THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON: CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER SEVEN

Ysbyddaden and St. Hawthorne: The Survival of the Culhwch and Olwen Myth into Christian Times

The most famous of the early Arthurian stories is the Welsh “Culhwch and Olwen”.  In brief, this tale recounts the bride-winning of Olwen, daughter of the Chief Giant Ysbyddaden by Culhwch, cousin of Arthur.  Knowing he can’t obtain Olwen from Ysbyddaden on his own, the hero seeks the help of Arthur and his men.  Some 40 tasks are set for Culhwch by the Chief Giant as the bride-price.  Ultimately, Olwen and Arthur’s men succeed in these tasks.  The story ends with the “shaving” and slaying of the giant, and the placing of his head on the courtyard post (or upon a stake on the wall, depending on the translator).

As has been known for some time, Culhwch means “Lean Pig”.  Olwen, despite some attempts to interpret her name differently (see my THE SECRETS OF AVALON), means “White Track”.  She is associated in story with cup and ring marks carved into stones during the ancient period, and leaves in her wake four white trefoils (flowers with three petals each) that symbolize the solar year of 12 months.  Ysbyddaden’s name (see the Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru listing) means “Hawthorne (Whitethorn)”.

While these names alone should alert us to the presence of myth lurking behind the entertaining story, rarely has anyone sought a straight-forward mythological interpretation.  This chapter is an attempt to correct that deficiency.

The Giant Hawthorne is killed on May Day, the time of the cutting down of the tree for use as the May Pole.  Ysbaddedan’s head is the traditional wreath that tops the Maypole, as is evinced by Culhwch’s placing of the giant’s head upon a post/stake.  As this is May Day, the time of sexual freedom and the coupling of otherwise unattached men and women, quite naturally it is at this moment each year that Culhwch is able to consummate his desire with Olwen.

His name ‘Lean Pig’ is significant in this regard.  Wild boars, during hard winters, can become very lean.  This tendency is exaggerated by their participation in the rut, which falls in November-January.  While this would seem counter-intuitive, given that Culhwch cannot win Olwen until Winter is over on May 1, we should bear in mind that the sows farrowed (gave birth to litters) in the Spring.

There is further symbolism implicit in “Culhwch and Olwen”.  The 40 odd tasks are likely to be representative of the 40-43 days Venus is in retrograde every 19 months.  In other words, Culhwch may not possess the goddess until the period of retrograde – which in this tale happens to correspond to 40-43 days just prior to May 1 – is over.

What is truly fascinating about the marvelous seasonal myth is that it appears to have left a vestige of itself not only in annual May Day festivities involving the May Pole, but in the guise of a Christian saint!

The shepherd of Ysbyddaden is named in Welsh Custennin, i.e. Constantine.  Eaton Constantine in Shropshire is only a half dozen or so miles from the Wrekin hill-fort.  The Constantine name comes from Thomas de Cotentin in 1242, who was from ‘pagus Constantinus’ or Coutances/Constantia in Normandy, named for Constantine Chlorus in 298.  Eaton C. is the location of a Roman vexillation fort and camps.  In fact, it has been surmised that these very camps were used by the Romans to attack the Cornovii stronghold atop the Wrekin.

While the date 1242 is rather late, we know Ralph de Cotentin was in Shropshire at the time of the Domesday Book (1086), holding lands at Oldbury, Fulwardine and Petton.  The line continued through Ralph's son Helyas and thence to Hugh, who in 1121 granted land in Petton to Shrewsbury Abbey.  Richard was Hugh's son and Thomas (born c. 1190) suceeded Richard.  All of this is detailed in the Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society for 1904.  

What is more important is that on the summit of the Wrekin is found St. Hawthorne’s Well, first attested c. 1540 and in use by the faithful until the 19th century.  For details on this well, I went to people.bath.ac.uk/liskmj/living-spring/sourcearchive/fs3/fs3lo1.htm:

”We complete the holy wells of the Wrekin District with St. Hawthorne's Well on the Wrekin itself. (There is also the Raven's Bowl, alias Cuckoo's Cup, near the top of the Wrekin, which suggests a more frankly pagan origin; a natural waterbowl that is still very much to be seen).

None of the authorities locate St. Hawthorne's Well's exact site on the Wrekin, either because none knew, or when they wrote its position was so well-known that it seemed unnecessary. Like all other hard rock hills the Wrekin has a large number of streams originating from small springs, carrying water down the hill on all sides, so there are many candidates. However, where one stream emerges onto the road (NGR 624 069) the place is known as The Spout, and this may possibly commemorate St Hawthorne's Well.

The well was known for scorbutic [scurvy] therapeutical properties, and the fact that one unfortunate's unrewarded visit is commonly recorded suggests it was generally held to be efficacious. Burne holds St. Hawthorne to be a corruption of St Alkmund, to whom a nearby monastery was dedicated; but other authorities (and for once Mrs Burne's view seems unlikely) suggest that there was a tree there that was venerated and the spring was close by.”

At the end of “Culhwch and Olwen”, we are told that "Caw of Britain shaves the giant's beard [thorns] - and his flesh AND SKIN [inner and outer layers of bark] down to the bone, and his two ears [leaves and flowers?]."  It is common in hagiographical literature for the cures brought about by the relics or holy sites belonging to saints to derive from whatever torture or form of martyrdom was meted out to them.  So in this case we have Ysbyddaden the Hawthorne having his skin shaved off, with his later Christian self dispensing skin cures from a well.

I think that this is a remarkable survival of the Chief Giant Hawthorne story – one which, incidentally, allows us to locate with a fair degree of certainty the fort of Custennin, Ysbyddedan and Olwen.  Once he had slain the giant (i.e. cut down the hawthorne tree), Culhwch took up his residence in this same fort.

One of the two stories that serve to account for the creation of The Wrekin bears some resemblance to episodes found in ‘Culhwch and Olwen”.  To quote this story in full from Shropshire Folk-Lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings by C. S. Burne and G. F Jackson, London 1883:

“Long, long ago, when there were giants in the land, two of them were turned out by the rest, and forced to go and live by themselves, so they set to work to build themselves a hill to live in. In a very short time they had dug out the earth from the bed of the Severn, which runs in the trench they made to the present time, and with it they piled up the Wrekin, intending to make it their home.

Those bare patches on the turf between the Bladderstone and the top of the hill, are the marks of their feet, where from that day to this the grass has never grown.

But they had not been there long before they quarreled, and one of them struck at the other with his spade, but failed to hit him, and the spade descending to the ground cleft the solid rock and left the 'Needle's Eye'. Then they began to fight and the giant with the spade (for they seem to have had only one between them - perhaps that was what they quarreled about!) was getting the best of it at first, but a Raven flew up and pecked at his eyes, and the pain made him shed such a mighty tear that it hollowed out the little basin in the rock which we call the Raven's Bowl, or sometimes the Cuckoo's Cup, which has never been dry since, but is always full of water even in the hottest summer.

And now you suppose that it was very easy for the other giant to master the one who had the spade, and when he had done so he determined to put him where he could never trouble anyone again. So he very quickly built up the Ercall Hill beside the Wrekin, and imprisoned his fallen foe within it. There the poor blind giant remains to this day, and in the dead of night you may sometimes hear him groaning.”

In the Mabinogion tale, three poisoned stone spears are thrown back at the giant.  The first is hurled by Bedwyr and strikes the giant Ysbyddaden through the middle of his knee-cap.  The second is tossed by Menw and this one passes through the giant’s breast and comes out his back.  The third is slung by Culhwch himself, and this one passes through the giant’s eyeball, emerging from the nape of his neck.

The Wrekin owes its name, ultimately, to the Romano-British fort name Viroconium, itself of uncertain derivation (see Rivet and Smith’s “The Place-Names of Roman Britain”).  It would seem to contain British *Uirico- with suffixes *-on-io-, meaning ‘town of *Uirico-.’  This name is said to be of unknown meaning, but can hardly stand for *uiro- ‘man’.  In Old Welsh the place was Guricon and in Middle Welsh Gwrygon.

Given St. Hawthorne atop the Wrekin, and my placement of Culhwch the Lean Pig/Boar here as well, I would offer (even if only as a folk etymology) Welsh gwrych for Gwrygon, which in the 13th century had two meanings:

1) hedge; enclosure; entrenchment – gwrych drain is ‘hawthorne hedge’

2) pig bristles (cf. Irish friuch, ‘boar’s bristles’) – gwrych moch is ‘pig bristles’

Of the seven offspring (= seven planets?) of the monster boar Twrch Trwyth, who is the subject of a great hunt in "Culhwch and Olwen", one bears the name Grugyn GWRYCH Ereint or G. "Silver Bristles". It is said of Grugyn: "His bristles were all like wings of silver; the way he would course through the forest and across the field you could see how the bristles glittered." As silver is the color and metal sacred to the moon, Grugyn may well be symbolic of this lunar body.

I would note in passing that the Welsh word or name Ysbyddaden is preserved in the place still known as Spadeadam, in northern Cumbria not far from Carlisle.