Glastonbury Tor, Avalon & Tennyson's Passing of Arthur: Refusing the Legend

What do you do with the most mythologised hill in England, when your own poem refuses to mention the myth at all? We begin with the legend at full volume: Tennyson's Avalon, from The Passing of Arthur—an island where "falls not hail, or rain, or any snow," promised to a dying king who admits, in the same breath, that he isn't sure it's real. Then we climb the real hill. Glastonbury Tor: a residual outlier left standing while everything softer eroded away, seven terraces of disputed origin, a roofless tower held up by iron tie bars, and an abbot hanged, drawn and quartered at the summit in 1539. Nothing here has ever been exempt from weather, wear, or violence—and the poem never once says the word Avalon. This week's discussion—Refusing the Legend: what it costs, and what it buys you, to choose the documented truth over the more beautiful story everyone already wants to believe. Somerset In Verse — Exmoor To Levels In Poetry arrives in paperback on Amazon on 3rd September. No pre-orders—just the date to remember. Enter our competition: Suggest a guest poem by emailing [email protected] for your chance to win a signed copy of Somerset In Verse. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you don't miss next week's walk.