Plotting Camlan:Letters from the Dead
The Cave of the Lads of Eyri
Long ago, the story goes, a local shepherd was collecting his sheep on mount Snowdon when one fell down to a shelf on Y Lliwedd. When he scrambled down the precipice to rescue the stray he stumbled across the narrow entrance of a cave. There was light within: he looked in and beheld a host of warriors without number all asleep, resting on their arms and equipped for battle. As he was squeezing in the shepherd struck his head against a bell hanging in the entrance. It rang so that every corner of the immense cave rang again, and all the warriors woke uttering a terrible shout, which so frightened the shepherd that he fled and never more enjoyed a day’s health. The cave has never been found since.
The story of the "Cave of the Young Men of Snowdon” (Ogof Llanciau Eryri) belongs to the mythic genre of the sleeping king in the mountain. The classic tale of a king who once ruled over a golden age is said to have withdrawn with his knights into a mountain cave where he waits, sleeping but not dead, one day to return. It is often associated with King Arthur and several mountains in Britain claim the King is sleeping within.
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| Tryfan overlooking Llyn Ogwen |
How did these young men end up in this cave? When King Arthur returned to Britain after his campaign in Europe, he found the throne had been usurped by his nephew Mordred. Arthur pursued Mordred’s forces through the mountains of Eryri (Snowdonia) until they came to Tregalan just above Cwm Llan below Snowdon.
The two armies engaged at the pass now known as Bwlch y Saethau, the Pass of Arrows, between Yr Wyddfa and Y Lliwedd. Mordred’s archers let fly a rain of arrows at Arthur’s men, one of which mortally wounded Arthur who was then buried under a pile of stones, known as Carnedd Arthur on the summit of Yr Wyddfa.
After burying Arthur his men went up the ridge of Y Lliwedd, and then descended the precipice overlooking Llyn Llydaw into a cave in the face of the cliff. They sealed the entrance up behind them, sleeping in their armour awaiting the King’s return.
After the battle Bedwyr is said to have thrown Arthur’s sword into Llyn Ogwen (some say Llyn Llydaw immediately below the cliff face of Y Lliwedd), but he must have been wounded in the final battle and never made it back to the cave as he was buried on the slopes of Tryfan in the Ogwen Valley.
So much for local legend; it is impossible to date the survival of these oral tales but Bedwyr’s burial place is recorded in an ancient Welsh poem which has been dated to the 9th or 10th century, but may preserve an even older tradition. This same text provides the oldest mention of the battle of Camlan:
The grave of Osfran’s son is at Camlan
After many a slaughter;
The grave of Bedwyr is on Tryfan hill
The Graves of the Warriors
The earliest mention of Camlan is found in The Stanzas of the Graves (Englynion y Beddau). It is a Middle Welsh poem dated to the 9th or 10th century, a collection of 73 englynion found in the 13th century manuscript known as the Black Book of Carmarthen (Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin). Additional stanzas appear in the later manuscripts Red Book of Hergest (Llyfr Coch Hergest) and the White Book of Rhyderrch (Llfyr Gwyn Rhydderch), yet the Black Book stanzas are considered the core text.
This text contains the first mention of Camlan in Welsh tradition, earlier than the 10th century entry in the Welsh Annals (Annales Cambriae). However, whereas the Welsh Annals, in their simple chronicle format, are conventionally regarded as “historical”, The Stanzas of the Graves contains topographic details of the graves of legendary Welsh heroic characters. Many of the characters are obscure, long forgotten heroes; Oliver J Padel sees the poem as memories of landmarks believed to be their graves.
However, some characters are known from the Mabinogi and early Welsh Arthurian literature such as Cai and Bedwyr who appear in tales such as Culhwch and Olwen. Needless to say, many of the graves cannot be located today.
The Stanzas of the Graves contains mentions of several Arthurian characters, but the most well known stanza is St.44 which records the fact that the grave of Arthur is unknown. This stanza is often cited in the legend of Arthur’s survival and future return. This legend was certainly extant in the early 12th century when the Canons of Laon visited Cornwall (1113) and a near riot broke out when the local people took offence to the suggestion that Arthur was dead. Even Geoffrey of Monmouth in his History of the Kings of Britain (c.1136) tells us that following the battle of Camlan the mortally wounded Arthur was taken to Avalon to be healed of his wounds. Geoffrey did not say Arthur was dead.
As we have seen, The Stanzas of the Graves tells us that Arthur’s trusty companion Bedwyr is buried on the slopes of Tryfan, This is without doubt the 3,000 ft high mountain in the Ogwen Valley in Snowdonia. As this is contained in the same stanza as the reference to Camlan it surely locates the traditional site of Arthur’s last battle in Wales also.
So here we have a reference to Arthur’s last battle attached to the same stanza as Bedwyr’s grave on Tryfan in Snowdonia. Significantly, later Arthurian literature, such as Malory, also attaches Bedwyr (Sir Bedivere) to Camlan, indeed he is the knight who returns Arthur’s sword to the Lady of the Lake. As The Stanzas of the Graves tends to group associated lore together, Osfran’s grave will not be far away. Find Osfran and surely we can locate Camlan.
The Saint and the Stone
Osfran is a rare name in Welsh. Even worse, we are not even given the name of his son. Patrick Sims-Williams suggested the first element has an Anglo Saxon ring to it, such as in Oswald.
Arthurian sleuths have played about with the name and come up with various concoctions, conveniently linking the name to topographic features to suit their argument for a particular location for the battle of Camlan. This is the biggest problem with today’s crop of modern authors who claim to have identified Arthur and solved the riddle of his battles in the north, south or west, and ultimately damages the credibility of the quest. Manipulating names to suit a self-generated theory is not good scholarship. Arthur is Arthur, not some similar name, or a warrior’s battle name meaning “The Bear”. Similarly Camlan is Camlan (note the spelling in Welsh Tradition), not something similar.
Mentions of the name Osfran are few and far between but we find another in the Canu I Gadfan (Song to Cadfan) a long praise poem to St Cadfan by Llywelyn Fard I. The poem links traditions and praise of Cadfan to Morfran, the first abbot and the church at Tywyn “near the edge of the blue sea”, in the ancient Cantref of Meirionnydd, which lay between the waterways of the Mawddach and the Dyfi.
Today this church at Tywyn is some three quarters of a mile from the sea, but was originally on a rising mound by the coast, only becoming land locked when the marshes were drained in the 18th century. The church at Tywyn is in indeed ancient; here we find the oldest known stone inscribed with the Welsh language.
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| St Cadfan's Church, Tywyn |
St Cadfan's Church is situated in Tywyn in the county of Gwynedd, formerly Merionethshire, Wales. The church is noted for its Romanesque architecture and for housing the Cadfan Stone, one of four early medieval inscribed stones associated with the church:
Tywyn 1 (now lost) was first noted in 1698, when it stood in the churchyard, to the south-east of the Church. Its Roman inscription is thought to be 5th century in date.
Tywyn 2, thought to be 9th century in date, presently stands upright in the north aisle of the church. It bears the earliest known inscriptions in Welsh.
Tywyn 3, a 7th to 9th century cross-inscribed pillar-stone, thought to have been found buried at Bryn Paderau (Pater Noster Hill) some 500m south-south-east of the church, at the point where it first comes into view. Modern Ordnance Survey mapping depicts the road connecting the two sites as 'Ffordd Cadfan'. The stone is thought to have possibly been a boundary marker associated with church land and was built into the tower (below the belfry window) in 1884.
Tywyn 4, is currently located inside the church building, at its west end. It was first noted in 1986 after the demolition of Ynysmaengwyn mansion where it had been built into one of the outhouses. Originally a sundial dating to the 8th or 9th century, it is thought to have been originally associated with the church.
Located some 150m to the west-north-west of the church is Ffynnon Gadfan (St Cadfan's Well) which in the 16th century was said to lie within the original churchyard which appears to have once been a larger curvilinear enclosure. The well reputedly cured rheumatism, scrofula and cutaneous disorders.
The first documentary reference to St Cadfan’s Church was in 963 AD, when it is thought to have been the mother church of the region.
A 12th century poet, Llywelyn Fardd, reportedly described the church as a whitewashed building with a ditch surrounding it, beyond which was a 'clas' or lay community, dependent on the church. The poet also emphasised the refuge and territorial protection conveyed by St Cadfan (and hence, by association, the church). The church was a place of pilgrimage at that time, where relics were kept and miracles reportedly occurred.
St Cadfan, also the patron of Llangadfan in Montgomeryshire, is credited with the foundation of the monastic settlement on Bardsey island where he is recorded as first abbot. He was traditionally the son of Eneas the Breton and crossed from Brittany (some say Llanilltud Fawr) to Wales with a party of other monks, many of these were said to be his relatives. It is claimed he established the first ‘clas’ in Wales at Tywyn in the early 6th century, traditional date AD 516. Fourteen of his companions are said to have founded churches in the area.
When Llywelyn composed his ode to Cadfan in the 12th century a man named Morfran was abbot at Tywyn. Morfran appears to have been lay-abbot of the clas at Tywyn and also steward of Cynfal castle (Castell Cynfael) 2 miles north east of Tywyn. The motte was built in 1147 by Cadwaladr ap Gruffudd ap Cynan with commanding views across the Dysynni valley. The castle was captured later that year by Cadwaladr’s nephews, Hywel and Cynan. Morfran’s efforts in defending the castle would appear to have been the inspiration for the Canu Cadfan.
In the poem Llywelyn goes on to praise the prowess of Osfran as a warrior:
“Like loud Osfran piercing the enemy’s shield,
A generous, magnificent shield prevailing over counterclaims;
And its giver-abbot dispenses favour:
To us he distributes from his church a multitude,
He arranges battle with the Lord’s consent
Morfran flowing with gifts, pride of a days entertainment.”
If Morfran’s defence of Castell Cynfael was the bard’s inspiration for Canu Cadfran, then the abbot seems to be compared to the warrior Osfran. If Osfran’s son fought and died at Camlan in 537, according to the Welsh Annals, then Osfran himself must have been a well known warrior in this area in the early 6th century, which would make him contemporary with St Cadfan’s arrival at Tywyn.
The Night Crow
However, I find the association of Osfran with Morfran intriguing. As you will remember from earlier posts in this series, Morfran was also the name of one of the three who escaped from Camlan according to a Triad embedded in the tale of How Culhwch won Olwen; “Morvran the son of Tegid, Sandde Bryd Angel and Kynwyl Sant”.
As the second element of both names, “fran” means crow (Morfran = sea-crow), could these two names be related in some way in the earliest story of Camlan?
Now here's a daft thought: “Brân” can be a mutation of “Fran” meaning crow or raven, coupled with “Nos” meaning “night” would give Nosbran, corrupted to [N]osfran. As will be immediately obvious I am no etymologist, and please forgive my very limited knowledge of the Welsh language, but I am intrigued by the possibility that Osfran could have been the “night-crow” associated with Morfran the “sea-crow”? Did they have a role reminiscent of the two ravens of Norse mythology Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory)?
The Stanzas of the Graves cannot be considered a historical entry in any way as this is a catalogue of topographic folklore, detailing the graves of the warriors of Britain. Although it must be admitted that some warriors names and locations are obscure and may indeed be that ancient that their tales are lost to us. However, we find information of a similar ilk in the Mirabilia, appended to the Harlian manuscript of the Historia Brittonum where Arthur the soldier has become entangled with topographic folklore.
The question is burning a hole in the page: Was Camlan historical or mythical?
Whereas the veracity of the Arthurian battle list in the Historia Brittonum can be readily challenged with the Badon entry in the Welsh Annals incorrectly ascribed to Arthur and looking every inch like it follows the battle at Guinnion, many see the Camlan entry in the Welsh Annals as independent evidence for a historical Arthur with Camboglanna on Hadrian’s Wall favoured as the battle site on etymological grounds alone.
Yet, in Welsh tradition the battle has a distinctively Otherworldy tone to it. But clearly the account of Arthur’s last battle has been lost to us. We see glimpses of Camlan in early Welsh tradition such as the tale of Culhwch and Olwen and The Stanzas of the Graves, which seem to be a million miles away from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account.
Sources
Thomas Jones, ed., The Black Book of Carmarthen ‘Stanzas of the Graves’ Proceedings of the British Academy 53 (1967): pp.97–137.
OJ Padel, Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature, University of Wales Press, Second Edition, 2013, pp.37-38.
Patrick Sims-Williams, The early Welsh Arthurian poems, in: Bromwich, Rachel, A. O. H. Jarman, and Brynley F. Roberts (eds.), The Arthur of the Welsh, 1991, pp.33–71.
