Warriors, Warlords and Saints

West Midlands History has announced the forthcoming publication of a major new work on the story of the Anglo Saxon kingdom of Mercia by Dr John Hunt from the University of Birmingham.

Warriors, Warlords and Saints

The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia

John Hunt

From the publisher:

“Anglo Saxon Mercia was a great power in its day, although many aspects of it have been shrouded in myth and mystery. 

However, recent discoveries, such as the Staffordshire Hoard and the Lichfield Angel, have shone a fascinating light into the world of Mercia and the Mercians. In the richly illustrated Warriors, Warlords and Saints: The Anglo Saxon Kingdom of Mercia, author John Hunt uses this evidence to paint a vivid picture of this political and cultural powerhouse which, at the height of its influence, ruled over much of England, and reached out across Europe into the Middle East. 

The Mercians themselves were complex. They were a force capable of both great violence and great art, fostering the embryonic English Church and yet fighting bloody wars with the rival kingdoms of Wessex, Northumbria and East Anglia. 

The story of the Mercians is integral to the story of Anglo Saxon England, from the end of Roman rule to the Norman invasion. It was a land peopled by ruthless kings, great ladies, brave warriors and famous saints who lived at a vital and compelling time in English history with Mercia at its heart.”

The Author
Dr John Hunt is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Birmingham and a member of the Centre for West Midlands History. He is the author of numerous books and articles on medieval history and archaeology.

West Midlands History 
History West Midlands (HWM) is an independent website providing free access to a variety of media exploring the rich and fascinating past of the historic counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire & Worcestershire.

The initiative was designed for anyone wanting to know more about the West Midlands region. All content is reviewed by academics led by Dr Malcolm Dick, providing a useful resource for students, tutors and anyone with an interest in the history of the region.

In 2013 West Midlands History published the first issue of History West Midlands magazine written by historians and researchers from the region.  Entitled “The West Midlands Enlightenment”  the inaugural edition explored the time of the 18th and 19th centuries when industrialists such as Matthew Boulton, Josiah Wedgwood and John Wilkinson were changing the face of manufacturing and thinkers such as Erasmus Darwin were challenging the established view of the world. Later editions included Glass and Glassmaking, The Power of Steam, and a special edition featuring Anglo Saxon Mercia and the Staffordshire Hoard.

The publication of the magazine ceased on 1st April 2016, the Spring Issue 11 'Art and Industry' was sadly the last. Although the content and quality of the magazine had been universally praised, it failed to generate sufficient income to sustain the project.

However, their website states that History West Midlands will continue to actively support programmes and activities which enhance understanding and enthusiasm for the region's unique history and heritage and will be expanding their book publishing.

It is still possible to order a special gift package "Unravelling the mysteries of the Staffordshire Hoard" from the Online shop.

The package includes an Online version of the Anglo-Saxons & Mercia: Special edition magazine (Issue 6, Autumn 2014) revealing the story of Mercia; Beasts, Birds & Gods: The Staffordshire Hoard Booklet explaining the meaning of the art of the Hoard; and The Staffordshire Hoard DVD which describes in detail 10 objects from the Hoard.

The Anglo-Saxons and Mercia (Issue 6 Autumn 2014) features the Staffordshire Hoard, which since its discovery in 2009, has drawn mass attention to the rich culture of the so-called Dark Ages between the end of Roman Britain and the time of King Alfred, resulting in an explosion of public interest in the culture and art of the Anglo-Saxons. Long queues formed wherever The Staffordshire Hoard was exhibited, amazing people with the incredible artistry of the Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship and intrigued by the enigmatic creatures hidden within the decorations of these precious objects.

The articles in this special edition of the magazine focus on the kingdom of Mercia and explore the ways in which historians and archaeologists are currently building the picture of the origins of the kingdom with a special feature on the Material Culture of the Anglo Saxons, culminating in an exploration of the latest thinking about the Hoard.

WMH has recently published a children's book on the Staffordshire Hoard entitled “Saxon Gold”.

Further details can be found on the History West Midlands website.

* * *

St Oswald's Travels after the Battle of Maserfelth

AD 642.  This year Oswald, king of the Northumbrians, was slain by Penda, king of the Southumbrians, at Mirfield, on the fifth day of August; and his body was buried at Bardney.  His holiness and miracles were afterwards displayed on manifold occasions throughout this island; and his hands remain still uncorrupted at Barnburgh.1

The Battle of Maserfelth
Bede writes affectionately of Oswald's wonderful piety; a king, saint, and martyr who unified Bernicia and Deria. But the 8th century historian only shows interest in two of Oswald's major battles which mark the beginning and end of his reign; the first, the victory at a place Bede calls in the English tongue Heavenfield in 634 AD, where Oswald defeated and killed the British king Cadwallon; the second, at Maserfelth, where Oswald himself was slain at the hands of the Mercian warlord Penda eight years later on 5th August 642 AD.2

In celebration of his victory Penda ordered that Oswald's head and forearms be hacked off and fixed on stakes. The Mercian must have had reasons for mutilating Oswald's corpse, in what bears indications of some sort of pagan sacrificial tradition of desecration.

On the way to Oswald's Well in Oswestry

Penda is well known for regicide; five kings fell to his sword. Bede writes that when Sigbert of East Anglia went into battle armed only with a stick 'mindful of his monastic vows' he was killed, along with his kinsman Egric, by the heathen Mercians. According to the Historia Brittonum Penda 'treacherously killed' Anna of East Anglia. The Northumbrian king Edwin, meanwhile, was beheaded after falling in battle against Penda at Haethfeld (Hatfield Chase) in 633 AD. Penda is also said to be responsible for the death of Edwin's son Edfrith. However, Oswald's death is the only one described in any detail by Bede.3

Heavenfield  has been identified as Denisesburna, near Hexham by Hadrian's Wall where Oswald erected a wooden cross as a place of worship prior to the battle. Today a replica of the cross stands beside the B6318 road near Hexham. Following Oswald's victory over Cadwallon the original cross soon became a secondary relic with pilgrims collecting splinters and placing them in water as a curative potion.

Since at least the 12th century Maserfelth has been identified with Oswestry in Shropshire, and it has remained the popular choice for the site of Oswald's martyrdom. Yet, although Reginald of Durham first recorded this connection in his vita of Oswald, c.1165 AD, Bede never made such a connection. The derivation of Oswestry from Old English Oswaldestreow, “Oswald's Tree” coupled with the Welsh name for Oswestry, Croesoswald, “Oswald's Cross”, it has received general acceptance.

St Oswald's Well, Oswestry

However, it was not unusual to find Northumbrian kings campaigning this far south; Edwin is recorded as fighting the Welsh at Meigen on the borders of Powys and besieging the Isle of Anglesey; Aethelfrith is recorded as attacking Chester in 616 AD and killing two thousand monks. Yet scholars continue to debate the location of the battle of Maserfelth.4 Welsh sources refer to the battle as bellum Cocboy ( Historia Brittonum) and Maes Cogwy which provides no further help in identification of the battle site. If the battle was indeed fought at Oswestry then Oswald must have penetrated deep into Powys at Old Oswestry; yet his motive for arriving at such an isolated position far from his fatherland remains unclear.

The Journeys of St Oswald's Relics
A year after the battle of Maserfelth Oswald's brother Oswiu journeyed to the battle site and collected Oswald's head and forearms. The head went to Lindisfarne priory and was interred with St Cuthbert, finally resting at Durham Cathedral where it remains to this day. An uncorrupted arm went to Bamburgh and Peterborough claimed another. The stake on which his head had been impaled at Maserfelth bacame a secondary relic and was later used to cure a man in Ireland

Some years later, between 675 – 697, Osthryth (Oswald's niece) collected his remains, presumably just the torso and legs, from the battlefield and brought them to Bardney Abbey in Lindsey (modern Lincolnshire).

When St Oswald's body (minus the head and forearms) was first brought to Bardney the monks refused to accept it, because the Abbey was in the Kingdom of Lindsey, a disputed territory, the war zone, between Northumbria and Mercia, which Oswald had once conquered. St Oswald's relics were locked outside the Abbey gates, but during the night a beam of light shone from his bier reaching up into the heavens. The monks declared that it was a miracle and accepted the body, hanging the King's Purple and Gold banner over the tomb. When the monks washed the bones the ground onto which the water fell is said to have gained curative powers. Bede records that when a boy with the fever kept vigil by the tomb he was cured of his illness. St Oswald's shrine at Bardney was later covered in gold and silver and embellished with jewels by King Offa of Mercia.

Bardney lies a long way from Oswestry; indeed it is on the otherside of the country. If the battle of Maserfelth was fought at Oswestry then is it conceivable that Osthryth could journey across country and retrieve Oswald's body some 30-50 years later? The same doubt must be expressed for Oswiu's earlier collection of the head and forearms; could the Northumbrian king travel, apparently freely and unchallenged, through a frontier zone, crossing the hostile realm of Merica to the battle site on the Welsh border?

Oswald's Well, Oswestry

Tim Clarkson draws our attention to the fact that Bede writes that Oswald died “fighting for his fatherland,” (pro patria dimicans)5 which, he suggests, indicates that Maserfelth was a battle fought in defence of Oswald's 'core territory.' A unified Northumbrian fatherland would have extended to the Humber in the east and probably to the Mersey in the west; surely Clarkson is correct and it is likely that Maserfelth was on this border. A good candidate is Makerfield in Lancashire which sits on this frontier zone and preserves the name of the battle, but has been discarded on etymological grounds.6

Major conflicts between Northumbria and Mercia, such as Aethelfrith's final battle in 617, Edwin's demise in 633, Oswiu's defeat of Penda in 655, and the Mercian victory on the Trent in 679, were fought in this zone or along its periphery. Clarkson suggests that the lost battlefield of Maserfelth should be envisaged as a site in the Northeast Midlands.7

The recovery of Oswald's remains by Osthryth echoes a similar initiative undertaken by her sister Aelfflaed. Sometime after 680 AD the headless body of Edwin of Deira was discovered at the site of his final battle on Hatfield Chase, the location, apparently unknown to his kin although their Dieran territory shared a frontier with Hatfield, was finally provided by a local layman said to have lived in the vicinity of the battlefield. Aelfflaed shared the abbacy of Whitby Abbey with her mother Eanflaed. The relics became the focus of a cult at Whitby. Alan Thacker suggests that the finding and translation of the remains of Edwin and Oswald by two powerful women of the Northumbrian royal family is indicative of a single initiative rather than two distinct events.8

The Eagle and St Oswald's arm, sculpture above the well, Oswestry

In the early 10th century the retrieval of a saint-king's body is mirrored again by a powerful Mercian lady. In the year 909 AD the Mercian Register records the body of St. Oswald, under threat from Viking raiders, was translated from Bardney Abbey in Lincolnshire into the furthermost corner of Mercia. Æthelflæd, daughter of King Alfred, and Æthelred ealdorman of Mercia, brought Oswald's remains to the New Minster at Gloucester and housed them in an extended crypt, itself perhaps a reflection of the Royal Mercian crypt at Repton.

The translation was seemingly to empower the new burh, sited in the ruins of the former Roman town. It would appear that Æthelflæd may have been responsible for the early development of Oswald cult here. The New Minster at Gloucester, made substantially of masonry from the ruins of Roman Glevum, was founded by Æthelflæd and her husband Æthelred in either the last years of the 9th century or the first decade of the 10th century at the same time as the new burh.

The translation of St Oswald's relics was not an isolated event; Æthelflæd is thought to have been responsible for the relocation of the relics of several saints during the early 10th century in the establishment of her defensive chain of burhs within Mercia.

St Werburg’s relics were brought to the church of St Peter and St Paul in Chester from Hanbury in Staffordshire, in 907 AD when it too became a burh. The relics of St Ealhmund were brought to Shrewsbury from Derby and those of St Guthlac were probably moved from Crowland to Hereford. Æthelflæd was also responsible for establishing the cult of St Bertelin, said to be a Mercian Prince, during the construction of the Stafford burh. Significantly, each of these saints had a connection with the Mercian nobility.

Significantly Werburg was the daughter of Wulfhere, a Christian convert, and the Kentish princess St Eormenilda, and granddaughter of Penda, the slayer of St Oswald.


Copyright © 2016 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk/


Notes & References
1. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, translation by Rev. James Ingram (London, 1823). Mirfield is situated on the north bank of the river Calder, near Huddersfield in west Yorkshire.
2. Bede - Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, 731 AD) Book  3.9.
3. Alby Stone, Penda the Pagan: Royal sacrifice and a Mercian king, Mercian Mysteries, No.16 August 1993.
4. Tim Clarkson, Locating Maserfelth, The Heroic Age, A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe, Issue 9 (Oct 2006); Stancliffe, Clare. 1995. Where was Oswald killed? In Oswald: Northumbrian king to European saint, edited by Clare Stancliffe and Eric Cambridge. Watkins, 1995.
5. Bede, HE 3.9.
6. According to AD Mills in the entry for 'Ashton' (A Dictionary of British Place-Names, Oxford University Press,2003) 'Makerfield' derives from the Celtic name for a 'wall' or 'ruin' and the Old English word 'feld' meaning 'open land'. Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire, is in the parish of Winwick which is situated just north of Warrington on the Mersey. At Winwick the church is dedicated to St Oswald and bears an ancient inscription to the Saint. About a mile north of St Oswald's church at Winwick we find 'St Oswald's Well' in a field alongside the A573 road.
7. Tim Clarkson, Locating Maserfelth, The Heroic Age, A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe, Issue 9 (Oct 2006).
8. Alan Thacker, Alan, Membra disjecta: the division of the body and the diffusion of the cult. In Oswald: Northumbrian king to European saint, edited by Clare Stancliffe and Eric Cambridge, Watkins, 1995.

* * *

The Sword in the Stone

After the death of Uther Pendragon the realm stood in great jeopardy for a long while without an heir apparent; his son Arthur was just a boy who had been fostered by Sir Ector, as was the practice of the time. Then Merlin went to the Archbishop of Canterbury and counselled him to gather all the lords of the realm at London at Christmas time for some miracle to occur which would indicate the rightful king of the realm.

The lords of the realm came to the greatest church of London, whether it were Paul's or not, Malory says the French book he is using as his source does not say;

“when matins and the first mass was done, there was seen in the churchyard, against the high altar, a great stone four square, like unto a marble stone; and in midst thereof was like an anvil of steel a foot on high, and therein stuck a fair sword naked by the point, and letters there were written in gold about the sword that said thus:—Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of all England.” 

After high mass the Lords attempted to remove the sword from the stone, but none could move it.

Upon New Year's Day all the knights gathered for a jousting tournament. Sir Ector arrived with his son Sir Kay and his foster-brother Arthur. Sir Kay had left his sword at his father's lodging so Arthur was sent to fetch it. Arthur found no one at home to give him Sir Kay's sword. When he came to the churchyard and saw the sword in the stone there he pulled the naked sword from the stone and then went back to Sir Kay and handed it to him. Sir Kay recognised the sword from the stone and took it to Sir Ector saying he must be rightful king of the land.

Arthur draws the sword from the stone

Sir Ector took the sword back to the churchyard and Sir Kay admitted he had not pulled it from the stone but his foster-brother Arthur had given it to him. The sword was placed back in the stone. Sir Ector tried to pull it out but failed. Arthur then pulled the sword out and Sir Ector stated that Arthur must be rightful king of the realm.1

Arthur later breaks this sword in a duel with Pallinore, then Merlin takes him to the Lady of the Lake who presents him with a new sword, the mythical Excalibur. At Arthur's death the sword is returned to the Lady of the Lake; after three attempts Bedivere finally throws Excalibur into the Lake where a hand reaches out the water and catches the sword and draws it under.2

The 'Sword in the Stone' is one of the most famous episodes of the Arthurian legend but its origins remain a mystery. Magical swords are common enough in Celtic mythology and many lakes and rivers in North Western Europe have been found to contain ironwork from the Bronze and Iron Ages, deposits interpreted as votive offerings, and as such may explain the Lady of the Lake element of the story. Yet the motif of extracting a sword from an anvil or stone is entirely absent from the Celtic tradition. Some historians have conjectured that the 'sword in the stone' originates from the casting of molten metal into a stone mould in the Bronze Age.3 The art of the blacksmith and the anvil are certainly significant in the origins of this legend as will shall see.

Origins of the Tale
The London Stone also known as the Stone of Brutus after the city's legendary Trojan founder, is often claimed to be the stone from whence Arthur pulled the sword, no doubt due to its close proximity to St Paul's, if that were indeed Malory's 'greatest church of London'.

The stone has been described as an outlier to a stone circle that once stood on Ludgate Hill, a sacred place from ancient times. Tradition claims a pagan temple once stood on the site and was destroyed around 597 AD to make way for the first Christian church to be built there in 604 AD, the precursor to St Paul's Cathedral. Another popular theory claims it was a Roman ‘milliarium’ the point from which all distances in Britain were measured. At one time London Stone stood at the centre of the street-grid laid out by King Alfred when he re-established Lundenwic in 886 AD, after the Vikings had destroyed much of the original Saxon town.4 Whatever the truth of the stone's origins, it from a source not native to London.

London Stone, a Grade II listed block of oolitic limestone, a material brought into the city by Romans and Saxons, stood encased behind an iron grill at WH Smith in  Cannon Street for many years having been moved from opposite St Swithin’s Church before its destruction during the Second World War. In a redevelopment of the area, the stone is now due to be mounted on a plinth as the centrepiece of the Square Mile. The stone currently resides at the Museum of London until the construction work is completed. Could this be the stone that inspired Malory's story?

The Sword in the Stone is entirely absent from the earliest Arthurian tales such as The Spoils of Annwn, Culhwch and Olwen, Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, and the chronicles of Wace and Layamon. It does not enter Arthurian Romance until the work of Robert de Boron in his tale entitled 'Merlin', c.1200, and then appears in just about every account thereafter. In its origin de Boron has the stone drawn from an anvil atop a stone as shown in the last great Arthurian tale by Sir Thomas Malory.

In his Historia Geoffrey of Monmouth has Arthur as Uther's well known son and successor. Yet in later accounts Arthur's status as the rightful heir to the throne is less clear owing to his secret conception and fosterage. The Sword in the Stone is devised as a magical test by Merlin to prove Arthur as the rightful king. Robert de Boron has the sword as a symbol of justice and Arthur's ability to withdraw it from the anvil atop the stone a sign of God's approval.

Yet the Arthurian tale of the Sword in the Sword has no clear parallels in legend, indeed there are only two other examples of the motif of a sword that can only be moved by the right person: the 'sword in the tree' from the Völsunga saga; and an oral tale from India.5

The Sword in the Branstock 
A Germanic variant of this legend can be found in “The Sword in the Branstock” in which the sword is embedded in a tree rather than in an anvil or a stone.6

The Branstock

At the wedding of Signy and Siggeir, a man with one eye and wearing a blue cloak thrusts a sword into the Branstock, an ancient oak tree in the centre of the hall. The man declares that the sword will belong to whichever warrior can pull it free - then he leaves. He is identified by the wedding guests as the great Norse god Odin. Several of the warriors, including Signy's father, Volsung, attempt to pull the sword from the oak, but all fail. However, Sigmund, the tenth and youngest son, manages to pull the sword free.

The “Sword in the Branstock” exists in the “Sigurdsaga” part of the 13th century Norse Völsunga saga which tells of the origin and decline of the Völsung family. The saga tells the story of the legendary hero of Norse mythology Sigurd, the posthumous son of Sigmund who dies in battle against Odin when his sword, Gram, shatters.

Sigurd is fostered by Reginn the smith who makes a sword for him. But every sword Reginn forged for him, Sigurd broke by striking it against the smith's anvil. Finally Sigurd collects the broken pieces of his father Sigmund's sword, Gram, and brings them to Reginn. The smith repairs the sword and when Sigurd tests the blade against the anvil, this time it is the anvil that splits in two, down to its base. Sigurd uses the sword to kill Fafnir the dragon and then beheads Reginn after he learns the smith is plotting to kill him.

Sigurd splits the anvil

The earliest known pictorial representation of this tradition can be found on “The Sigurd Stones” a group of seven runestones and one picture stone from Sweden that depict scenes from the legend of Sigurd the dragon slayer. The Sigurdsristning (Ramsund Stone) is a carving on a flat rock believed to have been carved around the year 1030 AD during the Viking Age, being the earliest known Norse representation of the matter of the Sigurd legends found in the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda and the Völsunga saga.

As Siegfried he is the hero of the German version told in the Middle High German epic poem Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs) based largely on the old stories of historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries echoing the Old Norse legends such as the Völsunga saga.

Transmission from the East
However, the origins of the material in these sagas is considerably older, reflecting, in part, real events in Central Europe during the Migration Period, particularly the destruction of the Burgundian kingdom by the Huns in the 5th century. Yet, although the Huns must have had significant contact with the Germanic peoples prior to the recording of the tales in the Völsunga saga, the Alano-Sarmatian peoples must have experienced interaction with their Germanic neighbours long before the Huns swept westward. As the story in the Völsunga saga continues the Huns feature prominently; it follows, therefore, that they obtained their knowledge of the sword cult from the Alans.

The Alans were a Sarmatian tribe, a Scythian subgroup of Iranian nomadic pastoral people, whose homeland was in the North Caucasus. Having migrated westwards, by the 1st century AD they were reported by Roman sources as the dominant group among the Sarmatians inhabiting an area from the northern shores of the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea.

By around 50 AD the bulk of the Sarmatians were located in the vicinity of the Tisa and the Danube putting them in close contact with several Germanic tribes. The Roman historian Tacitus (Germania 46) tells us that there were several tribes who were so intermingled that he could no longer tell which was German and which was Sarmatian.

However, in the 4th century the westward onslaught of the Huns destroyed the Alan kingdom, and they are reported joining the Vandals and the Suebi and crossing the Rhine in 406 AD and invading Roman Gaul. Some moved on to Iberia, many settled in Gaul; the Alans of Orléans played a major role in halting the Huns at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451 AD. In the aftermath, the Roman general Flavius Aetius settled large numbers of Alans in and around Armorica, Brittany, as attested by placenames such as Allaines, Allainville and Les Allains.

In “From Scythia to Camelot”7 Littleton and Malcor argue that folk tales (the Nart sagas) of the Alano-Sarmatians who settled in Western Europe formed the core of the Arthurian tradition including a variant of the Sword in the Stone legend which was brought to Europe by the Alans during the 5th century AD. For example, of Lancelot's family, famed for their swordplay and possible descent from the Alans, they write;“no family is a bigger practitioner of thrusting weapons of war into stone and withdrawing them to prove their right to something than the knights of Lancelot's clan.”8

Malcor expanded the possibility that Lucius Artorius Castus, a Roman officer who lived in the late 2nd century, was the inspiration for the figure of Arthur in medieval European literature, a concept first suggested by Kemp Malone in 1924.9

Sarmatian heavy cavalry

At the time Castus enlisted, c.158, into Legio III Gallica was posted to Syria. Around eight years later he transferred to Legio II Adiutrix stationed on the Danube at Aquincum, capital of Pannonia Inferior. It is here that he first became acquainted with the Iazyges, a tribe of Sarmatians.

By 175 Castus was primus pilus of one of the three Danubian legions in the Roman victory when they conquered the Iazyges among the 8,000 Sarmatian cavalry that Marcus Aurelius conscripted into the Roman army. According to the historian Cassius Dio (72.16) 5,500 of these recruits were sent to Britain, with Castus later becoming their commanding officer in 181.

The bulk of the Iazyges detachment to Britain were stationed at Bremetennacum (Ribchester in Lancashire) under the command of Castus with Legio VI Victrix who manned Hadrian's Wall including the western forts at Camboglanna (Castlesteads) and Avallana (Burgh-By-Sands); two sites identified with Camlann and Avalon of Arthurian legend.

The Romans of the north suffered heavy losses through repeated Pict invasions of 180-185, killing the governor of Britain (probably Caerellius Priscus). But the defences of the western end of the Wall held and Castus was promoted to dux and despatched to Armorica to deal with an uprising c.185 AD. The military expedition to Armorica has been suggested as the inspiration for King Arthur's legendary invasion of Gaul as detailed by Geoffrey of Monmouth and often used in the argument to equate Arthur with Riothamus, the British king who crossed to Gaul with 12,000 men 'by way of ocean'.

A Sword Cult in the West?
Littleton and Malcor argue then for the existence of a sword cult among the Alans and that they had a significant impact on Germanic groups in the 4th and 5th centuries as they moved westward through Europe. The 4th century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (31.4.22) observed the ancient Alans practising a form of religion associated with their war god which included a ritual in which they embedded a sword in the ground. Clearly, this ritual is a survival of an earlier ceremonial ritual of the Scythians, who displayed a spiritual-like affection for their swords, performed in honour of their war god, as recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus (4.59-62) in the 5th century BC in which the sword is placed in neither an anvil nor in the ground but in a pile of wood placed upon an altar.

Littleton and Malcor conclude that the veneration of swords as divine symbols seems to have its origin in the peoples of the steppes with the cult taken westward by the Alans; the legend may have survived in regions of France they settled and later taken into Arthurian Romance by French writers. Littleton and Malcor suggest that the motif of the Sword in the Stone, seen for the first time in Robert de Boron's 'Merlin' may reflect an Alano-Sarmatian sword cult.

They further speculate that the extraction of swords plunged into the earth or wood atop altars could have existed as, an as yet unattested, initiation rite for youths seeking acceptance into the warband. As romantic and attractive as this concept may sound they reluctantly admit there is no evidence for such a rite among the tribes of the steppes.10

To this lack of evidence for an initiation ritual involving the withdrawal of a sword, we must add that the folk tales (the Nart sagas) told by the Ossetians, the descendants of the Alans, include many elements of the Arthurian Sword in the Stone legend, but are entirely deficient of the weapon being drawn from a stone or anvil.

Furthermore, research from Sarmatian occupied sites in Britain, such as Roman Ribchester, has as yet failed to provide evidence of a sword cult. Coupled with the deficiency of the act in Celtic mythology, clearly we need to look elsewhere for the origins of the the Arthurian tale of the Sword in the Stone.


Copyright © 2016 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk/



Notes & References
1. Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book I, Chapter V. How Arthur Was Chosen King, And Of Wonders And Marvels Of A Sword Taken Out Of A Stone By The Said Arthur.
2. Malory, Book I, Chapter XXV. How Arthur By The Mean Of Merlin Gat Excalibur His Sword Of The Lady Of The Lake.
3. Michael Wood, Arthur: The Once and Future King, in In Search of Myths & Heroes, BBC, 2005.
4. John Clark, Curator Emeritus Museum of London, London Stone in seven strange myths.
5. C.Scott Littleton and Linda Malcor, From Scythia to Camelot, Garland, Revised edition 2000, pp.181-193.
6. C.Scott Littleton and Linda Malcor, The Germanic Sword In The Tree: Parallel Development Or Diffusion? The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe, Issue 11, 2008.
7. Littleton and Malcor, From Scythia to Camelot, op.cit.
8. Littleton and Malcor, From Scythia to Camelot, p.181.
9. Linda A. Malcor, Lucius Artorius Castus, The Heroic Age, Issue 1, 1999. See also Appendix 3 to From Scythia to Camelot.
10. Littleton and Malcor,  From Scythia to Camelot, op.cit.

* * *

The Staffordshire Hoard comes to Stafford

Coinciding with the 7th Anniversary of the discovery of the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found, the  Staffordshire Hoard comes to the county town of Stafford.

Treasure! The Discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard
From Tuesday 5th July to Saturday 10th September items from the Staffordshire Hoard will be on display at the Ancient High House, Greengate Street, Stafford, in the “Treasure! The Discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard History Exhibition”, telling the story of how the Hoard was found and saved for the nation.

Running concurrently, and in support of the Staffordshire Hoard exhibition, will be “Anglo-Saxon Stafford: Throwing light on the Dark Ages” a history exhibition exploring the emergence of the kingdom of Mercia and the foundations of Stafford.

The Staffordshire Hoard was discovered on 5 July 2009 when metal detector Terry Herbert uncovered more than 3,500 items in a field near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, England.

Consisting of over 5kg of Gold and 1.4 kg of silver the Hoard was purchased jointly by the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent for £3.3 million. Mainly all martial, or warlike in character, including sword pommels possibly as old as the mid 6th century, it is the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon precious metalwork ever found anywhere in the world.

Stafford Ancient High House
While viewing the Staffordshire Hoard exhibition in Stafford it is worthwhile delving into a little history the Ancient High House. This Elizabethan town house, constructed in 1594, is said to be one of the finest Tudor buildings in the country and the largest remaining timber framed town house in England. Although now a historic house museum operated by Stafford Borough Council since 1986, the High House has a history of its own and featured in the conflict in the Midlands during the English Civil War, 1642–1651.

The Ancient High House Stafford (Wikimedia Commons)

On 17th and 18th September, 1643,  Charles I stayed at the Ancient High House shortly after raising the Royal Standard at Nottingham; the act of calling his loyal subjects to arms is seen as marking the start of the English Civil War. Charles made the High House his temporary headquarters, taking counsel and planning the forthcoming campaign. A local story claims that while staying at the High House with King Charles, Prince Rupert demonstrated the accuracy of his cavalry pistol by shooting the weather on St Mary's church.

The Royalists had steadily gained ground in the Midlands, establishing garrisons at Tamworth, Lichfield, and Stafford by the end of 1642.  After defeating the Royalists at Stratford-upon-Avon the the Parliamentarian forces marched on Lichfield in an effort to break the Royalist hold on the Midlands. Following his success at the Siege of Lichfield, in March 1643, the Parliamentarian Sir John Gell had turned his attention to Stafford and arrived at Hopton Heath, about 3 miles north of the town, on 19th March. On hearing of Gell's arrival Spencer Compton, the Earl of Northampton, marched his Royalist forces out of Stafford to engage the Parliamentarians.

The Battle of Hopton Heath did not result in a decisive victory for either side following withdrawals by both Parliamentarian and Royalist forces after nightfall. The Royalists captured several pieces of artillery but the Earl of Northampton was killed and Gell carried away his corpse demanding the return of the artillery lost at Hopton for the body. The Royalists refused to pay the ransom and the Earl's body was buried at All Hallows Church in Derby.

The Hoard continues to reveal its Secrets
As research and conservation work continues in the largest study of its kind ever undertaken on Anglo-Saxon gold the full story of the Hoard continues to unfurl with new discoveries being revealed. Scientific analysis has revealed that the goldsmiths of Mercia treated gold objects to improve their colour and make them appear even more golden by removing alloys such as copper and silver from the surface. The study has revealed that this technique was being widely used in the Anglo-Saxon period.

Helmet fragment from Staffordshire Hoard (Wikimedia Commons)

Two rare items have been discovered among the Staffordshire Hoard. The first is a 7th century helmet. Helmets from the Anglo-Saxon period are very rare, this being only the fifth to be discovered. Around 1,500 thin, fragile silver sheets and fragments, consisting of around a third of the Hoard in size, have been painstakingly pieced together to form a band around the circumference of the helmet, featuring warrior friezes gilded with gold.

The Sutton Hoo helmet found in the royal ship-burial in 1939, was silver, and possibly made for the East Anglian King Rædwald, the decoration directly comparable with finds from cemeteries in eastern Sweden. In comparison, the gold decoration on the Staffordshire Hoard helmet suggests it too was probably worn by a King or someone of great importance from Mercia.

The other item is a unique sword pommel. There are are over seventy pommels (the decorated end of a swordgrip) among the Staffordshire Hoard. Conservation and research teams have identified one that is unique, reconstructing it from 26 fragments. This pommel is Anglo-Saxon in style, but features British or Irish influences; its central garnet with glass inlaid disc forms an early Christian cross, while on its opposite side is a motif formed of three serpents, seemingly representing both Christian and pagan beliefs. The pommel has a round hump on the shoulder, know as a 'sword-ring', and displays evidence that there would have been one on each shoulder. Many swords from the Anglo Saxon period in England and Europe display similar rings, but the Hoard pommel is the first to feature two.

Sword Pommel from Staffordshire Hoard (L) and reconstructed sword (R)

The Mercian Trail
The Mercian Trail has been developed as a partnership between Birmingham Museums Trust, The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Lichfield Cathedral, Lichfield District Council, Tamworth Borough Council and Staffordshire County Council. The aim being to promote the emerging story of the Staffordshire Hoard and the history of this region of  Anglo-Saxon Mercia through a series of permanent and temporary displays.

There are four Staffordshire Hoard permanent displays at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, the Chapter House display at Lichfield Cathedral and the ancient capital of Mercia at Tamworth Castle.

A touring exhibition led by Staffordshire County Council is visiting schools, galleries, visitor centres, bringing the story of the Staffordshire Hoard and Anglo-Saxon Mercia to a wide audience.

Warrior Treasures
About a hundred items of Saxon Gold from the Staffordshire Hoard collection is now on the first UK-wide tour. Providing visitors with the opportunity to view a large number of items from the collection outside the West Midlands where the Hoard was discovered.

The Warrior Treasures exhibition will visit the Royal Armouries, Leeds from 27 May 2016 - 02 October 2016, and at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery from 22 October 2016 - 23 April 2017.

The Staffordshire Hoard permanent exhibitions at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery- Stoke-on-Trent, Tamworth Castle and Lichfield Cathedral will remain open during the tour.

For further information visit the Staffordshire Hoard website.


Copyright © 2016 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk/

* * * 

Glastonbury Pilgrimages 2016

Every year since the early 1950’s the Glastonbury Pilgrimages have been held in Glastonbury. The first pilgrimage to Glastonbury in modern times was in 1895 to celebrate the beatification of The Last Abbot of Glastonbury Richard Whiting, on the anniversary of his martyrdom at Glastonbury Tor on 15 November 1539.

This year the Anglican Pilgrimage will take place on Saturday 9th July and the Clifton Diocese on Sunday 10th July.

The Anglican Pilgrimage commences with a Vigil Mass in the Undercroft of the Lady Chapel at 6.00pm on Friday 8th July.

On Saturday  9th July at 12.00 noon Solemn Concelebrated Mass will be sung in the Nave of the Abbey Church.

The Procession of the Blessed Sacrament will start from the eastern end of Glastonbury High Street, starting outside St John’s Church, from 2.45pm. The Procession will move off following the traditional route down the High Street, through the main Abbey entrance.

The Procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the Abbey for Solemn Benediction in the Nave of the Abbey Church will take place at 3.00 pm.

The Clifton Diocese Pilgrimage starts in St Mary's church, the Shrine of Our Lady, at 11.30am.

A Liturgy of the Word, commemorating the martyrdom of Blessed Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury, and his fellow martyrs, Blessed Roger James and Blessed John Thorne in the Abbey Grounds, followed by the start of the procession at 2.15pm.

The procession exits the Abbey grounds through the Abbey House Gardens and proceeds through the town centre via Chilkwell Street, the High Street and Magdalene Street, returning to the Abbey through the Magdalene Street Gates, opposite the Shrine Church at approximately 3pm.

The Pilgrimage Mass will be celebrated by Rt. Rev. Declan Lang, Bishop of Clifton, in the Abbey grounds at 3.30pm.

* * *

King Arthur's Sword

The last historical reference to Caliburn (Excalibur), the mythical sword of King Arthur, was when King Richard the Lionheart presented it  to Tancred of Sicily while on his journey to the Holy Land on the Third Crusade. The sword then disappeared and was never seen again.

Sicily, Island of Morgana
After “taking the cross” in 1187 Richard I, “The Lionheart”, finally joined the Third Crusade in the summer of 1190. By September that year he had sailed down the west coast of Italy and arrived in Messina, Sicily. In March 1191, according to Benedict of Peterborough and Roger of Hoveden, in an exchange of gifts Richard  presented Tancred, king of Sicily, with a sword “which the British call Caliburn, which was the sword of Arthur, former noble king of England”.1

Richard was delayed in Sicily with family business to attend to. William II, king of Sicily, was married to Joanne of England, the seventh child of Henry II, King of England and his queen consort, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Following William's death in 1189, Joanne was kept prisoner by the new king of Sicily, Tancred. When her brother Richard I, finally arrived in Italy on his way to the Holy Land he demanded her return, along with her dowry. Richard parted with his sword, said to have once belonged to the Great Arthur, as part of the exchange of gifts with Tancred.

Yet, is it conceivable that the Lionheart would actually depart with the genuine sword of the legendary King? The date of the exhumation at Glastonbury and Richard's arrival at Messina with Caliburn at first glance certainly looks remarkably concurrent. However, Tancred may have been easily duped as the island of Sicily held a special place in the Arthurian legend.

The Arthurian Romance Flouriant et Florete (c.1250) identified the island of Sicily as Avalon, the last resting place of Arthur, no doubt inspired by the Sicilian tradition that identified Mount Etna (Mongibello) as the dwelling place of Morgana la Fay. The mirage phenomenon, apparent in the Straits of Messina, named “Fata Morgana” is based on the belief was that these illusions were sightings of false landfalls created by the sorceress to lure unsuspecting sailors to their death.

The Lady of the Lake tells Arthur of Excalibur - Aubrey Beardsley

Presumably this same tradition influenced the chronicler Jean d'Outremeuse, who in the late 13th century in Ly Myreur des Histors, tells how, after being shipwrecked nine days from Cyprus, Ogier the Dane fights with 'capalus' (Palug’s Cat) before meeting Arthur in a Mediterranean Avalon where Morgan is their host in a palace surrounded by pools and fruit trees in which they both appear ageless and enjoying immortality.2

Similarly, in La Faula Guillem Torroella describes a voyage on a whale's back to an island in the Mediterranean that is clearly meant to be Avalon. The Majorcan poet describes Morgan's palace which houses paintings of Arthurian characters. A young man in her company turns out to be Arthur healed of his wounds.3

It is popularly reported that Richard the Lionheart's father, Henry II, had found Arthur's sword on the discovery of Arthur and Guinevere's grave at Glastonbury Abbey in 1190, or 1191. King Henry was apparently told of the location of the grave by a Welsh bard, probably at Cilgerran Castle in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales, where he stopped whilst on his way to Ireland in 1171. On his return he is said to have initiated a search at the Abbey and the grave was duly discovered, or so the story goes, but the chronology just doesn't fit.

Henry stayed in Ireland only six months, returning to England in 1172, and was called away by the rebellion of three of his sons and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1173–74. Henry II died 1189 yet the monks of Glastonbury did not dig for King Arthur's body until 1190 (or 1191). If the account that Henry was told told of Arthur's grave at Glastonbury on his way to Ireland in 1171 is correct why then did it take the monks twenty years before they dug for King Arthur's remains?

There are several versions of the discovery of the grave, including Ralph of Coggeshall in 1221, Adam of Damerham 1290s, each offering slightly different details; there are at least five different versions of the inscription on the leaden burial cross found in the grave. Yet, differ as they may, not one of these accounts mentions the discovery of a sword, indeed the only metallic object found in the grave was the inscribed leaden burial cross, now lost. Clearly, we must look elsewhere for the source of King Richard's famous sword.

The Origins of Excalibur
The Arthurian legend is famous for the motif of the “Sword in the Stone” proving Arthur is Britain's rightful sovereign. The account contained in Malory's Le Morte Darthur, c.1469, is the tale most familiar to readers today.  However, Malory's rendition closely follows the earliest mention of “the sword in the stone” found almost three hundred years earlier in in the “Merlin” section of Robert de Boron's Le Roman du Graal.

But the sword that the young Arthur pulled from the stone is not the famous Excalibur, the sword attributed with magical powers; according to Malory, this first sword that Arthur pulled from the stone is broken when Arthur fought King Pellinor. Merlin then leads Arthur to the Lady of the Lake to receive Excalibur. But he is told that the scabbard is more valuable than the sword as the wearer will never shed blood. However, Morgan le Fay throws the scabbard into the lake. Indeed, this is the sword of Arthurian Romance which commenced with Chretien de Troyes and Perceval, or the Story of the Graal (Perceval, ou Le Conte Du Graal) in which he writes that Gawaine carried the sword Escalibor. To the French Romancers this sword could cut through steel, hence Malory thought that Excalibur meant “cut steel”.

In his Historia Regum Britanniae, (History of the Kings of Britain, c.1136) Geoffrey of Monmouth tells us that Arthur's sword (Latinized as “Caliburnus”) was forged in the 'Isle of Avallon'. The sword's name Caliburn is perhaps from the Latin 'chalybs' meaning 'steel'. On his second and last mention of Avalon in his Historia Geoffrey merely states that when mortally wounded Arthur was taken there. On both occasions he clearly means an Otherworldly location. Contrary to popular belief Geoffrey does not equate Avalon with Glastonbury; he in fact makes no effort to identify its location.

The Lady of the Lake offers Excalibur to Arthur - Alfred Kappes

Like much of Geoffrey's work, his inspiration for Arthur's sword seems to have come from Celtic traditions in which Arthur's sword is named “Caledfwlch” in Welsh. Caledfwlch is a compound word constructed from the elements 'caled' which can have the adjective meaning 'hard' or the noun 'battle'. The second element 'bwlch' means 'breach, gap, notch', and may mean 'hard-notch' or 'battle-notch'. In The oldest Arthurian tale, “How Culhwch won Olwen” Arthur's sword is used to kill the giant Diwrnach Wydel. Caledfwlch is an Otherworldy weapon and cognate with the Irish sword Caladbolg. In in the Irish epic Táin Bó Cuailnge, Caladbolg is the name of the sword that Fergus mac Róig inherited from the Ulster King Fergus mac Leite who had brought it from the land of the Sidhe, the Otherworld. The name of the sword has the same meaning; 'hard gap'. John Koch suggests the compound would mean ‘hard cleft’ or ‘cleaving what is hard’.4

Although writing in the 12th century Geoffrey's description of Arthur preparing for the Battle of Badon seems to be based on authentic Dark Age detail. Arthur dons his golden helmet with dragon crest, a leather jerkin (lorica), across his shoulder he carries his circular shield Pridwen, on which an icon of the Virgin Mary is painted (Prydwen was actually the name of Arthur's ship). His sword is named as Caliburn and his spear as Ron.5 Geoffrey's list of Arthur's arms is based on a similar account found in “How Culhwch won Olwen”.

Unlike later writers of Arthurian Romance who describe Arthur and the knights of The Round Table clad in suites of armour of the 12th to 14th centuries, the war-gear for the time of writing, Geoffrey has Arthur attired in armoury similar to that found in the 7th century ship burial at Sutton Hoo.

In their Chronicle accounts (Brut) of the Arthurian legend Wace and Layamon follow Geoffrey. In writing the first account of the Arthurian legend in Middle English Layamon concurs that Arthur's sword Caliburn was forged on the Isle of Avalon, but adds that his corslet was the work of Wygar, an elfish smith, and his spear the work of the smith Griffin and made in Kairmerdin (Merlin's city).

Legendary Swords
The most treasured weapon of warriors in Northwestern Europe was the sword. Anglo Saxon swords are often found constructed by pattern-welding, the craft of twisting several rods of red-hot steel together before forging into a flat weapon by the smith. This technique would result in not just a stronger blade but also intricate patterning described as 'dragon-skins' or 'twisting snakes'. To enhance the appearance and value of a sword it often had its hilt and scabbard decorated with silver, gold and garnets by outstanding craftsmanship as attested by the Staffordshire Hoard.

Legendary smiths, such as Wayland, are well known for manufacturing magical weapons exclusively for the Legendary Hero and certainly not unique to King Arthur. Famous swords were given personal names, such as Gram (Sigurd), Nagelring (Beowulf), Durendal (Roland) and Joyeuse (Charlemagne), to name just a few.

At one time The Sword of Attila, also called 'The Sword of Mars' sent by the gods, was thought to be Joyeuse, the sword of Charlemagne, King of the Franks. A sword identified with Charlemagne's Joyeuse was used in the Coronation ceremony of French kings from 1270 to 1824.

Legend claims the blade of Joyeuse was smithed from the same materials as Roland's Durendal and Ogier's Curtana. Durendal was the sword of Charlemagne's paladin Roland forged by Wayland the Smith, the legendary Norse blacksmith.

Charlemagne used Joyeuse to knight Ogier the Dane. Ogier was a legendary character from the Old French 'chanson de geste' who became popular in European literature, as discussed above with his connections to Sicily. Ogier possessed a sword named Curtana which according to legend bore the inscription “My name is Curtana, of the same steel and temper as Joyeuse and Durendal”. Ogier is said to have inherited the sword from the Arthurian knight Tristan.

The Plantagent kings carried the swords of legendary heroes in the belief that the power of its original possessor was transferable by means of their weapon.

At one time Richard the Lionheart's brother (Bad King) John claimed to possess the “sword of Tristan”; the sword is listed amongst his regalia in an inventory of 1207 AD. By 1250 the sword is named as “Curtana”. According to legend, Tristan used this sword to kill the giant Morholt, the champion of Ireland, its length becoming shortened when part of the blade was embedded in the giant's skull when he hacked off his head. The Romance of Tristan and Iseult records how Tristan was injured in the fight with the giant and his wounds were nursed by Iseult. She saw his broken sword and realised he had killed Morholt.

Swords of the Coronation
Henry III of England possessed a coronation sword which was also named Curtana and said to have been Tristan's sword, which no doubt, he inherited from his father King John. The name is probably intended to imply “shortness” (from the Latin Curtus, meaning short) as the end is broken off.

The sword Curtana is first documented as one of the three swords employed in the coronation of Henry's wife Queen Eleanor of Provence in 1236. The coronation tradition involving three swords dates back at least to Richard I. Later sources on the coronation of modern kings of England tell us that the sword featured a notch. As we saw above the name of Arthur's original sword Caledfwlch can mean 'hard notch'. This notch appears to be significant in the swords used in the coronation of kings.

“Szczerbiec” is the coronation sword that was used in crowning ceremonies of the kings of Poland from 1320 to 1764. Its name, derived from the Polish word szczerba meaning again a gap, notch or chip, is sometimes rendered into English as “the Notched Sword” or “the Jagged Sword”, although its blade was apparently straight with smooth edges.

During the coronation of Henry VI, Curtana was considered to be the “Sword of Justice” while a second sword was the “Sword of the Church”. Eventually, however, the shortened blunt edge of Curatana was taken to represent mercy, and it thus came to be known as the “Sword of Mercy”.

Today Curtana is a ceremonial sword used at the coronation of British kings and queens, which, along with the Sword of Spiritual Justice and the Sword of Temporal Justice, is catalogued as part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. The official version says the Sword of Mercy is so named as its end is blunt and squared. However, it appears this sword has its origins in Arthurian legend as the sword Curtana carried by Tristan, and later Ogier the Dane, with its end shortened because its tip lies embedded in the skull of the giant Morholt.

Excalibur is returned to the Lady of the Lake - Aubrey Beardsley

Yet the most notorious of all the swords from Arthurian legend is surely the “Sword of Peace” seemingly, perhaps, the complete opposite to the lethal Excalibur. In the Middle English poem the Alliterative Morte Arthure, c.1400, there is mention of “Clarent”, the “Sword of Peace”, used for knighting ceremonies as opposed to a weapon of war. However, there is a dark side to the so-called Sword of Peace; it was also known as the “Coward's Blade” as it was stolen by Mordred and later used to kill King Arthur.


Copyright © 2016 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk/



Notes & References
1. EMR Ditmas, The Cult of Arthurian Relics, Folklore Volume 75, Issue 1, 1964.
2. Caitlin (Thomas) Green, Arthuriana: Early Arthurian Tradition and the Origins of the Legend, The Lindes Press, 2009.
3. Norris J Lacey ed., The Arthurian Encyclopedia, Garland, 1986.
4. John Koch, Celtic Culture, ABC Clio, 2006.
5. Lewis Thorpe, trans., Geoffrey of Monmouth: History of the Kings of Britain, Penguin Classics, 1973.

* * *

Gervase and the Moon in June

On 25th June 1178 five monks from Canterbury witnessed a curious astronomical event1:

“In this year, on the Sunday before the Feast of St John the Baptist, after sunset when the moon had first become visible a marvellous phenomenon was witnessed by some five or more men who were sitting there facing the moon. Now there was a bright new moo, and as usual in that phase its horns were tilted toward the east; and suddenly the upper horn split in two. From the midpoint of the division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals, and sparks. Meanwhile the body of the moon which was below writhed, as it were, in anxiety, and, to put it in the words of those who reported it to me and saw it with their own eyes, the moon throbbed like a wounded snake.”

The account can be found in the chronicles of Gervase of Canterbury, a medieval monk considered a reliable historian.

This extraordinary event was largely forgotten until 800 years later when, in 1976, the geologist Jack Hartung suggested Gervase had recorded a rare eye-witness account of the five monks who had seen an impact on the Moon's surface by a large meteor. The periodic bombardment of the Moon is a fate it has suffered regularly over its 4 billion year long history as attested by the many craters across its surface, but few of these impacts have been actually witnessed.

Hartung argued that evidence of the impact could be seen on the north eastern edge of the moon in a crater named after the 17th century Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno. Hartung suggested the flame the monks saw was incandescent gases, or sunlight reflecting on dust emitted from the crater. He argued that such a crater would be at least 7 miles across, possess bright rays extending for at least 70 miles formed by debris thrown out at impact, and be situated between 30 and 60 degrees North, 75 and 105 degrees East. The crater would be very near the edge of the Moon, or just on the far side. The Giordano Bruno crater happens to lie within these co-ordinates, 13 miles in diameter and notable for its brightness and the rays extending several hundred miles from it.2

The Giordano Bruno crater

Lunar astronomers Callame and Mulholland claim the event would have been sufficiently visible to justify the description of the eye-witness accounts recorded by Gervase. The astronomers also detected evidence of a small vibration in the orbit of the Moon. The Moon rotates in such a way that the face is always pointing at Earth, but with small oscillations, giving it a slight wobble about its polar axis. This slight wobble is not visible to the naked eye but has been detected by astronomers firing a laser beam at reflectors left on the Moon's surface by Apollo astronauts. When the laser is fired the arrival of the returning light beam is timed. Over the years thousands of laser beams have been fired at the Moon providing sufficient data to detect a 15 metre oscillation of the lunar surface about its polar axis over three years. This vibration,  Callame and Mulholland argue, can only be explained as the result of a significant recent impact of such a magnitude to have formed the Giordano Bruno crater. It is estimated that this vibration would die out over a period 20,000 year, or so.3

From studies of impact cratering it is possible to estimate the energy released at impact to have created the crater; the Giordano Bruno would have required around 100,000 megatons. By comparison, on 30th June 1908 a meteor is thought to have burst in mid-air at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometres over Tunguska, Siberia. The detonation felled around 80 million trees over an area of over 2,000 square kilometres and would have been capable of destroying a large city if impacting on a populous area. Early estimates considered the energy release equivalent to 10–15 megatons, about 1,000 times greater than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.4

In 1975 seismometers left on the Moon by Apollo astronauts detected the impact of a huge swarm of boulders. The bombardment started on June 22, which suggests the Taurids were responsible for the onslaught.

Today many astronomers argue that the Giordano Bruno crater was created more than a million years ago but accept the wobble of the Moon's polar axis is the result of an interstellar impact. However, astronomers have argued that an impact of such magnitude to form the Giordano Bruno crater would have ejected more than 10 million tons of lunar debris, much of which, inevitably, should have rained down into the Earth’s atmosphere causing spectacular meteor storms lasting for many days after the impact. Yet, there are no reports of such an event in 1178.

Current thinking is that the monks probably observed a meteor exploding in the Earth's upper atmosphere travelling head-on toward them along the sight-line of one horn of the crescent Moon. The meteor would have exploded when it entered the upper atmosphere, creating the “hot coals and sparks”, obscuring the crescent with a dark smoke trail. Atmospheric turbulence would account for the “writhing snake” effect.

A head-on meteor in the Earth’s atmosphere would only align with the horn of the Moon over a small area of the Earth’s surface giving a localised perspective which may explain why only the five monks witnessed the impact and apparently no one else. Astronomer Duncan Steele has suggested that the meteor could have originated from the Beta Taurid meteor shower. This is a trail of debris from Comet Encke, which the Earth crosses every June. Clube and Napier, explain that, “the significant feature is not collision with comets themselves, but with their debris”.

Whether the astronomical event that the monks witnessed was the creation of the Giordano Bruno crater or a meteor exploding in the upper atmosphere, like the Tunguska event, it underlines the fact that the planets of the inner solar system are prone to periodic bombardment by space debris from comet trails with catastrophic consequences; such an event seems to have occurred during the Dark Ages.

Something Nasty in the Dark Ages?
A comet appeared in the sky early in 1066, which many interpreted as a premonition of the Norman conquest of England. The comet appears on the Bayeaux Tapestry, an embroidery depicting the Norman invasion and defeat of the English at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. This happened to be comet Halley, the first periodic comet detected, travelling past Earth once every 76 years or so. Observations of Halley's comet suggest the ancient Greeks observed the comet as long ago as 466 BC.

The Bayeaux Tapestry showing Halley's Comet

Geoffrey of Monmouth was probably aware of the comet recorded on the Bayeaux Tapestry and its implied meaning on the outcome on the Battle of Hastings. He writes of a comet in his History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Brittaniae, c.1136), which foreshadows the reign of Uther. On the way to the battle Uther sees a comet in the shape of a fiery dragon, which Merlin interprets as a sign of Aurelius's imminent death and Uther's glorious future:

“At the appearance of this star, a general fear and amazement seized the people; and even Uther, the king's brother, who was then upon his march with his army into Cambria, [Wales] being not a little terrified at it, was very curious to know of the learned men, what it portended. Among others, he ordered Merlin to be called, who also attended in this expedition to give his advice in the management of the war; and who, being now presented before him, was commanded to discover to him the signification of the star. At this he burst out into tears, and with a loud voice cried out;

“O irreparable loss! O distressed people of Britain! Alas! the illustrious prince is departed! The renowned king of the Britons, Aurelius Ambrosius, is dead! Whose death will prove fatal to us all, unless God be our helper. Make haste, therefore, most noble Uther, make haste to engage the enemy: the victory will be yours, and you shall be king of all Britain. For the star, and the fiery dragon under it, signifies yourself, and the ray extending towards the Gallic coast, portends that you shall have a most potent son, to whose power all those kingdoms shall be subject over which the ray reaches. But the other ray signifies a daughter, whose sons and grandsons shall successively enjoy the kingdom of Britain'.” (BOOK VIII, CHAP. XV)

After winning the battle Geoffrey gives Uther the epithet “Pendragon”. Clearly Geoffrey misinterpreted “Pendragon” as meaning “dragon's head” (from the comet) whereas it literally means “Chief-Dragon” as “chief of warriors”. But, significantly, Geoffrey's tale of Arthur is set in the Dark Ages, so although he may have been inspired by the depiction of Halley's Comet on the Bayeaux Tapestry as an omen to the Battle of Hastings, he is clearly referring to a comet event in the days of the Great Arthur.

Astronomers believe there was an increased risk from bombardment in the period between 400 and 700 AD, the classic Dark Age period. Contemporary chroniclers write of a period of climate change, prolonged winters, decreased temperatures and a persistent dust veil. Gildas, writing around c.540 AD, describes a bleak picture of Britain at this time. Historians have long suspected a downturn in the Britons fortunes played to the invading Anglo Saxon's advantage. It was at this time that refortified post-Roman towns such as Wroxeter (Viroconium) were deserted.

The 5th century historian Zachariah of Mitylene writes of “a great and terrible comet appeared in the sky at evening-time for 100 days” around in around 538-9 AD. The medieval historian Roger of Wendover stated that, “in the year of grace 541 AD, there appeared a comet in Gaul, so vast that the whole sky seemed on fire. In the same year, there dropped real blood from the clouds, and a dreadful mortality ensued.”

Some versions of the Welsh Annals open with the entry for 447 AD - “Days as dark as night”. A hundred years later in 547 The Welsh Annals record “great death [plague] in which Maelgwn, king of Gwynedd died. Thus they say 'The long sleep of Maelgwn in the court of Rhos'. Then was the yellow plague.” The Irish Annals record “a failure of bread” in 536 and 539 suggesting crop failure owing to climate change. Repeatedly, these events are followed by outbreaks of plague.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle records that in the year 538 the sun was eclipsed, fourteen days before the calends of March, from before morning until nine and in 540 the sun was eclipsed on the twelfth day before the calends of July; and the stars showed themselves full nigh half an hour over nine.

The celestial disturbance appears to have continued for some time; later the Welsh Annals record “a star of marvellous brightness was seen shining throughout the whole world” in 676 followed by a great plague in Britain in 682, in which Cadwaladr son of Cadwallon dies. Then in 683 there was plague in Ireland. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle again mirrors the Welsh Annals; in 678 a comet-star appeared in August, and shone every morning, during three months, like a sunbeam. It was around this time that hillforts such as Cadbury were abandoned.

All of these Chronicle accounts concur on the appearance of a comet or celestial disturbances during the period around 400 – 700 AD. This dramatic Dark Age event is linked to climate change, drought and famine around the world. This severe downturn in living conditions left humanity more susceptible to outbreaks plague; the “Justinian Plague” arrived in Constantinople in 542 AD, the first recorded emergence of the Black Death in Europe.

It has long been suspected that around this time Britain was devastated by the effects of a cometary impact, an event occurring in 536 AD which produced a dust veil and cooling effect with global consequences.

Volcano or Comet?
The cause of this catastrophic event in the Dark Ages that resulted in crop failures, summer frosts, drought and famine around the world some 1500 years ago has puzzled historians and scientists alike for years.

Author David Keys argues that evidence from historic sources refer to a persistent dry fog across the Mediterranean, that lasted for 12 to 18 months and caused “a spring without mildness and a summer without heat”.Keys believed that a major volcanic event was to blame and suspected Krakatoa as the culprit.5

The same year Mike Baillie argued that comet symbolism underlies the Arthurian Legend. Baillie developed the science of dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, finding evidence around the world for dramatic effects in trees across the years from 536 to 545 AD. Significantly, Baillie concludes,  a close comet pass coincides precisely with the time the Welsh Annals stated that Arthur perished in the strife of Camlann, 537AD.6

Dallas Abbott, of Columbia University, has recently studied the 536 AD event and the consequent dust veil and combined planetary cooling effect. After taking deep-core samples from Greenland ice that was laid down between 533 and 540 AD, they found evidence of a volcanic eruption in 536 AD but it almost certainly was not of a sufficient magnitude to cause such dramatic climate change.

The Greenland ice cores were also found to contain fossils of tiny tropical marine organisms suggesting this was an extraterrestrial impact in a tropical ocean, throwing them high into the stratosphere, carrying them to the north polar regions. The ice cores also contained large amounts of atmospheric dust from this seven-year period, not all of it originating on Earth but some particles indicative of an extraterrestrial source.

This cometary residue apparent in the ice cores contained deposits of tin, nickel and iron oxide spherules, which Abbott explains, are associated with cometary dust. This alien matter was deposited in Greenland during the Northern Hemisphere spring time, coinciding with the Eta Aquarid meteor shower.

The orbit of comet Halley leaves a trail of debris which the Earth’s crosses every year on two occasions: the Eta Aquariids in early May, and the Orionids in late October. Abbott argues that although the Eta Aquarid dust may be responsible for a cooling period in 533 AD, on its own it cannot explain the global dimming effect of 536-7 AD which cooled global temperatures by as much as 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) for several years; that would require something much more dramatic. Abbott concluded that a piece of the famous Halley's Comet broke away from the main body and impacted on Earth in 536 AD blasting so much dust into the atmosphere that the planet cooled considerably.7

Halley's Comet 1986

Halley's Comet is known to have appeared in Earth's skies in 530 AD and was noted as being astonishingly bright at that time. Irish Annals record “running stars” that were shining for 20 days, and there were many earthquakes. Both China and Byzantium recorded in 530 AD that Halley’s Comet continued to shine for 20 days. The brightness suggests a close pass in which the comet may have broken up as it passed Earth and rounded the sun, ejecting large pieces that fell to Earth and leaving a thicker than normal trail of debris responsible for the dust veil of 536 AD and cooling effect of subsequent years. In 2004 a study estimated that a comet fragment just 2,000 feet (600 metres) wide could have caused the 536 AD event.

Unlike the event recorded by Gervase in 1178, which is doubted as a significant lunar impact by many astronomers today, the 536 AD dust veil and its global consequences is an accepted event; yet few reconstructions of Dark Age History acknowledge the event as a contributory factor in the decline of the Britons.

Halley's Comet's most recent appearance was in 1986. Its next appearance will be in 2061.


Updated 26/06/16
Edited 29/06/16


Copyright © 2016 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk/ 


Notes:
1. The date of the event was originally recorded as 18th June on the Julian calendar which converts to 25th June in the modern Gregorian scheme.
2. Victor Clube and Bill Napier, The Cosmic Winter, Basil Blackwell, 1990. pp.159-162.
3. Ibid.
4. Modern estimates claim that the airburst had an energy range from 3 to 5 megatons.
5. David Keys, Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of the Modern World, Century, 1999.
6. Mike Baillie, Exodus to Arthur, Batsford, 1999.
7. However, observations taken from Halley’s last appearance in 1986 suggest that the Eta Aquarid meteor shower might not originate from Halley’s Comet, but is possibly disturbed by it.

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