XXVI. 



Mr. Arthur Evans, in reading a Paper on the Place of the Lake Village of 

 Glastonbury in British Archaeology, pointed out that the Celtic name of the 

 locality was Ynys Wytrin, "the island of glass," and reminded us that glass 

 had actually been found there. Accordingly he avowed his belief that the Lake 

 Village was the site of prehistoric glass-works, and that the name Glastonbury 

 was merely a translation of the British term into the Saxon tongue. Where- 

 upon Prof essorDawkins declared that he had no doubt whatever of the correctness 

 of this etymology. 



Loyalty to truth requires that this opinion should be refuted. The Saxon 

 Chronicle mentions the name ten times between the years 688 and 1083, and in 

 each instance it is spelt Glaestinga-byrig, which means the stockade of the Glast- 

 ings, the clan or following of Glaste. This is not now a common patronymic, but 

 there was certainly a family called Glaste living on the Borders in 1590 (vide 

 Arch. xxii. 169). 



In a number of Latin charters relating to the Abbey between the years 702 

 and 975, the name of the place is written Glastingaburge ; and the like occurs 

 in subsequent charters in Anglo-Saxon. Many of the earlier deeds, as is often 

 the case with monastic documents, are known to be forgeries, but this does not 

 weaken the evidence as to how the word was originally spelt. One example 

 has the phrase " in monasterio Glastingentium." 



Moreover, in Domesday Book the word is written Glastingberi. And it should 

 be noted that whilst the words ton or tun, " the enclosure," and bury or byrig, 

 " the stockade," are each frequent enough as a suffix separately, they are never 

 used jointly. Glass -ton -bury would be a monstrosity. It is sufficiently obvious 

 that Glastonbury is an abraded form of Glaestinga-byrig, and has nothing to do 

 with glass. 



The person responsible for the statement that the Britons called the place 

 Ynis Wytrin is not Mr. Arthur Evans, but William of Malmesbury, who first says 

 that the conquering Saxons translated Ynis wytrin into " Glastynbirg," which is 

 not a translation at all ; and then suggests that one Glasteing, an early settler, 

 having found a sow of his under an apple tree close to the old church, called the 

 place imula Avalhnia, because apples were rare in that country. But William 

 forgot that Glasteing is a Saxon word and Avalon a Celtic. William died in 

 1142, and therefore wrote 450 years after the earliest extant spelling Glaestinga- 

 byrig. Without doubt, however, the original name of the place was Avalon ; and 

 since the British alallo and the Breton avalkn signify an orchard, whilst aval 

 means fruit in general, Insula Avallonia is " the fruitful island." Wytrin, too, 

 (gwydr) means "green" as well as "glass." 



The explanation seems to be that the name Glaestinga-byrig was translated 

 " backwards " into Celtic by those who wrongly thought that it meant glass-town 

 in order to improve the archaeological character of the locality when documents 

 were prepared for the satisfaction of Norrnan inspectors. 



In making out a grant of the land, it was desirable to show that its title came 

 from a pre- Saxon source. The donor selected was an unnamed King of 



