King Arthur and the Bards

Arthur, High King of All Britannia, was extremely worried. “Britannia is being torn apart by war. It's not just the Picts of Alba against the Scots of Dalriada. Rheged is fighting against Elmet, Dumnonia against Cornovia, and the Ordovices of Gwynedd against the Morganau of Demetia. With my vassals fighting one another I fear that the invading Angles, Jutes, Norsemen and Saxons will form a united kingdom instead of me. What am I to do?”
Wise Merlin answered the king. “We need magic, sire, and there is no magic more powerful than music. The Greeks used to fight among themselves but the Olympic festival ended that. Only when young Greeks decided to perform their athletics without the aid of music did they succumb to Roman rule. I recommend you summon bards from all over the kingdom.”
So King Arthur summoned bards from all over Britannia, from the islands of Lyonesse to the west of Cornovia even to the islands of Zetland in the frozen north. Soon the streets of Camelot rang with the sounds of harp, lute, lyre, pipe and drum.
However, as more and more bards entered Camelot, instead of the harmonious eisteddfod that Merlin and King Arthur had envisaged, there was a veritable cacophony. Therefore the king sent his Knights of the Round Table into the countryside to find a suitable place for the bards to perform their art. The Knights found a large meadow not far from Camelot. Thus it was that mighty King Arthur founded the great Festival of Glastonbury which persists to this day.

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