'Keys to Avalon' by Blake & Lloyd

[littleraven]

Has anyone read this or it's sequal recently?

I ask because I was talking to someone yesterday who holds them in high regard, but I remember not being able to finish the book because I simply could not accept their theories on a practical level.

Should I re-read and give it another chance?

[wortmistress]

Funnily enough, I was lent "Keys to Avalon" a few weeks ago, and I have to be honest and say that I skipped through a great deal of it.The theories may well have substance but I'm afraid the style of writing had me bored! I read a great deal on folklore, et.c but this was too much for me!

[Francis]

Its been a while since I read Blake and Lloyd's books and remember being initially seduced by the 'Keys to Avalon'- I think I'll blame that on living where I do!

I think their basic hypothesis - that the geography of Britain was corrupted through attempts to Latinise welsh placenames, and that this has led to a misunderstanding of the history of these events is a good one.

I'd suggest they rely too heavily on the reliability of the Brut y Brenhinedd- which again I'd have loved to believe to be more valuable as local legend has it that it was part written by the monks of Aberconwy Abbey, following it's translocation to Maenan (anciently Aberllechog)- the site of which is about 400metres from where I'm typing this.

A reasonable critique can be found at;

www.kmatthews.org.uk/arthuriana/keys_to_avalon.html

(the author is a strange sort of evangelical atheist I've come across him a few times and believe him to know his stuff and be willing to engage in questions - he does have some unusual views of his own though....but I don't think they're relevant to this...

I seem to remember thinking their second book was more reasonable - they back tracked a little on some of the more astounding suggestions made in the first i.e. about the Lleyn as Cornwall.

Unfortunatley my memory of it is very vague at the moment. I must have read it when I was less lucid than normal.

I do think they're worth reading - I'd be interested to re-read them in concert with anyone else here and swap thoughts?

Bendithion

Stephen

[Francis]

Just realised I'm talking arse and confusing the Brut y Tywysogion with the Brut y Brenhinedd.

I remember thinking their Offa’s Dyke being built by the Romans to be a bit of a stretch of the imagination- I guess that's the problem with doing all your research in old books and ignoring the last hundred years of archaeology.

[littleraven]

Thanks for that Stephen, it's a very useful critique.

My overwhelming feeling after reading first time round was this was an example of them trying to make the evidence fit their specific agenda, rather than formulating a theory based on the availabe evidence.