Tea at Trianon: Avalon

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, February 17, 2024

Avalon

I have been researching Arthurian legend a lot lately. From Ancient Origins:

Like many mythical paradise isles, Avalon has captured the imagination of generations of writers since the island was first mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae or History of the Kings of Britain, written in 1136 AD. Many explorers and thinkers have tried to find the actual location of the legendary island, suggesting places in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and even places in the southern hemisphere. Some of the most popular suggestions for the location of Avalon include the Isle of Man and Glastonbury. Despite the popularity of the idea, there does not seem to be much evidence that Avalon was based on a real place and it may have been little more than a myth derived from earlier Celtic myths about otherworldly paradise islands.

According to the original legend, Avalon was an island full of wild apple trees, grapevines, and grain plants - which grew there instead of wild plants. Because of this, the people who lived there did not have to farm and lived out an idyllic existence. The name ‘Avalon’ in fact is related to the Proto-Celtic word “abal” meaning apple. The inhabitants of the island were also said to have very long lifespans. After King Arthur was mortally injured at the Battle of Camlann while fighting Mordred, legends say he was placed on a barge which took him to the island of Avalon. While there, King Arthur was healed and nourished back to health. It is said that King Arthur still remains there, alive, and will one day return when England needs him the most. (Read more.)

In the 1620's and 30's, during the reign of Charles I, Lord Baltimore founded a colony in Newfoundland which he called "Avalon" but the extreme winters drove him further south to what is now Maryland, named for Charles' Queen. It became the new Avalon. More HERE.