AVALON (also written AVALLON, AVOLLON, AVILION, AVELION), in Welsh mythology the kingdom of the dead; in the Arthurian romances, the abode of heroes to which King Arthur was conveyed. In Welsh the name is Ynys yr Afallon, usually interpreted "Isle of Apples," but if the Celtic tra ditional derivation, a king over the dead named Avalloc (Welsh Afallach), is correct, the name comes from the Welsh afal, an apple, and is probably intended to symbolize the enjoyments of elysium. Perhaps owing to a confusion between Glasberg, the Teutonic kingdom of the dead, and the Anglo-Saxon Glaestinga burh, Glastonbury, the name "Isle of Avalon" was given to the ridge in Somersetshire culminating in Glastonbury Tor, while Glastonbury itself came to be called Avalon.
See Studies in the Arthurian Legend, by J. Rhys (Oxford, 1891) ; also ARTHUR (KING) ; ATLANTIS.