The Mammoth Book of King Arthur

by Mike Ashley

  The list has some telling names and even more revealing comments. The first name listed is Mabon ap Modron. Mabon appears in both Culhwch and Olwen and The Dream of Rhonabwy, renowned as a great hunter. Here he is described as “Uther Pendragon’s servant.” This is one of the few Welsh texts to refer to Uther Pendragon, who is otherwise believed to be an invention of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s. The name invites us to ask when Pa Gur was written. It appears in the thirteenth century Black Book of Carmrathen, but Patrick Sims-Williams believes that the poem may date from around 1100 in its final form, possibly (but only just) predating Geoffrey’s History. The reference to Uther Pendragon may have been added later, but it is a passing mention.

  It’s just possible that the line “Mabon, son of Modron, Uther Pendragon’s servant”, is suggesting that it was Modron who was the servant. Modron was Mabon’s mother, not his father, and is regarded as the original of Morgan le Fay. Mabon’s father is never named, and in Culhwch and Olwen, Mabon is taken from his mother as a baby and spirited away. This sounds remarkably like the legend of Arthur’s birth. We could consider that Uther was really Mabon’s father, making Mabon a counterpart of Arthur.

  Later the poem refers to Manawydan, son of Llyr: “Manawyd brought home a shattered shield from Tryfrwyd.” Tryfrwyd is the Welsh for Tribruit, a name given in Nennius’s list of Arthur’s battles. The poem continues:

  On the heights of Eidyn

  He fought with champions.

  By the hundreds they fell

  To Bedwyr’s four-pronged spear

  On the shores of Tryfrwyd,

  Fighting with Garwlwyd.

  This seems to place Tryfrwyd in the north, near Edinburgh (Eidyn). This is confirmed by the following stanza, which also makes a further reference to Arthur.

  And Llwych of the Striking Hand,

  Who defended Eidyn on the borders,

  Its lord sheltered them,

  My nephew destroyed them,

  Cei pleaded with them,

  While he slew them three by three.

  When Celli was lost

  Savagery was experienced.

  Cei pleaded with them,

  While he hewed them down.

  Though Arthur was but laughing,

  Blood was flowing

  In the hall of Awrnach

  Fighting with the hag.

  Since Arthur has been narrating this poem until now, it seems strange that his name appears in the third person. Patrick Sims-Williams has suggested that the original wording, aruthur, may mean ‘terrible’ or ‘strange’, and that the poem is saying how frighteningly Cei was laughing as he hewed them down. There is a similar scene in Culwch and Olwen, in which Cei fights ferociously in the halls of Awrnach. Awrnach, or Wrnach, may be modern Cardurnock in the northernmost tip of Cumbria, about thirty km west of Carlisle. It was the site of an old Roman fort, and may have remained fortified under Coel and his descendants as a defence against the Irish.

  If this is Arthur narrating first hand, then the reference to his nephew suggests Mordred, who was both Arthur’s nephew and his incestuous son in the legends. In this part of the poem, the nephew’s actions are linked with the loss of Celli, possibly Arthur’s hall at Gelliwig, and thus may well relate to Mordred’s treachery – or at least that of one of Arthur’s nephews.

  The poem also links Cei (Kay) with Arthur’s son Llacheu, saying they “used to fight battles, before the pang of livid spears.” One of the later stories says that Kay murdered Loholt (Llacheu), and the line in this poem is ambiguous since it is not clear if Cei and Llacheu are fighting against a common foe, or against each other.

  What we have in Pa Gur are tantalising comments about the Arthur of legend that suggest that something of the historical Arthur is not far beneath the surface. Its relationship with the characters and events in Culhwch and Olwen may suggest that the two texts had a common origin, but the degree of factual evidence behind either is difficult to confirm. Whilst Culhwch and Olwen seems to relate more to the Arthurs of Gwent or Dyfed, Pa Gur’s northern references may hint at some memory of Arthur of the Pennines.

  This leads us to one of the major poems of Celtic literature.

  7. Catraeth

  The earliest known reference to Arthur is usually cited as appearing in a series of elegies to dead warriors, Y Gododdin (“The Gododdin”), which celebrates the valour and bravery of those soldiers in their ill-fated battle at Catraeth. The poem credits itself to Aneirin, a contemporary of Taliesin who lived during the late sixth century, and who is described in one of the triads as the “prince of bards.”

  The original oral version was probably composed soon after the battle, with a written version existing by the 630s. The oldest surviving copy is included in a collection of poetry held in the Cardiff Public Library known as Llyfr Aneirin (The Book of Aneirin), dating from around 1250. In fact, Y Gododdin survives in two forms, usually referred to as the A and B texts. The A text is longer and more complete, but the B text could well be an older, more contemporary version.

  Ifor Williams, writing in 1938, suggested that Catraeth is the modern-day Catterick in Yorkshire, still the generally accepted view. Once the mighty Roman fort of Cataractonium, which covered a site of eighteen acres, it would still have been impressive in the sixth century.

  The Gododdin, previously known as the Votadini, once occupied the territory stretching from Edinburgh and the Lothians down to Newcastle. By the end of the sixth century, their territory was being taken over by the Angles, who had established their own kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira in the former British territories of the Southern Gododdin and York. The Battle of Catraeth is usually seen as a last ditch effort to recover lost territory after the death of Urien. Urien, king of Rheged, is sometimes called the Lord of Catraeth, and presumably had at some time taken hold of territory east of the Pennines, perhaps in the domain of one of his rivals, Morcant of the Gododdin.

  The raid, which is how the battle began, was a disaster for the Gododdin. According to Aneirin, who was not only an eyewitness but was captured at Catraeth (Version A, §46; B §48), only one Briton survived the battle (though elsewhere it appears that three survived). The rest were slaughtered, though they fought valiantly. In true heroic style, the Gododdin were wildly outnumbered. One translation gives their number as 300, whilst their enemy numbered 100,000 (A §10). Both numbers are probably poetic licence, but the Angles probably still outnumbered the Gododdin by ten to one.

  The reference to Arthur comes at the end of version B, when describing the heroic death of one of the warriors. Translations of this verse vary: this version is by Joseph Clancy, in Earliest Welsh Poetry:

  He thrust beyond three hundred, most bold, he cut down the centre and far wing.

  He proved worthy, leading noble men; he gave from his herd steeds for winter.

  He brought black crows to a fort’s wall, though he was not Arthur.

  He made his strength a refuge, the front line’s bulwark, Gwawrddur.

  This reference to Arthur is usually seized on as proof that Arthur existed, and that he was probably of the Gododdin. But the poem says no such thing. Clearly, the warrior Gwawrddur is being compared to Arthur, as some great standard of heroism but, despite his valour, “he was not Arthur.” This does suggest that by the 590s Arthur was already a synonym for heroism. It is not clear if Arthur is dead or still alive. Arthur could have been remembered of old, and need not have been of the Gododdin himself. The warriors had been invited from all over Britain, and Aneirin’s poem would have been heard throughout the surviving British kingdoms.

  Some authorities have suggested that the Arthur referred to was Artúir mac Aedan, of Dál Riata. Artúir was killed in a battle with the Mæatae, possibly in 596. There is some dispute over the precise year. John Bannerman, in Studies in the History of Dalriada, believes it may have been as early as 590. If Artúir mac Aedan was dead by 590, and if it is to him that the poem refers, then it would be celebrating a past and glorious hero. If Artúir were
still alive, however, the poem would enhance his status, as a British poet is commemorating British heroes in a tragic defeat, and comparing their heroism with that of a living warrior. One of the main arguments against Artúir mac Aedan being the Arthur of Y Gododdin is that it seems unlikely that the British would want to compare one of their own heroes, Gwawrddr, with an Irish/Gaelic warrior when the Irish had been their enemy for the last two centuries. However, the pedigrees suggest that Artúir’s mother, one of Aedan’s three wives, was the sister of a British king. Likewise, Aedan’s own mother was purportedly Luan, daughter of Brychan of Manau. If these genealogies are correct, then Artúir was three-quarters British and therefore perhaps an acceptable “British” hero.

  It has been suggested that the word “Arthur” may itself be a copyist’s error, and that a scribe, coming across aruthr, copied it, either by accident or enthusiasm, as Arthur. If this were true, then the line would mean that despite his valour and heroic deeds, Gwawrddur was not terrible. But surely his battle fury must have been terrifying to behold. Whilst there may be instances when aruthr mutated to Arthur, this does not seem to be one of those cases.

  Elsewhere the poem contains a more telling Arthurian reference, not usually cited. Verse 19 in Version A describes the heroics of Cadwal ap Sywno:

  When Cadwal charged in the green of dawn a cry went up wherever he came.

  He would leave shields shattered, in splinters.

  Stiff spears this splitter would slash in battle, ripping the front rank.

  Sywno’s son, a wizard foresaw it, sold his life to purchase a high reputation.

  He cut with a keen-edged blade, he slaughtered both Athrwys and Affrei.

  As agreed on, he aimed to attack: he fashioned carcasses of men brave in battle,

  Charged in Gwynedd’s front line.

  It is tempting to think that Athrwys might be either Arthwys of the Pennines or Athrwys of Gwent. However, if this battle dates to the 590s, by then Arthur of the Pennines was long dead and Arthur of Gwent had not yet been born.

  Could it be that this verse recalls an earlier battle? A study of the poem suggests that it is an amalgam of eulogies, and not necessarily solely about the heroes of Catraeth. Cadwal would seem to be a man of Gwynedd, but he is not otherwise known. Even so, the episode may refer back to some ancient conflict between the descendants of Cunedda, once settled in Gwynedd, and their continued rivalry with the sons of Coel. Urien of Rheged was also a Coeling, and there are several references in Y Gododdin which suggest that the Coelings had sided with the Angles in a battle against the Gododdin.

  The date of the battle is uncertain, with estimates varying from the 570s to the 590s. It would seem likely, though not absolutely certain, that it happened after the death of Urien (fl. 530–570). We know from Nennius that he was murdered during the siege of Lindisfarne at the instigation of Morcant (§63). The Bernician king at that time was probably Theodoric, who, if we take Nennius’s account at face value, ruled from 571–578. However, an ambiguity in the text suggests that Urien may have been besieging Hussa, who reigned from 584–591. Therefore, Urien was either murdered in 591 when he was in sixties, or in 578 when he was in his fifties.

  Since the battle of Catraeth happened soon after then it may have been in either 579/80 or 592/3 (the poem tells us the Catraeth raid was planned for a whole year). It is usually believed that the British defeat at Catraeth allowed Hussa’s successor, Athelfrith, free reign in the North, and to start his invincible campaign to massacre the British and establish what became the Northumbrian kingdom. If so, then the battle happened in about 593 and the Arthur mentioned could well have been Artúir mac Aedan, who would have been too young in the late 570s.

  If Catraeth had been such a victory for the Bernician kings, it is perhaps curious that there is no record of it in the ASC. The entry for 593AD records that Athelfrith succeeded to the kingdom, but there is no mention of a resounding slaughter of the Gododdin. Indeed, apart from a few not entirely accurate references to Ida, Aelle, and Athelfrith’s father Athelric, there is no mention of the Northumbrians at all prior to 603. It is as if nothing much happened in the north until Athelfrith, who established the English in Britain.

  Bede, however, noted that “no ruler or king had subjected more land to the English race or settled it, having first exterminated or conquered the natives.” Evidently Bede knew of Athelfrith’s near-genocide of the British, probably including the battle of Catraeth, but the fact that he doesn’t mention it causes some authorities to suspect that Catraeth is not the same as Catterick, and was not even in northern Britain. Steve Blake and Scott Lloyd, in The Keys to Avalon, make the case – or rather reiterate one put forward by Dr John Gwenogfryn Evans in the early 1900s – that Catraeth was on the island of Anglesey, along the shores of the Menai Straits. They base this theory on a twelfth-century poem about the wars of Rhodri ap Owain Gwynedd, which refers to the “lands of Catraeth” in connection with Rhodri’s battles in western Gwynedd. It is also unlikely that the Gododdin, clearly established as from Din Eidyn (Edinburgh), should travel all the way down to Anglesey to fight at Catraeth. It is far more plausible that men from Gwynedd would travel north to meet the Gododdin at Catraeth.

  As far back as 1869, John Stuart Glennie suggested that Catraeth may be the same as the old name Calathros (Calatria in Latin and Galtraeth in British). The Irish Annals refer to Calathros as adjoining Cairpre (Carriber) on the Avon, just south of Linlithgow. Gal-traeth means “shore of sorrow”, a suitable name for a memory of slaughter. To be on the shore and adjoining Carriber, it has to be north of Linlithgow on the shores of the Forth, possibly at Carriden. This is certainly a more logical location for warriors from Din Eidyn to venture into battle, as it is only some 25 km (16m) west of Edinburgh. The site suggests it is more likely to have been a battle against either the Picts or the Scots, rather than the Angles, although the Angles had themselves sometimes combined forces with the Picts in fighting a common enemy. It is difficult to understand, however, how Urien could be lord of Catraeth at somewhere so evidently part (or once part) of Gododdin territory. Nevertheless, this area has possible Arthurian connections because Bouden (or Bowden) Hill, one of the suggested sites for Badon, is just south of Linlithgow, near Torphichen. If Badon had been fought within a few miles of Catraeth, then the comparison of a warrior with Arthur becomes all the more potent. Arthur’s tenth battle, Tribruit, could also have been fought in this vicinity.

  Like so much else, Y Gododdin presents an enigma. The weight of evidence suggests a battle in the north and that the Arthurian reference is to a northern hero. If Arthur of Badon was already entering legendary status a century after Badon, he would have been remembered right across the British kingdoms. Even so, it seems hard to imagine that the Arthurs of Llongborth and of Catraeth are one and the same, and neither would seem to be Arthur of Dyfed or Arthur of Gwent. Perhaps Arthur of the Pennines is at last showing his hand.

  The most complete translation of the poem and its variants is The Gododdin of Aneirin edited by John T. Koch (University of Wales Press, 1997).

  8. The Triads

  The Trioedd Ynys Prydein (“The Triads of the Isle of Britain”) are a series of records that function as mnemonics, to assist in remembering key names or events. They are always grouped in threes, such as the “Three Fair Princes” or the “Three Frivolous Bards”, and sometimes a fourth name might be added as better (or worse) than all three. Triad No. 2, for instance, lists the “Three Generous Men” of Britain – Nudd, Mordaf and Rhydderch – and then says, “And Arthur himself was more generous than the three.” This reads too much like a later addition to rectify the omission of Arthur, and references such as this are of no value at all. Only those triads that incorporate Arthur within the list and say something meaningful are worthy of consideration.

  The triads turn up in various sources, primarily the Red Book ofHergest and the White Book of Rhydderch, but are part of a rigid oral bardic tradition, and some may date back to the si
xth century. Tradition ascribes them to various bards such as Taliesin and Myrddin, but we now have no way of knowing who first wrote what, or when. Like all oral records they are subject to change over time, with new names substituted to reflect current thinking. Their reliability, six centuries after Arthur, is suspect, but just occasionally there may be some information, as much in what they don’t say as what they do.

  The translation and ordering of the triads has been rationalised by the work of Dr Rachel Bromwich in Trioedd Ynys Prydein (1978), and most quotes from triads now follow her numbering. She lists ninety-six triads, but other incomplete lists exist in different sequences suggesting that there are more. Nevertheless, for consistency I shall follow Dr Bromwich’s numbering. Of those ninety-six, about twenty-six actually mention Arthur. However, some of these, such as the “Three Knights of Arthur’s Court who won the Graal”, are clearly late compositions. I’ve selected those few which do raise points of interest.

  1. Three Tribal Thrones of Britain.

  Arthur as Chief Prince in Mynyw, and Dewi as Chief Bishop and Maelgwyn Gwynedd as Chief Elder.

  Arthur as Chief Prince in Celliwig in Cornwall, and Bishop Bytwini as Chief Bishop and Caradawg Strong-Arm as Chief Elder.

  Arthur as Chief Prince in Pen Rhionydd in the North and Gyrthmwl Wledig as Chief Elder and Cyndyrn Garthwys as Chief Bishop.

  This tells us the three principal courts of Arthur: Mynyw (St. David’s), Celliwig (here sited in Cornwall because of the translation of Cernyw), and Pen Rhionydd. This last court has caused much conjecture. Its bishop, Cyndyrn Garthwys, is St Kentigern, and the reference to the North has caused most to suppose it is near Kentigern’s bishopric in Glasgow. Since his parish covered most of Strathclyde and Rheged (Kentigern was the grandson of Urien of Rheged), Pen Rhionydd could have been anywhere in what is now Cumbria and Galloway. Bromwich, in her interpretation of the triads, has suggested it is the Rhinns of Galloway.