Lanval, Lancelot and Galahad (Galaad): A New Treatment of the Names

 

In the past, I'd treated of the Lancelot and Galahad - of Galaad - names are French forms derived from the names for the god Lugh/Lleu and the saint Gildas/Gweltas.  My pattern for Lancelot followed a logical development from the theory first proposed (?) by Roger Sherman Loomis.  I have elsewhere detailed the steps necessary to make this work.  I identified the -celot potion of Lancelot's name as standing for Welsh caled, 'hard'

But for years I've remained uneasy of this theory.  Why?  Because of what I had discovered independently regarding the name Lanval in the lais of Marie de France. What follows is my article on that subject:

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LANVAL OF AVALON: A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY IN MARIE DE FRANCVE’S ARTHURIAN LAI?

According to THE NEW ARTHURIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA, Marie de France was “a French poet who may have lived in England and who dedicated her Lais to a king presumed to be Henry II of England.  She wrote during the second half, and before the last decade, of the twelve century… “

Only two of Marie’s lais are Arthurian in nature.  Of these, the longer and more famous, is “Lanval”.  This poem may be summarized as follows (from the Wikipedia article):

“Lanval” is one of the Lais of Marie de France. Written in Anglo-Norman, it tells the story of a knight at King Arthur’s court who is overlooked by the king, wooed by a fairy lady, given all manner of gifts by her, and subsequently refuses the advances of Queen Guinevere. The plot is complicated by Lanval’s promise not to reveal the identity of his mistress, which he breaks when Guinevere accuses him of having “no desire for women”. Before Arthur, Guinevere accuses Lanval of shaming her, and Arthur, in an extended judicial scene, demands that he reveal his mistress. Despite the broken promise, the fairy lover eventually appears to justify Lanval, and to take him with her to Avalon.

For Arthurian scholars, the question has always been: Who is Lanval?  The name is found only once in the Vulgate MERLIN, and the lai or its source was not adapted until the early fourteenth century (see the entry for “Lanval” in THE ARTHURIAN NAME DICTIONARY).  The poem’s protagonist has often been associated with Lancelot, and some authorities have guessed that the Fairy Lover of Avalon may be none other than Morgan le Fay.  But beyond this little progress has been made in shedding light on the origin of the name Lanval and why he was ultimately placed in Avalon.

I would make the case for Lanval not being a mythical figure or even an actual hero of Arthur’s time, but instead a contemporary of Marie de France.  We might compare him in this regard with Fergus of Galloway (d. 1161), who was made into an Arthurian era hero by the romance writer Guilluame de Clerc.

Lanval is recorded as a spelling variant of Lanvallay, Breton Lanvalae, a commune in the Cotes-d’Armor department of Brittany in northwestern France.  Other spelling variants include Lanvelay, Lanvalay, Lanvalai, Lanvalei.  There were ‘de Lanvallays’ who came over to England with William the Conqueror.  In MAGNA CARTA ANCESTRY: A STUDY IN COLONIAL AND MEDIEVAL FAMILIES, 2nd Edition, 2011, by Douglas Richardson, we learn of one William de Lanvallay, who succeeded his father as a minor in 1204 and died shortly before 3 October 1217.  This William held land in Kingstone, Somerset – a fact which we will examine more closely in a moment.  He was excommunicated by the pope in 1215 for joining a confederacy of barons against King John, the son of Henry II.  As a consequence, he lost his Somerset property.  When he returned to obedience to the king in 1216, his lands were restored.  His most noteworthy accomplishment appears to have been his inclusion among the 25 barons elected to guarantee the observance of Magna Carta, signed by John on 15 June 1215.

De Lanvallay’s ownership of land at Kingstone supplies us with an unexpected explanation of why Lanval was so intimately involved with the Fairy Lover of Avalon.  From ANGLO-SAXON GLASTONBURY: CHURCH AND ENDOWMENT by Lesley Abrams (Boydell and Brewer, 1996), and THE CHRONICLE OF GLASTONBURY ABBEY: AN EDITION, TRANSLATION AND STUDY OF JOHN OF GLASTONBURY’S ‘CRONICA SIVE ANTIQUITATES GLASTONIENSIS ECCLESIE’ by James P. Carley (Boydell and Brewer, 1985), we learn that land at Kingstone was granted to Glastonbury as early as the 10th century.  Some of this land was still in the abbey’s hands in 1066 (at least 8 hides worth), but was lost to the count of Mortain before 1086.

Glastonbury was first overtly identified with King Arthur’s Avalon during the reign of Marie de France’s probable patron Henry II (1133-1189).  According to the story told by Gerald of Wales in both his LIBER DE INSTRUCTIONE PRINCIPIS (c. 1193) and SPECULUM ECCLESIAE (c. 1215), King Henry “disclosed to the monks [of Glastonbury Abbey] some evidence from his own books where the body was to be found” and “strenuous efforts were made in Glastonbury Abbey to locate what must have been the splendid tomb of King Arthur.  It was the king himself who put them to this…”

There are, of course, problems with the chronology of William de Lanvallay.  These are best expressed in Chapter 6  of UNTITLED ENGLISH NOBILITY (http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLISHNOBILITYMEDIEVAL3L-O.htm#_Toc351361220 ):

LANVALAY

Successful reconstruction of the following family is complicated by the duplication of the names William, Ranulf and Geoffrey, and the indication in the records, at least in the case of William and Geoffrey, of more than one individual with the same name at the same time.  The following is an attempt to reconcile the information available, but is not necessarily the final answer to the reconstruction of the family.

[Two possible brothers]:

1.         WILLIAM [I] de Lanvalay (-before 1185).  “Manasse Biset dapifero, Henrico de Oilleo, W[illelmo] de Lanvaleio…” witnessed the charter dated [Jan 1158] under which King Henry II confirmed the donation to the nuns of Neasham, Durham made by “Emma de Teisa”[333].  The Rotuli de Dominabus of 1185 records that “Clementia de Sancto Claro” held “Haiam” from “Willelmo de Lanvalei”[334].  m GUNNORA de Saint-Clair, daughter of HUBERT de Saint-Clair & his wife Clementia — ([1140/50]-before 1185).  Domesday Descendants names “Gunnora daughter and heiress of Hubert de St Clair” as the wife of William de Lanvallay, but does not cite a specific source reference for this information[335].  The primary source which confirms her parentage and marriage has not yet been identified.  Her birth date is estimated on the assumption that the age of her mother is accurately stated in the Rotuli de Dominabus of 1185.  William [I] & his wife had [three] children:

a)         WILLIAM [II] de Lanvalay of Walkern, Northamptonshire ([1168/73]-[20 Jun 1207/1209]).  The Rotuli de Dominabus of 1185 records “Willelmus de Lanvalle…in custodia domini Regis” and holds all his land, of unknown value, in “Hundredum de Lexedene” in Essex and “in Hallingeburia” in Essex[336].  King John confirmed “villam de Bromeleg cum advocatione ecclesie”, donated by “Willelmus de Lanval…in maritagium cum Gunnora sorore ipsius Willelmi de Lunval”, to “Willelmo de Bello Campo” by charter dated 20 Jun 1207[337].  The Testa de Nevill lists knights who held land in Northamptonshire, dated to [1208/09], including “heres Willelmi de Lanvelay tenet Wakerle”[338].  m HAWISE de Bocland, daughter of HUGH de Bocland & his wife Matilda — (-before 19 Jul 1233).  Her parentage and marriage are shown in The Complete Peerage[339].  The primary source which confirms her parentage has not yet been identified.  Bracton records a claim, dated 1232, by “Johannes de Burgo et Hawisia uxor eius” against “Willelmum de Bello Campo” claiming the return of “manerium de Brumlegha…hereditatem ipsius Hawisie” which had not been transferred to her after the death of “Gunnoram de Lanualay quondam uxorem suam” and which “Hawisie de Lamualay quondam uxor Willelmi de Lanualay…avie ipsius Hawisie” was granted as “dotem…de dono ipsius Willelmi quondam viri sui”[340].  Christine de Mandeville Countess of Essex granted her lands in Westley, Cambridgeshire to Geoffrey de Lanvalay and his mother Hawise by charter dated 1227[341].  William [II] & his wife had [two] children:

i)          WILLIAM [IV] de Lanvalay ([after 1190]-[1214/18 May 1216]).  The Testa de Nevill lists knights who held land in Northamptonshire, dated to [1208/09], including “heres Willelmi de Lanvelay tenet Wakerle”[342].  Although he is not named in this record, it must refer to William [IV] who was presumably still a minor at the time.  William Reedy, in the introduction to his collection of Basset charters, states that Alan Basset paid a fine to marry his daughter to the son and heir of William de Lanvalay in [1212/14][343].  The Patent Roll 1217 records an order to “baillivis suis in quorum bailliis Willelmus de Lanvalay terras habuit” in respect of the lands “que fuerunt Willelmi de Lanvalay”[344], which is consistent with the recent death of William [IV].  The Testa de Nevill includes a list of landholdings in Somerset, dated 1219, which includes “filia et heres Willelmi de Lamvale est in custodia H. de Burgo justiciarii…et terra sua de Kingestan valet x.l…”, in Kent “in hundred de Schamele dominus H. de Burgo habet custodiam cuiusdam puelle que est heres Willelmi de Lanvalai cum maneriis de Chauk et de Henneherst…”, and in Essex “terra…in hundredo de Lexeden”[345].  m ([1212/14]) [MATILDA] Basset, daughter of ALAN Basset of Wycombe & his second wife Aline de Gai.  William Reedy, in the introduction to his collection of Basset charters, states that Alan Basset paid a fine to marry his daughter to the son and heir of William de Lanvalay in [1212/14][346].  Her name is suggested by two orders: firstly, King Henry III ordered the sheriff of Northamptonshire “to place in respite the demand of 29s that he makes from Matilda de Lanvallay for her assets in Wakerley”, dated [Apr] 1223[347], and secondly the king ordered the sheriff of Northamptonshire “to place in respite the demand for 29s that he makes by summons of the Exchequer from Matilda de Lanvallay”, dated 11 May 1226[348].  The references to Northamptonshire suggest a connection with the family of William [IV].  No other individual named Matilda has yet been identified in his family, which suggests that the debtor may have been his widow of whose name no record has been found.  William [IV] & his wife had one child:

(1)       HAWISE de Lanvalay ([1213/16]-after 1235).  The Testa de Nevill includes a list of landholdings in Somerset, dated 1219, which includes “filia et heres Willelmi de Lamvale est in custodia H. de Burgo justiciarii…et terra sua de Kingestan valet x.l…”, in Kent “in hundred de Schamele dominus H. de Burgo habet custodiam cuiusdam puelle que est heres Willelmi de Lanvalai cum maneriis de Chauk et de Henneherst…”, and in Essex “terra…in hundredo de Lexeden”[349].  The Pipe Roll 1223 includes land of “Huberto de Burgo cum herede Willelmi de Lanvalet…in Schaftebir” [Shaftesbury] in Dorset[350].  King Henry III ordered the sheriff of Dorset “to take into the king´s hands the lands of Emedeswurth and Morden which Peter Russell holds of the fee of William de Lanvallay”, dated [Mar] 1224[351].  Bracton records a claim, dated 1232, by “Johannes de Burgo et Hawisia uxor eius” against “Willelmum de Bello Campo” claiming the return of “manerium de Brumlegha…hereditatem ipsius Hawisie” which had not been transferred to her after the death of “Gunnoram de Lanualay quondam uxorem suam” and which “Hawisia de Lamualay quondam uxor Willelmi de Lanualay…avie ipsius Hawisie” was granted as “dotem…de dono ipsius Willelmi quondam viri sui”[352].  A charter dated 1235 records a dispute a claim “Johannem de Burgo et Hawisiam uxorem eius” against the abbot of Colchester relating to revenue from “molendino de Nordmilne” and the agreed settlement which refers to “Johannes et Hauuisia et heredes ipsius Hauuisie”, the latter being unnamed[353].  A writ dated 1 Dec “3 Edw I”, after the death of “John de Burgo the elder”, names “Sir John de Burgo the younger…aged 40 and more is his next heir”, records “Hallingebyri…manor…held of the king in chief of tyhe barony of Launvaly…of the inheritance of Hawis his wife”, and names “Sir Hubert de Burgo father of Sir John de Burgo the elder”[354].  m (before 1232) JOHN de Burgh, son of HUBERT de Burgh Earl of Kent & his first wife Beatrice de Warenne (-before 1 Dec 1274).

…

b)         WILLIAM [III] de Lanvalay (-after 29 Sep 1223).  An order dated 3 Sep 1199 relates to land of “Willo de Lanuallai et Rad de Lanualai” in Huntingdonshire and Berkshire[373].  His parentage is confirmed by the Testa de Nevill which lists landholdings in Berkshire, dated 1212, including “Willelmus de Lanvalei tenet c solidatas terre in Blacgrave sine servicio nominato quam Rex Henricus pater dedit Radulfo avo suo”[374].  The Pipe Roll 1223 includes “Willelmus de Lanval” among those owing “de prestito Pictavie” in Essex and Hertfordshire, and land of “Ricardo Walensi…in Estbir cum filia et herede Radulfi de Lanvalet. Et Willelmo de Lanvalet…in Blakegrave…” in Berkshire[375].

 The chronology for the various Williams therefore extends roughly from the mid 12th century to the first quarter of the 13th.  This period overlaps both that of Marie de France, author of Lanval, and Henry II, who not only had dealings with at least one of the de Lanvallays, but who chose to identify Glastonbury with Avalon (doubtless for political reasons that have been stated elsewhere).  Furthermore, Kingstone, in possession of the de Lanvallays, had a long history with Glastonbury/Avalon.

It is for these reasons that I would identify Marie’s Lanval with one of the William de Lanvallays. It is likely that the lai is a symbolic representation of the life of one of these de Lanvallays, or is a symbolic commemoration of an important event in the life of one of these men.  As “going to Avalon” in Lanval’s case means dying and being taken to the Otherworld that is Glastonbury, we must select a William who had died before the last decade of the 12th century or thereabouts – which is the usual terminus for Marie’s writing of the lai.

I think we are dealing with the Magna Carta episode here.  Lanval’s rejection of the queen’s advances leads to the loss of his Fairy Lover; she will not come to him anymore.  The barons become involved in the judicial proceedings, and the hero is not declared innocent until the Fairy Lover makes an appearance and offers testimony on his behalf.  This sounds suspiciously like William de Lanvallay’s loss of the Somerset lands when he joined the barons in opposition to the king.  Once he had reconciled with the king, his lands – with their ancient tie to Glastonbury/Avalon – were restored to him. William died the year following, a passing which may have been depicted by Marie as Lanval’s journey to Avalon.

Whether that is the ‘secret code’ lurking within Marie’s lai is impossible to say with any certainty.  But it is the only episode in a life of a de Lanvallay that has a demonstrable connection to “Avalon”.

***

I began to wonder if Lancelot, like Lanval, might have as its first component the same Lann- as Lanvallay.  The element if the standard Breton word lann:

Proto-Celtic *landā-, SEMANTIC CLASS: nature, British Vindo-landa ‘white-land’, Gaulish *landa > Fr. lande ‘moor, open land’, Early Irish land, lann ‘free space’, Scottish Gaelic lann ‘inclosure, land’, Welsh lann (Old Welsh), llan ‘(parish) church, churchyard, enclosure’, Cornish *lann ‘enclosed cemetery’, Breton lann ‘area, sacred place of a village’

If the Lan- of Lancelot is lann, what then are we to make of -celot?  

Chretien de Troyes places Lancelot of the Lake at Glastonbury in place of Gildas in the story of Melwas' (= Meleagant) abduction of Guinevere. The tale had first been told in Caradog of Llancarfan’s “Life of Gildas”.  I'd always wondered: why the substitution?

As for -celot. It was customary (not always, but in the majority of cases) to follow Llan-/Lann- with the name of the saint to which the religious enclusure was dedicated. The saint in question was often the reputed founder of the establishment.

But no one will be convinced that -celot is some kind of mangling across languages of the name Gildas. Nor is it likely -celot is for Gweltas, another saint with whom Gildas may have been confused.

There may be a partial solution to thus conundrum. It occurred to me that Chretien's placing Lancelot in a cart might suggest a folk etymology, with -celot being an attempt at W. clud.

clud 

[< *kloi-tā-, cf. Llad. clītellae or gwr. *klei- ‘gwyro, gogwyddo, pwyso’] 

eb. ll. cludau.

a  Y weithred o gario neu gludo, dygiad; llwyth, baich, pwn, bwndel; celfi at daith, bagaets; cyfoeth, ysbail, anrhaith:

carriage, the action of carrying; load, burden, pack, bundle; luggage, baggage; wealth, booty. 

 "Clud" is the Welsh word for a carriage, conveyance, or transport, often used to mean a cart or wagon. 

Beyond this I've not yet gotten.

Regardless of whether there's anything to that idea, it is fairly safe to link Galahad with Gildas. The preferred form of Galahad is Galaad. This is thought to be, transparently, from Galaad, the ancient Greek form of the biblical place name Gilead, often found in the Septuagint and apocryphal books like 1 Maccabees.  And this is okay, so far as it goes. But we need to take it one step further - to the form Gilead, which is a close error for Gildas.

NOTE:

The notion (promoted by Dr. Linda A. Malcor) that Lancelot's name should be derived from the Breton name Alan is untenable.  Furthermore, Alan itself is not from the name of the Alan tribe, but is a purely Celtic word that can be related either to Proto-Celtic *el-lant-ī- (?), *el-an-ī, Celtiberian Elandus (?) ‘PNm (?)’, Gaulish , Early Irish elit ‘roedeer’, Scottish Gaelic eilid ‘hind’, Welsh elain ‘young deer, doe, hind-calf, fawn, fig. of young man or woman’, Cornish *elen ? ‘fawn’.  The word is found in Old Welsh as 'alan' (see, for example, Line 949 of THE GODODDIN:

Gnawd yn llwrw alan buan byddai,

"It was usual that on the track of the deer he was swift"

(A.O.H. Jarman ed. and trans.)

Alain son of Bron the Grail King does not, however, appear to be from Alan.  Instead, it is a reflection of Heilyn son of Gwynn the Old, who is one of the followers of Bran the Blessed in 'Branwen D. of Llyr.' Alain in the romances has a wide range of spellings, including those beginning with H- (e.g. Helain). The name Heilyn, appropriately enough, means in Welsh (see GPC) dispenser, provider; servitor, waiter, cup-bearer, butler.  Obviously, the cup he was thought to bear was the Grail, which in later sources tended to be identified with the Christian chalice.

Long ago I discussed Amalek, another Grail King.  This is a Christian substitution for Aballach, a Welsh rendering of Ablach, the name of the Otherworld island in Welsh tradition that corresponds to Geoffrey of Monmouth's Avalon.  Aballach is personified in Welsh tradition.  His father Beli Mawr became Pellinore in the Grail romances. Here is the entry on Aballach from P.C. Bartram's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY:

AFALLACH ap BELI MAWR. (Legendary). The name appears in the ancestries of Cunedda Wledig and Coel Hen. See HG 1 and 10 in EWGT pp.9, 11, and later versions: Aballac in the latter, but reduplicated to Aballac map Amalech in the former. In the first he is father of Owain and in the latter, of Euddolen. He also appears as the father of Modron, the wife of Urien Rheged, and of Gwallwen, a mistress of Maelgwn Gwynedd. Ynys Afallach is the common Welsh name for what is otherwise known as the Isle of Avallon. See Avallon. Sir John Rhys believed that Ynys Afallach was named after Afallach, son of Beli Mawr, whom he regarded as an ‘Otherworld’ divinity inhabiting the island. (Arthurian Legend, pp.324, 335 ff). In support of this is the story that Urien's wife was a daughter of the king of Annwn (see s.n. Modron), and there is further corroboration in the legend recorded by an interpolator in William of Malmesbury's De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiae (ed. Hearne p.17), who states that Avallon may be named ‘from a certain Avalloc who is said to have lived there with his daughters, owing to its being a solitary place’. Giraldus Cambrensis also says that Avallonia may get its name ‘from a certain Avallo’ (Speculum Ecclesiae, Ch.IX). Sir John Rhys also believed that the name, Evalac(h), of a heathen king, who figures in L'Estoire del Saint Graal, a part of the ‘Vulgate’ Cycle of Arthurian Romances, is derived from Afallach (Arthurian Legend, p.337). But apart from the similarity of names there is nothing to support this (PCB). See also TYP pp.266-8.

Perceval is a departure from the list of purely mythological entities.  He represents a French attempt at Brochfael (BROCHMAIL), a name found on the Eliseg Pillar hard by Castell Dinas Bran in northern Wales.  

Robert de Boron, the first writer of an Arthurian Grail romance, properly hints that the Grail was conveyed to the ‘vales of Avaron’, i.e. to Avalon. By this time Glastonbury was meant as Avalon. Subsequent Grail romances soon altered Robert’s story, having the precious object housed instead in the Castle of Corbenic. From Corbenic the Grail or actual cup of Christ is returned to the Holy Land, the land of ‘Sarras’ or the Saracens from which it originally came. Once in Sarras it ascends into heaven and is never seen again by mortal men. Even earlier versions of the story, like that of the Manessier Continuation of Chretien’s Conte Du Graal, inform us that the Christian Grail was taken up to heaven. Yet modern-day questors continue to look for Christ’s cup!

Of Corbenic itself, I am in total agreement with the very old theory that this word derives from the French word corbin, ‘raven’ or ‘crow’. Long ago it was suggested that Castell Dinas Bran in northern Wales might be meant, the Castle of the Fort of the Raven, this place being associated by the romance writers with the pagan Bran of cauldron fame. I am now able to prove conclusively by analysis of place-names found in the romances that Corbenic is, in fact, Dinas Bran.

Corbenic is in Listenois or Listinois, which itself is either in or the same as La Terre Foraine, the ‘Land Beyond’. In the Land Beyond is a city called ‘Malta’. Corbenic has a church of ‘Notre Dame’, i. e. of ‘Our Lady’ St. Mary.

‘Malta’ was the clue to unraveling this mystery. This is Mold in Flintshire, Wales. As Corbenic is founded for Alan son of Bron or Brons (= the Welsh Bran), it is surely not a coincidence that Mold is encircled on three sides by the Afon Alun or Alyn (from Celtic *alauna). Le Terre Foraine or the ‘Land Beyond’ is this part of Wales to the west of the March of Wales, or Marchia Wallia, as it was called. For most of the period when the March of Wales (the boundary between England and Wales) existed, the fringe of Flintshire was ‘beyond’ it to the west, in Pura Wallia. Listinois is a slightly corrupt form of the Welsh Dinas, preceded by the Old French definite article. Hence the ‘isle of Listinois’ (isle being, in the French medieval sense, ‘valley’) is the valley of the dinas. The dinas or ‘fort’ in question is Dinas Bran.

Notre Dame is a reference to Valle Crucis Abbey hard by Castell Dinas Bran. In 1200 Madog ap Gruffydd, Lord of Powys Fadog, established Valle Crucis Abbey. It was this same Madog or his son Gruffydd Maelor II who built the medieval castle of Dinas Bran.

Originally the Church at Chirk was regarded as a chapel attached to the Llangollen Church. The benefice was said to be under the control of the abbey by Bishop Anian II when he visited Oswestry in 1275.

In the Taxation of Pope Nicholas in 1291 the Church at Chirk is reported as Eglwys y waen (‘Church of the Moor’) and with the appropriation of the Church by Valle Crucis Abbey it was re-dedicated to St. Mary.

WHO IS THE GREEN KNIGHT?

 

[The following is a selection from my book THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON.]

Another Arthurian site has always intrigued me; that of the Green Chapel in the 14th century epic poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. While it is not immediately apparent that the Green Chapel has anything to do with Merlin, we will see that it actually belongs to the great enchanter.

The poem leaves no doubt as to what the Green Chapel really is:

"... a hillock of sorts, A smooth-surfaced barrow on a slope beside a stream... All hollow it was within, only an old cavern..." (Lines 2171-82)

This chambered barrow is ‘hardly two miles’ from the castle of the Green Knight, who calls himself Bertilak of Hautdesert (High Desert). The directions to this castle are unknown; we are only told that Gawain is going north by way of the Gwynedd coast opposite Anglesey and the Wirral Peninsula. After this the description of his route becomes increasingly vague.

Bertilak represents the Bertholais of the Arthurian Vulgate. Indeed, the English translation of the Vulgate renders Bertholais as Bertilak. This Bertholais is associated with Gawain, but does not bear any of the characteristics later ascribed to Bertilak. In the Vulgate, Bertholais and the False Guinevere (whose champion the former was) are exiled to the hinterlands. The suggestion has been made that Bertilak's beautiful wife, the temptress of Gawain, is actually the False Guinevere. Because the poet put Morgan le Fay in Bertilak's house, it is also possible that the Green Knight's wife is an aspect of Morgen, i.e. the Morrigan.

Bertholais owes his name to the Britaelis of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History. Britaelis was Gorlois' servant whose form was assumed by none other than Merlin in the story of Ygerna's seduction by Uther. If Bertholais is Merlin, it is surely significant that the Life of St. Kentigern has Lailoken/Myrddin/Merlin buried ‘not far from the green chapel where the brook Pausayl flows into the River Tweed.’ In other words, the ‘Green Chapel’ is none other than the site of the Scottish Lowland Merlin’s supposed grave.

NOTE:  The Tweed is a relocation of the original Merlin gravesite.  I have written about correct site here:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-grave-of-myrddinmerlin.html

MYRDDIN OF THE STAGS AND THE CARVETII GOD BELATUCADRUS

Horned head found near the shrine of Belatucadros at Netherby, Cumbria 

(Tullie House museum, Carlisle)

Mayburgh Henge

Mayburgh Henge and Related Henges

Up to the present date, my emphasis when doing Myrddin (Merlin) research has been to approach the problem of his identity from two directions.  First, the early Welsh sources strongly suggest that his "madness" is actually a strange, spectral state following death at the Battle of Arderydd.  But second, there appears to have been an effort in the extant tradition to also relate him to a deity.  This deity is most commonly thought to be Lleu.

In this brief piece I would like to consider another possibility for Myrddin.  

Geoffrey of Monmouth's VITA MERLINI, which tells the story of the Northern figure prior to the same author's ridiculous though ingenious identification of Myrddin with Ambrosius, has the following interesting episode:

"Merlin had entered the forest and was living an animal life, existing on frozen moss in the snow, in the rain, in the angry blast. Yet that satisfied him more than administering the law in cities and ruling over a warrior people. Meanwhile, as the years were slipping past and her husband was still leading this sort of life among his woodland flock, Guendoloena became legally promised in marriage. It was night, and the horned moon was shining brightly; all the lights of the vault of heaven were glittering. The air had an extra clarity, for a bitterly cold north wind had blown away the clouds, absorbed the mists on its drying breath and left the sky serene again. The prophet was watching the stars in their courses from a high hill.

He was out in the open, talking to himself and saying: "What means this ray from Mars? Does its new ruddy glow mean a king dead and another king to be? I see it so. Constantine has died and by an evil chance his nephew Conan has seized the crown through the murder of an uncle and is king. Highest Venus, you sail along within your prescribed bounds in company with the sun in his path beneath the zodiac: what now of your twin ray cutting through the ether? Does its division foretell the parting of my love? Such is the ray that speaks of love divided. Perhaps Guendoloena has abandoned me, now that I am away. Perhaps she is happy in the close embrace of another man. So I lose, another wins her. My rights are taken from me while I linger here. Indeed, a laggard lover loses to the lover who is not a laggard nor absent but near and urgent. Yet I bear no grudge. She may marry now the time is right, and with my permission enjoy a new husband. When tomorrow dawns, I will go and take with me the present I promised her when I left."

So saying, he set off round all the woods and clearings, and organized a herd of stags into a single line; so, too, with does and with she-goats. He seated himself on a stag, and at the coming of the day he set off, driving his lines before him. So he came with speed to the place of Guendoloena's wedding. Arriving there, he made the stags stand quietly outside the gates, then shouted, "Guendoloena, Guendoloena, come out! What presents are looking for you!" Guendoloena came quickly, all smiles, and was astonished to see a man riding a stag and it obeying him, astonished that so many animals of the wild could be brought together and that he alone was driving them before him like a shepherd accustomed to taking his sheep to pasture.

The bridegroom was standing at a high window, looking in amazement at the rider on his seat; and he broke into a laugh. When the prophet saw him and realised who he was, he promptly wrenched off the horns of the stag he rode. He whirled the horns round and threw them at the bridegroom. He crushed the bridegroom's head right in, knocking him lifeless, and drove his spirit to the winds. In a moment the prophet dug his heels into his stag and set it flying and was on his way back to the woods. The incident brought out retainers from every corner, and they followed the bard in hot pursuit across country. But he went at such a pace that he would have reached the forest unscathed had it not been for a river in his path. While his beast was bounding across the torrent, Merlin slipped and fell into the fast current."

[Basil Clarke translation; https://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/merlini.html]

Guendoloena is merely a feminine form of Gwenddolau, Myrddin's lord in the Welsh texts, who perished at Arderydd.  We may assume, therefore, that she belongs at or in the vicinity of Carwinley, Cumbria. 

To the best of our knowledge (see THE CARVETII by Nicholas Higham and Barri Jones, p. 12-13) the northern boundary of the Roman period Carvetii kingdom extended to the Solway Mosses:

"... most commentators suggest that the extent of the Brigantes, and therefore the Carvetii probably spread beyond the eventual line of Hadrian's Wall.  This is probably correct; the extent of the northern mosses around the Rivers Esk and Lyne is impressive enough even today after extensive agricultural reclamation, but further to the northwest, despite the presence of Lochars Moss, good quality, well-drained land comes close to the Solway at the southern end of Annandale. Settlement has now been located in this area on an extensive scale, and it is at least arguable that, with the Solway fordable at certain points as far west as Bowness and beyond, these sites were part of the northern fringe of the Carvetii."

The Carvetii were the 'people of the Stag' (cf. W. carw, 'stag').  Their chief deity was Belatucadrus, whose cult center was at Brougham in Cumbria.  I discussed this horned god in detail in my book THE SECRETS OF AVALON (https://secretsavalon.blogspot.com/2016/08/gods-and-goddesses-mentioned-in.html).  An altar to Belatucadros was found at the Netherby Roman fort (https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/970). 

For now, I need only repeat what I had to say about the stag god's name:

"The name Belatucadros itself has been rendered incorrectly in several recent texts on Celtic gods.  One of the most common etymologies offered would have the name mean ‘Fair Shining One’, the components Belatu- and cadros both being derived from words that mean bright, shining and the like.  This is scarcely creditable.

A more likely derivation would connect Belatu- with early Welsh bel-.  According to Dr. Graham Isaac of The National University of Ireland, Galway, bel-

“… is not ‘death’ in a passive sense (the death which happens), but ‘death’ in an active sense (the death which someone brings, i.e. killing).  The verb means ‘smites, strikes, kills’ and reflects the Proto-Indo-European root *gwelh1 –‘stab, smite; throw’, which also turns up in Old Irish at-baill ‘dies’, from an earlier meaning ‘he throws it’ referring to the casting off of life, or ‘he struck it’.  From Proto-Indo-European *gwelh1- we get the nominal formation *gwelh1-tu > Gaul. Belatu-,‘smiting, killing’.”

On –cadros, Dr. Isaac is also equally clear:

“… cadro- is the cognate of Old Breton cadr, Middle Breton kazr, Modern Breton kaer, “fair, beautiful”, and is derived from *cadro- < Proto-Indo-European k^d-ro- < *k^ed-, *k^d- ‘to shine, to excel’ (Pokorny 516-7).  The Welsh word cadr ‘mighty, fair’ with which it is sometimes compared is properly distinct, and reflects *kat-ro-, with the same root as cad, ‘battle’, etc.  There may have been some mixing of meanings between *kadro- and *katro- in Welsh, but that there were two originally distinct words should be beyond question (see Jackson LHEB 430-1)… In Old Welsh, the name Belatucadros would have been *Belatcair, and in Middle Welsh *Belatcaer or Belatkaer.”

I had also found a reference in Georges Dottin’s “La langue gauloise’, Paris, 1920, to cadros defined as ‘god, vakker’, “good, beautiful/handsome”.  When I asked Dr. Isaac about this, he replied:

“The meaning ‘good’ is quite within the possible range of *kadro-.”

All this being so, the full meaning of Belatucadros is ‘striker/smiter/killer - [who is] fair/beautiful/handsome/shining/good."

Let us examine this etymology for Belatucadros in the context of the story of Merlin and the stags.  I long ago theorized that the stag army led by Merlin was symbolic of the Carvetii.  In other words, he didn't lead deer against Guendoloena's husband, but deer warriors.  

And then there is the method employed to kill his rival.  In THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON I have this on the significance of a stag's horns:

"... a stag’s weapon is his antlers, which he uses to strike other stags during the rut, or which the animal can use defensively against predators.  When rutting stags come together, it was seen as a metaphor for battle between two armed warriors.  The resounding crash of opposing antlers coming into violent contact with each other may have been likened to the heavenly thunder that issued from the lightning strike."

On rare occasions, red stags have been known to kill each other with their antlers.  Antlers may also become locked and if the animals cannot disengage from one other, death may eventually follow.

Merlin's act of striking his rival with antlers may be a literary representation of the 'Fair Striker' Belatucadros.

It is true that the Roman period capital of the Carvetii was Carlisle, ancient Luguvalium, the fort that was 'Lleu-strong.' So it is undeniable that the god Lleu was present there.  Mabon seems to have been identified in Welsh tradition with Lleu and the former's cult center was just a little northwest of Carlisle.  I have only found one example of Lleu's possible association with the stag, and that is found in the Mabinogion tale "Math Son of Mathonwy."  There we are told that Lleu's seasonal counterpart and rival for his wife Blodeuwedd, Goronwy, kills a stag at Avon Gynvael just prior to sleeping with the goddess.  Lleu later kills Goronwy in the same location.  The mythological implication is that Lleu is being represented by the stag.    

Myrddin's mountain of Aber Craf or Abercarf in Scotland may also have been named for stags.  From one of my earlier essays on the subject:

"I would identify the mountain in Aber Caraf with Tinto Hill (2320 feet / 707 meters), which looms over ancient Abercarf, now called Wiston.  Abercarf, according to the Scottish Place-Name Society’s “Brittonic Language in the North”, is from aber, ‘confluence’, plus garw, ‘rough’, derived from the name of the Garf Water, a tributary of the upper Clyde.

However, when I asked Alan James, the author of BLITON, as to the possibility that Abercarf could instead contain carw, 'stag', he responded:

"Quite right. As to the merits of the two interpretations, I'm agnostic. The phonology of either wouldn't be difficult to explain. Garw and Gaelic garbh are of course pretty common in river-names, and I'm rather less eager than some place-name scholars to see animals, e.g. carw, in such names, but there certainly are parallels."

Just a few kilometers upstream on the Clyde from the Garf Water is Hartside and Hartside Burn.  Red Deer were once plentiful here."

One of the main arguments for Myrddin as Lleu or a Lleu avatar is his triple (sacrificial) death.  This is usually likened to that meted out to the god Lleu in "Math son of Mathonwy" of the MABINOGION.  But note in the VITA MERLINI selection I quoted above the reference to Merlin falling into the stream from the back of a stag.  Geoffrey tells the story of the triple death of another person in his account.  We only find that death connected to Merlin in the St. Kentigern fragment.  In the VITA MERLINI a boy is pursuing a stag on horseback when his mount carries him over a cliff and into the river.

A couple of these statements do need to be qualified. In "Math son of Mathonwy", Lleu's rival for Blodeuwedd - Goronwy - hunts and kills a stag just before he takes up with Lleu's wife.  And Lleu is killed while standing with one foot on the back of a goat.  In Geoffrey's VITA MERLINI, wild goats are among the stags and hinds of Merlin's army. This is presumably because goats, like deer, are hooved animals.  

So what do we make of all this? It is reasonable, based primarily on the very shaky testimony of Geoffrey of Monmouth, to propose that Myrddin might be a manifestation or incarnation of the Carvetii god Belatucadros and not someone we should associate with Lleu?

I would bring up one additional, possibly relevant matter. TRIAD 64 on 'the three bull-specters' of the Island of Britain, has a variant, tri charv ellyll, 'three stag-specters.' Bromwich and others have discussed what ellyll might mean in this context.  According to the GPC, ellyll (a word related to the Llallawg/Llallogan used for Myrddin) means - 

goblin, elf, fairy, sprite, genius (of a place, &c.), apparition, phantom, spectre, wraith, ghost, shade, bogey; evil spirit, fiend, devil, demon, bibl. a kind of demon that haunts ruins, satyr, familiar spirit

The Errith and Gurrith of the Myrddin poetry mean, respectfully, 'specter, ghost, apparition (cognate with Irish arracht) and 'man-specter/ghost/apparition'. This last matches the meaning of the name Myrddin according to Dr. Graham Isaac of The National University of Ireland, Galway - *Moro-donyos or "Specter-man".

What little we can tell from these references is that to be a 'stag-specter' might indicate a state of being one assumes when in battle.  We might compare the Norse sacred warrior castes of berserkers and ulfhednars.  One became "wild" in battle (Bromwich discusses W. gwyllt in this context) and evinced a 'stag-like' spirit. If so, then we could assume that upon death the stag-specter continued to exist, haunting the forest like a real, living deer.

My thinking, then, runs as follows: if Myrddin were a Carvetii warrior-chieftain, a man who in battle displayed his 'stag-spirit' in honor of his stag god, Belatucadros, then in death he would naturally take the form of a ghostly deer in the forest.  I've written before about Myrddin being pursued by the hunting hounds of Rhydderch of Strathclyde.  These hounds appear to be symbolic of St. Kentigern, whose name means 'hound-lord.'  Gwasawg, the supporter of Rhydderch, a diminutive of W. gwas, 'servant', is also for Kentigern, whom Jocelyn calls servuli. Myrddin has a magical apple tree where he may hide from Rhydderch. The idea seems to be that the Christian saint is literally pursuing a pagan entity, his goal being the extirpation of all remnants of the old religion.  One of the Kentigern fragments actually has the saint administer holy communion to Myrddin (as Lailocen).

To summarize: Myrddin appears to be the spirit of a man who was a devotee of a pagan god.  His spirit partook of the nature of that god and may have been a sort of extension of that god.  When one brings forth his stag-spirit, he is materializing the divine.  After death of the body, the stag-spirit either becomes one with the stag-god or remains in a sort of middle world (the forest) between the worlds of the living and the divine sphere.  Probably such spirits were thought to cross back and forth through the threshold of this world and the Otherworld.  

The triple sacrifice must be seen in this light.  The Norse Odin is a good example.  He boasts of having won supernatural wisdom through his own self-sacrifice through hanging and stabbing.  Thus when men when sacrificed in this way, they symbolically became Odin.  This is a difficult concept for us to comprehend.  

I have shown that the bathtub and goat Lleu stands upon when he is killed represent Aquarius the Water-bearer and Capricorn.  This provides us with a precise date for his sacrificial killing (dependent, of course, on how far back the motif can be traced). Can we tell when Myrddin was sacrificed?  And why and where?

The where is easy.  The Tweed and Powsail Burn are relocations for the Tweed/Tweeden tributary of the Liddel and the Willow Pool at the confluence of the Liddel and Esk.  Thus whether he perished in the Battle of Arderydd or a sacrificial ritual, it happened near the Carwinley of Gwenddolau.  I've hypothesized that any sacrifice carried out might have been an offering meant to ensure victory in battle.  That elaborate triple sacrifice was engaged in for this reason is proposed by Ross and Robins in THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A DRUID PRINCE.  We could hazard a guess that he was ritually killed on the eve of Arderydd, dedicated to Belatucadros in this fashion so that the Christian enemy might be defeated.

  

The Revised Map of Arthur's Battles

Once More Arthur's [Last Four] Battles (a little tribute there to Kenneth H. Jackson's famous Arthurian essay)

Aerial View of Eynsham Park Camp

Readers of my previous posts will recall that I discussed Arthur's last four battles in relationship to the prior engagements, which were all reflections of entries for Cerdic in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. I was bothered by the fact that after the Wihtgarasburh battle (= the Castle Guinion of Arthur), the other battles seemed to be tagged on in order to round out the number to a mythological, Zodiacal twelve.  These extra battles seemed, superficially, at least, to have nothing to do with any of the other battles listed for the Gewissei in the ASC.

I now have reason to think I may have been mistaken.  I had mentioned before that Arthur's City of the Legion battle may well be an attempt at the ASC's Limbury of 571, whose early forms are Lygean-, Liggean- and the like.  I discounted the possibility solely because the next battle-site, that of the shore of the Tribruit, was certainly for the Trajectus on the Somerset Avon or over the Severn.

There is a problem, though, with identifying Tribruit with the Avon or Severn Trajectus, viz. there were doubtless many trajecti in Britain!  And, indeed, Rivet and Smith (The Place-Names of Roman Britain, p. 178) discuss the term, saying that in some cases "it seems to indicate a ferry or ford..." Furthermore, although the Welsh rendered 'litore' of the Tribruit description in Nennius as 'traeth', demanding a river estuary emptying into the sea, litore (from Latin litus) could also mean simply 'river-bank'.  Thus traeth could well be an improper rendering of the word.

If I were to look at Tribruit in this light, and provisionally accepted the City of the Legion as Limbury, and Badon as Bath (which the spelling demands, and which appears in a group of cities captured by Cerdic's father Ceawlin/Maquicoline/Cunedda), then the location of the Tribruit/Trajectus in question may well be determined by the locations of Mounts Agned and Breguoin.  These last two battle-sites fall between those of the City of the Legion and  Bath, and after that of the Tribruit.

I decided to take a fresh look at Agned, which has continud to vex Arthurian scholars.  I noticed that in the ASC 571 entry there was an Egonesham, modern Eynsham.  Early forms of this place-name include Egenes-, Egnes-, Eghenes-, Einegs-.  According to both Ekwall and Mills, this comes from an Old English personal name *Aegen.  Welsh commonly adds -edd to make regular nominative i:-stem plurals of nouns (information courtesy Dr. Simon Rodway, who cites several examples).  Personal names could also be made into place-names by adding the -ydd suffix.  The genitive of Agnes in Latin is Agnetus, which could have become Agned in Welsh - as long as <d> stands for /d/, which would be exceptional in Old Welsh (normally it stands for what is, in Modern Welsh, spelled as <dd>). I'd long ago shown that it was possible for Welsh to substitute initial /A-/ for /E-/.  What this all tells me is that Agned could conceivably be an attempt at the hill-fort named for Aegen.

http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=334760&sort=2&type=&typeselect=c&rational=a&class1=None&period=None&county=None&district=None&parish=None&place=eynsham%20park%20camp&recordsperpage=10&source=text&rtype=&rnumber=

But what of Mount Breguoin?  Well, I had remembered that prior to his later piece on Breguoin ('Arthur's Battle of Breguoin', Antiquity 23 (1949) 48—9), Jackson had argued (in 'Once Again Arthur's Battles') that the place-name might come from a tribal name based on the Welsh word breuan, 'quern.'  The idea dropped out of favor when Jackson ended up preferring Brewyn/Bremenium in Northumberland for Breguoin.

So how does seeing breuan in Breguoin help us?

In the 571 ASC entry we find Aylesbury as another town that fell to the Gewessei.  This is Aegelesburg in Old English.  I would point to Quarrendon, a civil parish and a deserted medieval village on the outskirts of Aylesbury.  The name means "hill where mill-tones [querns] were got". Thus if we allow for Breguoin as deriving from the Welsh word for quern, we can identify this hill with Quarrendon at Aylesbury.

http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=344409
http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=342696

All of which brings us back, rather circuitously, to Tribruit.  Taking this for a ford, the obvious candidate given Limbury, Aylesbury and Eynsham, is Bedcanforda of 571.  This is also found as Biedcanforda and is believed by most to be Bedford (Bedanford, Bydanford, Bedefort, 'Bieda's Ford').  I would not hesitate, therefore, to propose that the Tribruit river-bank is the trajectus at Bedford.

If we accept all this, then we cannot very easily reject Badon as Bath.  In truth, with Bath listed in the ASC entry for 577, and made into a town captured by Ceawlin, we simply are no longer justified in trying to make a case for the linguistically impossible Badbury at Liddington.

COMING SOON: All of Arthur's Battles Are From the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle!

Eynsham Camp

Repost of My Work on Arthurian Gods and Goddesses

http://secretsavalon.blogspot.com/2016/08/gods-and-goddesses-mentioned-in.html