Happy 90th, Geoffrey Ashe! (British legends historian & novelist)

[leno...@yahoo.com]

He lives in Glastonbury, Somerset.

http://orgs.bsc.edu/arthur/ashe.html
(long interview about the individuals King Arthur may have been based on)

http://www.thependragon.co.uk/Geoffrey%20Ashe.htm
"Ashe was a great supporter of the theory that King Arthur was based on the historical figure Riothamus and he argues this point in his books 'The Discovery of King Arthur' (1985) and 'The Landscape of King Arthur' (1987)."

http://www.physics.wustl.edu/~alford/arthur.html
(some basic facts on the 5th century, with Ashe's input)

http://www.britannia.com/history/glaston1.html
(Ashe's article on Glastonbury)

http://www.britannia.com/history/h17a.html
(long interview)

Excerpts:

Q: "If it were proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that Arthur existed, would his impact on us be any greater than it already is? Or, if it were proved that he never existed, would his impact be at all diminished? Does it make any difference whether Arthur has a factual basis, or not?"

A: "Personally, I'd like to see the question settled, because I've spent a good deal of time on it and would be glad to have the answer at last. So would some others who have likewise spent time on it. I'm not sure what difference an answer would make to the public at large. Very little, I suspect, for readers and movie-goers in general.

"The most significant effect might be on ideas about historical evidence. If Arthur were proved to have existed, it would be a triumph for people who believe in taking legends seriously, and a setback for historians who try to reduce everything to documentation. That might open up fresh approaches to other issues where legends are involved.

"As for the second alternative, I doubt whether the negative could ever be proved. What needs to be stressed is that the would-be debunker can't be allowed to get away with it by just saying 'No.' The obvious retort is, 'Then what did happen?' The Arthurian phenomenon is a fact, a very big and complex fact, and to sustain a denial you'd have to account for it without Arthur. Has anyone ever done that convincingly? Until someone does, I'd say it remains easier on balance to believe in him than to disbelieve.

"So far as I can see, the only possibility of disproof is that someone might discover an ancient god or demigod with a name like 'Arthur,' and interpret the stories as based on myths about this being and not on the acts of a living mortal. A few scholars have tried to do that very thing, but they failed to find the god. If another succeeded, it would push ideas of evidence the opposite way. There would be less of a case for taking legends seriously, because the legend of Arthur would have turned out to be a false trail, not leading to historical fact.

"All this may be pretty academic, implying that a final answer would only make a difference for those who care strongly about exploration of the past. Everyone else who is interested in Arthur could live with either result and not be greatly moved. And I think that's a good conclusion, discouraging undue partisanship. This is a fascinating mystery, and by all means let's be fascinated, but let's not be fanatical on either side."

http://mairangibay.blogspot.com/2013/02/ashes-to-ashes-geoffrey-ashe.html
(comments on a few of Ashe's books)

http://wn.com/geoffrey_ashe?orderby=relevance&upload_time=today
(video of a possible ancient battlefield, 6:58 minutes)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Ashe


WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR:

•The Tale of the Tub: A Survey of the Art of Bathing through the Ages, Newman Neame (London, England), 1950.
•King Arthur's Avalon: The Story of Glastonbury, Collins (London, England), 1957.

•From Caesar to Arthur, Collins (London, England), 1960.
•Land to the West: St. Brendan's Voyage to America, Collins (London, England), 1962.
•The Glass Island (play), 1964.
•The Land and the Book: Israel, the Perennial Nation, Collins (London, England), 1965.
•The Carmelite Order, Carmelite Press, 1965.
•Gandhi: A Study in Revolution, Heinemann (London, England), 1968, Cooper Square Press (New York, NY), 2000.
•(Editor and contributor) The Quest for Arthur's Britain, Pall Mall (London, England), 1968, Academy Chicago Publishers (Chicago, IL), 1987.
•All about King Arthur (juvenile), W. H. Allen (London, England), 1969, published as King Arthur in Fact and Legend, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1971.

•Camelot and the Vision of Albion, Heinemann (London, England), 1971.
•(With others) The Quest for America, Pall Mall (London, England), 1971.
•The Art of Writing Made Simple, W. H. Allen (London, England), 1972.
•The Finger and the Moon (novel), Heinemann (London, England), 1973.
•Do What You Will: A History of Anti-Morality, W. H. Allen (London, England), 1974, reprinted as The Hell-Fire Clubs, 2000.
•The Virgin, Routledge & Kegan Paul (London, England), 1976, Penguin (New York, NY), 1991.
•The Ancient Wisdom, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1977.
•Miracles, Routledge & Kegan Paul (London, England), 1978.

•A Guidebook to Arthurian Britain, Longman (London, England), 1980.
•Kings and Queens of Early Britain, Methuen (London, England), 1982, reprinted, 2000.
•Avalonian Quest, Methuen (London, England), 1982.
•The Discovery of King Arthur, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1985.
•(Associate editor) The Arthurian Encyclopedia, Garland (New York, NY), 1986.
•The Landscape of King Arthur, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1988.
•(With Norris J. Lacy) The Arthurian Handbook, Garland (New York, NY), 1988, revised edition, 1998.

•Mythology of the British Isles, Methuen (London, England), 1990.
•King Arthur: The Dream of a Golden Age, Thames & Hudson (London, England), 1990.
•Atlantis: Lost Lands, Ancient Wisdom, Thames & Hudson (London, England), 1992.
•Dawn behind the Dawn: A Search for an Earthly Paradise, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1992.
•(Associate editor) The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, St. James Press (Chicago, IL), 1991.
•The Book of Prophecy: From Ancient Greece to the Millennium, Blandford (London, England), 1999.

Gandhi: A Biography, 2000;
Encyclopedia of Prophecy, ABC-CLIO (Santa Barbara, CA), 2001.
Encyclopedia of Prophecy, 2001;
The Glastonbury Tor Maze, 5th ed., 2001;
Merlin, 2001;
Labyrinths and Mazes, 2003;
Merlin: The Prophet and His History, 2006;
The Offbeat Radicals, 2007.


Lenona.