Glastonbury is a small town in a cluster of hills in Somerset. The hill-cluster was at one time almost an island and in Celtic times was a center of overseas trade. Glastonbury Tor, the highest of hills had a place in myth and ritual as the door to Annwfa, the Otherworld. It was this aspect that led to its identification in Arthurian legend as The Isle of Avalon.

Robert de Boron and Perlesvaus was the first to associate Glastonbury (under the name of Avalon) with the Grail story. In the first half of the thirteenth century, Joseph of Arimathea was named as the disciple who brought the Grail to Britain and the founder of the Abbey. Arthur was first connected with the Grail in 1130 AD by Caradac of Llancarfan. In his work, he tells the life of Gildas and includes an early version of the abduction of Guinevere by Melwas to Glastonbury.

Glastonbury is also the reputed site of Arthur's grave which was found around 1190. It is said a Welsh or Breton bard divulged its location to Henry II, telling that he was buried in the monk's graveyard at Glastonbury between two pyramids. Excavation revealed a cross with "Arthur" inscribed on it and a hollowed out log coffin with the bones of a tall man and a smaller person presumably Guinevere. Modern reexcavation found that there was an actual early buriel but the cross cannot be found. Current historians belief is that the grave was staged to increase revenues for the abbey, although there is no evidence which supports this claim.

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