Courtesy of Yvonne Whiteman
Britain Book, Chapter 1, final paragraph
Here, in this holy place, under the direct guidance of God, our father founded the first church in Britain. It is said it was not built by human hands, which is true, and from here shall come that which will be the salvation of mankind in the years to come. Here was the resting place for the souls of the dead, where they received their last sustenance before passing through the glass wall. From here ran the old road to the place of light where the brightwinged spirits flew freely in the place called Dainsart in the old tongue.
The writer John Michell writes in The New View Over Atlantis:
‘The main axis of Glastonbury town, marked at its western end by the Church of St Benedict, runs eastward down the length of the Abbey and is picked up to the east of the town by a track called Dod Lane which passes over the slope of Chalice Hill. It is partly causewayed and was evidently part of a processional way to the Abbey. Its name, related to the German Tod (death), means ‘dead man’s lane’. It is a name which [Alfred] Watkins often found on leys, and the folklore associated with it identifies Dod Lane as a spirit path.’
Philip Coppens writes on his website:
‘Just below the Tor … a small street known as Dod Lane … becomes a footpath over the flank of Chalice Hill. For some, this street is part of a line that goes over St Michael at Gare Hill and onwards to Stonehenge, but it is specifically its name that is important: Dead Man’s Lane. Paul Devereux (the author of Sacred Geography: deciphering hidden codes in the landscape) has convincingly shown that the mystery of the so-called leylines was, in origin, nothing more – or less – than paths created for spiritual travel (the soul said to be able to travel only in straight lines). Hence, Dod Lane is yet another remnant from a distant past that there was an ancient spirit path by which the souls of the dead passed to the other world. During excavations on the Tor between 1964 and 1966, Philip Rahtz found two burials oriented north-south, and thus unlikely to be Christian, suggesting the Tor was used for pagan burials. Noting that the path led up to the Tor and that hills were seen as gateways to the Afterlife, it is clear that the Tor was seen as one such gateway.’
I don’t understand why the name ‘Dod’ is related to the German Tod (death), unless it was a name given to the lane later on in Anglo-Saxon times. Nor do I know what ‘the place called Dainsart in the old tongue’ means. To know that, we’d need to know when the author of this part of the Kolbrin was writing. Oh, what I’d give to see earlier versions of The Kolbrin!
Incidentally, The Kolbrin suggests another source for one of the ancient names for Glastonbury: Inys Wytrin - ‘island of glass’. Many people have asked, Why glass? The Kolbrin speaks of a ‘glass wall’ that the souls of the dead pass through.