Geoffrey Thomas Leslie Ashe (29 March 1923 – 30 January 2022) was a British cultural historian and lecturer, known for his focus on
King Arthur
According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain.
In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...
.
Early life
Born in London, Ashe was an only child who excelled all his classmates in academics. Periods of poor health meant that he had ample opportunity to read broadly, or be read to. Through his parents, he developed a life-long enjoyment of
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen com ...
's operas and
Conan Doyles' Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...
canon. His mother read some of Conan Doyle's stories to him from the ''
Strand'' when they were first published; his father took him to see Gilbert & Sullivan performances by some of the cast who had worked with Gilbert himself.
Ashe's father was general manager of Poly Tours, later Lunn-Poly, and travelled to Europe and the British Isles frequently with his parents to the hotels used by the agency, sometimes to correct problems, sometimes to establish business contacts. His favourite childhood memories were of summers spent in the West Highlands of Scotland, at the Highland Hotel in Fort William.
When he was 16, his parents emigrated to
Vancouver
Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
, British Columbia. He graduated from the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...
before continuing at
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...
.
Work
Many of his historical books are centred on factual analysis of the
Arthurian legend, and the
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
past of
King Arthur
According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain.
In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...
, 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''.
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
Geoffrey of Monmouth (; ; ) was a Catholic cleric from Monmouth, Wales, and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle '' The History of ...
'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.
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
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic sit ...
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.
"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
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
to put it there. That is my one contribution to Hollywood."
Honours
Anya Seton put his name forward in 1963 as a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...
after publication of ''Land to the West: St Brendan's Voyage to America.'' Declining a nomination for honours for most of his career, nevertheless he was delighted to accept an MBE (
Member of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
) from the Queen in the
2012 New Year Honours for Services to Heritage. In 2015, Ashe was unanimously named an Honorary Freeman of Glastonbury by the
Glastonbury
Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...
Town Council "in recognition of his eminent services to the place as an author and cultural historian." He commented that his honour was most important to him because it symbolised the respect of his own community. Of deep professional and personal gratification to him was the title Eminent Arthurian, bestowed by The International Arthurian Society in the year of his 90th birthday, 2013.
Personal life
He died in
Glastonbury
Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...
on 30 January 2022, at the age of 98.
Publications
* ''King Arthur's Avalon: The Story of Glastonbury'' (1957)
* ''From Caesar to Arthur'' (1960)
* ''Land to the West: St Brendan's Voyage to America'' (1962)
* ''The Land and the Book: Israel – The Perennial Nation'' (1965)
* ''The Quest For Arthur's Britain'' (1968)
* ''Gandhi: A Study in Revolution'' (1968)
* ''All About King Arthur'' (1969)
* ''Camelot and the Vision of Albion'' (1971)
* ''King Arthur in Fact and Legend'' (1971)
* ''The Art of Writing Made Simple (1972)
* ''The Finger and the Moon'' (1973)
* ''Do What You Will: A History of Anti-Morality'' (1974)
* ''The Virgin'' (1976)
* ''The Ancient Wisdom'' (1977)
* ''Miracles'' (1978)
* ''Gandhi: A Biography'' (1980)
* ''A Guidebook to Arthurian Britain'' (1980)
* ''The Glastonbury Tor Maze'' (1982)
* ''Kings and Queens of Early Britain'' (1982)
* ''Avalonian Quest'' (1982)
* ''The Discovery of King Arthur'' (1985)
* ''The Landscape of King Arthur'' (1987)
* ''The Arthurian Handbook'' (1988) (with
Norris J. Lacy)
* ''King Arthur: The Dream of a Golden Age'' (1990)
* ''Mythology of the British Isles'' (1990)
* ''Dawn Behind the Dawn: A Search for the Earthly Paradise'' (1991)
* ''Atlantis: Lost Lands, Ancient Wisdom'' (1992)
* ''Discovering the Goddess: A Personal Testimony'' (1994)
* ''The Book of Prophecy: From Ancient Greece to the Millennium'' (1999)
* ''The Hell-Fire Clubs: A History of Anti-Morality'' (2000)
* ''Encyclopedia of Prophecy'' (2001)
* ''Merlin'' (2001)
* ''Labyrinths and Mazes'' (2003)
* ''The Offbeat Radicals: The British Tradition of Alternative Dissent'' (2007)
* ''Eden in the Altai: The Prehistoric Golden Age and the Mythic Origins of Humanity'' (2018)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashe, Geoffrey
1923 births
2022 deaths
English male non-fiction writers
Academics from London
Arthurian scholars
English historians
People from Glastonbury
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
Historians of the British Isles
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
University of British Columbia alumni
Members of the Order of the British Empire
British expatriates in Canada