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Glastonbury Abbey
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Somerset. Originally a Celtic foundation, under St Dunstan Glastonbury became an important educational and religious centre. Between 1129 and 1139 William of Malmesbury wrote a history of the abbey; a 13th-cent. revision of this work records the legends associating Glastonbury with Joseph of Arimathaea, King Arthur, and St Patrick. The abbey was suppressed in 1539. The ‘Glastonbury Thorn’ was a Levantine hawthorn, around which several legends collected; it was cut down under O. Cromwell, but descendants of it remain.
Subjects: Religion
