The earliest mention of the island of Avalon, or Avilion, in connection with the death of Arthur, is a slight one by the old English chronicler, Geoffrey of Monmouth (Book XI. c. 2), and the event is attributed by him to the year 542. Wace's French romance was an enlargement of Geoffrey; and the narrative of Layamon (at the close of the twelfth century) an explanation of that of Wace. Layamon's account of the actual death of Arthur, as quoted in the text, is to be found in the translation, a very literal one, by Madden (Madden's "Layamon's Brut," III. pp. 140-146). The earliest description of the island itself is by an anonymous author known as "Pseudo-Gildas," supposed to be a thirteenth-century Breton writer (Meyer's "Voyage of Bram," I. p. 237), and quoted by Archbishop Usher in his "British Ecclesiastical Antiquities" (1637), p. 273, who thus describes it in Latin hexameters:-- "Cingitur oceano memorabilis insula nullis Desolata bonis: non fur, nec praedo, nec hostis Insidiatur ibi: nec vis, nec bruma nec aestas, Immoderata furit. Pax et concordia, pubes Ver manent aeternum. Nec flos, nec lilia desunt, Nec rosa, nec violae: flores et poma sub unâ Fronde gerit pomus. Habitant sine labe cruoris Semper ibi juvenes cum virgine: nulla senectus, Nulla vis morbi, nullus dolor; omnia plena Laetitiae; nihil hic proprium, communia quaeque. Regit virgo locis et rebus praesidet istis, Virginibus stipata suis, pulcherrima pulchris; Nympha decens vultu, generosis patribus orta, Consilio pollens, medicinas nobilis arte. At simul Arthurus regni diadema reliquit, Substitutique sibi regem, se transtulit illic; Anno quingeno quadragenoque secundo Post incarnatum sine patris semine natum. Immodicè laesus, Arthurus tendit ad aulam Regis Avallonis; ubi virgo regia vulnus Illius tractans, sanati membra reservat Ipsa sibi: vivuntque simul; si credere fas est." A translation of this passage into rhyming English follows; both of these being taken from Way's "Fabliaux" (London, 1815), II. pp. 233-235. "By the main ocean's wave encompass'd, stands A memorable isle, fill'd with all good: No thief, no spoiler there, no wily foe With stratagem of wasteful war; no rage Of heat intemperate, or of winter's cold; But spring, full blown, with peace and concord reigns: Prime bliss of heart and season, fitliest join'd! Flowers fail not there: the lily and the rose, With many a knot of fragrant violets bound; And, loftier, clustering down the bended boughs, Blossom with fruit combin'd, rich apples hang. "Beneath such mantling shades for ever dwell In virgin innocence and honour pure, Damsels and youths, from age and sickness free, And ignorant of woe, and fraught with joy, In choice community of all things best.