Glastonbury, England

In 1872 a large well-house was built for the White Spring and it can still be entered. Cavernous and set apart, in blackness or candle lit, it is very enigmatic and a wonderful contrast to the sunlit gardens of Chalice Well of the Red Spring. The interior consists of three domed vaults 16ft high, with beautiful, bowed floors. Inadvertently, this created the perfect sacred space to represent the Celestial powers.

Consequently, photos of the inside are very rare and are discouraged because most require a flash which ruin the experience.

References

Glastonbury Information Centre - The White Spring. Online at https://glastonburyinformationcentre.co.uk/top-attractions/the-white-spring/

(December 26, 2025) In the medieval period the cult of holy wells was very strong, and during that time about 40 Cornish springs or wells had structures of some kind built over them or near them to hold the sacred water for anointing or bathing.

The Dupath well is a small chapel-like building which was probably built in about 1510 by the Augustinian canons of the nearby priory of St Germans, to whom the site belonged. It was dedicated to St Ethelred.  At one time the spring at Dupath was believed to cure whooping cough.

It was built entirely of Cornish granite. Some blocks of granite run the length of the building.  The interior is lit by one small vertical slit window in each side wall and a larger decorated two-light window in the east wall. The spring rises a little way in front of the building and flows in a culvert under the ground and under the entry threshold. Inside, it runs via a restored granite gutter into a sunken stone basin, presumably used for bathing, at the east end.

An overflow leads outside at the back into a medieval circular trough.

Although the cult of holy wells was condemned at the time of the Reformation in the mid-16th century, local reverence for them and folklore customs often continued.

They often attracted local legend. One grim tale associated with Dupath recounts that two Saxons – Colan (Cornish for heart or courage) and Gottlieb – fought a duel there for a lady’s hand. But the maiden remained unmarried: Colan was killed outright and Gottlieb fatally wounded, though some versions say he died later of ‘impatience’.

Reference

English Heritage - History of Dupath Well. Online at https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/dupath-well/history/

(April 24, 2024) The finds of lake village remains show Druid Neolithic settlements arrived early in the area. The following is the wikipedia description:

•  Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, situated on a crannog or man made island in the Somerset Levels, near Godney, some 3 miles (5 km) north west of Glastonbury in the southwestern English county of Somerset. It has been designated as a scheduled monument.

References

Bulleid, Arthur; Gray, Harold St. George  (1911) The Glastonbury Lake Village, a full description of the excavations and the relics discovered, 1892-1907. Online at: https://archive.org/details/glastonburylakev02bulluoft

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Lake_Village

(December 21, 2025) The first historical mention of King Arthur was in the previously mentioned  Historia Brittonum (History of the Britains) which was written in Latin by an unknown Welsh cleric around 830. His purpose in writing was to reassure the native Britons (todays Celts) that they had a glorious history and would rise again. This Arthur would have lived around 500 and was a mostly successful battle leader against the various Anglo-Saxon rulers seeking to establish their kingdoms.

The 2nd Latin source is the Annales Cambriae (The Annals of Wales) compiled in St. Davids in southwest Wales around 950. Its Arthur entries are:

• 516/518 The Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the shield of Our Lord Jesus Christ upon his shoulder three days and three nights, and the British were victorious.

• 537/39 The strife of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medrawd (Mordred) perished, and there was death in England and Ireland.

The report of Arthur carrying the shield of Jesus is clearly a Christian editorial addition. The Christian compiler of this text wanted to make sure Christianity was always seen to be victorious when in reality Arthur was defending a Pagan Wales. 

The Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons began in the late 500's, primarily through missionaries sent from Rome. One of their first converts was King Æthelberht of Kent. This process led to the gradual adoption of Christianity across various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, culminating in the Synod of Whitby in 664 which aligned the Anglo-Saxon church with Roman practices instead of with the Irish church.

What is significant for finding a historical Arthur is that he is not mentioned by that name in the earliest history of Britain by the cleric Gildas dating to around 540. This history is entitled De excidio Britanniae (On the ruin of Britain) in which the Anglo-Saxons are viewed as God's punishment on the Celts. He mentions the Battle of Badon Hill but does not say who led it. In another place he names one Ambrosious Aurelianus instead of Arthur as leading the Celtic resistance. 

De Excidio Britanniae describes the battle as such an "unexpected recovery of the [island]" that it caused kings, nobles, priests, and commoners to "live orderly according to their several vocations." Afterwards, the long peace degenerated into civil wars and the iniquity of Maelgwn Gwynedd (who promoted Christianity and died c. 547. He was King of Gwynedd during the early 6th century.)

Aurelianus is a Roman frontier name equivalent to Aurelian. One Aurelian became emperor of Rome (born c. 215—died 275) from 270 to 275. He ended up reuniting the empire which had virtually disintegrated under the pressure of invasions and internal revolts. He was born near the Danube River.

So is "Arthur" the Celtic version of Latin "Aurelian"? The words are not linguistically connected but the sound pattern of "Aurel" is not found in early Welsh where the sound pattern of "Arther" is. If a speech pattern of a foreign word is not easy to say then the word will shift pronunciation. So I would say they refer to the same person.

References

Williams, Mark (2021) The Celtic Myths That Shape the Way We Think. Thames and Hudson