Chronicles, cranks and the credulous

A E Henderson’s 1935 reconstruction of Glastonbury Abbey before the Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Chronicle of Glastonbury Abbey:
An Edition, Translation and Study of John of Glastonbury’s
Cronica sive Antiquitates Glastoniensis Ecclesie
by James P Carley.
The Boydell Press, 1985.

Glastonbury has long been a Mecca for seekers after arcane knowledge, and certainly its reputation for being a world centre for occult teachings, legends and geomancy increased immeasurably after the middle of the 20th century with hippies, New Agers, latter-day druids and would-be witches making it not only a port of call but somewhere to settle. But belief in its mystic significance is not a modern phenomenon as this scholarly text — which I first reviewed in 1986 — makes crystal clear.†

Professor Carley first edited the text of a 14th-century work, Cronica sive Antiquitates Glastoniensis Ecclesie, in 1978 for British Archaeological Reports, and that text reappears here with a very readable translation by David Townsend.

Over a third of the book is taken up with introductions, notes, bibliography and index, which are not only valuable for the student but thought-provoking for the interested lay-person. I shall return to these later.