Geoffrey Ashe

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Geoffrey Ashe

MBE FRSL
Born (1923-03-29) 29 March 1923 (age 98)
London, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materCambridge University
University of British Columbia
Occupationhistorian, author
Notable work
King Arthur's Avalon: The Story of Glastonbury

Geoffrey Thomas Leslie Ashe MBE FRSL (born 29 March 1923) is a British cultural historian and lecturer, known for his focus on King Arthur.[1]

Early life[]

Born in London, Ashe spent several years in Canada. He graduated from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, before continuing at Cambridge.[2][3]

Work[]

Many of his historical books are centred on factual analysis of the Arthurian legend, and the archaeological past of King Arthur, beginning with his King Arthur's Avalon: The Story of Glastonbury, in 1957. The book was inspired by what Ashe had read in G. K. Chesterton's Short History of England.[2]

He is a major proponent of the theory that the historical King Arthur was Riothamus, presented in an article in Speculum, April 1981, and expanded in The Discovery of King Arthur (1985) and in various further articles. His fresh idea was to scrutinise Arthur's foreign campaigns in Geoffrey of Monmouth's account and take the material seriously, concluding that, though the legendary Arthur is a composite figure, the career of Riothamus seems to underlie at least a major portion of Geoffrey's account, for which Ashe adduces passages in a Breton text and several chronicles.[2]

Ashe, co-founder (with C. A. Ralegh Radford) and Secretary of the Camelot Research Committee has also helped demonstrate, through a dig directed by Leslie Alcock in 1966–70, that Cadbury Castle, identified as Camelot by the 16th-century antiquary John Leland, was actually refortified in the latter part of the fifth century, in works as yet unparalleled elsewhere in Britain at the time. Ashe's point is that when Leland picked out this hill as Camelot, he picked what seems to be the most plausible candidate; yet even an archaeologist could not have guessed that the fifth-century fortification was embedded in the earthworks, just by looking without digging.[2]

"I would say there must have been a tradition about the hill and its powerful overlord, handed down from the Dark Ages", Ashe has said, and added "In the film of the musical Camelot, you have a brief glimpse of a map of Britain, and Camelot is in Somerset. It's there because I told Warner Brothers to put it there. That is my one contribution to Hollywood."[2] He has offered later mentions of Artoriani or "Arthur's men," a group of soldiers sharing Arthur's name (as has happened to other historical generals of the age) that survived his death, as possible basis for the legendary Knights of the Round Table.[citation needed]

Ashe is the author of a novel about an occult group that meets near the site of Avalon entitled The Finger and the Moon.

He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1963.[3] Ashe was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to heritage.[4] In 2015, Ashe was admitted by Glastonbury Town Council as an Honorary Freeman of Glastonbury "in recognition of his eminent services to the place as an author and cultural historian."[5]

Ashe's book Camelot and the Vision of Albion was often cited by Paul Weller as a major influence on The Jam's 1980 album Sound Affects.[6]

Publications[]

  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1957). King Arthur's Avalon: The Story of Glastonbury.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1961). From Caesar to Arthur.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1962). Land to the West.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1965). The Land and the Book: Israel - The Perennial Nation.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1968). The Quest For Arthur's Britain.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1968). Gandhi: A study in revolution.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1971). Camelot and the Vision of Albion.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1971). King Arthur in Fact and Legend.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1976). The Virgin: Mary's Cult and the Reemergence of the Goddess.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1977). The Ancient Wisdom.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1977). The Carmelite Order: A short history.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1977). Elias: Prophet and Saint.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1978). Miracles.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1982). Avalonian Quest.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1985). The Discovery of King Arthur.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1988). The Landscape of King Arthur.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1990). Kings and Queens of Early Britain.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1990). King Arthur, the Dream of a Golden Age.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1991). Dawn Behind the Dawn: A Search for the Earthly Paradise.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1992). Mythology of the British Isles.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (1992). The Glastonbury Tor Maze.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (2001). Encyclopedia of Prophecy.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (2003). The Book of Prophecy: From Ancient Greece to the Modern Day.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (2004). The Finger and the Moon.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (2008). Discovering the Goddess.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (2009). Merlin: The Prophet and His History.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (2012). Atlantis (Art and Imagination).
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (2018). Eden in the Altai: The Prehistoric Golden Age and the Mythic Origins of Humanity.
  • Ashe, Geoffrey (2019). The Secret History of the Hell-Fire Clubs: From Rabelais and John Dee to Anton LaVey and Timothy Leary.

References[]

  1. ^ Lacy, Norris J. "Eminent Arthurian: Geoffrey Ashe" (PDF). Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "A Conversation with Geoffrey Ashe". Britannia.com. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Geoffrey Thomas Leslie ASHE". Debrett's. Archived from the original on 7 May 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  4. ^ "No. 60009". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2011. p. 13.
  5. ^ Central Somerset Gazette, 23 July 2015 – page 9: 'Council honours historical author with freeman nod' by Bodhi Maia Mid Somerset Series
  6. ^ Jim Irvin [editor]; Colin McLear [editor] (2007): "The Mojo Collection – 4th Edition". The Jam: Sound Affects. Canongate Books. page 457. ISBN 978-1-84195-973-3

External links[]

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