The Mammoth Book of King Arthur

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The Mammoth Book of King Arthur Page 67

by Mike Ashley


  Castle of Maidens. Another name for Mount Agned, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth; he was almost certainly referring to Edinburgh Castle.

  Celidon. In Nennius’s battle list the Forest of Celidon is noted as the site of Arthur’s seventh battle. This is usually interpreted as the Caledonian Forest in the Scottish Borders, but there are other suggestions.

  Celliwig, Gelliwig or Kelliwic. See Celliwic under Gwent.

  Corbenic. The best known of the many names for the Grail Castle. The name is derived from the Old French Cor Benit, meaning “blessed horn”, an allusion to the Horn of Plenty, clearly linking the Grail legend to the old Celtic beliefs. Since the Grail Castle is really not of this world but a halfway house to the Otherworld, it does not have an earthly counterpart and the castle meant something different to different romancers. Something that began as symbolic of Jerusalem later symbolised the Vatican but on a spiritual plane. See also Avalon.

  Dolorous Garde or Joyeuse Garde. The name of Lancelot’s Castle. We are told in the Prose Lancelot that this is on the Humber, but that is most unlikely. Malory suggested either Bamburgh or Alnwick, doubtless drawing upon tradition. Another suggestion is Edinburgh’s Castle Rock, which Geoffrey of Monmouth, who believed it to be the site of the Castle of the Maidens, called Dolorous Mountain. Lancelot captures the castle from Brian/Brandin of the Isles, and there was a historical Brian of the Isles who held at different times Peveril Castle (see Castleton) and Knaresborough Castle, both of which were major castles at this time. Regardless of where the author intended it to be in Britain, it’s possible that he had in mind a French castle. He may have used the Humber as the closest English equivalent to the great French estuary of the Gironde, just north of which, in the much rockier Charonne valley, was the once-impregnable castle of Taillebourg, where Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII spent their wedding night. Forty years later its lord, Geoffrey de Rançon, was in rebellion against Richard, Duke of Aquitaine (the future Richard the Lionheart). Taillebourg was believed safe because it was hemmed in on three sides by mountains and the fourth side was well defended, but in a siege of a little over a week in July 1179 Richard captured the castle. It could well have been this remarkable victory that the author reworked into his story, portraying Richard as the new Lancelot. There is a Château de Joyeuse-Garde in Brittany along the Elorn Valley in la Forest-Landernau east of Brest. The buildings, of which only an arch and foundations remain, date from the eleventh century; it was probably renamed after Lancelot’s castle.

  Dubglas. The site of four of Arthur’s battles, according to Nennius. There are many suggested sites under names the Douglas, Dulas or Blackwater.

  Escalot, see Astolat.

  Gannes. The kingdom of Lancelot’s uncle Bors, and adjacent to Benwick. It is situated in France and most agree that Bors or Bohors of Gannes was a corruption of Gohors of Galles, who appears in the earlier Breton Lay de Corn. Galles is Wales, but may have been mistaken for Gaul. So Gannes is really a corruption based on an error for Gaul/France.

  Glein. The site of Arthur’s first battle, according to Nennius. There are several suggested sites, see Lancaster, Doddington, Wootton and Spalding.

  Gorre or Gore. A kingdom ascribed to both Urien and Bagdemagus. It is also variously described as being surrounded by water, and accessible only by an underwater bridge and a sword bridge, as being near Bath and as being on the borders of Scotland, and near Sugales. Clearly there is some confusion here as well as perhaps both a metaphysical association and a geographical one. Loomis believed Gorre was symbolic of the Otherworld, but I suspect it was more prosaic than that. On the basis that Sugales means South Wales, some have suggested that Gorre is the Gower Peninsula in Glamorgan. The name is derived from gwyr, meaning hooked or curved. However, Urien’s kingdom was Rheged, but it also extended to the Isle of Man. In Chrétien’s time the former ruler of Man, Godred, was known as Old Gorry and, by extension, the name included the Isle of Man.

  Guinnion. The site of Arthur’s eighth battle. See Stow (Borders), Binchester and Llanarmon.

  Joyeuse Garde, see Dolorous Garde.

  Kynke Kenadon. The castle “upon the sands that marched nigh Wales”, according to Malory, who has Arthur hold court here in the story of Beaumains (Caxton edition, book vii). It is usually identified with Caernarvon (Gwynedd), though it has been linked with Kyneton in Radnorshire even though that town has no shore.

  Linnuis. The region of four of Arthur’s battles at the River Dubglas, according to Nennius. The location is often interpreted as Lindsey in Lincolnshire, but there are other interpretations, such as Ilchester.

  Listinoise or Listineise. The name of the Grail kingdom ruled by King Pellam, also called the Land of the Two Marches. Inasmuch as the Grail Castle, Corbenic, has no earthly counterpart, then neither does Listinoise. The name is sometimes translated as Llys-yn-Nord, a strange Norman-Welsh version of “castle of the north”, but it could as easily be Llys-y-nos, “Castle of the Night” or, allowing for a clever play on words, Llys-y-Nesu. “Nesu”, depending on its use, can mean to draw near or to move further away, an ideal description for the Grail lands.

  Lyonesse. The kingdom of Tristan that was swallowed beneath the waves. Mordred is also alleged to have escaped here after Camlann. Tradition places it between the coast of Cornwall and the Scilly Isles but other versions make the Scilly Isles the remnants of Lyonesse or make Lyonesse closer to home and submerged beneath Mounts Bay off Penzance, with St. Michael’s Mount being all that remains. Lyonesse was of sufficient size that it had 140 churches. There is a story that a terrific storm on New Year’s Eve 1099 flooded lands off Cornwall and there was only one survivor. It has been estimated that if the sea level dropped by 10m then the Scilly Isles of Tresco, Bryher and Samson would become one island again, but with current sea-level changes this level would have been four thousand years ago. There is apparently a record that in the time of the Emperor Magnus Maximus the Scillies were referred to as one island. There are reports of other drowned lands around Britain’s coast, especially in Cardigan Bay, and, as discussed in Chapter 8, survivors from these lands were supposed to be at Arthur’s Court. There is a similar legend about the lost land of Ker-Ys off the coast of Brittany.

  Pen Rhionydd. Identified in the first of the Welsh Triads as one of Arthur’s three tribal thrones. The other two, at Celliwic and St David’s, have been identified but Pen Rhionydd has caused problems, especially as it is said to be “in the north”. Rachel Bromwich, in her translation of the Triads, suggests that it was the Rhinns of Galloway, making the connection with St Kentigern, who is listed as the Chief Bishop of Pen Rhionydd. I suspect that the Triad had itself drawn upon corrupt data and that “in the north” meant North Wales. I believe than Pen Rhionydd is the headland above Morfa Rhianedd, which are the sands (now a golf course) at Llandudno. Pen Rhionydd was the site of the court of Deganwy. The matter is discussed in detail in Chapter 8.

  Sarras. Yet another version of the gateway to the Otherworld. Although described as a city of the Saracens (hence Sarras), it was from here that Galahad and the Grail were received to heaven. It was really a spiritual counterpart of Jerusalem. The king of Sarras is Evelach or Evelake, the name being a corruption of Afallach, which later formed into Avalon.

  Senauden or Sinadon. This name occurs three times in different romances written in the 1190s. Firstly in Le Bel Inconnu, Renaud de Beaujeu has Gawain’s son Guinglain come here after he has fought a knight and fallen in love with a fey on the Golden Isle. Here it is described as a Waste City and Guinglain has to fight a ghost. Later, in one of the Continuations of Chrétien’s story of the Grail, Perceval states that he was born in Sinadon. In Chrétien’s story he was raised in the wilds of Wales but the details of his birth are kept secret. Finally in Bèroul’s version of Tristan Iseult sends her squire Perinis to find King Arthur and he learns that he is at Sinadon, where the Round Table “rotates like the Earth”. The last is all too frequently translated as Stirling (suggested by William of Worc
ester in the 15th century), a most unlikely site since Perinis travels there from Caerleon in a relatively short time. Renaud’s description of the Waste City admirably suits Segontium, the old Roman fort at Caernarvon, which many have suggested is Sinadon because of the phonetic similarity to Snowdon and because Guinglain’s adventures reflect local folklore. The name Sinadon would have meant something to the Crusaders, because it was the name of a Christian temple built at Epidavros on the Argolid coast of the Greek Peloponnese in the 12th/13th centuries. The name may have been picked up by the Crusaders and adapted by the French romancers only remotely familiar with British sites. However, there is another site which may be more appropriate and link in with Renaud’s reference to the Golden Isle. Just south of Dorchester in Oxfordshire is an Iron Age fort on an area known now as Wittenham Clumps but once called the Sinodun Hills. Dorchester had been a Roman city, deserted in the fifth century but soon occupied by the Saxons. Some of the earliest Romano-British cemeteries are in the area. It was over a century, though, before a new Dorchester started to rise from the ruins and there may have been orally transmitted memories of the ghost town of Dorchester. The French may have confused the Welsh Dor, which meant “walled town” with the French d’or, meaning “of gold”. Dorchester was virtually an island in those days, ringed on three sides by the Thames and on the fourth by small streams, so it may well have been a Golden Isle to the French.

  Shalott, see Astolat.

  Sorelois. In Lancelot du Lac Galehaut is described as the lord of Sorelois and the Remote Isles. Sorelois is described as adjoining Arthur’s kingdom, separated only by a strait of water which is deep and fast running. We also learn that Galehaut won it in battle against the nephew of the king of Northumberland. The anonymous author seems to be describing Anglesey, since not only does this fit the geographical description but he may have been recalling a vague memory of Cadwallon, ruler of Gwynedd, who eventually regained his land from Edwin of Northumbria who had driven him out of Anglesey. The Remote Isles might be the Isle of Man and the Outer Hebrides, which were a separate kingdom in the thirteenth century. Loomis believed that Sorelois was the Scilly Isles but these do not fit the description.

  Tribruit. A river given by Nennius as the site of Arthur’s tenth battle. It has been one of the hardest to identify and suggestions vary from the Fords of Frew near Stirling, to the estuary of the River Ribble, and the River Troggy near Caerleon.

  ACTUAL LOCATIONS

  ENGLAND

  Cheshire

  Alderley Edge. One of the sites where Arthur and his knights are supposed to be sleeping until they rise to defend their country again. See also Melrose.

  Chester. The Roman fort of Deva and, from 87AD onwards, the home of the XX Valeria Victrix legion, the last legion to leave Britain. It is one of the probable sites for Arthur’s ninth battle at the City of the Legion (see also Caerleon and York). It was the site of another major battle where the Angles of Northumbria, under Athelfrith, slaughtered the British of Powys under Selyf ap Cynan, in around 615. The victory gave Athelfrith total power across northern Britain and isolated the remaining British Men of the North from the Welsh.

  Cornwall

  Bodmin Moor. There are several sites. Arthur’s Bed or King Arthur’s Bed, a granite monolith on Trewortha Tor on the east of Bodmin Moor near the village of Berriowbridge. It was first recorded by the antiquarian William Borlase in 1754 but it had clearly been long in use by then. He noted that nearby are many eroded rocks, or “rock-basins”, called Arthur’s Troughs, which he used to feed his dogs. King Arthur’s Hall is a stone enclosure east of St. Breward where the rise towards Garrow Tor passes marshy land called King Arthur’s Downs. The “Hall” measures about 48m x 20m and is often waterlogged. It is stone lined so was probably a primitive reservoir to capture water from the Downs. Near Bolventor is Dozmary’s Pool, suggested as the home of the Lady of the Lake and from where Arthur received Excalibur and to where Bedivere returned it. Since the nearest associated site for Camlann is at Camelford, almost ten km away across the Moor, it would have taken Bedivere some while to do it three times. Callywith on the outskirts of Bodmin, is one of several suggested sites for Arthur’s court at Celliwic.

  Callington. One of several suggested sites for Arthur’s court at Celliwic. However, see Gelliwig under Gwent and Gwynedd.

  Camelford. Suggested by Geoffrey of Monmouth as the site of the Battle of Camlann, at Slaughter Bridge; it has also been proposed as the site of Camelot (see entry) but on no basis beyond similarities of the name.

  Fowey. Just north of Fowey, near Golant, is Castle Dore, an Iron Age hill-fort once believed to have been reoccupied in the sub-Roman period and to have been the home of King Mark (Cunomorus) of the Tristan legend. However, recent re-evaluation has ruled out the likelihood of post-Roman occupation. The legend had arisen because the French poet Bèroul set the Tristan story at Lancien, interpreted as Lantyan, a village just north of Golant. It was further supported by the Tristan Stone, inscribed with the name of Drustan son of Cunomorus, which is south of Golant on the A3082 leading out of Fowey.

  Kelliwic. The name given to Arthur’s court and long believed to have been in Cornwall, mostly due to Charlotte Guest’s translation of Cernyw as Cornwall. There was a Kellewic somewhere in Cornwall, possibly near Penzance, but it is a site long lost. However, see Gelliwig under Gwent and Gwynedd.

  Pendoggett. 8km south of Tintagel on the B3314, just before Pendoggett, is the Iron Age camp called Tregeare Rounds, one of the sites suggested for Castle Dameliock, where Gorlois was killed. See, however, St. Dennis and St. Columb Major.

  Porthleven. East of the town is The Loe or Looe Pool, a lagoon which some believe was the lake to which Bedivere returned Excalibur. There is, though, no nearby site associated with Camlann.

  St. Columb Major. 4km east of the town is the ancient hill-fort of Castle-an-Dinas, suggested as the site where Uther’s men besieged and killed Duke Gorlois. See also St. Dennis.

  St. Dennis. Just west of the town is the farm of Domellick; the name is believed to be a survival of Dimilioc where, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Uther’s men besieged and killed Duke Gorlois. An old manor of Dimelihoc is recorded here in the Domesday Book.

  Tintagel. Thanks to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Tintagel has become indelibly imprinted on our consciousness as the birthplace of Arthur. It was here, according to Geoffrey, that Duke Gorlois of Cornwall had his castle and where Uther, disguised as Gorlois, seduced Ygerna. Tintagel is actually the name of the castle, not the village which was Trevena, though Tintagel has now superseded it. Since Geoffrey referred to Tintagel and not Trevena, there must have been a castle here in his day (Tintagel means “fort of the constriction”, referring to the narrow neck of the peninsula on which it was built). The present castle, the ruins of which many still believe to be Gorlois’s, was started in the 1140s by Reginald, illegitimate son of Henry I, when he was created earl of Cornwall in 1140. He was the brother of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, who was Geoffrey’s patron. The castle wasn’t completed until the 1230s, by the next earl, Richard, son of King John, one of the great Crusaders of the 1240s. Excavations in the 1930s, and again in the 1990s (which included the discovery of the Artognou inscription), showed that Tintagel had been a major site right through the Arthurian period, importing many high status goods from throughout the Roman world. Early thoughts that it might have been a monastery have been revised, and it is possible that it was a chieftain’s stronghold. If so, the legends of Arthur’s birth here cannot be entirely discounted. We have no idea where any of the Welsh princes were born, especially those who, like Cadell, may not have been native to the area.

  Tintagel has its inevitable quota of such items as Arthur’s Quoit and a Round Table and, after a difficult climb down to the beach, Merlin’s Cave. Of more interest in the town itself are King Arthur’s Great Halls, which include King Arthur’s Hall and a Hall of Chivalry. These were created in 1933 by millionaire Frederick Thomas Glasscock (1871–1934), who fou
nded a Fellowship of the Round Table and privately published several Arthurian books. The Hall was originally private but was opened to the public in 1993. It houses a granite Round Table, eight feet in diameter. The Hall of Chivalry contains a wonderful display of 72 stained-glass windows of Arthurian scenes, all by Veronica Whall.

  Willapark, at Bossiney, just north of Tintagel, is one of several suggested sites for Arthur’s court at Celliwic. Bossiney Mound, beside the Methodist Chapel, is supposed to be Arthur’s Round Table. See also Gelliwig under Gwent and Gwynedd. East of Tintagel, 5km along the road to Davidstow, is Condolden Barrow, regarded locally as the burial mound of Arthur’s half-brother Cador, Duke of Cornwall.

  Wadebridge. The hill-fort at Castle Killibury is one of several suggested sites for Arthur’s court at Celliwic. However, see Gelliwig under Gwent and Gwynedd.

  Cumbria

  Arderydd or Arthuret, see Carwinley.

  Birdoswald. The modern name for Camboglanna, a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall suggested as a site for the battle of Camlann. Burgh by Sands. The site of the Roman fort of Aballava at the western end of Hadrian’s Wall. It has been suggested that Aballava may later have been corrupted into Avalon. 20km to the west is Cardurnock, believed to be where Cei fought so viciously at the Halls of Awrnach. There was an old Roman fort here, though little evidence survives.

  Camboglanna, see Birdoswald.

  Carlisle. The Roman fort of Luguvalium which was raised to the capital of the civitas of Carvetiorum probably in the late second century. It may also have been the capital of the breakaway province of Valentia. As Roman authority declined this area gained an increasing degree of autonomy and it is likely that Carlisle formed the base for the later military rulers of the North, including Gwrwst, Merchiaun, Cynfarch and Urien. It is often cited as one of Arthur’s principle courts but this is almost certainly because it was Urien’s capital in Rheged. It may have been the site of Arthur’s ninth battle at the City of the Legion. Carlisle later features in several early English poems and tales which feature Gawain, such as The Carle of Carlisle (see Chapter 14). The Awyntrs off Arthure is set at Tarn Wadling, which was near High Hesket just south of Carlisle. According to Malory, Guenevere’s punishment, when she is to be burned at the stake, takes place at Carlisle, even though all preceding events had happened at Camelot.

 

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