Plotting Camlann: Letters from the Dead
The Welsh Annals (Annales Cambriae) record for year 93 (c.537 AD) the fall of both Arthur and and Medraut at the Strife of Camlann. The memory of this battle lingered long in the minds of the Welsh Poets and Welsh Tradition as a particularly bloody account with few survivors, indeed the Triads of the Island of Britain (TYP 84) refer to Camlann as one of the “Three Futile Battles of Britain”.
The earliest account of the survivors of Camlann is found in a triad embedded in the earliest Arthurian tale Culhwch and Olwen. In this account three survivors are listed: Morfran son of Tegid, Sanddef Pryd Angel and Cynwyl Sant, who was the last to leave Arthur.
Yet, by the 17th century the number of survivors from Camlann was listed as seven and Cynwyl Sant (the saint) had been replaced by St Cynfelyn. A note in Evan Evans’s (1731-1788) notebook (Panton MS 13) gives seven names for the Survivors of Camlann. Rachel Bromwich considers Evans' text to be a copy of Lewis Morris' copy of 17th century manuscript Peniarth 185.
We have previously looked at St Cynwyl who is remembered at of Aberporth on the west coast of Wales in Ceredigion, where the church is depicted as St Cynfil's on historic maps. Apart from a couple of churches in Carmenthenshire and Penrhos in Llŷn, very little is known of St Cynwyl; he is absent from most books on the Celtic Welsh Saints. His relationship with Arthur and his presence at the battle of Camlann and why he appears listed amongst the survivors remains a mystery. Neither St Cynwyl, or his horse Hengroen, appear to provide any clues in plotting the location of Camlann.
Who then was St Cynfelyn; a famous warrior, a famous saint, or both?
Saints and Warriors
Peter Bartrum lists no less than ten characters bearing the name Cynfelyn in his Classical Welsh Dictionary. Amongst these are warriors of the Old North and a Saint from Mid-Wales.
Bartrum tells us that Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ‘Kimbelinus’ was based on Cunobelinus, the son of Tasciovanus of the Catuvelauni. In Brut y Brenhinedd (The Welsh version of Geoffrey’s Chronicle) the name is correctly rendered Cynfelyn. However, Tasciovanus was a historical king, known from coinage dated around 20 BC who ruled the Catuvellauni from Verlamion (modern-day St Albans). As pre-Roman king Cunobelinus is totally out of place in relation to the battle of Camlann.
Then, in Bartrum’s list, we have Cynfelyn Drwsgl which at first glance seems more promising. His epithet means Cynfelyn the ‘clumsy’ but Rachel Bromwich (Triads of the Island of Britain) suggest this perhaps should be more correctly rendered as ‘leprous’. Cynfelyn is listed in the genealogies as one of the Men of the North (Gwŷr y Gogledd) and in the Triads listed as one of ‘Three Pillars of Battle’. In another he is listed as one of the ‘Three Horse-Burdens’ which relates to the Battle of Arderydd. A poem in the Black Book of Carmarthen records Cynfelyn as one of the seven sons of Eliffer [Gosgorddfawr] which again links to the battle of Arderydd. According to the Welsh Annals the battle of Arderydd was fought in 573 AD.
Arderydd is the second of “Three Futile Battles of Britain” listed in theTriads of the Island of Britain (TYP 84), fought apparently over a “lark’s nest”. This battle was the inspiration for the Merlin legend, from the poems found in the Black Book of Carmarthen, in which he has gone mad and fled into the forest, in turn founded on Lailoken the wildman of the forest.
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| St Michael and All Angels Church, Arthuret, Cumbria |
The battle site was identified many years ago by Skene as the woods just north-east of the Cumbrian village of Arthuret, near Longtown. Owing to the name, the church here has attracted Arthurian legend with claims that King Arthur, or his head, is buried here, but Arthur was long gone before this battle and it seems a very late association.
The poet Aneirin records an assault by a retinue from the Gododdin, an area in Lothian around Edinburgh, around 600 AD. The poem, a series of elegies remembering the fallen warriors of the Gododdin is famous for recording the survival of just three warriors. It is usually interpreted as an attack on the Angles at Catterick (Catraeth). The original was said the have been composed in Eidyn (Edinbugh) before transferring to North Wales at an early date. It appears that on arrival in Gwynedd the poem was somewhat expanded and modified. At some stage four poems known as Gorchanau were added, although these are not considered part of the original work.
One, Gorchan Cynfelyn, records a contingent from Gwynedd who joined the attack on Catraeth in support of the Gododdin. This particular Gorchan is important in tracing the development of the Arthurian legend, as it provides the earliest reference to supernatural boar the Twrch Trwyth and records an obscure reference to fighting in a river as with Arthur and his men in the river Severn as found in Culhwch ans Olwen. This Cynfelyn is recorded as son of Tegan, son of Cadfan.
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| Y Gododdin |
It seems unlikely, although not totally impossible, that if this is the same Cynfelyn who fought at Camlann in 542 he would be an ageing warrior if actively participating in battle at Arderydd in 573 or Catraeth c.600. Mighty warriors they both may have been, but neither are recorded as a saint. Furthermore, neither of these two warriors are associated with churches in their geographic heartlands. It seems we must look elsewhere for a St Cynfelyn associated with the battle of Camlann.
Saints
In the earliest account of the survivors of Camlann, we have Morfran son of Tegid, Sanddef Pryd Angel and Cynwyl Sant. A later 16th century account has St Cynfelyn replacing Cynwyl Sant. Perhaps we should be looking within the locations of those three men; both Sanddef and Morfran are associated with the area around Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid) and Cynwyl around Aberporth.
Mofran appears in the later tale of Taliesin, again located around Bala. The 'Hanes Taliesin' is a legendary account of the life of Taliesin first recorded in the mid-16th century by Elis Gruffydd, According to ‘Hanes Taliesin’, Taliesin claims to have been ‘in Gwynfryn in the court of Cynfelyn, in stock and fetters for a day and a year.’
Midway between the towns of Aberystwyth and Machynlleth in north Ceredigion, is the parish of Llangynfelyn centred on the villages of Tre-Taliesin and Tre'r Ddôl and the settlements of Llangynfelyn, and Craig y Penrhyn.
The parish is named from the church of St Cynfelyn, about a mile north-west of Tre-Taliesin, significantly located midway between Aberporth and Bala, the locations of the earliest recorded survivors of Camlan. The church, a Grade II listed building unfortunately now derelict, is situated within a roughly circular churchyard, indicative of an early Celtic 'llan'. A healing well, Ffynnon Gynfelin, is situated on the north side of the churchyard.
In searching for a saint by the name of Cynfelyn we find there is very little information available about the saint, his festival does not occur in any of the Welsh calendars. Little is known of this 6th century saint, yet he is thought to have been a real person who is said to be a descendant of Ceredig and Cunedda Wledig.
After the battle of Camlann, Cynfelyn is said to have retreated to live as a hermit in a small cell on the edge of a bog, and in time that cell took its name and became known as Llangynfelyn. He raised his cell on the side of Gors Fochno, somewhere close to where his church stands today.
Sarn Gynfelyn
Situated on the Ceredigion coastline, between Borth and Aberystwyth, is a reef or causeway, known as Sarn Cynfelyn, extending some seven miles out to sea. The five causeways (sarnau) extending into the Cardigan Bay are relics of glacial moraine deposited during the last ice age forming natural reefs of boulders and shingle washed clean by the sea over thousands of years.
Further north is Sarn Badrig, also known as St. Patrick’s Causeway, emerging from Mochras (Shell Island) and extending for 14 miles into Cardigan Bay. Legend claims Saint Patrick walked across to Wales along this shingle ridge. These causeways were thought to be the remains of ancient dams or dykes protecting the mythical sunken kingdom of Cantre'r Gwaelod inundated in the 6th century.
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| Submerged forest Ynyslas |
Legend claims that after the inundation the king of Ceredigion, Gwyddno Garanhir, brother of Maelgwn Gwynedd, relocated his court to dry land, and established his main port at Porth Wyddno (modern Borth). Nearby, between Aberdyfi and Aberystwyth, he had a fishing weir constructed. As recent as the 18th century there were reports of sightings of the remains of human habitation at the far end of Sarn Cynfelyn, where a collection of large stones and boulders some seven miles out to sea form a reef known as 'Caer Wyddno', the fort, or palace, of Gwyddno. This is one of the sites claimed to be where the babe Taliesin was found in the fish weir.
Next: St Cedwyn, from the World's blessing
Sources:
Rachel, Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain, University of Wales Press; 3rd edition, 2006.
PC Bartrum, A Classical Welsh Dictionar: People in History and Legend up to about A.D. 1000, online at The National Library of Wales
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