Wizards and Wildmen: Son of an Incubus

Lud’s Church (XIV)
Part Two

Son of an Incubus
We discussed in Part VII – Lludd’s Dragons how Geoffrey substitutes the fatherless boy “Merlin, who was also called Ambrose” for “Ambrosius” in his account of Vortigern’s collapsing tower due to a subterranean pool containing the dragons. Geoffrey says that Vortigern came to Mount Erir, considered to be Eryri, 'Abode of Eagles', modern Snowdon, his magicians advise him that the solution is that he must sprinkle the stones and cement with the blood from a fatherless child. The earliest record of the story is found in the 8th Century Historia Brittonum, attributed to Nennius, c.800AD:

“Vortigern inquired of his wise men the cause of this opposition to his undertaking, and of so much useless expense of labour? They replied, "You must find a child born without a father, put him to death, and sprinkle with his blood the ground on which the citadel is to be build, or you will never accomplish your purpose." [9]

From the above passage it is quite clear that the fatherless child, Ambrose (Emrys in Welsh) was to be a blood sacrifice to prevent the building collapsing; there was a common belief that human sacrifices, usually a child, must be buried under the foundations of monuments and buildings. Archeology supports this tradition as human remains have been found in the foundations of many structures from the Neolithic age to Roman times.

The Mabinogion tale Lludd and Llefelys, was contained, albeit it in abridged form, in later Welsh redactions of Geoffrey’s Historia, no doubt to account for how the dragons came to be buried at Dinas Emrys as told by Geoffrey in his story of ‘Vortigern and Merlin Ambrose’ included in his "Historia Regum Britanniae" (History of the Kings of Britain). The dragons were buried at Dinas Emrys, or the ‘fortress of Ambrose’, which was considered to be the stronghold of Britain. This can be no other, than the site of the ancient hill fort near Beddgelert, Snowdonia, North Wales, still called to this day Dinas Emrys. [10]

In the Nennius version of the tale, “the king sent messengers throughout Britain, in search of a child born without a father. After having inquired in all the provinces, they came to the field of Ælecti in the district of Glevensing”. This is variously called Elleti, Electi, Gleti, near Bassaleg in the district between the rivers Usk and Rumney in Monmouthshire. [11]

Geoffrey states that Vortigern’s magicians found a fatherless child for the foundation sacrifice, “They came to Kaermerdin and heard Merlin, who's mother was the daughter of the king of Demetia, but his father was unknown. The king calls for Maugantius to be called who advises him that Apuleius tells us in his book concerning the Demon of Socrates that between the moon and earth live spirits called ‘incubuses’ who assume human shape and lay with women.”

In the Nennius account, when asked his name, the boy replies to Vortigern:

"I am called Ambrose (in British Embresguletic)”, returned the boy; and in answer to the king's question, "What is your origin?" he replied, "A Roman consul was my father." [12]

This passage is somewhat contradictory as previously Ambrose was a fatherless child but now would appear to be the precursor of Ambrosius from a later passage in Nennius where he is “Ambrosius, who was the great king among the kings of Britain”, a totally different character who Geoffrey says is “Ambrose, also called Merlin”. For some reason unknown to us, Geoffrey confuses his Merlin with the boy Ambrose. Geoffrey was no doubt aware of the prophet Myrddin from the Omen of Britain, possibly his inspiration for the wizard, and this may be the reason for his association of the two figures both with the gift of prophecy as one and the same persona, regardless of the chronology. Geoffrey’s Merlin then goes on to become the prophet and advisor to Uther Pendragon and brings about Arthur's conception in his Historia.

After the incident at Dinas Emrys the Ambrose of Nennius and Geoffrey diverge.

In Geoffrey’s Historia Merlin was responsible for magically transferring The Giant’s Dance (Stonehenge) from Ireland to Salisbury Plain in England. Geoffrey’s account may have been based on an earlier tradition of the stones being transported from a site across the water, as it is now accepted fact that the smaller Bluestones were brought to Salisbury Plain from Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire.

Some 20 miles from the Bluestone site is the town of Carmarthen, according to Geoffrey, Merlin was born here and the city was later named Kaermerdin ("Merlin's fortress") after him. However, the etymology of the Roman name is Moridunum, (the sea fortress), therefore it is more likely that Merlin was named from the later Welsh name of Caerfyrddin, (Myrddin’s city). Until recently the town used to have an old oak known as Merlin’s Tree and about two and a half miles away is Bryn Myrddin (Merlin’s Hill), the summit known as Merlin’s Chair, the wood below is called Merlin’s Grove and on the other side of the road is Merlin’s Stone (Carreg Fyrddin). Three miles south west of the town is another megalith known as Merlin’s Quoit. There is also a local legend of Merlin’s Cave, a secret chamber, in the lower part of the hill, stating that Merlin is still here and alive and if you could find the right place to stand you can hear the old wizard. [13]

In a later passage in Nennius we see the emergence of Ambrosius, the leader of the British against the Saxons, a historical figure totally unrelated to Geoffrey’s Historia where he is Ambrose Merlin, and then referred to simply as Merlin. The Ambrosius from Nennius’ account would appear to be the same man as the one Dark Age leader admired by Gildas in his rant against the British Kings that he terms ‘Tyrants’; the same Ambrosius who rallied the British in the fight against the Saxons, and leader of the victorious Britons at the Battle of Badon:

“[The British] …took arms under the conduct of Ambrosius Aurelianus, a modest man, who of all the Roman nation was then alone in the confusion of this troubled period by chance left alive. His parents, who for their merit were adorned with the purple, kind been slain in these same broils, and now his progeny in these our days, although shamefully degenerated from the worthiness of their ancestors, provoke to battle their cruel conquerors, and by the goodness of our Lord obtain the victory.” [14]

“After this, sometimes our countrymen, sometimes the enemy, won the field ………. until the year of the siege of Mount Badon when took place also the last almost, though not the least slaughter of our cruel foes, which was (as I am sure) forty-four years and one month after the landing of the Saxons, and also the time of my own nativity”. [15]

Chapter 56 of Nennius, the famous list of Arthur’s twelve Battles, records the victory of Badon as one of Arthur’s victories; therefore if we are looking for a historical Arthur the sources direct us towards Ambrosius.

Ambrosius Aurelianus is named Aurelius Ambrosius in Geoffrey’s Historia; this is evident as one and the same person as he refers to the “book which Gildas wrote concerning the victory of Aurelius Ambrosius” brother to Constans and Uthyr Pendragon and a totally separate character from his (Ambrose) Merlin. There appears to be a hint of a tradition of civil war between the two factions of Ambrosius and Vortigern within the British Dark Age sources of Gildas, Nennius and Geoffrey (not that he can be considered a serious historical source); “And from the reign of Vortigern to the quarrel between Guitolinus and Ambrosius, are twelve years, which is Guoloppum, that is Catgwaloph”. [16] But that, as they say, is another story.

Geoffrey was no doubt aware of the prophet Myrddin in the 10th Century poem the Omen of Britain, which almost certainly influenced the main section of his Historia pertaining to Merlin, “The Prophecies of Merlin” which he inserted at Book VII, although they were certainly in circulation prior to the publication of the main opus c.1136AD. After bringing the Giant’s Dance (Stonehenge) to Britain, followed by Arthur’s conception, Merlin’s significance fades from the Historia.

Around 1150AD the “Vita Merlini” (Life of Merlin) was published and generally attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth, although some dispute this as it depicts a totally different Merlin from Geoffrey’s earlier creation. Some consider that Geoffrey became aware of the Northern Myrddin tradition sometime after he had written his Historia and produced the Vita Merlini to put the record straight as it were, but the later account contradicts his earlier Merlin, leading to the situation of two Merlins, separated by chronology and geography.

Myrddin is recorded in only one Triad:

Three Skilful Bards were at Arthur’s Court
Myrddin son of Morfyn,
Myrddin Emrys,
And Taliesin.

This Triad makes the clear distinction that there are two Myrddin’s; the son of Morfyn of the Northern Tradition and Myrddin Emrys, the Ambrose Merlin of Geoffrey’s creation.

Geoffrey’s later Vita Merlini is set in Northern Britain and mentions a battle which appears to be based on an historical account listed in a 10th Century manuscript featuring historical Northern British characters such as Peredur campaigning against Gwenddolau and Merlin’s sister Ganieda being wife of Rodarch (Rhydderch) king of the Cumbrians. Following this terrible battle, Merlin fled into the forest and lived an animal life, becoming a wildman of the woods with the gift, some would say the curse, of prophecy, whereas Geoffrey’s earlier Merlin (Ambrose) was born with the gift of prophecy.

Continued in Wizards and Wildmen Part III - Magicians and Madmen

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Notes:

9. Historia Brittonum, Attributed to Nennius, Translated by: J.A. Giles, in Six Old English Chronicles.
10. Archaeologist Dr H. N. Savory excavated the hill fort of Dinas Emrys between 1954-6, although it has long been known that there is a pool inside of the fort, he was surprised to find that not only were the fortifications of about the right Dark Age date for either Vortigern and Ambrosius, but there was also a later date, perhaps 11th Century, platform above the pool as described in the Historia Britonum.
11. Frank D. Reno, The Historic King Arthur, pp.42-43 states “... the village called in Welsh "Maesaleg," ie, campus Electi called at present ‘Bassaleg’ “.
12. Historia Brittonum, Attributed to Nennius, Translated by: J.A. Giles, in Six Old English Chronicles. It is generally accepted that "Embresgueltic" here refers to "Prince Emrys”. ‘Embreis guletic’ (Old Welsh) is glossed here in the manuscript (a ‘gloss’ being a later addition to the original, an explanatory note in the margin perhaps). In Modern Welsh this appears as Emrys Wledig; as we seen in the later medieval Mabinogion tradition The Dream of Mascen Wledig it can also mean ‘Imperator’ (Emperor). John Morris, in Nennius British History and the Welsh Annals, Phillimore, 1980, translates this as “Emrys the Overlord”. It has been suggested that Vortigern is a title rather than a name, from the Brythonic word "tigern" thus "Vor-tigern" would mean something like “high-king” or "overlord". Gildas does not directly mention the name of Vortigern, only by a probable deliberate pun on his name as the “superbus tyrannus”; the proud tyrant who invited the Saxons into the country.
13. Geoffrey Ashe, The Traveller’s Guide to Arthurian Britain, Gothic Image Publications.
14. Gildas - De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, trans. J A Giles. “Wearing the purple” is a clear reference to Ambrosius’s family being of imperial stock as it was the colour worn by Roman Emperors, typified by the Toga Purpurea, used by a triumphant army commander when he entered Rome after a victorious war and the Toga Picta, a purple robe embroidered with gold. It was one of the insignia of higher Republican officials, worn only on a triumphant occasion; the custom was later adopted by emperors.
15. Gildas - De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, trans. J A Giles. Giles translates "Badonici montis" as "Bath-hill".
16. Historia Brittonum, Attributed to Nennius, Translated by: J.A. Giles, in Six Old English Chronicles. Guoloppum, (Catgwaloph) that is the Battle of Wallop 437AD, generally considered to have taken place in North-West Hampshire, where there are the three villages Over, Middle and Nether Wallop, sited along three miles of the Wallop Brook, barely ten miles as the crow flies from Amesbury, the traditional stronghold of Ambrosius. This area of Hampshire appears to have been a stronghold of the Dark Age British as attested by survival of settlement place-names such as Andover and Micheldover.

Picture Credits:
• Dinas Emrys [circa 1795]
• Ambrose Merlin reads his prophecies to Vortigern, from a manuscript of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Prophetiae Merlini.

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Wizards and Wildmen: Lleu's Death

Lud’s Church (XIV)
Part One

Pierced by a spear, crushed by a stone,
And drowned in the stream’s waters,
Myrddin died a triple death. [1]
Lleu’s Death
Lleu’s transformation into an eagle at the end of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi has been the subject of much discussion, not least the similarities between Lleu and the Norse god Odin in what is claimed to be a shamanistic initiation ritual. The eagle features in many mythologies around the world, its majestic qualities leading to association with ancient kings throughout history.

The Mabinogi of Math details a strange sequence of conditions required to bring about Lleu’s death. Firstly, he can only be killed with a spear that must have been worked for a year and a day, only on Sunday, during the time of Mass; secondly he cannot be killed inside or outside a house; thirdly he can neither be killed on horseback or on foot.

These conditions are overcome when Lleu emerges from the bath in a gazebo-like bath house, having no walls but a roof, therefore neither “indoors or out”. He places one foot on the back of a buck-goat and the other on the edge of the bath, neither “on land nor on water” or “on horseback or on foot”.

Goronowy Pebyr cast the spear which struck Lleu, he immediately turned into an eagle and took flight to be found later on an oak tree by Gwydion at Nantlle in western Snowdonia. A suggested translation for Goronwy Pebyr has been “shining/radiant, spearman”. “Shining/radiant” has also been suggested as an etymology for the name Lleu which has led to suggestions that he is a sun deity

The conditions required to bring about Lleu’s death bring to mind the 14th Century romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, conjectured at being written in the Staffordshire Moorlands, nearby to Lud’s Church. We have already discussed how this medieval tale probably derived originally from the much earlier 8th Century Irish tale Bricriu’s Feast (The Champion’s Bargain or Portion). [2] A shorter, more archaic version of Bricriu’s Feast, called the Yellow or Terror version (sometimes the Uath version), and differs from the Champion’s Bargain in that the warriors must travel to meet the challenger. They meet a man known as Yellow son of Fair, who sends them onto meet a man called Terror son of Great Fear who challenges them to the Beheading Contest beside a lake.

The Beheading Contest always features three strikes, or axe cuts in this tale, which is symbolic of the threefold death reserved for Kings and Deities in Proto-Indo-European mythology holding a particular obsession in Celtic myth. There are essentially two distinct types of threefold death in Indo-European myth, the first being, the death of one individual simultaneously in three ways; hanging from a tree (strangulation); drowning; wounding. The threefold death is foretold, often by the victim himself, and can be considered as retribution for an offence against one, or more, of the three functions of Indo-European society. [3]
The second form of the threefold death is divided into three distinct deaths as sacrifices to three distinct gods of the three functions.

The threefold death as three distinct sacrifices can be found in the epic poem Pharsalia, (also known as De Bello Civili or On the Civil War) telling of the civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Roman Senate, written by Lucan in 61-65AD. The poem describes Caesar's conquest of Gaul; he describes three Celtic gods to whom are delivered human sacrifices:

”And those who pacify with blood accursed
Savage Teutates, Hesus' horrid shrines,
And Taranis' altars cruel as were those” [4]

According to a marginal note in a medieval manuscript of the Pharsalia:

“Taranis was propitiated by burning, Teutates by drowning, and Esus by means of suspending his victims from trees and ritually wounding them”.

Book III of the The Pharsalia recounts the Roman vexation at the horror of the Druid groves, giving another life in their affirmation of the transmigration of the soul, which permeated Celtic religion at the time. The following passage paints a macabre scene of the Druid’s forest groves and appears to portray firsthand experience by the poet:

“Now fell the forests far and wide, despoiled
Of all their giant trunks: for as the mound
On earth and brushwood stood, a timber frame
Held firm the soil, lest pressed beneath its towers
The mass might topple down. There stood a grove
Which from the earliest time no hand of man
Had dared to violate; hidden from the sun
Its chill recesses; matted boughs entwined
Prisoned the air within. No sylvan nymphs
Here found a home, nor Pan, but savage rites
And barbarous worship, altars horrible
On massive stones upreared; sacred with blood
Of men was every tree. If faith be given
To ancient myth, no fowl has ever dared
To rest upon those branches, and no beast
Has made his lair beneath: no tempest falls,
Nor lightnings flash upon it from the cloud.
Stagnant the air, unmoving, yet the leaves
Filled with mysterious trembling; dripped the streamsFrom coal-black fountains; effigies of gods
Rude, scarcely fashioned from some fallen trunk” [5]

Lleu in Y Gododdin
In Part XIII – Gwydion’s Eagle we discussed Y Gododdin the Dark Age poem recalling a raid by the Gododdin, a tribe occupying modern Lothian, on Catraeth, an event usually dated around the end of the 6th Century. The raid was a disaster for the Northern Britons; in one account only the poet Aneirin survives. We noted how there are in existence various renditions of that poem owing to the fact that it survives in the mid-13th Century manuscript in at least three variants, namely A, B1 and B2 texts.
All three texts, and therefore the oldest variant, B2 text, contain the lines “the rock of Lleu’s tribe, the folk of Lleu’s mountain stronghold at Gododdin’s frontier” a reference to Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh, also known as The Crag or The Rock.

It has been proposed that the youngest variant of Y Gododdin, the A text, moved to Gwynedd following the Battle of Winwaed, recorded in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle as 655AD. This variant became enlarged with additions from a Welsh scribe to 88 stanzas and was no doubt influenced by a similar oral tradition as the Mabinogi as it contains references to characters from Culhwch ac Olwen and mentions Twrch Trwyth, the boar hunted by Arthur. The A text contains the reference to “Gwydion’s Eagle” generally accepted as a direct reference to Lleu from the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi. [6]

The episode of Lleu’s death at the end of the Mabinogi of Math would appear to contain all the details of the threefold death in Celtic society, even transmigration of his soul as an eagle. Significantly, this same stanza also alludes to Myrddin, who also suffered a threefold death.

Myrddin in Y Gododdin
In that same stanza of the A text variant of Y Gododdin mentioning Lleu as Gwydyen’s Eagle there is also an allusion to Myrddin, included in the following lines,

Morien defended,
The fair song of Myrddin and laid the head,
Of a chief in the earth….. [7]

Compare with another translation of the same passage:

Morien defended,
Myrddin’s praise song, and placed the chieftain,
In earth….. [8]

The earlier, B text, version of the poem omits this line, therefore it cannot safely be regarded as part of the original 6th Century poem, and suspiciously looking like a later addition to the A text variant of Y Gododdin, dated to 900-1100 AD, as we have seen above, developed with Gwynedd influence. Although Myrddin does not appear in the Mabinogi, his influence would appear to be from an independent Northern tradition.

The earliest known reference to Myrddin occurs in "Armes Prydein" (the Omen or Prophecy of Britain). The earliest extant manuscript copy of this prophetic poem dates to c.1275 AD, contained within the Book of Taliesin. However, the poem has been dated on linguistic and historic grounds to c.930 AD. The name Myrddin appears only once in the poem, in the opening line of one stanza that reads:

"Dysgogan Myrdin ..." (Myrddin fortells)

We cannot totally dismiss the possibility that the poem experienced later additions in Gwynedd as with Y Gododdin textual variations, and the name Myrddin substituted at some point later than 930 AD, it is generally considered to be original as it safely fits the poem structure as a similar opening formula is used on two other occasions in the poem:

"Dysgogan Awen ..." (poetic inspiration fortells)
"Dysgogan derwydon ..." (wise men fortell)

Myrddin is considered by some commentators to be a genuine historical character from Dark Age Northern Britain, but there would appear to be no evidence to support this. Historically he is an even more elusive than the warrior Arthur. The basic element of the Myrddin legend no doubt has its provenance in Northern Britain and as we have seen with Y Gododdin, became influenced by later Welsh medieval literature.

However, there does appear to be an independent tradition regarding a prophet called Myrddin as we have seen in the Omen of Britain, although we cannot securely date this tradition prior to the 10th Century. The common perception of a wizard in a pointed hat with long white beard as familiar to most people from childhood tales are no more than modern interpretations of the Merlin creation of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Geoffrey had to rename him as Merlin as Myrddin sounds too much like merde, excrement to a Norman audience.

Continued in Wizards and Wildmen Part II - Son of an Incubus

*

Notes:
1. "Meldred and Lailoken”, British Library manuscript Cotton Titus A. XIX.
2. See Part III – The Hawk of May
3. The Trifunctional Hypothesis is a controversial conjecture proposed by French mythographer Georges Dumézil. The hypothesis states that Indo-European religion has societies and religions divided into three similar roles: warriors, priests, and farmers, as seen in the Welsh story Lludd & Lleuelys, which echoes three elements of the story of Naudu and Lug, in the Irish tale The Second Battle of Mag Tuired.
4. Pharsalia (“On The Civil War"), BOOK I, The Crossing of the Rubicon - Marcus Annaeus Lucanus. The Online Medieval & Classical Library [http://omacl.org/Pharsalia/book1.html]
5. Pharsalia (“On The Civil War"), BOOK III Massilia, The Online Medieval & Classical Library [http://omacl.org/Pharsalia/book3.html]
6. John T Koch, The Gododdin of Aneirin: Text & Context from Dark Age North Britain, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1997.
7. A O H Jarman, Aneirin: Y Gododdin, Gomer Press 1990, stanza 45, p.30.
8. Joseph P Clancy, Medieval Welsh Poems, Four Courts Press 2003, A text, stanza 40, p.55.


Picture Credits:
• Lleu’s Bath House from The Mabinogion by Lady Charlotte Guest
• Merlin and Vivien enter the woods. Engraving by Gustave Dore.

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Gwydion’s Eagle

Lud’s Church (XIII)

Eagle, being on the top of the oak
If thou beest of the race of birds
Thou canst not be either domestic or tame [1]

Gwydion’s Eagle
As we have seen in the poem the Battle of the Trees, which I have proposed as an allusion to the tales of the Mabinogi and specifically the episode of Fourth Branch, although Gwydion and Math are, Lleu is not mentioned directly but there may be an reference to him in the form of an Eagle in the line: “I have been a course, I have been an eagle.”

The poem’s association with the cycle of tales included in the Mabinogi would appear to be confirmed by the lines immediately preceding this:

“I have been a continuing bridge, Over three score Abers”

This could well be a reference to Bran the Blessed, (= Bendigeidfran, meaning literally "Blessed Crow”) who stretches himself to form a bridge over a river (Aber = river mouth) in the Second branch tale "Branwen daughter of Llyr". The poem goes on to mention the construction of Blodueudd from flowers by Math and Gwydion and even Goronwy appears in the later stages just as he does at the ending of the Fourth Branch.

There is a further allusion to Lleu as an eagle in the Dark Age poem Y Gododdin of Aneirin.
Aneirin, referred to as Aneirin of Flowing Verse, is named as one of the five bards famous for their poetry in the Historia Brittonum, attributed to Nennius, c.829AD, and is generally regarded as a genuine historical character. The poem Y Gododdin, or Canu Aneirin (the Song of Aneirin) is claimed to record a historical, disastrous event when a war band of three hundred men set out from the northern British kingdom of Gododdin, to attack the northern Angles of Deira and Bernicia at a place named Catraeth, (claimed to be modern Catterick) c. 595 - 600 AD. Some accounts say only three Britons survived the encounter, others only Aneirin himself lived to tell the tale.

There has been considerable debate amongst scholars over the location of the battle, the opponents, the use of Brittonic cavalry, the date, transmission of the poem to Wales and of course the poem may contain the earliest reference to Arthur the Warrior. Intriguing as it may be, a full discussion of the contents of Y Gododdin and the Battle of Catraeth is beyond the scope of this work and will have to wait for another day, for now we are primarily concerned with the allusion to Lleu as an eagle in Y Gododdin: “y am wyr eryr Gwydyen”

This obscure passage has been variously translated:

For a feast, most sad, most precious,
For settled, for desolate land,
For the falling of hair from the head,
Among soldiers, an eagle, Gwydyen.
With his spear he fought for Gwyddug,
A Planner, a tiller, its owner.
Three bristled boars, bent on destruction,
Morien carried off with his spear,
Myrddin of song, sharing the best Part of his wealth, our strength and support.
Ramparts ringing, the war-band fighting
With the Saxons and Irish and Picts,
He bore the stiff red corpse of Bradwen,
Deft-handed Gwenabwy fab Gwen. [2]

Compare with another translation of the same passage:

For the piercing of the skilful and most learned man,
For the fair corpse which fell prostrate on the ground,
For the failing of the hair from off his head,
From the grandson of the eagle of Gwydien,
Did not Gwyddwg defend with his spear,
Resembling and honouring his master?
Morieu of the sacred song defended
The wall, and deposed the head
Of the chief in the ground, both our support and our sovereign
Equal to three men, to please the maid, was Bradwen,
Equal to twelve was Gwenabwy the son of Gwen. [3]

A O H Jarman translates this line as “For his warriors, Gwyddien was an eagle” [4]

At first glance it would appear alarming that these scholars could vary so much in their translations, however archaic Welsh is notoriously difficult language and we can forgive any apparent shortcomings of the translators when we consider that the poem in its current manuscript form, Cardiff MS 2.81, dating from the mid-13th Century, would appear to be a muddle of at least two different versions as indicated by the repetition of certain elegies, distinguished respectively as “A” and “B” texts. This was recognised by Skene over a hundred years ago in his Four Ancient Books of Wales which contained a second Gododdin which was thought to be a second redaction of The Gododdin, immediately following the Gwarchan of Maelderw.

The Book of Aneirin
There is only one extant early manuscript of Y Gododdin, “The Book of Aneirin”, (Llyfr Aneirin), kept in Cardiff Central Library, thought to date to c.1265. It is generally accepted that this manuscript contains the work of two scribes, referred to as Scribe A and Scribe B. Scribe A wrote down 88 stanzas of the poem, leaving a blank page before continuing with four poems known as Gorchanau. Scribe A recorded the 88 awdlau [5] and the Gorchanau in Middle Welsh. Later Scribe B added material to the same manuscript, and must have had access to an earlier manuscript since the material he added was in Old Welsh. Scribe B added some 35 awdlau, some being variants of the awdlau already written down by Scribe A, and some of these had been omitted by Scribe A.

Three folios appear to be missing from the end of the manuscript, indicating some material has been lost, this would appear to be confirmed by the incompleteness of the last awdl which breaks off short. This is further complicated within the material added by Scribe B which is inconsistent. The first 23 awdlau of the B material display partial modernisation, while the remaining material appears to retain the Old Welsh features. This was given the explanation that Scribe B started modernising the orthography as he copied the awdlau, but tired of this and copied the rest of the awdlau as they appeared in the older manuscript. This being an unsatisfactory explanation, Graham Isaac, noting the orthographic practice used by the B Scribe changes radically between B1.23 and B2.24 has suggested that Scribe B was using two source texts, namely B1 (awdlau B.1- 23) and B2 (awdlau B.24 – 42), thereby proposing that the material in the extant manuscript of The Book of Aneirin is from three sources. Therefore we have three textual versions, A, B1, and B2; these variants of Y Gododdin portrayed in awdlau A.48 = B1.3 = B2.24, suggesting that the original first awdl of each version posing a related variant. [6]

John T Koch [7] has taken this a stage further and attempted to untangle this mess and reconstruct the separate Y Gododdin texts. Koch argues that the most archaic text, reflecting the first, or Leech Leud=ud recension, deriving from the original oral tale, remained in the North, possibly Strathclyde, while the AB1 text, The Srath Caruin Recension, moved to Gwynedd following the Battle of Winwaed, which the Anglo Saxon Chronicle records in 655AD, fought between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia-Gwynedd alliance. British/Welsh accounts refer to "Maes Gai". Although the exact location has been lost, the most likely site is likely to be close to Leeds, probably Whinmoor in Yorkshire. From the AB1 text derived the separate A and B1 texts.

Koch has reconstructed three reconstructed texts, variants A, B1 and B2, categorised as follows:

B2 – the most archaic surviving text, reflecting the first, or Leech Leud=ud recension, deriving from the original oral tale, was absent of Christian influence and does not contain attribution to Aneirin or indeed mention of Aneirin as the sole survivor of the battle, or even the Bernicians (Northern English) as the enemies.

B1 – this text derives from the second or The Srath Caruin recension (AB1), a Christian collection attributed to Aneirin.

A – also derived from the second or The Srath Caruin recension (AB1), but through third and fourth recensions; Kayawc Kynhorawc, and Greddyf Gwr respectively; again a Christian collection attributed to Aneirin, has the Bernicians as the enemy and displays interests in Gwynedd, the Coeling and in the personae of Talysessin and Myrdin.

The AB1 text diverged and the A text in particular, now in Gwynedd, became subject to later additions and interpolations which would seem to account for the reference to Lleu as Gwydion’s eagle and also includes allusion to characters known to us from Culhwch ac Olwen and the Gorchan of Cynvelyn mentions Twrch Trwyth, the boar hunted by Arthur and his men. Gwydion, as the father of Lleu, occurs as Gwydyen in this obscure passage where we have “eryr Gwydyen”, which, as meaning Gwydion's Eagle, would exactly describe Lleu, his son, in the episode after being struck with the spear thrown by Goronwy. Koch interprets this line as a reference to the Fourth Branch’s account of Lleu’s transformation to an eagle, [8]

There is a further allusion to Lleu in the Gododdin poem, awdl B1.18 = A.26: “no one’s horses could match Marchleu” this is a direct reference to the steed of Lleu. In Irish tradition it is Lugh who invented horse racing and in Welsh tradition Lleu’s steed is noted as one of The Bestowed Horses Of The Island Of Britain:

"Melyngan Mangre, march Lleu Law Gyffes"
(Pale Yellow of the Stud, horse of Lleu Skilful-Hand)

Melyngan, Rachel Bromwich, translates this as literally “Pale-White” and mangre as “stud” or “stallion”. [9] We are reminded that the colour white in Celtic mythology usually refers to Otherworldly, or supernatural, qualities.

Lleu’s horse receives a further mention in the poem The Song of the Horses, from the Book of Taliesin XXV, “the steed of Lleu half domesticated”. This poem lists the steeds of heroes of Celtic mythology, Caradawg, Gwythur, Gwarddur, Arthur, and Taliesin amongst others, and is reminiscent of the Triads of the Horses. Worthy of note here is that it is the warrior Gwarddur who is mentioned in Y Gododdin and compared to Arthur, as we have seen the earliest reference to Arthur in extant literature.

However, the line alluding to Lleu is A.40 – line 462, being embroiled in the confusion of awdlau B1.5, A.40, = B1.6, A41, whose relationship is complex and obscure: all four begin with versions of the same line, and three end with versions of the same line, it being impossible to determine the correct original from these four awdlau. Although Koch states that there is no reason to attribute this reference, or anything like it, to the older Srath Caruin Recension, AB1 text (mid 7th Century), it is possibly 9th or 10th Century which significantly predates the Fourth Branch of Mabinogi in its extant manuscript form, providing evidence that the tale of Lleu was known in oral tradition at least.

Of course, Koch’s re-constructed texts have not been without criticism [10] but he should be applauded for attempting what other scholars have shied away from.

Lleu’s Mountain
Significantly the opening stanza to the most archaic Y Gododdin B2 text, derived from the Leech Leud=ud recension, is named from the translation of the opening line The rock of Lleu’s tribe, B2 text awdl B2.24:

The rock of Lleu’s tribe,
the folk of Lleu’s mountain stronghold at Gododdin’s frontier;
the frontier was held. Counsel was taken, storm gathering;
the vessel from over the Firth of a warband from over the Firth.
[A man] who nurtures warbands came to us out of Din Dywyd to be an obstruction to the king’s warband.
The shield of Grugyn before the bull of battle had a broken boss.

As we have seen above B2.24 exists in three variants; B2.24=B1.3=A.48; denoting the archaic provenance of this singular awdl, which, according to Koch, is “primary material, pre-Christian, linguistically Archaic” and regards the opening lines as referring to a hill fort on Gododdin’s frontier probably Din Eidin (modern Edinburgh), [11] this was the chief citadel of the Britons of Gododdin.

Koch posits Leech Leu-dud interprets as ‘the rock of the tribe of Lugus’ (Celtic *luga-touta) would be a circumlocution for Tut Leu-ure ‘the tribe of Lleu’s hill fort’ suggesting *Lugu-dunon as an ancient alternative name for Din Eidin. [12] We saw in Part VI – Lludd’s City that according to Geoffrey of Monmouth the City of London was named from ‘Caerlud’. London has clear associations with Lludd, a variant form of the name of the god Lug; lugudunon could easily have become corrupted to London and presents a more credible etymology.

There is an entry in the Roman Ravenna Cosmography, c.700AD, listing Lugudunum, as apparently located somewhere in the north of Britain. We have seen the same name as Dinlleu (same elements reversed) in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi as Lleu’s fortress in North Wales. This name is well known among the Continental Celts, the best known being modern Lyon, generally agreed upon as the ‘fortress of the god Lugus’ (Lug in later Celtic tradition, Lleu in Welsh). [13]

Arthur's Seat
The rock of Lleu’s tribe at Din Eidin ( Lugudunum) can be no other than Arthur’s Seat (Suidhe Arthair), an ancient volcano, towering over Edinburgh and linked with the stories of Arthur the Warrior. Local folklore states that Arthur and his men are sleeping inside the hill, awaiting the call to come forth in time of the Country’s need. This reminds us of the legend of The Iron Gates, near Alderley Edge in Cheshire, discussed in Lud’s Church - Part I. In the earliest records the origin of the name is simply “the Crag” and it has been suggested that this may be a corruption either of the Gaelic Ard-na-Said, meaning “height of arrows”, or Ard Thor, meaning the “height of the thunderer”. [14]

The Lothian Line
The equinox sunrise (21st March and 21st September) is visible over Arthur’s Seat when viewed from Cairnpapple, nearly 29 kilometres to the west. If this line is extended to the east a further 30 kilometres, it crosses over Traprain Law. Therefore the sunrise on the spring and autumn equinoxes when viewed from Arthur’s Seat can be seen to rise over Traprain Law and set over Cairnpapple Hill. This solar phenomenon, presented by the east-west alignment of these three naturally positioned hills, roughly equidistant apart, has been termed “The Lothian line”, being a natural occurrence, similar to the Leek Double Sunset mentioned in Lud’s Church - Part I. This ‘sacred’ Lothian alignment straddles the east-west axis, and gives clear indication as a key calendar marker, the movement of the sun appearing to rotate around the equinoxes, creating an East-West axis when day and night are of equal length. [15]

Lleuddinyawn
The old Brittonnic kingdom of Gododdin extended from south-east Scotland to north-east England, identified as the region of modern Lothian, bordered on the west by the Brythonic Kingdom of Strathclyde, to the north by the Picts, and as far south the English River Tyne. Gododdin included three territories: Manaw Gododdin, (near Stirling), Lleuddinyawn (Lothian), and Berneich, (later to become Anglian Bernicia).

The claim that Din Eidin equates with Lugudunum is supported as the earliest recorded form of "Lothian" is from a 12th Century poem by the Welsh bard, Hywel ap Owain, as “Neu dreitsy tra lliw Lleudinyawn dreuyt”. Lleudinyawn in modern form Lleuddiniawn, means literally, the "land of Lleu's fortress", constructed from the elements lleu (personal name), din (fortress), and -iawn (land of). [16]

We find further evidence of the former size of Lleudinyawn (Lothian), as just north of Dinguaroy, a Celtic coastal fortress in the southerly territory of the Gododdin kingdom, now the site of Bamburgh castle, opposite the Farne Islands, are the rivers of the North and South Low. These were identified on early maps as the North and South Llew, [17] which, as we have previously discussed is the medieval Welsh rendition for Lleu, used in the Mabinogion tradition.

Traditionally the mouth of the River Low (Aber Lleu - "the river-mouth of the god Lug/Lleu") is the site where the Celtic King Urien, Lord of Catraeth, was treacherously killed, after he beseiged Theodoric, “flame-bearer” on the Isle of Metcaut, being the original Brythonic name for Holy Island, Lindisfarne, as told in the Northern History section of the Historia Brittonum, attributed to Nennius, c.829AD:

“….. Hussa reigned seven years. Against him fought four kings, Urien, and Ryderthen, and Guallauc, and Morcant. Theodoric fought bravely, together with his sons, against that Urien. But at that time sometimes the enemy and sometimes our countrymen were defeated, and he shut them up three days and three nights in the island of Metcaut; and whilst he was on an expedition he was murdered, at the instance of Morcant, out of envy…” -. Translation by J.A. Giles, in Six Old English Chronicles.

The story is told in the Llwyarch Hen cycle of poems, contained within the Red Book of Hergest, known as the Death of Urien:

A head I bear by my side,
The head of Urien, the mild leader of his army-
And on his white bosom the sable raven is perched.

A head I bear in my shirt,
The head of Urien who governed a court in mildness-
And on his white bosom the sable raven gluts. ………

Eurdyl will be sorrowful from the tribulation of this night,
And from the fate that is to me befallen;
That her brother should be slain at Aber Lleu.

The poet is clearly carrying Urien’s head, leading to suggestions that it was taken as a trophy or more likely so as the enemy did not retrieve it. The Triads calls the death of Urien one of the "three unfortunate assassinations" and describes Urien as one of the three great battle leaders of Britain. It has puzzled historians for years the location Catraeth, if it was on the border of the Gododdin’s territory it cannot have been Catterick, even more if Urien Rheged was the Lord of Catraeth, why the Gododdin should attack it. Perhaps the poetry of Llywarch Hen and the archaic B2 text hold the answer.

Traprain Law
East Lothian is the location of Traprain Law, considered one of the most important archaeological sites in Scotland, the site of an Iron Age hill fort, thought to have been the capital of the Gododdin, before moving to Din Eidin (Lleu’s fortress). The people of Gododdin (earlier name Gutodin) were known to Romans as the Votadini, an Iron Age tribe, their territory was either side on the Northern Walls providing a buffer zone to the Roman Frontier, tradition states that it is from Manaw Gododdin that Cunedda was moved by Magnus Maximus, into North Wales and founded Gwynedd. The native tale The Dream of Macsen Wledig, included in Charlotte Guest’s Mabinogion, is a romanticised story about the Roman Commander Magnus Maximus, proclaimed Emperor by his army in Britain in AD 383, after recovering Britain from incursions by the Picts and Scots in AD 381.

The Loth Stone is found about 300m south-west of Traprain Law, standing 8 feet high and said to mark the grave of the mythical King Loth, traditionally after whom the Lothians were said to be named, although excavations have not revealed any evidence of a grave in the vicinity of the stone.

Traprain Law, at 725 feet in height, is the site of an ancient hill fort, with evidence of occupation and signs of ramparts dated from c.1000 BC. Following the Roman withdrawal from Southern Scotland to the line of Hadrian's Wall, Traprain Law was occupied from c.200AD almost continuously until c.400AD. East Lothian’s absence of Roman military camps has been interpreted as an indication that authority was maintained from Traprain Law. It would appear probable, that the Votadini had allied with the Romans and historians suspect, acted as a buffer state between the Northern Walls on the Empire frontier. However, c.400AD a final rampart was erected at Traprain Law, and soon after the site abandoned, perhaps related to the break down of Roman rule in Britain. [18]

In 1919 a silver treasure hoard was found by Traprain Law, conjectured to be payment from the Romans to their local allies the Votadini. Following a fire on Traprain Law in 2003, a number of finds where made including 5,000-year-old Neolithic rock art and Bronze Age axes.
This hill was only known as Traprain Law from the late 18th century, prior to that it is found on old maps as “Dunpendyrlaw”, still known locally as Dunpelder. A suggested translation has been Gaelic, Dun, from Brythonic Din ‘fort’ and Brythonic, paladur , or pelydr ‘spear shaft’, owing to the Brythonic origin of this name it may have been called Dinpaladur. [19]

*

To recap;

In Part IV - The Search for Lud we discussed how Gwalchmei/Gawain’s mother appears to be one and the same persona albeit substituted with different epithets and it is evident that his father’s name persisted as Lot, Llew or Lleu. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth Gawain’s father was Lot, which as Loth, appears to been have based on the name for a ruler of the Scottish region known as Lothian. As previously discussed, this may have been based this notion on a Northern tradition of Lot which Geoffrey confused with the Lot Luwddoc (of the Host) possibly based on the semi-legendary Leudonus, a late 5th century post-roman ruler of the Gododdin.

In Part III - The Hawk of May we saw how the redactor of the Brut y Brenhinedd - the Welsh translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain –confuses Lot Luwddoc with Llew ap Cynfarch, the brother of Urien Rheged, the most powerful king in Northern Britain at that time. Llew ap Cynfarch is a historical character, mentioned in the Northern genealogies, one of six brothers of the dynasty of Cynfarch Oer "The Dismal" King of North Rheged but features about one hundred years after Lot Luwddoc (Leudonus). Lot was certainly confused with the historical character by the redactor of the Brut who substitutes Llew ap Cynfarch for him in the Brut.

We can now see the reason for the confusion with the name Lew/Lleu and Lot should not be confused with Llew ap Cynfarch, king of Caer Guendoleu.

At the Battle of Arfderydd in AD 573, Gwenddolew ap Ceidio, the King of Caer-Guendoleu, died fighting against the opposing forces led by Ebrauc and Dunoting. Having no heir, Caer-Guendoleu passes into the hands of his cousin, Urien Rheged and is ruled by his two brothers; Llew ap Cynfarch and Arawn ap Cynfarch.

The same stanza of Y Gododdin that mentions Lleu as Gwydyen’s Eagle, there also is an allusion to Myrddin, who went mad after the Battle of Arfderydd and fled to become a Wildman of the woods.

Continued in Part XIV - Wizards and Wildmen

*Edited 08/12/19 - Ten years after publication an error has been pointed to me (see comment below dated 07/12/19), so I have removed the offending illustration.

*

Notes:
1. Dialogue of Arthur and the Eagle, 16th Century manuscript, Jes. MS 3.
2. Joseph P.Clancy Earliest Welsh Poetry. Macmillan, London & New York, 1970. Medieval Welsh Poems, published by Four Courts Press 2003.
3. The Four Ancient Books of Wales. ed. by William F. Skene. Edinburgh, 1868.
4. A O H Jarman, Aneirin: Y Gododdin line 440, p30, Gomer Press, 1990.
5. Awdl (plural = awdlau), pronounced “ode,” “lay”. The most highly regarded form of Welsh bardic composition. The word, originally a variant of the Celtic term for rhyme, odl, came to mean a run of monorhyming lines, a complete poem in monorhyme.
6. G R Isaac, Canu Aneirin and awdl LI, Journal of Celtic Linguistics 2, 1993
7. John T Koch, The Gododdin of Aneirin: Text & Context from Dark Age North Britain, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1997.
8. Ibid. p160
9. Rachel Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, The Triads of the Island of Britain, 3rd Edition, University Of Wales Press, 2006, p104.
10. G R Isaac, "Readings in the history and transmission of the Gododdin". Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 37, 1999. pp. 55-78
11. Koch, op cit. p131.
12. Ibid. p131.
13. A.L.F. Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain, Batsford, London (1979) 401-2).
14. Philip Coppens, Land of the Gods; Lothian’s Scared Landscape
15. Ibid.. Coppens states that Steve Sweeney-Turner (see note 16 below) first proposed that there might be “a kind of symmetrical plan underlying the whole of Gododdin/Lothian, dating back from the pre-Celtic period and throughout it.” Sweeney-Turner thought the shape was that of a diamond, from Cairnpapple in the West to Traprain Law in the East, and with Arthur’s Seat at its epicentre.
16. Steve Sweeney-Turner, Ancient Lothian website, lleu of lleuddiniawn 
17. Alexander and William McCall, Artur, Gwenwhyvawr and Myrddin: Ancient Brythons of the North, Pentland Press, 1997, p.172.
18. British Archaeology magazine, Issue 57, February 2001
19. Bethany Fox ,  The P-Celtic Place-Names of North-East England and South-East Scotland, The Heroic Age, A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe Issue 10 (May 2007)

* * *

The Stone of Goronwy

Lud's Church (XII)

The Tribe of Goronwy Pebyr of Penllyn, who refused to stand instead of their lord to receive the poisoned dart from Llew Llaw Gyffes, by Llech Goronwy, at Blaen Cynvael, in Ardudwy. [1]

After being nursed back to full health, Lleu Llaw Gyffes wanted justice; so the story goes:

"........they mustered Gwynedd and made for Ardudwy. Gwydion went in front, and made for Mur Castell. Blodeuedd, when she heard that they were on their way, took her maidens with her and made for the mountain, across the River Cynfael, making for a court that was up the mountain. And so frightened were they, that they could not walk without facing backwards. Then, before they knew it, they fell into a lake and all drowned except Blodeuedd herself. And then Gwydion overtook her, and said:

'I will not kill you. What I am going to do is even worse,' he said 'that is, I will release you in the shape of a bird. Because of the shame that you have wrought upon Lleu Llaw Gyffes, you will not dare to show your face ever again in the light of day ever again, and that will be because of enmity between you and all birds. It will be in their nature to harass you and despise you wherever they find you. And you will not loose your name - that will always be "Bloddeuwedd". [2]

Goronwy fled, making for Penllyn, which is a commot on the borders of Llyn Tegid, or Bala Lake.
He sent out envoys to Lleu offering him terms, "either land or territory or gold or silver."

Lleu refused Gorowy's offer of terms and sent back the following message: "Here is the least I'll accept from him: going to the place where I was, when he cast the spear, with me in the place where he was. And let me cast a spear at him. That is the least I will accept from him."

Gorowy then asked his nobles and his warband if there was anyone one that would take this blow for him.

They refused and because of this refusal to endure the taking of a single blow on behalf of their lord, they are remembered in a Triad as one of the Three Disloyal Warbands:

"The Tribe of Goronwy Pebyr of Penllyn, who refused to stand instead of their lord to receive the poisoned dart from Llew Llaw Gyffes, by Llech Goronwy, at Blaen Cynvael, in Ardudwy. And the Tribe of Gwrgi and Peredur, who deserted their lords in Caer Greu, where there was an appointment for battle next morning against Eda Glinmawr,and they were both slain. And the third, the Tribe of Alan Vyrgan who returned back by stealth from their lord, leaving him and his servants going to Camlan, where he was slain."

....And with that they both went to the banks of Afon Cynfael. And once there Goronwy Pebyr stood where Lleu had been when he'd been struck and Lleu stood where the other had been. And then Goronwy said unto Lleu: 'Lord,' said he, 'since it was from the deceit of a woman that I did unto you as I did, I implore you, before god, to allow me to set that flat stone that I see on the riverbank between myself and the blow.'

Lleu did not refuse this and so Goronwy took the stone and placed between himself and the blow. Then Lleu cast his spear at Goronwy and it pierced the stone and went through, and it went through Goronwy as well and broke his back.

And there Goronwy Pebyr was slain, and there lies the stone upon the banks of Afon Cynfael in Ardudwy, with the hole still through it. Which is why, until this day, it is called Llech Goronwy.

A second time did Lleu Llaw Gyffes take possession of his land, and he governed it prosperously. And as the story-tellers relate he became, after this, the lord of Gwynedd. Thus ends this branch of the Mabinogi. [3]

Lleu’s retribution swiftly brings the tale of Math son of Mathonwy and indeed the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, in its current form, to an end.

If, as already suggested, the Mabinogi was originally Tales pertaining to the family of Mabon, ending with Pryderi’s death, then the story of Lleu may well have been a later appendage, the reference to the Triad The Three Disloyal Warbands at the end of this branch suggests an oral variant of the tale was in existence when the redactor wrote Math son of Mathonwy in its extant version. [4]

At first glance this would appear to be a straight forward onomastic tale to account for Llech Goronwy in Cwm Cynfael, just south from Ffestiniog and the sites of Llyn y Morwynion, (Lake of the Maidens) and Mur Y Castell, (Tomen-y-Mur ) in Ardudwy. Not far from here is also the claimed burial place of Pryderi at Maentwrog.

Tomen-y-Mur was used by the Romans as a marching camp on the Sarn Helen Roman road, probably named after “Elen of the Hosts” running for about 160 miles from Aberconwy in the north to Carmarthen in the south. Elen of the Hosts, also known as Elen of the Ways, She is Protectress of the Pathways; guardian of all who journey, patron of travellers. Elen is best known from Welsh legend as Elen Luyddogg in the Mabinogion in “The Dream of Macsen Wledig”; Elen is discovered by Mascen in a dream. Her beauty was compared with that of the Sun.

In Britain the was a Cult of St Helen predominantly in the North country, where many churches are dedicated to her, and more 'holy' wells were named for Helen than for any other non-biblical female saint. [5]

Tomen-y-Mur was Lleu’s castle and it is while he was away visiting Math in Arfon that lonely Blodeuedd had met Goronwy while he was out hunting. Blodeuedd was created by Gwydion and Math as a companion for Lleu as his mother Aranrhod had cursed him not to have a wife of this race. Blodeuedd was created for Lleu’s sexual satisfaction, (some have called her a sex beast) therefore it can be little surprise that she took a lover while on her own – it was her sole purpose in life.

Llyn y Morwynion (Lake of the Maidens), less than a mile from Tŷ Nant y Beddau, is where the serving maids of Blodeuedd fell while being pursued by Gwydion, the sorcerer. Blodeuedd flees with her maidens from the fort at Tomen-y-Mur but because they were constantly looking back at their pursuers, they all fall headlong into the lake and are drowned, all except Blodeuedd who is transformed into an owl by Gwydion and from then on known as Bloddeuwedd (Owl).

Llech Goronwy
It would appear unlikely that the tale of Goronwy has been added to the conclusion of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi purely as a onomastic tale claiming to account for the name of the stone found in Cwm Cynfal, although the Mabinogi claimed the stone was still there on the banks of the Cynfal.

In 1934, Frank Ward discovered a stone in the bed of the river Cynfal, measuring some forty inches by thirty inches, with a hole straight through it, about an inch in diameter. The stone had apparently been washed downstream by this time from its earlier position in the Ceunant Coch, where a woman who had lived in a farmhouse called ‘Llech Ronw’ nearby, recalled having seen it. She added that a about 150 yards away was a fallen standing-stone which was believed to mark the site of the grave of Goronwy Pebyr (Bedd Goronwy). A later account confirmed the same story. [6]

A few years ago it was claimed the rock was found again, not on the banks of the river Cynfael but on one of its tributaries. The rock is unusual; a man sized flat stone with a hole at about what would be heart-height.

The farm, on whose land the stone is found, is called "Bryn Saeth" (the hill of the arrow), a farm nearby is called Llech Goronwy (Goronwy's Stone), and, making a triangle with those two a third farm is called "Bryn Gyfergyd" (the hill of the blow). [7]

The stone can still be seen today as shown in the pictures, however whether this is the original stone we will never know, apparently it was erected by the local Council a few years ago, and lies alongside the Afon Bryn Saeth, at SH714407, a tributary to the Afon Cynfal.

Goronwy
Goronwy Pebyr has been translated as “spearman, radiant”, the first element gwr (man) and *rhonwy (an archaic name for spear). The attached epithet, Pebyr is thought to derive from the Cymric word pefr (shining, radiant). A suggested etymology for Lleu has been the shining one or radiant one based on the presence of the component 'lleu' meaning ‘light’ in Cymric. This has led to the suggestion that they may well be one and the same deity and this event was an annual duel between light and dark, remembering of course that Lleu was one of a twin; divine twins being mythemic in Proto-Indo-European in mythologies. [8]

The required method to kill Lleu’s has the implication of a ritual as certain conditions must be met:

Lleu cannot be killed:

a. without a spear,
b. inside a house and he cannot be killed outside,
c. he cannot be killed on horseback and he cannot be killed on foot.

How he can be killed:

a. the spear must be worked on only during Sunday at the time of Mass,
b. a bath must be prepared, this must be by a riverside, there must be a well thatched roof [9] over the bath; so he is neither inside or outside,
c. a buck (male) goat must be placed by the bath, Lleu must place one foot on the goat’s back and the other on the edge of the bath; so he is neither on horseback or on foot.

This triad of conditions that is required to bring about Lleu’s death immediately brings to mind the threefold death motif suffered by an individual who dies simultaneously in three ways; an acknowledged Proto-Indo-European mythological theme.

As we saw previously in the medieval verse romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, set in the days of King Arthur at the New Year's feast, derived originally from the much earlier 8th Century Irish tale Bricriu’s Feast, the three attempted axe cuts are symbolic of the three strikes and clearly referring to the triple death.

>> Continued in Part XIII - Gwydion's Eagle <<

Notes:
1. Rachel Bromwich, Three Disloyal Warbands of the Island of Britain, Trioedd Ynys Prydein (TYP): The Triads of the Island of Britain, University of Wales Press; 3rd Revised Edition, 2006.
2. "Blodeuwedd" still means "owl" in modern Welsh.
3. Will Parker, The Mabinogi of Math, 2003.
4. Bromwich, op.cit, p.65.
5. Dr G. R. Jones: The Cult of St Helen.
6. Bromwich, op.cit, p.67.
7. Michael Senior, Gods and Heroes in North Wales. Gwasg y Garreg Gwalch, Lanrwst, 1993.
8. In the study of mythology, a 'mytheme' is the essential kernel of a myth, an irreducible, unchanging element, and one that is always found shared with other, related mythemes and reassembled in various ways.
9. W J Gruffydd, Math van Mathonwy, University of Wales Press, 1928. Gruffydd suggests that what is meant here is a round, pointed thatched roof without sides.

Picture credits: These photographs, which I am assured are the Stone of Goronwy (Llech Goronwy) were emailed to me sometime ago but I have no idea of the original source.

* * *

The Fair One with a Skillful Hand

Lud's Church XI

Gwydyon ap Don, of toiling spirits,
Enchanted a woman from blossoms,
And brought pigs from the south.
Since he had no sheltering cots,
Rapid curves, and plaited chains.
He made the forms of horses
From the springing pants,
and illustrious saddles. [1]

Lleu Llaw Gyffes
If we accept Eric Hamp’s theory [2] that the Mabinogi originally was a cycle of tales pertaining to the family of Pryderi, an account of the birth, disappearance and restoration of Mabon, which being another name for the British god Maponus, the divine son, whose imprisonment and release is one of the tasks Culhwch must accomplish to win Olwen in Culhwch and Olwen, then the Fourth Branch, The Mabinogi of Math, probably terminated in the death of Pryderi at the hands of Gwydion’s magic which was recorded in the original “Battle of the Trees” (Discussed in Part X – The Enchantment of Gwynedd).

In the Fourth Branch Lleu Llaw Gyffes is not yet born at the time of the Battle over the stolen pigs between Gwydion and Pryderi and therefore does not feature in the poem “The Battle of the Trees” either. It would therefore appear that the tale of Lleu was a later appendage to the original tales of Mabon and family, probably because ultimately it portrays a cycle of birth, death and rebirth, as we shall see.

Lleu’s first appearance in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi is after the death of Pryderi in battle with Gwydion and his magic. The battle was constructed by Gwydion by stealing Pryderi’s magic, otherworld pigs, in an attempt to get Math’s foot-holder Goewin on her own so that Gwydion’s brother Gilfaethwy, who had fallen hopelessly in love with her, could get her on her own. The result of this was that Math had to find another maiden foot-holder. Gwydion and Gilfaethwy suggested their sister Aranrhod, daughter of Don, but she failed Math’s virginity test when stepping over his magic wand and dropped a curly yellow haired boy, Dylan, Prince of Wave, and then as she ran for the door dropped another small something, which Gwydion immediately took away and hid in a chest at the end of his bed. This grows fast as a fair haired boy. Gwydion took the four-year-old, often referred to as ‘his boy’ to Aranrhod, but she denied the boy was hers and places three curses on him over a period of time. Firstly she denies him a name unless she names him herself, which she does after he hits a wren with a needle, when disguised a shoemaker, the naming incident is clearly very significant. ‘God knows,' said she 'the fair one strikes it with a skillful hand’. Gwydion then said ‘he has obtained a name, and the name is good enough "Lleu Skillful Hand" he will be from now on.'

As we saw in Part VII - Songs from the Sons of Llyr there are two variants to this name in Welsh, Lleu/Llew: the later appearing in later versions of the tale and probably due to scribal error; the former is the original as revealed by the rhyme scheme in at least two poems; one in the Mabinogi of Math in the stanzas sung by Gwydion to Lleu while he is in the form of an eagle, the other from the Book of Taliesin.

In the Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch, The White Book of Rhydderch, he is known as both Lleu and Llew, although it is mostly written as Llew in the White Book texts and the spelling Llew is more common in Mabinogi texts probably having arisen from the ambiguities of early welsh spelling and manuscript errors. Although they may sound similar, Llew translates as ‘lion’ which is quite different and therefore is sometimes translated as the “Lion with the Steady Hand” which is quite incorrect as the naming of Lleu Llaw Gyffes is revealed in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, as we have seen above as 'the fair one with a skilful hand’, as Lleu means “light” or “fair” as in colour. [3]

This is confirmed as the oldest fragment of the Mabinogi of Math mab Mathonwy, found in the Peniarth 16 Manuscript, gives “Lleu” ONLY as the name. The rhyme in the three ancient englynion contained in the tale of Math shows that the true form of the name is Lleu:

Dar a dyf yn ard uaes,
Nis gwlych glaw, mwy tawd nawes.
Ugein angerd a borthes.
Yn y blaen, Lleu Llaw Gyffes.

An oak grows on a high plain,
Rain wets it not, though doth corruption seep
A score of crafts does it uphold
And at its crown Lleu of the Skilful Hand [4]

There is still much discussion between scholars as to the interpretation of Lleu's name and suggestions have been forward as 'The Bright One/The Shining One' based on the presence of the component 'lleu' meaning ‘light’ in Cymric. This led many Victorian scholars to propose Lleu as a sun-god, [5] although modern opinion seems to have moved away from this as an out-dated notion.

Lleu is also related to the Cymric word goleu literally meaning 'banisher of darkness', stemming from the proto Indo-European root *leug- (blackness, darkness) word and it has also been suggested that Lleu may be related to the proto-Celtic root *lug- (oath) which is linked both to pledges and contracts. A significant retort exists between the name 'Lugus' and the Old Celtic stem lugi- meaning "to swear, oath" (appearing in Irish as luighe, in Welsh as llw, and in Breton as le). [6]

Lleu, coupled with the epithet Llaw Gyffes (Skillful Hand) shares many qualities and is undoubtedly cognate with the Irish deity Lúgh as represented in Irish mythological texts as hero and King of Tuath de Dannan. Lúgh is known by the epithets Lámhfhada ("long hand"), Ildanach ("skilled in many arts"), Samh-ildánach ("Equally skilled in many arts"), Lonnbeimnech ("fierce striker"). These epithets are far too deliberately similar for the connection of Lleu to Lugh to be purely coincidental as we will see later.

The Warrior's Graves
In addition to the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, the name Lleu also appears in the Triads, the Book of Taliesin and in the Stanza of the Graves or Englynion y Beddau (also known as 'The Graves of the Warriors of the Island of Britain'), found in a number of Welsh manuscripts, the earliest and most important is in the Black Book of Carmarthen (Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin) collection containing seventy-three stanzas; although the Black Book manuscript dates to the 13th century Thomas Jones has dated the original text to the 9th- or 10th-century but they probably represent much older oral folklore traditions. [7] The Stanza of the Graves although not specifically giving the site of Lleu’s grave states it is under the sea near the grave of his kinsman, [8] this is generally presumed to be a reference to Dylan Eil Ton, who as we have seen, according to the text of the Fourth Branch, is Lleu's twin.

The traditional site of Dylan’s grave is at Maen Dylan, a large stone situated along the shoreline at Aberdesach, near Clynnog-fawr, within Caernarfon Bay. Less than two miles along the coast to the north of Maen Dylan, situated on the sea-shore, near to the village of Llandwrog, just off the A499, lies Dinas Dinlle(u) (grid ref: SH437563) on the seaward boundary of a large strip of land, called Morfa Dinlleu, running north up to The Bar, entrance to the Menai Strait. Local tradition claims that Lleu Llaw Gyffes lived at Dinas Dinlle and that Dinas Dinlleu was named after him, meaning literally "City of Lleu's Fortress".

The remains of this large circular hillfort, next to the sea, was originally defended by double banked ramparts some six metres high and deep ditches, with an entrance to the south-east. There are a number of depressions within the ramparts where huts once stood as well as a badly damaged mound which could be the remains of a round barrow. The western edge is steadily eroding into the sea. It is claimed the Roman road Watling Street originally ended here. The site has not been fully excavated, but sherds of Roman pottery have been discovered in the past, suggesting occupation or reoccupation in the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD

The grave of Lleu’s kinsman’s referred to in the Stanza of the Graves may not be Dylan after all, as there is the possibility that it is his Uncle and foster father, Gwydion who is also said to be buried at Morfa Dinlle [9]

After the naming episode in the Fourth Branch when he hits the wren and receives his name from Aranrhod as 'the fair one with a skilful hand’, Lleu and Gwydion return to Dinas Dinlle:

“The following morning in the young of the day, they walked along the beach up as far as Brynn Aryen; and at the top of Cefyn Cludno, they kitted-out [some] horses and went along to Caer Aranrhod”. [10]

East off the shoreline at Dinas Dinlle there is a cluster of rocks, a reef known as Caer Aranrhod which is named after Lleu's mother. The City, or Caer, of Aranrod, is reported to have been engulfed by the sea; the ancient site occasionally comes to view at low tides, not far from Clynnog.

For the site of The Castle Of Aranrod, Charlotte Guest in her notes to the Mabinogion, quotes Rev. P. B. Williams, in his "Tourist's Guide through Caernarvonshire," speaking of Clynnog, he says: "There is a tradition that an ancient British town, situated near this place, called Caer Arianrhod, was swallowed up by the sea, the ruins of which, it is said, are still visible during neap tides, and in fine weather."

Although it is said that Caer Aranrhod refers to the submerged reef, however, we have seen previously that Aranrhod’s name is originally and consistently spelled Aranrot, meaning ‘big, round wheel’ having astrological connotations; this has been interpreted in some traditions as the Milky Way, but the Milky-way is named after Gwydion, termed Caer Gwydion, who gave his name to the constellation of Cassiopeia, in Welsh, Llys Don, (the Court of Don). We find the Welsh name for Lleu’s mother in the constellation of the Corona Borealis; Caer Arianrod.

The Stanza of the Graves confirms the association of this episode of the Fourth Branch with Clynnog:

“where the wave makes a noise,
the grave of Dylan is at Llanfueno” [11]

Llanfueno is the church (Llan = enclosure or church) dedicated to St Bueno which lies south along the coast from Dinas Dinlleu and Maen Dylan in the village of Clynnog Fawr. It has been argued recently that the redaction of the stories of the fourth branch of the Mabinogi (Math vab Mathonwy) took place in the monastic settlement (Welsh clas) at Clynnog. [12]

click for larger image

Saint Beuno, was perhaps the greatest of North Wales Celtic saints, legends linking him with miraculous healing powers. He founded the monastery at Clynnog Fawr in 616 AD and the Church founded around 630 AD. Clynnog Church, large for a small village settlement, became an assembly point for pilgrims bound for Bardsey Island. Saint Beuno founded a "clas" (a hybrid between a Monastery and a College) an institution peculiar to the Celtic Church, and it became the most important ecclesiastical centre for Western Caernarfonshire. The group of clergy who held it appear in the oldest manuscript of the Venedotian Code, under the name of ‘clas Beuno’.

The second curse that he shall not bear arms unless Aranrhod does herself, which she does after Gwydion creates the allusion of a fleet of ships attacking.

Not of mother and father
The third course she inflicts on Lleu is that she shall not have a mortal wife, which leads Gywdion and Math to construct Blodeuedd, as revealed in the Battle of the Trees:

Not of mother and father,
When I was made,
Did my Creator create me.
Of nine-formed faculties,
Of the fruit of fruits,
Of the fruit of the primordial God,
Of primroses and blossoms of time hill,
Of the flowers of trees and shrubs.
Of earth, of an earthly course,
When I was formed.
Of the flower of nettles,
Of the water of the ninth wave.
I was enchanted by Math,
Before I became immortal,
I was enchanted by Gwydyon [13]

Blodeuedd ('Flowers' 'Blossoms') took Goronwy, the lord of Penllyn as a lover and tricked Lleu into revealing how he could be killed:

‘It is not easy,' Lleu continued 'to kill me by a blow . It would be necessary to spend a year making the spear to strike me with - and without making any of it [at any other time] except when one was at mass on Sundays.'
'And is that certain?' she asked.
'It's certain, God knows,' he replied 'I cannot be killed inside a house, nor outside,' he continued 'I cannot be killed on horseback or on foot.'
'Aye,' said she '[so] in what way can you be killed?'
'I'll tell you,' he replied. 'By making a bath for me by the side of a river, making a curved, slatted roof over the tub, and thatching that well and without [leaving] any gaps. And bringing a buck,' he continued 'and putting it next to the tub, and me putting one of my feet on the buck's back, and the other one on the side of the tub. Whoever would strike me [while I am] like that would bring about my death.'

She gave the secret of how to kill Lleu to her lover Goronwy, who then spent a year and a day making the spear. She then gets Lleu to act out how he can be killed while Goronwy is hiding behind Brynn Cyfegyr (hill of combat) on the bank of the River Cynfael.

Lleu emerged from the bath in a gazebo-like bath house (having no walls but a roof), neither “indoors or out” with one foot on the back of a goat (a billy-goat in Welsh is bwch gafr 'buck goat') neither “on horseback or on foot” and the other on the edge of the bath, neither “on land nor on water”. Gronowy rose up from behind the hill and cast the poison spear and struck him on the side. Lleu being struck with the only weapon that could kill him: a spear that has been forged for a year and a day "while folk are at mass on Sunday" immediately turned into an eagle and took flight letting out a terrible scream. Goronwy then took control of Lleu’s lands and ruled over both Ardudwy and Penllyn.

Gwydion searches all over for Lleu, eventually he finds him by following a sow into a valley, Nant Lleu, which is now called Nantlle in western Snowdonia, just a few miles east of Dinas Dinlleu.

Lleu transformed as an Eagle - Alan Lee

Gwydion could see the sow was grazing on rotting flesh and maggots that fell from the eagle when he shook himself. He realised that the eagle was Lleu and sung to him to entice him down as we saw in Part IX – Math’s Tale. Lleu fell into Gwydion's lap who struck him with his magic wandand he changed back to his human form but was nothing but skin and bones. Gwydion took him back to Caer Dathyl, and with the best doctors in Gwynedd brought him back to good health before the end of the year.

>> Continued in Part XII - The Stone of Goronwy <<

Notes

1. The Chair Of Ceridwen. Book Of Taliessin XVI - From The Four Ancient Books of Wales by W F Skene.
2. Mabinogi and Archaism, Celtica 23 by Eric P Hamp
3. Celtic Culture, A Historical Encyclopedia By John T. Koch, 2006, pp 1164 – 1166
4. The Fourth Branch oh the Mabinogi: Math mab Mathonwy.
5. See for example John Rhys, The Hibbert Lectures, The Origins of Religion in Heathendom.
6. Lugus: The Many-Gifted Lord by Alexei Kondratiev. Originally published in An Tríbhís Mhór: The IMBAS Journal of Celtic Reconstructionism #1, Lúnasa 1997.
7. The Black Book of Carmarthen, The Stanzas of the Graves, Thomas Jones - John Rhys Memorial lectures, Proceedings of the British Academy 53 (1967).
8. Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin, edited by A O H Jarman, Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1982.
9. In her Notes to Math The Son Of Mathonwy in her Mabinogion collection Lady Charlotte Guest states that “The grave of Gwydion ab Don has not been left unrecorded; it was in Morva Dinllev, the scene of one of his adventures with Llew Llaw Gyffes.” However, she does not name her source.
10. The Fourth Branch oh the Mabinogi: Math mab Mathonwy.
11. Thomas Jones, 1967, op cit.
12. “Clas Beuno and the Four Branches of the Mabinogi” - P. Sims-Williams, in 150 Jahre “Mabinogion” B. Maier and S. Zimmer (eds.), 2001, pp111-127
13. The Book of Taliesin VIII - From The Four Ancient Books of Wales by W F Skene.


** UPDATE AUGUST 2019 **

Excavations at Lleu's Fortress uncovers Iron Age roundhouse
Archaeologists have uncovered a huge Iron Age roundhouse, thought to be about 2,500 years old, and roman pottery during excavations at the coastal fort of Dinas Dinlle in North Wales.
The 43ft (13m) wide roundhouse has been buried under coastal sand thought to have been blown in during a storm in 1330. About 30% of Lleu's fortress has been lost to the sea since 1900 with experts predicting that the whole 125-acre site could be completely lost within 500 years due to climate change.

>> BBC News Wales 20th August 2019

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