MICHAEL WOOD ON… WHY MYTHOLOGY PREVAILS OVER REALITY
“The Arthur myth is British-Celtic history as people dreamed it was”
I took the train to Oxford the other day, to walk some old haunts. Down an alley just by the station, are the scant ruins of Osney Abbey. Founded in 1129, it was demolished after the Reformation and plundered for building materials. All that remains now is one medieval timber-framed building and a derelict stone arch.
Oxford is, of course, – all were written within yards of this spot, and all are proof of the power of stories, the seduction of imaginary worlds. And it was here at Osney in the 1130s that a young Welsh cleric, Geoffrey of Monmouth, made perhaps the greatest single contribution by any writer or poet to the myth of King Arthur.
