AVALLON, et'va'Rix' ( anciently Aballo ) . The capital of an arrondissement in the Department of Yonne, France, 26 miles southeast of Auxerre (Map: France. K 4). It is built on a steep hill of red granite, nearly surrounded by the Cousin. A broad terrace walk, shaded with lime-trees, extends around the town, about 500 feet above the bed of the river. The town is generally well built, and has broad and clean streets. The Church of Saint Lazare is remarkable for its handsome Romanesque portals. Manufactures of various kinds are actively carried on, partieu harly of woolens and paper; and there are dis tilleries, tanneries, glassworks, etc. There is also a considerable trade in the produce of the neigh borhood. Avallon is of Celtic origin. It was sacked by the Saracens in A.D. 731, and by the Normans in 843; taken by Charles V11. in 1433, retaken by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1455, and pillaged by the troops of the League in 1593. Population, in 1896, 5809.
AV'ALON,va tionsly written Avallon,Avelion, and Ari/ion (Welsh Yuys yr Afallon; see below). The name of the legendary island to which King Arthur was supposed to have been conveyed after being wounded in his last battle. It has
been identified with various places, notably with Glastonbury, in Somersetshire. But it seems clear that in the first instance Avalon was nothing but the Celtic Paradise, or Happy Other World, the abode of the fairies, which was visit ed by a number of heroes of Welsh and Irish saga. From it Arthur was expected to return ultimately, healed of all his wounds. The origin of the name is doubtful. lays yr Afallon is commonly understood to mean the 'Island of Apples.' with reference to the fruit that was often described as growing in the land of the blessed. But it is not to be assumed that the name had this meaning from the beginning. Perhaps it was at first not a local name at all, but rather personal. There is evidence of the existence of Avalloc (Welsh, Afallach), a King of the Other-World. Consult: Rhys, 81 tidies in the Arthurian Legend (Oxford, 1891) ; Lot. in Romania (Paris• 1899).