:52:24", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "188", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1113", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6579", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:04:06 18:52:24", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:04:06 18:52:24", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "133/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "1111/256", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "46955/16384", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "109/8", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1597", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "931", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "1600", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1200", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "948", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "800000/103", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "240000/31", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}