Are These the Walls of Camelot?

Abstract

The latest despatch from the South Cadbury (Somerset) campaign takes the form of a symposium volume of essays, edited by Geoffrey Ashe. It is a handsome book with a well-chosen range of illustrations, some in colour, and will win popular acclaim as a landmark in British post-Roman studies. Two opening chapters by Mr Ashe ('The Visionary Kingdom' and 'The Arthurian Fact') provide historical summaries of Arthur's background, times, and supposed career, We then have five archaeological contributions. Dr C. A. Ralegh Radford writes on Tintagel and Castle Dore, in Cornwall (Ch. 3), and on his Glastonbury Abbey excavations (Ch. 5). Philip Rahtz deals with his work on Glastonbury Tor (Ch. 6), and Leslie Alcock examines post-Roman Wales (Ch. 4) and the South Cadbury excavations up to the end of 1967 (Ch. 7). This last chapter, the crux of the book, was (rather oddly) edited and arranged by Mr Ashe, who explains (p. ix) that Mr. Alcock 'owing to the pressure of professional duties . . . regrettably had no time to put his material in a form that harmonized with the rest of the book'. There are then four more chapters by Mr Ashe. 'Extending the Map' is concerned with the distribution of Arthurian attributions in folklore and recent times;