The Glastonbury Giants
By Kathy Doore
The Glastonbury Zodiac may be the most remarkable ancient earthenwork in Great Britain.
This great landscape configuration is comprised of a circle 10 miles across and 30 miles
in circumference formed by hills, roads, and rivers that can only be seen in its entirety
from high above. Discovered in 1927 by
Katherine Maltwood, the figures are representations of constellations
in the heavens moulded into the fabric of the land.
Here giant mythological archetypes depict the Grail Quest. Like the Twelve Giants, the
Round Table has twelve places. Even the land around Glastonbury has been known for centuries
as the Twelve Hides (given to Joseph of Arimathea the uncle of Jesus, when he arrived here with the Holy Grail).
This vast complex encompasses Glastonbury Tor and Chalice Hill in the sign of Aquarius (Phoenix),
Wearyall Hill in Pisces, and so forth, as it weaves round the Isle of Avalon. Arthur,
Guinevere, Merlin, and the Knights are still remembered in the
signs of the Giant Zodiac.
Maltwood believed the Zodiac was constructed sometime around 2700 BCE, but earlier dates
of 7000 BCE relating to Egypt’s Dendarah Zodiac, have also been suggested.
Katherine Maltwood retired to Victoria B.C. where she founded the
Maltwood Museum. Upon her
death in 1961 she bequeathed her entire Collection to the University of Victoria which still houses her
vast collection of art, and contempory works. The Zodiac Wood Sculpture (shown at top of page) and all of
Maltwood's research archives may be viewed at the McPhearson Library, Special Collections Department, University
of Victoria. Since its institution in 1953 the museum collection has grown to over 6,000 items representing the work
of contemporary Western
Canadian artists, particularly those of British Columbia. This collection of fine, decorative and applied
arts is the bequest of English
sculptress and antiquarian, Katharine Emma Maltwood, F.R.S.A. (1878-1961). Reflecting the tastes and
travels of Mrs. Maltwood and her
husband John Maltwood, the collection ranges from Oriental ceramics, costumes and rugs to seventeenth century
English furniture,
Canadian paintings, and a selection of Katherine Maltwood's own paintings and sculptures including her marble
bust, "The Holy Grail".
Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery
3800 Finnerty Road (Ring Road), University Centre
Victoria BC, Canada
Excerpts from Mary Caines book:
The Glastonbury Zodiac
Key to the Mysteries of Britain
by Mary Caine Around the town of Glastonbury, England, where Jesus spent time as a
youth, and where Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus' uncle, founded the
Christian Church of England in 37 AD, there is built into the landscape
a huge Zodiac, only discovered in recent times.
Copious evidence of prehistoric interference with the landscape can by
seen on every side; there were obviously early and important
settlements here with hardly a hill that has not been terraced or
fortified; tumuli and other earthworks abound. The Tor already
impressive enough, has been laboriously terraced into something
reminiscent of a Chaldean Ziggurat, or a step-pyramid. Its influence on
the whole area is hypnotic; it is a constant reminder of eternity -- a
gnarled prophetic finger pointing to another and disturbing dimension.
Impossible to resist its imperial bidding for long, it impels us to
ascend and contemplate wider horizons.
The Glastonbury Zodiac is the earthly counterpart of the Caer Sidi of
the Celts - a great Star-Temple, reflecting in its natural contours and
streams the Zodiac in the heavens. So accurately indeed does it mirror
the heavenly pattern that the stars of the Zodiac fit over its earthly
effigies when the planisphere is scaled to the map of Avalon.
That this antiquity has lain so long forgotten is due, paradoxically,
to its immense size. It is literally too big to be seen. These giant
figures - one of them is five miles across - lie stretched over the
Vale of Avalon in a great circle ten miles in diameter. Glastonbury Tor
is it's northern sighting point; Somerton and Lyte's Cary bound it on
the south. The effigies are formed and outlined by hills, contours,
earthworks, roads, paths, ancient field boundaries, and by natural and
artificial waterways. They consist of the twelve signs of the Zodiac in
their correct order, with a thirteenth figure, the largest of all,
lying outside the circle to the southwest. This is the great dog of
Langport, who guards the sacred abode of Annwn, just as Cerberus
guarded the gates of Hades.
Sole credit for discovering the Glastonbury Giants belongs to Katharine
Maltwood. In 1927 she was asked to draw an itinerary of the Grail-Quest
in Avalon for "The High History of the Holy Grail", a Norman-French
manuscript newly translated into English. Studying its text, which
purports to have been written at Glastonbury Abbey, she found that the
castles and adventures of the knights accurately corresponded to places
in the Vale of Avalon. Following their encounters with dragons, giants,
lions and other alarming fauna on the map, she was amazed to find that
she too was confronted by a huge lion, its underside accurately drawn
by the river Cary from Somerton to Lyte's Cary; its back traced by an
ancient road, Somerton Lane.
A geographical giant revealed itself next contoured by Dundon and
Lollover Hills. An astrologer friend with whom she discussed these
strange finds suggested from their relative positions that they might
be Leo and Gemini of the Zodiac - and it was not long before the whole
consort of Glastonbury Giants was restored, after centuries of
oblivion.
Who made it? When? And why? There can be no doubt that this Zodiac in
essence, is natural. Its huge figures moulded by hills and lesser
contours is partly outlined by rivers and streams whose course is
determined by them. The whole complex measures some ten or twelve miles
across, thirty miles around and can hardly be the unaided work of man.
No, it was modelled by a vaster hand; whether we like to call it
Nature, Cosmic Forces, or simply God.
So the question, "who made the Zodiac," must it seems have a dual
answer; it was made by Nature in the first place, and continued by man.
The Zodiac can be seen in 20th century maps perhaps more clearly than
in the past. The paths are widening into motor roads and some are
becoming dual carriage-ways. Yet this is not to say that the design was
unknown, unrecognized. There is indeed much evidence in early writings
to show that it was known.
The second question "When was it made?" must then take us back to the
geological ages when the hills were first formed and the streams first
began to flow. But this was only the beginning; its continuous
development embraces all the ages of man down to the present day.
The third question, "Why was it made?" has already been answered by Dunstan's biographer with
commendable succinctness. It was prepared, he tells us,
"for the salvation
of mankind".
What a flavor of infinity there is about all these answers! We come to it in our
usual state of partial consciousness, expecting a clear yes or no, and get both yes and
no at once. This in itself is a hint that we are in touch with infinity.