Avalon was associated from an early date with mystical practices and magical figures such as King Arthur's sorceress sister Morgan, cast as the island's ruler by Geoffrey and many later authors.

[1] Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudo-chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae ("The History of the Kings of Britain", c. 1136) calls the place Insula Avallonis, meaning the "Isle of Avallon" in Latin.

All are related to the Gaulish root *aballo "fruit tree" (found in the place name Aballo/Aballone) and are derived from Proto-Celtic *abal- "apple", which is related at the Indo-European level to English apple, Russian яблоко (jabloko), Latvian ābele, et al.[8][9] In the early 12th century, William of Malmesbury claimed the name of Avalon came from a man called Avalloc, who once lived on this isle with his daughters.

[12] According to Geoffrey in the Historia, and much subsequent literature which he inspired, King Arthur was taken to Avalon (Avallon) in hope that he could be saved and recover from his mortal wounds following the tragic Battle of Camlann.

Geoffrey dealt with the subject in more detail in the Vita Merlini, in which he describes for the first time in Arthurian legend the fairy or fae-like enchantress Morgen (i.e. Morgan) as the chief of nine sisters (including Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe and Thiten)[13] who together rule Avalon.

The description of Avalon, which is heavily indebted to the early medieval Spanish scholar Isidore of Seville (having been mostly derived from the section on famous islands in Isidore's work Etymologiae, XIV.6.8 "Fortunatae Insulae"),[14][15][16][17] shows the magical nature of the island: The Isle of Fruit Trees which men call the Fortunate Isle (Insula Pomorum quae Fortunata uocatur) gets its name from the fact that it produces all things of itself; the fields there have no need of the ploughs of the farmers and all cultivation is lacking except what nature provides.

In many versions of Arthurian legend, including Thomas Malory's compilation Le Morte d'Arthur, Morgan the Fairy and several other magical queens (numbering either three, four, or "many"[30]) arrive after the battle to take the mortally wounded Arthur from the battlefield of Camlann (Salisbury Plain in the romances) to Avalon in a black boat.

[33][34] In Lope Garcia de Salazar's Spanish summary of the Post-Vulgate Roman du Graal, Avalon is conflated with (and explicitly named as) the mythological Island of Brasil, said to be located west of Ireland and afterwards forever hidden in mist by Morgan's enchantment.

[41][42] This is reminiscent of the British tradition mentioned by Gervase of Tilbury as having Morgan still healing Arthur's wounds opening annually ever since on the Isle of Avalon (Davalim).

[44][45] Morgan features as an immortal ruler of a fantastic Avalon, sometimes alongside the still-alive Arthur, in some subsequent and otherwise non-Arthurian chivalric romances such as Tirant lo Blanch,[46] as well as the tales of Huon of Bordeaux,[47] where the faery king Oberon is a son of either Morgan by name or "the Lady of the Secret Isle",[48] and the legend of Ogier the Dane,[49] where Avalon can be described as an enchanted fairy castle (chasteu d'Auallon[50]),[51] as it is also in Floriant et Florete.

[52] In his La Faula, Guillem de Torroella claims to have visited the Enchanted Island (Illa Encantada) and met Arthur who has been brought back to life by Morgan and they both of them are now forever young, sustained by the Holy Grail.

[57] Erec and Enide, an early Arthurian romance by Chrétien de Troyes, mentions at the wedding of Arthur and Guinevere a "friend" (i.e. lover[58]) of Morgan as the Lord of the Isle of Avalon, Guingomar (manuscript variants Guinguemar, Guingamar, Guigomar, Guilemer, Gimoers).

In this appearance, he might have been derived from the fairy king Gwyn ap Nudd, who in the Welsh Arthurian tradition figures as the ruler of Avalon-like Celtic Otherworld, Annwn.

[59] The German Diu Crône says the Queen of Avalon is the goddess (göttin) Enfeidas, Arthur's aunt (sister of Uther Pendragon) and one of the guardians of the Grail.

In Le Morte d'Arthur, for instance, Avalon is called an isle twice and a vale once (the latter in the scene of Arthur's final voyage, oddly despite Malory's adoption of the boat travel motif).

[69] Chretien's Escavalon was renamed as Askalon in Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, who might have been either confused or inspired by the real-life Middle Eastern coastal city of Ascalon.

[72] Though no longer an island in the 12th century, the high conical bulk of Glastonbury Tor in today's South-West England had been surrounded by marsh before the draining of fenland in the Somerset Levels.

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.

[note 3] Leslie Alcock in his Arthur's Britain postulated a theory according to which the grave site had been originally discovered in an ancient mausoleum sometime after 945 by Dunstan, the Abbot of Glastonbury, who reburied it along with the 10th-century stone cross; it would then become forgotten again until its rediscovery in 1190.

The fact that the search for the body is connected to Henry II and Edward I, both kings who fought major Anglo-Welsh wars, has had scholars suggest that propaganda may have played a part as well.

[74] The burial discovery ensured that in later romances, histories based on them and in the popular imagination, Glastonbury became increasingly identified with Avalon, an identification that continues strongly today.

[85] Modern writers such as Dion Fortune, John Michell, Nicholas Mann and Geoffrey Ashe have formed theories based on perceived links between Glastonbury and Celtic legends of the Otherworld in attempts to link the location firmly with Avalon, drawing on the various legends based on Glastonbury Tor as well as drawing on ideas like Earth mysteries, ley lines and even the myth of Atlantis.

[90] Pomponius Mela's ancient Roman description of the island of Île de Sein, off the coast of Brittany, was also notably one of Geoffrey of Monmouth's original inspirations for his Avalon.

In modern times, similar to the search for Arthur's mythical capital Camelot, a variety of sites across Britain, France and elsewhere have been put forward as being the "real Avalon".

[96] Geoffrey Ashe championed an association of Avalon with the town of Avallon in Burgundy, as part of a theory connecting King Arthur to the Romano-British leader Riothamus who was last seen in that area.

[note 5] Robert Graves identified Avalon with the Spanish island of Majorca (Mallorca),[95] while Laurence Gardner suggested the Isle of Arran off the coast of Scotland.