The Squire of Avelon: (aka The Bard of Pendragon, Volume two)

By Keith G. Rasmusen

Back cover:

Jesus appeared to John, his disciple, who had been exiled to the small island of Patmos, saying, "Do not be afraid - I am the first and the last, and the living One. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of Death and Hades (Revelation 1:17-18).

The first-century Judean prophet and miracle-worker, Jesus of Nazareth, was crucified by the Romans on Thursday, April 6, 30 CE. During the weeks and months prior to his execution, he had accurately predicted this event in startling detail. And he had promised his followers that after three days and nights he would rise again from the dead, through a miracle known as "resurrection."

One question is often asked: "Why did Jesus have to be crucified?"

This book is a dramatic retelling of the gospel story, but it is also much more than that. It explains why Jesus was born, and why he had to die; it tells why Adam was made, and what caused his fall from grace; it describes what caused the great flood in the days of Noah. And it tells us where Jesus was during the three days between his crucifixion and his resurrection.

Recent discoveries have been made which shed light on these ancient mysteries. Not only does this book continue the Autobiography of Flavius Boadicus, but it takes the reader behind the scenes, so to speak, and offers new insights. This book, at times, is moving and poignant, but also adventurous and exciting, going from the lofty heights of Heaven to the boundless depths of Hades, as the author continues to explore the enigmatic book of Revelation, as described by the disciple John, to Gaelbyrth Macus Aldynn, The Squire of Avelon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888323366

Book preview

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The Squire of Avelon

(aka The Bard of Pendragon, Volume two)

Keith G. Rasmusen

ISBN 979-8-88832-335-9 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88832-336-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Keith G. Rasmusen

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

an ancient Poem:

Part one

Lit.28.LSB. Scroll Thirteen: Siblius Brutalius (A)

Lit.13.AFB Scroll Fourteen: Marcus Ulpius Traianus

Lit.29.LSB. Scroll Fifteen: Siblius Brutalius (B)

Lit.14.AFB. Scroll Sixteen: Praefectus Pontius Pilatus

Lit.14.AFB. continued Scroll Sixteen continued: Plouton et Thanatos

The apostle's Creed

Lit.14.AFB. continued Scroll Sixteen continued: Yeshua ha-Mashiach

Lit.15.AFB Scroll Seventeen: Joseph the Arimathaean

Lit.16.LSB. Scroll Eighteen: Siblius Brutalius (C)

Lit.16.AFB. Scroll Nineteen: Hanowk Macus Leigh

Lit.17.AFB. Scroll Twenty: Quintus Lollius Urbicius

Foreword

It was raining hard that day when I received the urgent call. I remember because my windscreen wipers could barely keep up with the downpour as I drove from my home in King's Gate to the airport. I had just finished a lecture series in London describing the latest finds at the excavations at Knightsbridge in Cleffordshire, Essex, and was about to enjoy a well-deserved vacation.

I pulled my little Peugeot off to the shoulder so I could take the call. Before I could say anything, the caller said excitedly, I hope you're sitting down! I immediately recognized the voice of Professor Robart E.G. Ian, one of the premiere linguists working on the ongoing excavations at the now-famous Villa at Aquae Littium, a Roman site near Hadrian's Wall dating from the first half of the second century CE.

The eminent and distinguished professor sounded more like an excited teenage girl, and I needed to ask him to repeat what he had just told me: Am I hearing you correctly? I asked, as I turned off my engine. The unthinkable had occurred—something beyond anyone's wildest expectations. Professor Ian described the incredible series of events which led up to their latest, and most important discovery to date—another cache of parchment scrolls, continuing the autobiography of Flavius Boadicus, known popularly as the Bard of Pendragon.

Flavius Boadicus—whose real name (for anyone unfamiliar) was Gaelbyrth Macus Aldynn—wrote a series of letters to someone called Siblius Brutalius, a former magistrate in the Greek city of Thessalonica, who retired to that exquisite villa located near the ancient Roman town of Aquae Littium in northern England. Excavations there since its discovery in 2004 have yielded many significant items, which continue to be discussed at length in several other published works.

But news of these most recent finds has caused all previous discoveries to pale in comparison. While the contents of those first letters—discovered in 2008 and published in 2016 as the book, The Bard of Pendragon—proved somewhat controversial in many circles (for a variety of reasons), these new letters will likely add further fuel to that fire.

Before ending the call, Professor Ian made me an offer I could scarce refuse—to work as his assistant in translating these newly discovered manuscripts. After agreeing to work with his team, I continued my drive to the airport and changed my flight plans. I was now flying to Scotland.

Excavations continue under the supervision of the renowned Scottish archaeologist Fergus Garrison, with his associates Nelson Gregory from the University of Munich, and Chanter Reid from Uilleann, Ireland—and I was pleased to see this illustrious trio waiting for me at the airport. On the drive to the excavation site near Littium (Aquae Littium), each was eager to fill me in on their recent finds.

Foremost among these, of course, was the discovery of additional manuscripts, located under a large flagstone pavement, adjacent to the Villa's stables, buried in a wooden chest of Acacia wood, which was lined with thin sheets of hammered tin, with rolled and folded seams. The wooden outer layer was all but deteriorated, but within the leaded inner lining was discovered a large ceramic jar, similar to the one found earlier at the Villa, which contained the famous scrolls, now commonly referred to as The Autobiography of Flavius Boadicus, also known as The Bard of Pendragon.

Rudimentary translation of these newly discovered parchment scrolls had begun under the watchful eye of Professor Ian, who was anxiously awaiting my arrival at the site, but the lion's share of the work was laid upon myself and the small team I was honoured to assemble for that purpose. My first encounter with these scrolls was a moment I will never forget: Laid out before me was a time-capsule of life from the first part of the second century CE, and I was to be the first to glimpse into this life after nearly nineteen hundred years. Unfortunately, one of the scrolls was in a deplorable state, and completely illegible.

Reading these manuscripts and translating them for future generations has been the high-point of my career, and my sincere hope is that those who read these letters will find the same joy and excitement we shared in preparing them. On behalf of myself and my translation staff, Professor R.E.G. Ian, and the entire excavation team, we humbly present the continuation of The Autobiography of Flavius Boadicus—The Squire of Avelon.

Sir Richard Holliday

King's Gate, 2022

Introduction

Heaven has made one man an excellent soldier;

Of another he has made a dancer or a singer and player on the lyre;

While yet another he has implanted wisdom and understanding—

Of which men reap fruit to the saving of many,

And he himself knows more than anyone.

—Homer, Iliad XIII

Our story began as a team of archaeologists were busy excavating an early second-century Roman villa near the mineral baths at the ruins of Littium [Aquae Littium], an ancient civilian settlement located southwest of Vindolanda, near Hadrian's Wall in northern England. First discovered in 2004, aerial photographs revealed typical traces of streets and building foundations, surrounded by orderly arranged fields and orchards. Dominating these ruins, however, was what appeared to be a substantial Roman-style estate, which has come to be known as the famous Villa in Littium.

Among the many important finds unearthed during those first excavations were several manuscripts, commonly referred to as the Autobiography of Flavius Boadicus, as well as miscellaneous biblical texts—including a large portion of an early Hebrew version of the New Testament Gospel according to Saint Matthew, and several chapters from the enigmatic Book of Revelation, or Apocalypse. Translations of these ancient manuscripts were presented in a published volume in 2016 entitled, The Bard of Pendragon (whose full title included: The Autobiography of Flavius Boadicus, by Gaelbyrth Macus Aldynn).

This previous work (The Bard of Pendragon) was warmly received in the world market, and obtained invitations to participate in international book fairs in New York, London, Beijing, and most recently in Frankfurt, Germany, where it held a top-shelf status. Despite its popularity globally, however, it was not widely accepted by those in the religious community, namely Jewish and Christian, largely due to its controversial nature in terms of how the author (Flavius Boadicus) seemed to interpret various otherwise well-known eschatological passages of Scripture. In this respect, the present volume will not differ.

Over the past few years, with the aid of ground penetrating radar (or GPR), the global positioning system (or GPS), and aerial drone photography, much more has been learned about the ancient Roman village of Aquae Littium, and the now famous villa which dominates the ruins. Continuous exploration has yielded enough material to keep historians busy for decades, reconstructing the early years of Roman settlement in northern Britain, and filling in the numerous gaps left behind by former, contemporary accounts.

More importantly, however, recent discoveries from the ongoing excavations at the Villa in Littium have included another significant cache of documents associated with this now critically acclaimed Autobiography of Flavius Boadicus. These additional eight manuscripts proved to be further correspondences between Flavius Boadicus, and his recipient Siblius Brutalius, now catalogued as Lit.13-18.AFB, as well as three copies of letters sent in reply by Siblius Brutalius to Flavius Boadicus, here listed as Lit.28-30.LSB. Remarkably, the first of these (Lit.28.LSB—Chapter One in this work) and the first letter by Flavius Boadicus (Lit.13.AFB—Chapter Two), once thought to be lost, represent that missing scroll between the events of Chapters 3 and 4 in the previous volume, The Bard of Pendragon. In other words, Chapter One of this work is a reply to Chapter 3 of the previous book, and Chapter Two of this present volume is a response to questions raised in Chapter One.

Chapter Three of this current work, however, finds its place—chronologically—following the final chapter (Chapter 12) in The Bard of Pendragon, and the remaining chapters (Four through Ten, in this book) continue the Autobiography of Flavius Boadicus. These newly discovered, and recently translated eight manuscripts will therefore appear as outlined below:

Scrolls 13, 15 and 18 (designated Lit.28.LSB, Lit.29.LSB and Lit.30.LSB—Chapters One, Three and Eight in this volume) are copies of letters written in response by Siblius Brutalius to Flavius Boadicus.

Scroll 14 (designated Lit.13.AFB—Chapter Two in this volume) is that missing scroll which would have appeared between scrolls 3 and 4 (Lit.03.AFB and Lit.04.AFB), which comprised Chapters 3 and 4 in the earlier work, The Bard of Pendragon.

Scrolls 16 through 20 (designated Lit.14.AFB through Lit.17.AFB—Chapters Four through Seven, and chapters Nine and Ten in this volume) are letters which were written by Flavius Boadicus following scroll 12 (Lit.12.AFB), which appeared as Chapter 12 in the earlier work, The Bard of Pendragon.

(NOTE: Scroll 16 (Lit.14.AFB) is a lengthy manuscript, and due to its great length is divided into three chapters, namely Four through Six.)

It should be noted, that within these writings is represented a series of primitive theological treatises, including some of the earliest examples of a relatively skilled attempt to synchronize various ancient accounts—a harmony—if you please, of well-known Creation and Deluge myths. These are derived from such sources as Homer's Iliad, the various works of Hesiod, and both the Sumerian and Akkadian versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh, not to mention the Hebrew Scriptures (namely the book of Genesis). These are to be seen in Chapter Two, Chapter Nine, and elsewhere.

Chapter Two (Scroll 14—designated Lit.13.AFB) is a response to questions raised by Siblius Brutalius, the author of Chapter One (Scroll 13—designated Lit.28.LSB), in which he asks for more details concerning the mysterious biblical Book of Revelation, as described somewhat in Chapter Three of The Bard of Pendragon.

This response continues in chapters Four through Six (Scroll 16—designated Lit.14.AFB). The primary contents of Scroll 16 comprise a lengthy narration fashioned in the style of the late and apocryphal work known as The Gospel of Nicodemus, formerly entitled The Acts of Pontius Pilate, written sometime during the fourth century CE. In this present volume, we have divided the scroll into three parts—namely chapters Four, Five and Six.

Furthermore, several newly discovered statements of fact written in these scrolls shed an exciting light on the final days of Jesus of Nazareth, unknown from any other contemporary document. Many of these will be found in Chapter Seven.

Also in Chapter Seven (Scroll 17—designated Lit.15.AFB), we are formally introduced to one Joseph the Arimathaean, indirect patron to Flavius Boadicus, who enables our author to retire comfortably back in Britain near the ancient Isle of Avalon (referred to here as Avelon), presumably located somewhere in modern county Somerset, England, near Glastonbury. Many scholars are convinced that scattered throughout these letters are clues which may reveal the origins of the legend concerning the Holy Chalice, and even the whereabouts of the Holy Grail itself.

Chapter Eight (designated Lit.30.LSB) is another letter from Siblius Brutalius, in which he asks further questions regarding the scroll of the Apocalypse.

And lastly, in Chapters Nine and Ten (Scrolls 19 and 20—designated Lit.16 and 17.AFB) we will meet another participant in the Autobiography of Flavius Boadicus, apparently a distant nephew, named Hanowk Macus Leigh, who became the apparent heir to Flavius Boadicus' accumulated estate.

* * * * * * *

We had, among the staff at the excavation site, and currently at colleges and universities internationally, a highly skilled team of epigraphers and experts in paleography (the study of ancient manuscripts), and they have worked tirelessly to decipher the better preserved of these parchment documents. The primary translation team continued to be headed up by the eminent Professor Robart E. Gippet Ian, Fh.S., of the Alveolar Poundacionne, in Florence.

[Note: We are sad to announce the unexpected death of the late Professor Robart Escherton Gippet Ian, known affectionately as Gippy, who passed away before this volume was ready for publication He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.]

Joining Professor Ian's staff as principal translator and chief editor was the remarkable and gifted Sir Richard Holliday of King's Gate, whose linguistic expertise and insight has proven invaluable, and this work would not have been possible without his untiring guidance and assistance. Working with Sir Holliday was Professor Sans Foliculus, a pre-eminent expert in the science of spectroscopy as used in ancient manuscriptural analyses.

As before, the format of this current volume is to present each document (or portion thereof) in a chronological fashion, as they seem to be describing the same continuing series of events, albeit from differing perspectives. Attempts have been made by the epigraphy staff to address minor lacunae in the texts. Such attempts will be indicated by letters, words, or phrases, italicized, within parentheses. Larger lacunae will be indicated by ellipses, unless cited otherwise within the text. Internal editorial notations and biblical and other references shall be presented within brackets, and italicized.

As usual with the study of ancient history, we have to make do with snippets, individual frames lifted here and there from within a moving picture. They stand before us isolated and stationary. Yet, if the frames are sufficiently and fortunately distributed, one may hope to recover and extrapolate a fair idea of the plot. Notable gaps will persist, but restrained imagination can accomplish much. (Michael Owen Wise, Language & Literacy in Roman Judaea, 40)

Subsequent editions will be more complex and offer alternate translations, when they occur, and these will be marked with an asterisk, and given at the end of that passage. Additional editorial notes shall be indicated by italics within brackets, although commentary shall be brief, and only where deemed necessary by the editorial staff. Significant footnotes, and a Glossary of Terms, will appear at the end of that volume, as well as various Appendices and a comprehensive Index.

Our main objective shall be, to the best of our ability, to preserve the continuity and fluidity that this epic deserves. Punctuation such as quotation marks has been utilized for clarity, and Biblical references, where appropriate, have been added following each passage. The primary texts recently discovered at Littium and translated within this work are listed as follows:

Lit.13–17.AFB: Autobiography of Flavius Boadicus (five individual scrolls)

Lit.28–30.LSB: Letters from Siblius Brutalius (three individual scrolls)

Note: We are grateful to the many astute readers who have supplied their lists of the numerous typographical errors which were overlooked (or created inadvertently) by the editorial staff which produced the first edition of The Bard of Pendragon. Notable among those errors was the inaccurate designation of the Chester Beatty Papyrus as "B47 (pages 21 and 22), which should properly have been listed as P47; and the scriptural reference on page 322, which should be read as 1 Corinthians 15" (not 2 Corinthians).

There were also a few errors in transcription (notably the top of page 68, where Joshua ben Hananiah was mistakenly translated as "Joshua ben Azariah; also the bottom of page 104: Yeshua told us, should have read Johanan told us," and so on), and other clearly misspelled words, a list of which will appear as an appendix at the end of a subsequent volume. Such errors are inevitable in translations like this, and we hope they were not too much of a distraction from the overall content of that work.

And finally, apologies are offered on behalf of our very fine editorial staff also for the various discrepancies in punctuation, as well as divergencies and colloquial spellings throughout the volume, The Bard of Pendragon. These reflected the various interpreters themselves responsible for different chapters, and specific passages within those chapters (i.e., traveling and traveled versus travelling and travelled). These inconsistencies were often due to the differences between our British translators, and the Continental or American translators who joined our staff.

It is notoriously problematic in translating ancient manuscripts for the general public—those written prior to the convention of modern punctuation marks—as such notational devices are entirely absent from all early writings.

Professor Ian himself was a perfectionist, and these tiny errors bothered him terribly. His OCD caused him to insist that even the screw slots on his switch plates were always perfectly vertical; and he could not tolerate if the loops and ends if his shoelaces were not the exact same length. (He finally gave up trying and changed to wearing slip-on shoes, just to eliminate one more of life's little frustrations.)

In conclusion, as the ancient writer Horace once admitted:

Verum ubi plura intent in carmine, non ego paucis offendar maculis

(When many beauties grace a poem, I should not take offence at a few faults)

an ancient Poem:

The never ending story told

Of gods and devils born of old

Striving with and 'gainst the Race of Man

To see which one would gain the land

Gold was first by Kronus' word

Then came Silver less endowed

By Zeus they lived and filled the land

Next came Bronze and far less grand

This latest Race was fierce and cold

By Ares' words they bought and sold

They lived and died and killed and stole

And fought to see who'd win the whole

Until the day the gods conspired

To make a Race by god inspired

To rule the earth by peace and love

With help from them who ruled above

The gift was giv'n yet not disclosed

The value great yet not imposed

The price for Man agreed and signed

The day was sealed the scroll confined

The fourth race Iron exists today

As does the last race made of Clay

That one whose seed shall one day save

Must live and die beyond the grave

And rise again to take his throne

By sacrifice that title won

Destroyed the works of Hell and Death

And by his life he purchased breath

For all the sons of Adam born

The royal title aptly torn

From off the head of evil pride

Who thought himself to sit beside

And even higher than him on high

Who from the start did set his eye

On one his Son to pay the price

To ransom Man his blood suffice

Part one

* * * * * * *

The following chapters occur chronologically between chapters Two

and Three, in the previous volume, The Bard of Pendragon.

chapter one

Lit.28.LSB. Scroll Thirteen: Siblius Brutalius (A)

God has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also set eternity in their hearts;

Yet so that Man will not find out the work which He has done

from the beginning even to the end.

—Ecclesiastes 3:11

Siblius Brutalius, son of Erasmus, chief Librarius of the Politarchs [see Acts 17:6-8] in the city of Thessalonica, of the province of Macedonia, to Flavius Boadicus, known also as Gaelbyrth Macus Aldynn, in the nineteenth [year] of Hadrianus Augustus [136 CE], Caesar of Rome—I greet thee warmly.

My life is not nearly as exciting as your own, for where you get to travel the world in service to the Emperor himself, I am confined to this tiny administrative office, six long days each week, collating files and balancing account ledgers. My view never changes, and my associates are just as boring. And recently my wife's mother passed away, after a lengthy illness, and we are tremendously saddened by her loss. I believe you knew her.

I offer thee many heartfelt thanks for the letter thou hast sent, as before, and the scroll which accompanied, the written transcript of that Vision given to Johanan ben Zebedee [the Book of Revelation]. I have many questions, as you might imagine, but I am most anxious for you to explain one passage toward the beginning of that Scroll, where it says, Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near. [Revelation 1:3] My fervent hope is that you can explain to me the true meaning of this enigmatic blessing, and the phrase, for the time is near.

You have indeed remained faithful to thy purpose in describing your life's adventures, and the wealth of thy learning and insight. My own feeble efforts shall surely pale in comparison, yet I pray encouragement for thee to continue, and I eagerly await thy next correspondence.

And I feel I owe an obligation to you that I should reciprocate, and I shall therefore now tell you some things about myself that ye may not know, and I shall try to remain within the bounds that I learned from my elementary teacher ["grammatadidaskalos"], who oft quoted Cicero (this written to Papirius Paetus):

Quid tebo ego videor in epistulis? Nonne plebeio sermon agree tecum? Epistulas vero cotidianis verbis texere solemus.

[How should we present ourselves when we write letters? Should we not write using common speech? We should be accustomed to write in everyday expression.]

And it was Seneca who wrote:

Qualis sermoneus esset, si una sederemus aut ambularemus, inlaboratus et facilis, tales esse epistulas meas volo, quae nihil habent accersitum nec fictum.

[I would that my language be such as we would use sitting or walking together, unadorned and simple. I would that my letters be the sort that have nothing fantastic or contrived.]

This much you do know, that I was born four years before you, during the consulship of Vespasian and Titus [823 AUC = January to June, 70 CE], when Sextus Julius Frontinus (whom you knew) was Praetor of Rome—and was raised at my father's villa near Aquae Littium—my father being a Roman administer, formerly of equestrian rank, and married to a woman from Gaul—my mother.

When my mother left, I lived alone with my father for some years (my brother, being much older, had already moved away). But when my father decided to marry Beatrice, he sent me to live with his sister here in Thessalonica, where I was warmly greeted by my cousin Dionys [Dionysus] ben Petros, son of my father's sister Dorothea, and her husband, Unclitas the Herald. Here I finished my schooling and secured a position in city government.

I was most interested in reading your descriptions of Ephesus, living in the household of the philosopher Phinehas, and continuing your own studies under your grammatikos [higher level instructor], the aged Johanan ben Zebedee, who once walked with Jesus the Nazarene. Of these studies I have many questions, and will address some of them here later in this short epistle.

When you wrote about Johanan's encounter with the emperor Domitian, I was reminded of the first time I came to Rome, when I was fifteen or sixteen years old [86 CE]. This was during the consulship of Augustus and Petronianus, 839 AUC [ab urbe condita]. This was also the year the future emperor Trajan was sent to crush a rebellion in Lower Germania.

We were there in the early summer when Domitian arrived for his inauguration of the Capitoline Games [Ludi Capitolini], at the new Stadium he had built in the Campus Martius [Field of Mars], named after the Ara Martis [Altar of Mars] which was its centrepiece. Every year on the day prior to the Ides of March was that horse race known as Equirria, the winning animal sacrificed on this altar. This was not far from the Solar Meridian [obelisk] described by the elder Pliny, which was restored recently by Domitian.

Now, the Stadium of Domitian, called the Circus Agonalis, was originally started by his brother, the emperor Titus, five or six years earlier, to honour the people of Rome. This is one of several new buildings which occupied the area destroyed by the fire shortly after the death of their father, the emperor Vespasianus. It was built to seat between twenty-five and thirty thousand citizens, which is much smaller than the Circus Maximus, which can hold over one hundred fifty thousand citizens.

South from here is Domitian's Odeon, where competitions are to be held in rhetorical recitations, singing and song writing, and poetic readings (by memory). Other events were performances in drama,