However, after an important scene at the ancient monument of Stonehenge, the rest of the action takes place in or near the Somerset town of Glastonbury, which is some ten miles north of the village of Montacute.

However, the ending is ambiguous, rather than tragic, because Geard had earlier had asked John Crow: "do you suppose anyone's ever committed suicide out of an excess of life, simply to enjoy the last experience in full consciousness?

[9] The numerous inhabitants of Glastonbury, include: "a sadist, a madwoman, a vicar, a procuress, eccentric servants, spinster ladies, lovelorn maidens, lesbians ... anarchists, communists, romantic lovers, old men, and young children".

In 1934, Powys and his English publishers were successfully sued for libel by Gerard Hodgkinson, real-life owner of the Wookey Hole caves, who claimed that the character of Philip Crow had been based on him.

The damages awarded crippled Powys financially, and he was forced to make substantial changes to the English edition of his next novel, which was initially published in America as Weymouth Sands (1934).

A Glastonbury Romance is also the first of several novels by Powys that reflect his growing interest in Welsh mythology, the others are Maiden Castle (1935), Morwyn (1937), Owen Glendower (1941), and Porius (1951).

[35] Scott defines the romance as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents", in contrast to mainstream novels which realistically depict the state of a society.

[38] In a letter written just after he had completed A Glastonbury Romance Powys describes how it differs from his previous novel,Wolf Solent, because it does not,"strain the whole business through one character ... but jumps about boldly and shamelessly from one person's thoughts to another's.

[49] [50] Jocelyn Brooke likewise sees Owen Evans as "a projection of Powys the self-confessed sadist; and "Johnny Geard, the methodist messiah ... is none other than the eccentric, 'dithyrambic' lecturer to American Women's Clubs".

[54] But this does not exhaust the list of individual stories and the novel offers different perspectives and "numerous political and religious views jostle for attention, with none being privileged over others"; and, there is also, a wide spectrum of social classes ... age groups ... and love relationships ... [including] "a remarkably varied array of homoerotic attractions and liaisons".

Another important scene, at least in earlier uncut versions of the novel, takes place in the Wookey Hole Caves, some 13 kilometres (8 mi) from Glastonbury on the edge of the Mendip Hills.

Central to the novel is the contrast Powys makes between the inhabitants from the two main settings: On the one hand, the people of Norfolk, in particular the members of the Crow family, are described descendants of Danish invaders, "who rode roughshod over the sacred mythologies of Celtic Britain".

[71][68] In addition to Danish and Norman invasions, there is the association of Glastonbury in legend with Christ through Joseph of Arithamathea, with King Arthur, with earlier Welsh or Celtic mythology, and Neolithic aboriginals.

[87] Later Geard visits Philip's "kingdom below the earth", where, according to Paul Cheshire, "the Witch" strikes "a 'dolorous blow' against [his] Grail project", when he falls asleep and misses making "his great speech".

[90] The Tor has been associated with the name Avalon, and identified with King Arthur, since the alleged discovery of his and Queen Guinevere's neatly labelled coffins in 1191, recounted by Gerald of Wales.

[91][92] Author Christopher L. Hodapp asserts in his book The Templar Code for Dummies that Glastonbury Tor is one of the possible locations of the Holy Grail, because it is close to the monastery that housed the Nanteos Cup.

This includes John Rhys's Studies in the Arthurian Legend, the works of the Cambridge classical scholars, Jane Harrison, Francis Cornford, and Gilbert Murray, Roger Loomis on the Fisher King and W. E. Mead on Merlin.

After the Battle of Camlann, a noblewoman called Morgan, later the ruler and patroness of these parts as well as being a close blood-relation of King Arthur, carried him off to the island, now known as Glastonbury, so that his wounds could be cared for.

Different traditions describe it as a cup, dish or stone with miraculous powers that provides eternal youth or sustenance in infinite abundance, often in the custody of the Fisher King.

[105] A "grail", wondrous but not explicitly holy, first appears in Perceval, le Conte du Graal, an unfinished romance written by Chrétien de Troyes around 1190.

[123] The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouth's fanciful and imaginative 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain).

At a depth of 5 m (16 ft), the monks were said to have discovered an unmarked tomb with a massive treetrunk coffin and, also buried, a lead cross bearing the inscription: Hic jacet sepultus inclitus rex Arturius in insula Avalonia.

Evans is writing a life of Merlin and believes that hidden in the ancient Welsh grail myths is a spiritual wisdom that will enable him to free himself from the nightmare of his sadistic obsession and find happiness (A Glastonbury Romance, p, 151).

[133] This combined with the legend about the Holy grail containing drops of Christ's blood, gives Geard the Christ-like power of curing Tithie Petherton of her cancer, and bringing an apparently dead boy back to life (pp.

[134] Later, after describing how reading Thomas Hardy helped him overcome his sadistic thoughts, Powys says that he felt himself "to be what the great Magician Merlin was before he met his 'Belle Dame sans Merci' " (Autobiography, p. 309).

Earlier Evans had hoped that he could free himself from his sadism by discovering the "ancient Cauldron of Celtic myth", one form that the grail takes,[137] however, because this quest fails, he decides to "seek" to expiate "his would-be crimes" by emulating Christ's suffering on the cross.

There was an actual flood in the Somerset levels that surround Glastonbury in December 1929, just four months after Powys's visit,[158] as well as one in 1919, when 70,000 acres (283 km2) were inundated with sea water, poisoning the land for up to 7 years.

[145] W. J. Keith and others, see Geard's death "not as an act of self-destruction but as a Merlininesque 'Esplumoir'" that is, as Owen describes it, "'a sort of inspired suicide, a mysterious dying in order to live more fully'";[171][172] a "mystic Fourth Dimension, or Nirvanic apotheosis".

[176] Keith notes that though other references to the earth-mother are sparse, they "occur at fairly regular intervals",[177] and Christine Bilodeau draws to attention to how Powys emphasizes the moon's symbolic relationship with the Feminine.

[189] But, he notes, However, though Jeremy Hooker sees all the major characters, as "reflections of a dominant psychological bias in the author", he argues that "Powys is, supremely, a master of personalities–of massive,self-consistent personalities.