Abbotsham   Abbotsham church was originally sited on the summit of the bold ridge that runs S. of Westward Ho!, about 1 m. N. of its present site, to which it was removed at an unknown date. ....read more

Alfred, a Saxon King, tried to recreate Arthur's Britain during his reign. All the lands on the north Devon coast, parts of Cornwall and Somerset were taken by the crown. To Alfred the centre of Arthur's Britain seems to have been near St. Nectan's abbey at Hartland, N. Devon ...read more

Beacon Alignments   The island of Lundy was the centre of a network of signal beacons covering the southwest of Britain; Devon and Cornwall and the south of Wales as from the Brecon Beacons and the Preseli mountains....read more

St. Ann  The cult of St. Anne is thought to have begun in Devon in the 14th century. She was the mother of the Virgin Mary and the patron saint of mariners. St. Anne is often depicted carrying a ship in her arms.....read more

Annwn / Avalon  The Avalon of later Arthurian legends was known as Annwn to the earlier Celts. "Various hills and islands are access to Annwn. An Otherworld or underworld of Welsh legend, one of the many survivals from pagan Celtic Mythology. The most important hill is Glastonbury, the most important island is Lundy." ....read more

'Preiddeu Annwfn' - 'The Spoils of Annwyn'  The Book of Taliesin is a collection of prophetic, religious and historical poems ostensibly written by the sixth century Welsh bard Taliesin. The earliest surviving copy has been dated to 1275. Experts agree that some, but not all, of the material included in the book of Taliesin originated in the sixth century. The poems include 'Preiddeu Annwfn' - 'The Spoils of Annwyn'

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Apollo In Greek mythology Apollo was the son of the god Zeus and  Leto, both children of Titans. Apollo was not a native Greek god. His cult and that of his twin sister Artemis were imported from the north. His name Apollo (Apple -Man) is understood to be derived from the Celtic word 'Abal' - apple ( as is Avalon). Apollo was a gifted musician, who delighted the gods with his performance on the lyre........read more

Temples of Apollo  The author of the journal of Pytheas' travels (Diodoros Siculus, Bibliotheca quoting Hecateus of Abdera as one of the writer's authorities). wrote that there were two temples to the god Apollo on the British Isles. There was ‘both a magnificent sacred precinct of Apollo and a notable temple which is adorned with many votive offerings and is spherical in shape’ ..... read more

Apocrypha    The Apocrypha is the name given to those books which for various reasons are included /excluded from differing versions of the Bible; Hebrew Bible, Orthodox Christian Bible, King James Bible etc....read more

The Golden Apple  It seems that Zeus was preparing a wedding banquet for Peleus and Thetis and did not want to invite Eris because of Her reputation as a trouble maker. This made Eris angry, and so She fashioned an apple of pure gold....read more

Appledore  Appledore like Avalon is derived from apple ....read more

Arianrhod (Celtic) lives with her three sisters Gwen or Gwennan , Maelen  and Elen on Caer Sidi, also known as Caer Arianrhod . ( Caer Sidi is an island in the sea with an otherworldly tower, identified by many authorities with Lundy. )..... read more

Joseph of Arimathea   Joseph of Arimathea was a highly respected Jewish councillor, a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Judaic community under the Romans. He was a secret disciple of Jesus .....read more

Three Hebrew missionaries are named, but only with their British names in Welsh manuscripts as having brought the teachings of Jesus into Britain in the first century. The three are called 'Ilid', 'Cyndaf' and his son 'Mawan. Most eminent authorities concur in identifying the three with Bron, Joseph of Arimathea, and Joseph's son Josephes.....read more

"Joseph and his company prepared their fleet and entered without delay, and did not end their voyage till they reached the land which God had promised to Joseph. The name of the country was the White Isle;....read more

Arius   In the early fourth century Arius, a presbyter in Alexandria, started a theological dispute with  orthodoxy. His premise was quite simple  - that Jesus was wholly mortal, was in no sense divine, and in no sense anything more than an inspired teacher. The teachings of Arius gained great support  throughout most of the fourth and fifth centuries. According to the authors of 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail ' ...during most of the 5thC.every bishopric in Western Europe was either Arian or vacant'  ....read more

Arthur, the rightful king   "The earliest full stories concerning King Arthur and his exploits appear to be the little known Welsh tales of "Culhwch and Olwen" and the "Dream of Rhonabwy". Though dating from before the 11th century, these two stories became a late attachment to a collection of Welsh mythological tales taken from the 14th century White Book of Rhydderch and Red Book of Hergest. Together, they are known as the "Mabinogion": an introduction for aspiring poets. Though the stories have a mythological slant, a certain amount of bardic poetic license is to be expected. Their background, however, is clearly an unfamiliar Dark Age society that gives us some idea of what the real Arthur was probably like" .....read more

Arthur's Army The armies of the Britons were mainly cavalry those of the Anglo - Saxons, whether seaborne or land based, were infantry. Early Welsh poets tell of resplendent well -mounted sword -armed warriors fighting spear equipped foot -soldiers. One early poem specifically tells of the defeat of Arthur's horsemen by Anglo -Saxon infantry. Not until the late 6th C. does horse furniture start to appear among excavated Anglo - Saxon grave goods in Britain and then only as that of a leader who rode while his men marched...... read more

Arthur's Battles  In -'Historia Brittonum' written C.800 Nennius lists twelve battles fought by Arthur.  None of the places named is easily recognizable but they can be interpreted as describing a series of invasions or raids by the English as they sailed around the South-western coast of Britain, from Exeter round Lands End to Barnstaple Bay, where the final battle, the siege of Mount Badon, took place....read more

Arthur's Navy  Geoffrey of Monmouth tells us that Arthur built, or assembled, a fleet of ships.  From earliest times, the peoples of the soutwest of Britain have been dependant on the sea, for food, for trade and for defence. .....read more

Archeoastronomy is the study of the various astronomical achievements of the past,  combining the knowledge of archaeologists, astronomers and other scientists.......read more

Artavia   In his 'Geography' or 'Itinerary and Commentary de Situ Britanniae' Richard of Cirencester describes the different tribes who inhabited Britain and names their principal cities. He mentions Artavia, a city of the Cimbri in North Devon. He adds 'From hence, according to the ancients, are seen the Pillars of Hercules, and the island of Herculea not far distant.' .....read more

Isis / Demeter / Astarte  In Egyptian mythology, Isis was the daughter of the god Keb ("Earth") and the goddess Nut ("Sky"). To the Egyptians, Sirius was the star of Isis. After the 4th century BC the cult of Isis spread from its centre at the great temple in her honour on Philae, an island in the River Nile throughout the ancient world. Herodotus, the Greek scholar, identified Isis with Demeter (Roman - Ceres), the Greek goddess of agriculture, earth, and of fertility. ....read more

In Astrology the twelve zodiac signs are traditionally split in four groups, corresponding to the four fundamental elements of the universe;- fire, earth, air and water......read more

Stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments Astronomically Considered by Norman Lockyer The scientific study of the orientation of the remains of temples and other sites in the Middle East and Europe, including the pyramids of Egypt, began early last century. With his pioneering work on Stonehenge in the late 19th century Sir Norman Lockyer brought this and other megalithic monuments under scrutiny.  read the full text here

Atlas ( Greek god ) was a Titan, one of the elder gods, father of the Hesperides. He was condemned by Zeus to bear on his shoulders the weight of the heavens......read more

Atlantis   Atlantis was not a city or found in the Mediterranean. It was more than a large continent. According to Plato, legends and old maps; a great land mass once stood in the Atlantic. The continent is no longer there. The continent may have sunk to the ocean floor during the destruction of Atlantis. ...... read more

Avallach In Welsh tradition Avallach is the father of Morgan le Fay.  Avallach, according to Triad 70 is the name of one of the mythical ancestors from whom the most prominent British dynasties claimed descent. In the ''Estoire del Saint Greal' the heathen king Evalake (Evalach),  to whose sun temple Joseph of Arimathea is supposed to have gone, is another manifestation of Avallach  ......... read more