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30 Years in Avalon: Fieldwork and Vernacular Religion in Glastonbury

  • 26/11/2024
  • 18:00-19:30
  • online talk

Marion Bowman

30 Years in Avalon: Fieldwork and Vernacular Religion in Glastonbury

A Folklore Society online talk

by Marion Bowman

Tuesday 29 November 2024, 18:00 GMT

To some people, Glastonbury is simply a small, if odd, market town; to others it is the Isle of Avalon, the place where King Arthur was taken for healing after his last battle. For some, it is the ‘Holyest Erth of England’, where Joseph of Arimathea established England’s first church, and the New Jerusalem where Jesus will appear at the Second Coming. Some see Glastonbury as the site of a great Druidic Centre of learning, the epicentre of New Age in England, a node of earth energies or heart chakra of planet earth. For many it is an ancient site of devotion to the Goddess which has now been restored. Or it is all of these simultaneously, and more besides, for Glastonbury is a place of both/and, rather than either/or.

After 30 years of fieldwork-based research in Glastonbury, Marion reflects on the role of vernacular religion and placelore in this much ‘restoried’ site, highlighting some of the developments, changes and idiosyncrasies observed in that period.

Marion Bowman is Professor Emerita of Vernacular Religion in the Religious Studies Department of The Open University, UK. Her research foci include a long-term study of the town of Glastonbury, the heritagization of religion, and the contemporary growth of non-traditional and ‘Caminoised’ pilgrimage in northern Europe. Her recent publications include Vernacular Knowledge: Contesting Authority, Expressing Beliefs (2022), co-edited with Ülo Valk; https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/vernacular-knowledge/

Tickets £6.00 (£4.00 for Folklore Society members with the Promo Code: just log into the Members Only area here to get the Promo Code) from https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/30-years-in-avalon-fieldwork-and-vernacular-religion-in-glastonbury-tickets-1043939409877

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Image: Glastonbury Tor from Wearyall Hill; photo Marion Bowman