sexuality". W.J. Keith, however, claims that the only "unequivocal Grail-experiences in the romance" are "Sam Dekker's and Mr Geard's just before his death". In addition, Keith, suggests that "various individuals are rewarded with experiences that, if not of the Grail itself, are none the less preternatural, and often spiritually fulfilling". This includes Cordelia Geard's visit to Chalice Hill, "John Crow's vision of Arthur's sword", and Mary Crow's ecstatic experience upon seeing "something that seemed more blood-red than sunlight hit ... the great broken arch" of the Abbey ruins. The Grail even seems to enter the mind of its arch-enemy Philip Crow, in the form of grail-dream or nightmare. To this should be added Geard's daughters Cordelia and Crummie, who "act as grail-bearers to Evans and Sam respectively ... and the "'dark' grail bearer ... Mad Bet". King Arthur The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouth's fanciful and imaginative 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain). In some Welsh and Breton tales and poems that date from before this work, Arthur appears either as a great warrior defending Britain from human and supernatural enemies or as a magical figure of folklore, sometimes associated with the Welsh otherworld Annwn (see reference to Gwyn ap Nudd above). How much of Geoffrey's Historia (completed in 1138) was adapted from such earlier sources, rather than invented by Geoffrey himself, is unknown. According to Geoffrey in the Historia, and much subsequent literature which he inspired, King Arthur was taken to Avalon in hope that he could be saved and recover from his mortal wounds following the tragic Battle of Camlann. Much of the work appears to be derived from Gildas's 6th-century De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, Bede's 8th-century Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, the 9th-century Historia Brittonum ascribed to Nennius, the 10th-century Annales Cambriae, medieval Welsh genealogies (such as the Harleian Genealogies) and king-lists, the poems of Taliesin, the Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen, and some of the medieval Welsh saints' lives, Around 1190, monks at Glastonbury Abbey claimed to have discovered the bones of Arthur and his wife Guinevere. The discovery of the burial is described by chroniclers, notably Gerald, as being just after King Henry II's reign when the new abbot of Glastonbury, Henry de Sully, commissioned a search of the abbey grounds. At a depth of 5 m (16 ft),