Lludd's City

LUD’S CHURCH (VI)

Legend has it that there was once a temple to Lludd at the site of St Paul's Cathedral, London, near Ludgate, one of the City's seven ancient gates.
Lludd Llaw Eraint
"Lludd of the Silver Hand", son of Beli Mawr, is a legendary hero from Welsh mythology. As Nudd Llaw Eraint (the earlier form of his name, cognate of the Irish Nuada Airgetlám, derived from the pre-Roman British god Nodens) he is the father of Gwynn ap Nudd, lord of the Otherworld and leader of the Wild Hunt.

In the early Welsh Genealogies most early British Kings claim descent from Beli Mawr (the Great). Beli was said to be have been the husband of Anna (Anu), which Christianised legend equates with the daughter of St. Joseph of Arimathea.

Beli Mawr has been identified with the Celtic God, Belinos, his name means 'shining' or 'bright’, who has more surviving inscriptions than any other Celtic God, across northern Italy and southern Gaul and traces of a cult in Britain; the Celtic festival Beltane may be named after him. Belinos has been equated with Apollo. Beli, in addition to being father to Lludd, was also father of Avallach, whose abode was the otherworldly island which was the precursor of Avalon. He is therefore King of the Otherworld although in some later literature, he is replaced by his nephew Gwyn ap Nudd as King of Avalon.

In the Triads of Britain, Afallach was also the father to nine maidens, goddesses who tended the cauldron, the chief treasure of Annwfn. The early Arthurian poem, the Spoils of Annwfn (Preiddeu Annwfn) portrays a raid on the otherworld by Arthur and his companions for the sacred cauldron of the chief of Annwfn. This is similar to one of the tasks set in Culwch and Olwen in which Arthur must attain the cauldron of the giant Diwrnach on a raid to an otherworld island.

The Book of Taliesin poem The Lesser Prophesy of Britain, has the same first four lines as The Great Prophesy of Britain (Armes Prydein Vawr ) also found in the Book of Taliesin, depicts the Britons repelling the Saxon attacks. Here, they are led by the seven sons of Beli, who is seen as a historical king:

The seven sons of Beli arose. Caswallawn, and Lludd, and Cestuddyn, Diwed, Plo, Coil, Iago from the land of Prydyn.

Skene in The Four Ancient Books of Wales notes that these do not all appear to be sons of the same Beli. In Welsh tradition from the Children of Don, Beli Mawr, consort of Don, have seven sons who are all euhemerised gods:

Gwydion, Afallach, Caswallawn, Llefelys, Nudd/Lludd, Amaethon, and Gofannon and two daughters Penarddun, Arianrhod.
(Nynniaw appears to be a later addition in the Tale of Lludd and Llefelys)

(click for larger view)

The Lesser Prophesy of Britain continues,

In the alliance of the sovereign’s servants, Llyminawg will appear Who will be an ambitious man, To subdue Mona, And to ruin Gwynedd, From its extremity to its centre.

Lleminawg is a character who also appears in another poem from the Book of Taliesin "The Spoils of Annwn," where he has a flaming sword, plunged into the cauldron of Annwfn. He also accompanies Arthur in "Culhwch and Olwen" portraying further similarities between the two works as noted above. [1]

Is it not the cauldron of the Chief of Annwn which is social? With a ridge round its edge of pearls, It will not boil the food of a coward nor of one excommunicated. A sword bright flashing to him will be brought, And left in the hand of Llyminawg.
– [The Spoils of Annwn]

Lludd Llaw Eraint appears only in Culwch and Olwen, therefore his absence from Welsh literature indicates he is probably not the sole source of Geoffrey of Monmouth's King Lud from his History of the Kings of Britain. Geoffrey using his name to incorrectly explain the naming of London, as he did with Brutus and the naming of Britain. The tale of Lud rebuilding London and being named after him as Caerlud appears only in Geoffrey’s work and subsequently the Bruts that followed it.
Geoffrey, however, my have been following an oral tradition as Henry of Huntingdon, writing prior to Geoffrey’s History of the Kings of Britain, tells us in his Historia Anglorum that the leader of the British army against the Romans was 'Belinus, the brother of King Cassibelaun, and the son of Lud, a very brave king who had gained possession of many islands of the sea by the success of his arms'. [2]
Geoffrey had already used Belinus and Brennius as brothers fighting a Roman campaign in the 4th century BC, so he used the name Heli as the king who ruled Britain and had three sons, Lludd, Caswallawn and Nyniaw. When Heli died Lludd ruled prosperously, re-building London and calling it Caer Lludd. Lud no doubt was a humanised deity, ultimately derived from Nodens; According to legend, there was once a temple to Lludd at the site of St Paul's Cathedral, London, near Ludgate, one of London's seven ancient gates, which is allegedly named after him but the derivation of the name is uncertain. Upon the death of Lud, the younger brother Caswallawn (Cassibellaunus) becomes king. Lud’s sons Androgeus and Tenvantius are not yet of age so are made Duke of Trinovantum (London), and Duke of Cornwall respectively.

Tenvantius is known historically as Tasciovanus and reigned for the last two decades BC over the Catuvellauni, North of the Thames. Tasciovanus is known to us only from his coins from that period not from literature, and yet his name turns up in a corrupted from centuries later. [3] This has led some to argue as evidence of a lost source for Geoffrey of Monmouth’s work but more likely confirms an oral tradition which became confused through the course of time.
However, Caswallawn we know as an historical character that did actually fight against the Romans. Cassivellaunus was a historical British chieftain who led the defence against Julius Caesar's second expedition to Britain in 54 BC. He appears in Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, although he does not name the tribe, he states that Cassivellaunus’ territory is north of the River Thames, which correlates with the area later inhabited by the Catuvellauni.

Cassivellaunus must have been a powerful ruler in his time, according to Caesar he had been at constant war with other British tribes, overthrowing the king of the most powerful tribe in Britain at the time; the Trinovantes. Despite Cassivellaunus's guerrilla tactics, relying on knowledge of the local terrain within his territory and the speed of his chariots, Caesar still managed to advance to the Thames. The only fordable point was defended and fortified with sharp stakes, but the Romans managed to cross. Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, c.731 mentions the spikes in the Thames; apparently they were still visible in his time, and were encased in lead.

Cassivellaunus appears as Caswallawn son of Beli Mawr, in later Welsh literature; the Triads of Britain, he appears in the second and third Branches of the Mabinogi, and Welsh versions of Geoffrey's Historia (Bruts). He is referenced frequently in the Triads; usually referring to a tradition about Caswallawn not drawn from either Roman nor existing medieval sources. His horse, Meinlas (Slender Gray) is mentioned in the Triads as one of the Three Bestowed Horses of the Island of Britain. The Triads call the decision to allow the Romans to land in Britain in exchange for Meinlas one of the Three Unfortunate Counsels of the Island of Britain. The Triads also state that Caswallawn left Britain with 21,000 men in pursuit of Caesar and never returned. [4]

There is even less of Lud in Welsh Literature, but like Caswallawn his tales do appear in the Mabinogion and the Triads of the Island of Britain. In Triad 36, Lud and Caswallawn seem to become confused:

36. Three Oppressions that came to this island and not one of them went back [5]

One of them was the people of the Cor(y)aniaid who came here in the in the time of Caswallawn, (=Lludd?) son of Beli: and not one of them went back. And they came from Arabia. The second oppression: The Gwyddyl Ffichti. And not one of them went back. The third oppression: The Saxons, with Horsa and Hengist as their leaders.

It is the general consensus that Lludd should replace his brother Caswallawn in this Triad, all other manuscripts concur in line with the independent Welsh tale Lludd a Llefelys. However, this possibility cannot be ruled out, Caswallawn appears in the previous Triad 35. [6] He also appears in other Triads with a character called Lleu in one Triad as one of the Three Golden Shoemakers of the Island of Britain.

The Mabinogion anthology compiled by Lady Charlotte Gueste in the 19th century includes the independent Welsh tale of Lludd and Llefelys which does not appear in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia but is subsequently inserted in the thirteenth century Welsh version, Brut y Brenhinedd.

>> Part VII - Lludd's Dragons <<

Notes:

1 R. S. Loomis theorized that he is a form of Lugh Lamhfada, and influenced the figure of Lancelot.
2 Rachel Bromwich, (2006). Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain.
3 Geoffrey Ashe, Mythology of the British Isles, p 133.
4 In The Triads of the Island of Britain (2006) Rachel Bromwich suggests the fragmentary allusions to Caswallawn in the Triads may relate to a lost narrative, this may have been a Welsh romance similar to the independent tales included in the Mabinogion, detailing the king's adventures, which would have been largely free of influence by the classical accounts.
5 "Oppression" is translated from the word “gormes”, which may be "oppression" but implies invasion/conquering by an alien race.
6 Rachel Bromwich, ibid. In the notes to Triad 36, Rachel Bromwich expresses caution in following all other manuscripts that agree in restoring Lludd mab Beli, in place of Caswallawn, to conform with the tale of Lludd a Llefelys, as she states we have no assurance that that an earlier version of the story of the coming of this gormes (alien race) was not associated with Caswallawn rather than his brother. It may be significant that Caswallawn also appears in the preceding Triad 35. As Cassivellaunus of history he is also mentioned in Julius Caesar's De Bello Gallico v.11, where he is said to be the commander of the British resistance against the invading Romans.

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Lludd's Silver Hand

LUD'S CHURCH (V)

Lot has been identified as Lludd; his name survives in Welsh literature as Nudd, derived from the Brythonic form Nodens, known from Irish Mythology as Nuada, who carried the epithet Airgetlám ("Silver Arm")

Stone Lud
In the parish of Bower in Caithness, in the Highland region of Scotland, about four miles south of Castletown (Grid Ref: ND222617) is a standing stone known as The Stone Lud.

It is claimed that this stone marks of the grave of Ljot, (or Loitus) the 10th century earl of Caithness and Norse Orkney, who died in battle here. The name of Ljot is clearly very close to that of Lot or Loth, the mythic king of Lothian of Arthurian legend who according to Geoffrey of Monmouth was also King of Orkney.

This standing stone is about 3 metres high, significantly taller than most Norse 10th century stones and is more likely to be a much older megalith that a local legend has attached to it. The Stone Lud is similar in size to the stones of the Ring of Brodgar in Orkney, and is one of a pair, its partner having now fallen lies some 30 metres away. It said that when erect the two stones would have made an alignment with the summer solstice sunset. [1]

Lot(h), Gawain’s father according to Geoffrey of Momouth, has been identified as Llud(d) by John Rhys, [2] and endorsed by Roger Sherman Loomis that great protagonist of the Celtic origins of the Arthurian tradition. [3] The precursor of Lud being Lodens, hence we have the ruler of Lodonesia or the Lothians, from which, come Lothus and Loth or Lot of the Arthurian Romance. [4]

This name transmutation is further attested by Charles Squire in Celtic Myths and Legends in which he identifies Lot as a late incarnation of a British god who is remembered in medieval Welsh legend as Lludd Llaw Eraint (Lludd Silver Hand).

Lludd Llaw Eraint appears only in the Arthurian tale Culwch and Olwen as the father of Creiddylad, who was said “to be most splendid maiden in the three Islands of the mighty, and in the three Islands adjacent, and for her Gwythyr the son of Greidawl and Gwynn the son of Nudd fight every first of May until doomsday”.

Nuada Airgetlám
Lludd Silver Hand of Welsh tradition is cognate with Nuada Airgetlám from Irish mythology, who carries the same epithet (Airgetlám = "Silver Hand/Arm"). Nuada Airgetlám was the first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann (Children of the Goddess Danu). He is the son of Danu, the god of healing, writing, poetry, sorcery, magic, the Sun, childbirth, beauty, youth, ocean, dogs, weapons, and warfare. Nuada had an invincible sword, Claíomh Solais (Sword of Light), known as one of the The Four Treasures of Ireland.

"From Findias was brought the Sword of Nuada;

no man would escape from it when it was drawn from its scabbard.

There was no resisting it." [5]

In the First Battle at Mag Tuired, Nuada lost his arm in combat with the Fir Bolg champion Sreng. Later his arm was replaced by a prosthetic limb made from silver by his brother, the physician Dian Cecht. After he had lost his hand in battle, he had to abdicate his throne as king to be replaced by Bres, who became a tyrant king. The Tuatha de Danann eventually exiled Bres and Nuada resumed his position as king. Balor, of the evil eye, later killed Nuada.

Nodens
Nuada Airgetlám is cognate with the Gaulish and British god Nodens. His Welsh equivalent is Nudd or Lludd Llaw Eraint. John Rhys states that owing to Welsh alliteration Nodens has become the two names Nud and Lud. According to Rhys his name survives in Welsh literature as Nud, derived from the Brythonic form Nodens, known from Irish Mythology as Nuada, who carried the epithet Airgetlám ("Silver Hand/Arm").

There is evidence of a God of the British Celts being worshipped at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, England, where a 4th Century Roman-British temple dedicated to Nodens has been found. As Nodens was a river-god in Gloucestershire; possibly due to this association with the Severn it would seem, Lud, has also been identified as a river god in Celtic mythology, although there appears little other information on him in this role.

Nodens was the Celtic God of Healing, and the son of Belenos, (Beli) the Sun God, and Anu, his wife. He had a large shrine at Lydney (Lludd's Island) in Gloucestershire, where the devoted made offerings of small bronze representations of their diseased limbs. He was sometimes identified with Mars the protector or the regenerative Silvanus and his companion and symbol was the dog: a deerhound whose lick could cure the afflicted. The story of Nuada loosing his arm in battle with the Fir Bolg champion Sreng explains his connection with amputees.

Lydney Park is part of a hill fort covering some 4.5 acres across the tip of a promontory overlooking the Severn. The Temple complex of Nodens was added in the 4th century to the southern half of the fort site, an inscription reads:

"To the God Nodens, Silvianus has lost a ring: he hereby gives half of it (i.e. half of its value to Nodens Among those who are called Senicianius, not allow health until he brings it to the temple of Nodens." [6]

Other inscriptions from Lydney Park appear to equate Nodens with Mercury and Mars.
The Northern tradition in Britain is supported by further inscriptions; at Cockersand Moss in Lancashire a silver statuette was found in 1718 with the following inscription on the base:

”To the god Mars Nodontis, the College of Lictors
[and] Lucianus Aprilis the traveller, in fulfilment of a vow.”

Nodens was probably widely known across Northern Europe, for example at Mainz in Germany an inscription was found equating the god Noadatus with Mars.

In 1929 J.R.R.Tolkien worked on archaeological dig at Lydney Park, on the site of the old Roman temple, known locally as Dwarf's Hill. Built upon an earlier Iron Age settlement, the hill was riddled with tunnels and open cast iron mines. One 50 ft long shaft of the iron mines can be seen today, running under the fort.At this time Tolkien was working on the Hobbit. The influences of his research at Lydney on his Lord of the Ring tales is evident in his chapter which he wrote for inclusion in Sir Mortimer Wheeler’s book about the Roman excavations here. The site has yielded over 8,000 coins, carved statues, mosaics, and bronze reliefs, some of these can be seen in the museum at Lydney Park.

Local lore states that within 20 years of the Romans leaving, the local people had forgotten that Lydney had been a Roman settlement and thought the crumbling ruins were the homes of fairy folk. So strong were the superstitions surrounding Lydney that the local people kept away from the hill for a thousands years.

As part of the surrender terms in their loss against the Milesians, the Tuatha Dé Danann agreed to retreat and dwell underground in the sídhe. Later English texts refer to the sidhe as hollow mounds, the abode of the fairy folk but in older Gaelic texts the sidhe are the palaces or residences of supernatural, otherworldly beings, the Land of Eternal Youth (Tír na nÓg) which was connected with the mortal world by these hollow mounds or passage tombs, like portals to another dimension.

Gwynn ap Nudd
Celtic legend says that Glastonbury Tor is a hollow mound (Sidhe), and entrance to the otherworld as well as being the home of Gwyn ap Nudd, King of Faerie, Lord of Annwn. This connection is affirmed in the Life of St. Collen, a 7th century Welsh saint that retired to a hermitage at the foot of the Tor. The Wild Hunt rides out of the Tor and rides down Arthur’s causeway to round up souls of the dead. Gwynn appears in The Triads as one of the three distinguished astronomers of the Island of Britain, who by their knowledge of the nature and qualities of the stars could predict whatever was wished to be known to the end of the world.

Nodens, is sometimes referred to as the Celtic "God of the Abyss.” This can be no coincidence that Gwynn son of Nudd (son of Nodens) is Lord of the Otherworld (Annwn) often called the Abyss, king of the Tylwyth Teg (the Welsh Fairy Folk) and as psychopomp, leader of the wild hunt with his pack of supernatural white hounds, Cŵn Annwn, he escorts the souls of the dead. His name Gwynn meaning white, ghostly or otherworldly.

Gwynn ap Nudd also appears in the early Arthurian tale Culhwch and Olwen along with Lludd Llaw Ereint. Culwch must enlist the support of Gwynn in the hunt for the great boar Twrch Trwyth in and as stated above he abducted the maiden called Creiddylad after she eloped with Gwythr ap Greidawl, Gwyn's long-time rival. Gwyn and Gwythr's fight, which began on May Day, possibly represents the contest between summer and winter.

In Northern Britain we find a further inscription to Nodens, linking hin to the God Neptune, from Vindolanda on Hadrians Wall:

“To the god Neptune Nodons"

Nudd Hael
There is possibly another inscription to Nodens (Nudd) in the north of Britain, an early 6th century monument discovered in Yarrow, north of the Ettricks, at Warriors Rest, Selkirkshire is inscribed:

"This is the everlasting memorial: In this place lie the most famous princes, Nudus and Domnogenus; in this tomb lie the two sons of Liberalis [the Generous One]."

The Yarrow Stone, also known as the Liberalis Stone, marks the grave of two British Christian chieftains. The inscription on the stone is incomplete and there is debate as to its correct translation; some say it is to the sons of Nudd Hael, others to Nudd and his brother. The stone was turned up the plough at the beginning of the 19th century when this ground, then a moor known as Annan Street, was first brought under cultivation. It was found lying just under the surface with the remains of human bones underneath it. At this time there were about twenty burial cairns on the moor. The Liberalis Stone was removed for examination, then returned to Annan Street and was erected at the place of its original discovery. The east face of the stone bears the Latin inscription. The stone is now surrounded by a wooden fence.

Nudd the Generous (Liberalis?), son of Senyllt, appears in the Triads as one the Three Generous Men of the Island of Britain.
Although seemingly a historical character from Northern Britain, Nudd Hael does not appear to be the basis for Gawain’s father, as there does not appear to be a connection to Lludd Silver Hand, Nuada Airgetlám, or Nodens. But we do find a mythological King Lud in early tradition.

King Lud
Lludd Law Eraint is probably the source of king Lud from Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. In the Brut y Brenhinedd, the Welsh version of Geoffrey's Historia, he is called Lludd son of Beli. Geoffrey names him as Lud son of Heli, they are clearly one and the same. Lud was a separate figure in Welsh tradition and is usually treated as such. The legendary British king Lud may therefore ultimately be derived from Nodens.

Yet again we find our man Geoffrey at play again, that great corruptor of British History, who states that the origin of London's place name is from Lud, legendary King of Britain in the first century BC. He was the eldest son of Geoffrey's King Heli (identified with Beli Mawr). Lud's reign is notable for the building of cities and the refortification of Trinovantum (London).

The story goes that Lud became King and rebuilt the city that King Brutus had founded and had named New Troy. He renamed it Caerlud, (city of Lud). This later became corrupted to Caerlundein, which the Romans apparently took up as Londinium, and became modern day London. Personally I find the sound of the name London more similar to Lugdunum, modern day Lyon in France.
Lud was buried in an entrance to the city that still bears his name, Ludgate, his father Beli Mawr is supposedly buried at Billingsgate, just as Bran is at Tower of London. King Lud’s name persists in present day Ludgate Circus and Ludgate Hill, on which St. Paul's Cathedral stands, Ludgate being a major gateway into the City of London. Crumbling statues of King Lud and his two sons, Androgeus and Tenvantius, which formerly stood at the gate, now stand in the porch of the church of St Dunstan-in-the-West on Fleet Street in London. There was even a pub at Ludgate Circus called "King Lud". After his death, Lud was seemingly elevated to the status of a diety.

When the building of the present St. Paul's cathedral began in 1675, architect Sir Christopher Wren, discovered remains of a pagan Stag Goddess temple in the foundations of the previous Catherdral which had been destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. This was possibly the site of the pagan temple at Ludgate Hill, reputedly destroyed by the Saxons in 597 AD.

>> Part VI - Lludd's City <<

Notes:
1. Leslie J Myatt, The Standing Stones of Caithness, 2003
2. John Rhys, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Celtic Heathendom, 1888, from the Hibbert Lectures 1886, pp 125 – 129.
3. Roger Sherman Loomis, Celtic Myth in Arthurian Romance
4. John Rhys, ibid.
5. Lebor Gabala Erenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland or The Book of Invasions), compiled in the 11th Century. This translation has been disputed – see The Four Sacred Symbols by Michael Ragan.
6. Mortimer Wheeler, and T.V. Wheeler, Report on the Excavation of the Prehistoric Roman and Post-Roman site in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire (1932), p. 100.)

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