Saturday, September 22, 2018

SO JUST WHO - OR WHAT - WAS MYRDDIN/MERLIN?

THE BARD By Thomas Jones

In my chapter from THE  MYSTERIES OF AVALON (http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/02/ive-been-asked-to-post-my-study-on.html), I tried to come to some conclusion as to whether Myrddin/Merlin was a disembodied spirit of a battle-slain warrior, perhaps a warrior who was a follower of the god Lleu, or whether he was actually the god himself, diminished yet not forgotten by Christian writers. The distinction can be blurred, as a man who was designated a sacrificial victim personified the dying-and-soon-to-be-reborn god himself.  A sacred king or queen, though mortal, partook of the divine quality of the god and goddess. In fact, it was by virtue of that divine quality that they were permitted or sanctioned to rule.  Hence, it is often difficult or impossible to distinguish between a divine warrior or chieftain and the god he was thought to embody.

In Welsh lore (the best example of which is the MABINOGION), entities who were originally gods are often portrayed as merely great heroes of the past.  This process is called euhemerism - when ancient gods are claimed by a much later generation to be merely deified heroes. It is also possible that a sort of reverse euhemerism could take place.  In other words, a human during the course of regular folklore development could take on characteristics that originally belonged to a divine figure.  Motifs belonging to the latter were merely transferred to the former. Disentangling one from another can be a major challenge.

Myrddin/Merlin may also be in part or in whole merely a literary creation.  This possibility cannot be discounted.

However, all these qualifying statements aside, I have come to one important conclusion: the relocation of his triple death [1] from a place very near Arderydd/Arthuret to the Tweed (see my previous work for the "Tweed" tributary of the Liddel) allows us to place that sacrifice back where it belongs - near the Willow Pool on the Esk next to Carwinley/Caer Gwenddolau (not on the Powsail or Willow Pool Burn at Drumelzier).

The idea that Myrddin fled from the battle in madness is not correct.  Instead, he was offered up by his own people to Lleu for victory over the Christian enemy Rhydderch.  This may seem an outlandish idea, but a similar hypothesis was floated by the authors of THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A DRUID PRINCE (Anne Ross and Don Robins).  The remains of a bog sacrificial victim they studied convinced them that the man had been subjected to a triple death and that, in all likelihood, such an important offering was meant to obtain divine assistance for the British against the invading Romans.

The so-called madness of Myrddin, as I showed in my earlier study, is in actuality an existence of a spectral kind.  In other words, Myrddin's body did not flee from the scene of the Battle of Arderydd.  Rather, his spirit did.   I will return to this concept in a moment.

The vitally important thing to realize about such a sacrifice is that the victim represented the god himself. This is, admittedly, a weird concept.  Yet we see it time and time again in the early sources.  One of the best examples is sacrifical hanging in ancient Norse religion.  There the human victim suspended from the gallows is indisputably a manifestation of Odin, who himself hung from the World Tree in exchange for occult knowledge.  So, in this sense the question I've often asked myself, namely whether Myrddin is a man or a god, is quite meaningless.  For in truth at the moment of his death he is both.  Or, looking at it another way, Myrddin becomes Lleu when he is sacrificially killed.

At the same time he becomes the brother of the goddess Gwenddydd. And he remains dead for a season, as Lleu does in the MABINOGION tale "Math son of Mathonwy."  In this last the dead god takes on the form of a putrefying eagle perched atop an oak tree.  This eagle in the sky-oak is not only emblematic of the sun during half of the year, but can perhaps be related to the Irish madmen who flit about from tree to tree in feathered form. Of course, the natural corollary to Lleu's death is his rebirth. When this occurs (on the eve of his slaying his twin and rival, Gronwy) his spectral form is left behind and he again assumes his normal physical semblance.

What happens to the human being in all this?  Well, it seems that once you have become the god, there's no going back.  Evidence of this permanent, altered condition can be found in poetic allusions within the early Myrddin poetry.  For example, Gwasawg ('Little servant', a Welsh rendering of Latin servuli, a term used in Jocelyn) is Kentigern.  We are told Gwasawg is the supporter of the Christian champion King Rhydderch.  This saint "pursues" Myrddin through the Scottish Lowlands, and the hounds that chase the unfortunate madman may be symbolic of Kentigern, whose name means 'Hound-lord.' Thus the saint is portrayed as traveling about the countryside stamping out Lleu-worship wherever he finds its last vestiges. Paganism is so called because it was especially popular among the pagenses, the dwellers of the countryside.  It would have been among these people that Lleu-worship persisted the longest. Christ eventually overthrew Lleu, of course, and the Celyddon Wood, once the final refuge of paganism, came to echo with the ringing of church bells.

In Welsh tradition, Myrddin is first and foremost a prophet.  How do we reconcile this fact with my idea that he is a human sacrifice victim who has been transformed into the god Lleu?  It goes without  saying that we are pretty much wholly ignorant of how prophecy worked among the ancient Celts.  The only real clues we can find in the Myrddin literature have to do with his reliance on his sister Gwenddydd as a medium and some obscure statements about spirits conveying information.  Other semi-divine figures like the great poet Taliesin are also brought into connection with Myrddin.  I would hazard a guess that as the spirits of Abercarw Mountain (Tinto Hill) told things to Myrddin, so did he "tell" things to sensitives who could "channel" divinities and who were gifted in the prophetic art.  In other words, a priestess who was the mortal embodiment of Gwenddydd might receive divine information from Lleu.  A poet such as Taliesin might receive inspiration from the same source.  

At least according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's THE LIFE OF MERLIN, which is heavily infused with Biblical and Classical motifs, Merlin undergoes periods of madness punctuated by sanity. This might suggest that the madness, to a degree, involved trance induction.  It would be while Merlin was in a trance state that he might be expected to utter prophecies. I'm highly suspicious of Geoffrey's account, however.  The playing of a harp to calm Merlin in his madness is lifted from the story of David and Saul in 1 Samuel. Instead of seeing this representation of Merlin's madness as revelatory, we should perhaps understand it within the context of Geoffrey's Christian learning and his creative intent.

Despite the claims of neoshamanists, I do not find it credible to equate Myrddin's spectral existence with a shaman sending his spirit forth to the Otherworld. This is fine as far as a romantic notion goes - and it certainly sells books and taps into New Age sentiment - but I really don't believe the material we have at our disposal supports such a contention.  Granted, shamanism could be employed to predict the future.  But while the shaman could undergo out-of-the-body shape-changing and make contact with various spiritual entities, he did not become one with the god. 

[1] The date of this triple sacrifice is probably fixed by those who meted out the death to Myrddin: shepherds. I've shown that the god Lleu's death in "Math Son of Mathonwy" almost certainly took place on Imbolc/Oimelc (February 1).  Lleu's wife Blodeuedd brings all the goats to the scene of his murder by Gronwy, and the god stands with one of his feet on the back of a goat. Imbolc was a festival of the birthing and milking of lambs and kids.  While sacred to the goddess Brighid, it was also manifestly a shepherds' festival. 

The death of Lailoken (Welsh Llallogan) may actually match that of Lleu even more spectacularly. For Lleu's goat and bathtub are Capricorn and Aquarius (the Water-Bearer), respectively, allowing for a fairly precise Imbolc date around the year 1200 A.D.  Lailoken ends up half in and half out of the water, and we are reminded of the form of Capricorn, i.e. half goat and half fish.   

From the first Lailoken fragment of British Library Cotton MS.Titus A xix:

"But since a thing predestined by the Lord cannot be left undone, but must occur, it
happened that on the same day, having been stoned and clubbed to death by certain shepherds of
king Meldred, he fell, when at the point of death, upon a very sharp stake which had been fixed in a
certain fish-pond (piscaria) beyond the steep mouth of the river Tweed, near the town of
Dunmeller, and was transfixed through the middle of his body, with his head hanging into the pool,
and [thus] he committed his spirit to the Lord, as he had prophesied.
The second fragment ends with this couplet:

Sude perfossus. Lapidem perpessus et vndam;
Merlinus triplicem fertur inisse necem.

Pierced by a stake, suffering stone and wave;
Merlin is said to have entered a triple death."

















































Saturday, September 15, 2018

MERLIN'S MOUNTAIN(S) IN LOWLAND SCOTLAND

[from my book THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON]

Myrddin’s Mountain

In Geoffrey the Caledonian mountain Merlin remains unnamed. This is unfortunate, in that by finding this mountain we might learn a great deal more about Merlin’s identity...

Merlin’s Caledonian Wood mountain is mentioned in one other source: the 13th century French verse romance by Guillaume Le Clerc entitled Fergus of Galloway. The Fergus romance is distinguished by the author’s knowledge of Scottish geography. To quote from Cedric E. Pickford in Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages:

“His [Guillaume’s] Scottish geography is remarkably accurate… In the whole range of Arthurian romance there is no instance of a more detailed, more realistic geographical setting.”

The modern translator of Fergus, the late D.D.R. Owen, has made similar remarks on this romance. The notes and synopses in his translation also remind the reader that various elements of the Fergus mountain episode were adapted from Chretien’s Yvain and Perceval and the Continuations of the latter.

But it remains true that only Fergus actually names Merlin’s mountain and purports to give us directions on how to get there. The hero Fergus starts his journey to the mountain not as Nikolai Tolstoy (in his The Quest for Merlin) claims at the Moat of Liddel, where Merlin fought and fled in madness, but at Liddel Castle at Newcastleton in Liddesdale. Tolstoy uses 1) Guillaume’s directions and the placement of King Rhydderch at Dumbarton 2) Merlin’s affinity with the stag in Geoffrey’s Life of Merlin 3) the incorrect positioning of Merlin’s Galabes springs (see below) and 4) the great height of the hill to select Hart Fell at the head of Annandale as Merlin’s mountain.

There are marked problems with each of these guidelines used by Tolstoy. Firstly, the directions given are incredibly vague and hence can be used to chart a course from the Moat of Liddel to just about anywhere:

“[Fergus] comes riding along the edge of a mighty forest… Fergus comes onto a very wide plain between two hills. On he rode past hillocks and valleys until he saw a mountain appear that reached up to the clouds and supported the entire sky…”

Secondly, Fergus’ mountain is given two names, neither of which match that of Hart Fell: Noquetran (variants Nouquetran, Noquetrant) and ‘Black Mountain’. The latter is obviously a poetic designation only, the primary name being Noquetran.

And thirdly, there is no edifice of any kind atop or on the flanks of Hart Fell which could have been referred to as ‘Merlin’s Chapel’. As described in the Fergus romance, this edifice must be an ancient chambered cairn. Such monuments are often associated with Arthurian characters.

The hill-name Noquetran is obviously a Norman French attempt at a Gaelic hill-name, with the first component being cnoc, English knock, ‘hill’. As the French render English bank as banque and check as cheque, Cnoc/Knock became Noque-.

The secret to correctly interpreting the –tran component of Noquetran lies in a closer examination of Professor Owen’s notes on the Fergus romance. For lines 773-93 he writes:

“This adventure [of the Noquetran] is largely developed from elements in C.II [the Second Continuation of Chretien’s Perceval]. There Perceval fights and defeats a Black Knight in mysterious circumstances. Earlier, he had found a fine horn hanging by a sash from a castle door. On it he gave three great blasts, whereupon he was challenged by a knight, the horn’s owner, whose shield was emblazoned with a white lion. Perceval vanquished this Chevalier du Cor and sent him to surrender to Arthur. At his castle he learned of a high mountain, the Mont Dolorous, on whose summit was a marvellous pillar… fashioned long ago by Merlin.”

For lines 4460 ff, Owen writes:

“Mont Dolorous, which also appears in C.II (see note to II. 773-93 above), is here associated with Melrose and is probably to be identified with the nearby Eildon Hills…”

In the Fergus romance, the Noquetran episode comes first. The horn hangs from a white lion (cf. the lion on the knight’s shield in the Perceval Continuation) in the Noquetran chapel, where Merlin had spent many a year. In front of the chapel is a bronze giant, apparently a statue, whose arms are broken off by Fergus, causing the giant’s great bronze hammer to fall to the ground. Later in the romance, Fergus goes to the Dolorous Mountain or the Eildons and encounters there a club-wielding giant in the Castle of the Dark Rock (reminiscent of the ‘Black Mountain’ name applied to the Noquetran).

As it happens, the Eildons are noteworthy for having three major ancient monuments atop two of their three hills. On the Eildon North Hill is the largest hill fort in Scotland, the probable oppidum of the Selgovae tribe. Here also is a Roman signal station.

But on Eildon Mid Hill is a large Bronze Age cairn. This ancient burial mound is situated on the Southwest flank of Eildon Mid Hill about 30m below the summit, at a height of some 395m OD. It has been much robbed and now appears as a low, irregular mound of stones, about 15m in diameter, from which a few boulders protrude to indicate the possible former presence of a cist.

More remarkable was the presence below the cairn of a group of seven bronze socketed axes. These axes are now in the Royal Museum of Scotland.

This group of seven socketed axes was found in 1982 on the lower western slopes of Eildon Mid Hill, Ettrick and Lauderdale District, Borders Region. Although recovered from redeposited soil, the axes probably represent a hoard of the Ewart Park phase of the late Bronze Age. The find reinforces what appears to be a significant local concentration of contemporary metalwork around the Eildon Hills.

In view of their discovery in redeposited soil we cannot be absolutely certain how the axes were originally deposited. However, their number, their proximity and their similar condition all suggest that they came from a hoard, probably close to their eventual find-spot. Whether the seven axes recovered in August 1982 comprised the whole hoard remains uncertain. On the other hand, it is possible, though less likely, that more than one separate deposit was originally involved.

These bronze axes immediately remind us of the bronze hammer in the Fergus romance’s account of Merlin’s Chapel. This being so, I would see in the name ‘Noquetran’ or Noquetrant a Gaelic cnoc or Anglicized ‘knock’ plus one of the following:

G. dreann – grief, pain (cf. Irish drean, sorrow, pain, melancholy);

or

G. treana, treannadh – lamentation, wailing.

In other words, Noquetran is merely a Gaelic rendering of the Old French Mont Dolorous, the famous Dolorous Mountain of Arthurian romance!

The Eildon Hills

The bronze hammer Fergus causes to be dropped near Merlin’s Chapel on the Noquetran is a folk memory of a bronze socketed axe being deposited on the slope below the Eildon Mid Hill cairn or, more probably, of such an axe being found on the site prior to Guillaume Le Clerc’s writing of the Fergus romance. Merlin’s Noquetran chapel is the Eildon Mid Hill Bronze Age cairn.

Melrose Mountain, Black Mountain and Castle of the Dark Rock are all designations for the Eildons. The hill-name Eildon is found in 1130 as Eldunum and in 1150 as Eldune. This could be (according to the Scottish place-name expert Watson) OE aelet + dunas, ‘fire hills’, or G. aill, ‘a rock, cliff’, plus OE dun, ‘a hill’. The Fergus romance’s ‘Castle of the Dark Rock’ (Li Chastiaus de la Roce Bise) may stand for the hill-fort on Eildon North Hill, with Eildon being perceived as composed of aill, rock, plus not dun, ‘hill’, but instead OE dun, a colour partaking of brown and black; ME dunne, donne, dark-coloured: Ir. Dunn, a dun colour: Wel. dwn, dun, swarthy, dusky: Gael. Donn, brown-coloured.

So why were the Eildons identified with the Dolorous Mountain/Noquetran? The answer may lie in part with Nikolai Tolstoy’s astute observation that the lion Fergus thinks should be roaming over the mountain-top, but which he finds inside the ‘chapel’ is an error or substitution for the god Lugos (Welsh Lleu, Irish Lugh). In Welsh, Lleu’s name could sometimes be spelled Llew, and the latter is the normal spelling for the Welsh word ‘lion’. Merlin’s associations with Lleu will be discussed below. For now, suffice it to say that the Dolorous Mountain got its name because the divine name Lugos or Lugh was at some point wrongly linked to Latin lugeo, ‘to mourn, to lament, bewail’. Such mistakes in language could easily have occurred when going from Celtic to Old French. It may even be that in preferring lugeo to Lugos, a pagan religious secret was being disguised and thus protected. [Note, however, that the Dolorous Mountain first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s work, where it stands for Arthur’s Breguoin, mistakenly thought to represent Welsh bre, hill, plus gwyn, pain.]

The Dolorous Mountain is then, properly, ‘Lugos Mountain’. And the Lugos/Lugh/Lleu mountain in particular is Eildon Mid Hill, the highest of the Eildons, with its Bronze Age cairn. Such an identification of the Dolorous Mountain has implications for the Dolorous Garde of Lancelot, especially given that Lancelot himself is a late literary manifestation of the god Lugh, something first discussed long ago by the noted Arthurian scholar Roger Sherman Loomis.

We know of five Lugh forts in Britain, four known and one unlocated. Of the former there is Dinas Dinlle in Gwynedd, Loudoun in East Ayrshire, Luguvalium or Carlisle in Cumbria and Lleuddiniawn or ‘Lothian’, land of the Fort of Lugh. Din Eidyn, modern Edinburgh, the capital of Lothian, preserves the name of Lugh’s mother in Irish tradition, Eithne. Luguvalium has been interpreted as containing a personal name *Lugovalos, ‘Lugos-strong’, but I believe this name is instead a descriptive of the fort itself as being ‘Strong as Lugh’.

Then there is the Lugudunum or ‘Hill-fort of Lugh’ of the Ravenna Cosmography. This place, according to Rivet and Smith’s The Place-Names of Roman Britain, is situated somewhere roughly between Chester-le-Street and South Shields. The only good candidate would seem to be Penshaw Hill, which the Brigantes Nation Website calls “the only triple rampart Iron Age hill-fort known to exist in the north of England.” Penshaw Hill is associated with the famous Lambton Worm, a monster not unlike the two worms or dragons of Lleu’s hill-fort of Dinas Emrys in Gwynedd, Wales.

According to Joseph Rogerson (The Farmer’s Magazine, 1835), the Melrose Lammas Fair (Christian substitute for the pagan Lughnasadh) was the largest in the south of Scotland.  It was held on the northern slope of the Eildons and as many as 30,000-50,000 lambs were shown.  Lammas was associated with St. Peter “in Chains”, i.e. St. Peter when he was imprisoned by Herod.  His being freed by an angel, according to James B. Jordan (“The Resurrection of Peter and the Coming of the Kingdom”, Biblical Horizons 34), portrayed a type of resurrection for Peter, recapitulating the resurrection of Jesus.  As I’ve shown that the death of Lugh fell on Imbolc (February 1; see below) on the opposite side of the solar year from Lughnasadh, we can say with a fair degree of confidence that not only were the Eildons a famous Lugh mountain, but that the celebration of Lughnasadh here had commemorated the rebirth of the sun god. 

The Eildons are noted for the stories of ‘Canobie’ or Canonbie Dick and Thomas the Rhymer of Ercildoune.

Canonbie is close to both the Carwinley of Myrddin’s/Merlin’s lord Gwenddolau and Arthuret Knowes, the scene of the Battle of Arfderydd in which Myrddin was driven mad. The 13th century Thomas is credited with meeting an elf-woman under the Eildon Tree (whose location is now marked by a stone) and being taken under the Eildons to the land of Faery. He is also credited with a prophecy concerning Merlin’s grave at Drumelzier:

“When Tweed and Powsail meet at Merlin’s grave, Scotland and England that day ae king shall have.”

The story of Canonbie Dick presents Thomas as a wizard from past days, and I will quote it in full:

“A long time ago in the Borders Region there lived a Horse Cowper called Canobie Dick. He was both admired and feared for his bold courage and rash temper. One evening he was riding over Bowden Moor on the West side of the Eildon Hills. It was very late and the moon was already high in the night sky.

He had been to market but trade that day had been poor and he had with him a brace of horses, which he had not been able to sell. Suddenly, he saw ahead of him on the moonlit road, a stranger. The stranger was dressed in a fashion that had not been seen for many centuries. The stranger politely asked the price of the horses.

Now Canobie Dick liked to bargain, and was not worried by the strange man’s looks. Why, he would have sold his horses to the devil himself, and cheated him as well, given half a chance. They agreed a price which the stranger promptly paid.

The only puzzle was that the gold coins he used to pay were as ancient as his dress. They were in the shape of unicorns and bonnet pieces. However, Canobie Dick shrugged his shoulders. Gold was gold. He smiled to himself, thinking that he would get a better bargain for the coins than the stranger had got for the horses.

When the stranger asked if he could meet him again at the same place, Canobie Dick was happy to agree. But the stranger had one condition: that he should always come by night and always alone.

After several more meetings, Canobie Dick became curious to learn more about his secret buyer. He suggested that ‘dry bargains’ were unlucky bargains and that they should seal the business with a drink at the buyer’s home.

‘You may see my dwelling if you wish,’ said the stranger; ‘but if you lose courage at what you see there, you will regret it all your life.’

Canobie Dick was scornful of the warning, after all he was well known for his courage and the stranger seemed harmless enough. The stranger led the way along a narrow footpath, which led into the hills between the Southern and central peaks to a place called the Lucken Hare. Canobie Dick followed but was amazed to see an enormous entrance into the hillside. He knew the area well but had never seen before such an opening or heard any mention of it.

They dismounted and tethered their horses. His guide stopped and fixed his gaze on Canobie Dick. ‘You may still return,’ he said. Not wanting to be seen as a coward, Canobie Dick shook his head, squared his shoulders and followed the man along the passage into a great hall cut out of the rock.

As they walked, they passed many rows of stables. In every stall there was a coal black horse, and by every horse lay a knight in jet black armour, with a drawn sword in each hand. They were as still as stone, as if they had been carved from marble.

In the great hall were many burning torches. But their fiery light only made the hall more gloomy. There was a strange stillness in the air, like a hot day before a storm. At last they arrived at the far end of the Hall. On an antique oak table lay a sword, still sheathed, and a horn. The stranger revealed that he was Thomas of Ercildoun [Thomas the Rhymer] the famous prophet who had disappeared many centuries ago.

Turning to Canobie Dick he said, ‘It is foretold that: ‘He that sounds the horn and draws that sword, shall, if his heart fails him not, be king over all broad Britain. But all depends on courage, and whether the sword or horn is taken first. So speaks the tongue that cannot lie.’’

The stillness of the air felt heavy. Canobie Dick wanted to take the sword but he was struck by a supernatural terror, such as he had never felt before. What, he thought, would happen if he drew the sword; would such a daring act annoy the powers of the mountain?

Instead he took the horn and with trembling hands put it to his lips. He let out a feeble blast that echoed around the hall.

It produced a terrible answer. Thunder rolled and with a cry and a clash of armour the knights arose from their slumber and the horses snorted and tossed their manes. A dreadful army rose before him. Terrified, Canobie Dick snatched the sword and tried to free it from its scabbard. At this a voice boomed:

‘Woe to the Coward, that ever he was born,

Who did not draw the sword before he blew the horn.’

Then he heard the fury of a great whirlwind as he was lifted from his feet and blasted from the cavern. He tumbled down steep banks of stones until he hit the ground. Canobie Dick was found the next morning by local shepherds. He had just enough trembling breath to tell his fearful tale, before he died.”

A similar story is told of Alderley Edge in Cheshire, only in that version the wizard is Merlin and the sleeping knights are King Arthur and his men. My guess is that in the case of the Canonbie Dick story, Thomas the Rhymer has taken the place of Merlin. This is not a new supposition, but combined with my identification of Myrddin’s Noquetran with Eildon Mid Hill as the Dolorous Mountain, the argument is significantly strengthened. Fergus was written around 1200 CE, while Thomas is thought to have lived c. 1220-1298. At some point Thomas was substituted for Merlin at his chapel/cairn on Eildon Mid Hill.

If I am right and the Eildons are Merlin’s Mountain at the centre of the great Celyddon Wood, then we can allow for the Celyddon as being thought of as the ancient woodland which covered much of the area surrounding the Eildons. When we combine this with the fact that Merlin was obviously wandering in the wood in the vicinity of Drumelzier when he was captured by Meldred, it is fairly obvious that the Celyddon, which in this context means merely a great forest of the Scottish Lowlands, extended for a considerable distance.

Indeed, we know there were four great ancient forests surrounding the Eildon Hills: the Jedforest, whose Capon Tree oak is one of the oldest such trees in all of Britain; Teviotdale itself, which was covered by huge oaks and ash trees in the 12th century; the Ettrick Forest of Selkirkshire; and the Lauder Forest, an immense forested track encompassing Lauderdale that still existed up until the 17th century. Apples, or rather crab-apples, the very species of tree Merlin takes refuge under in the early Welsh poetry, were also present in this region. The St. Boswell’s Apple is thought to be 150 years old and is the largest of its kind in Scotland. Thomas the Rhymer, taken to Fairyland at the Eildons, is given an apple by the Queen of Fairy.

The Scottish Lowland Celyddon Wood may have come about as a relocation of the real Caledonia in the Highlands because of the name of the Caddon Water.  This river shows early forms (spellings) that are all but identical to that of Celyddon.  The Caddon Water empties into the Tweed not far west of the Eildons.  

The Pre-Romance Mountain of Myrddin

While the Eildons would seem to be the location of Merlin’s Mountain according to the late “Fergus” romance, there is evidence of another Scottish Lowland mountain in the earlier Welsh poetry.  This particular mountain would have been the true, original mountain, the prototype of all those that succeeded it.

The reference to the location of this mountain is found in Gwasgargerd vyrdin yny bed, the “Separation-Song of Myrddin in the Grave” of the Red Book of Hergest.  There Myrddin says:

‘Gwasawg, your cry to Gwenddydd
was told to me by the wild men of the mountain
in Aber Caraf.’

From other references in the early poetry we know that Gwasawg was a ‘supporter’ of the Christian champion Rhydderch Hael, King of Strathclyde. The name is a diminutive of Welsh gwas, ‘lad, servant’.

As it turns out, St. Kentigern as a boy (see Chapter 8 of Jocelyn's Vita) is called servuli, from servulus, a dim. of Latin servus, with a meaning 'sevant-lad, young slave'.

As Kentigern is brought into close connection with Myrddin as Lailoken in the saint's life, and Kentigern's royal patron was Rhydderch, I'm proposing that Gwasawg is a Welsh rendering of servuli and that the former is thus St. Kentigern himself.

Note that Myrddin is said to be chased by the hunting-dogs of Rhydderch, and Kentigern or *Cuno-tigernos means "Hound Lord."

While Aber Caraf has been rendered by at least one translator as Aber Craf (Peter Goodrich, The Romance of Merlin, 1990), a location in south-central Wales, we can be sure it is actually to be found in Lowland Scotland. 

We have seen how Merlin/Lailoken is present in both the region of Glasgow and at Drumelzier on the Tweed.  It has long been thought that his mountain must have been somewhere between these two places, and most likely at or not far from the sources of the Clyde and Tweed, a sort of symbolic ‘center’ of the southern ‘Caledonian Wood’. 

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.

Tinto Hill

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. 

Given Myrddin's association with the stag in Geoffrey of Monmouth's "Life of Merlin" (see Chapter 5), and his placement historically at Arferderydd/Arthuret in Cumbria in what was the northwestern limit of the ancient Carvetti (Stag-people) territory, a mountain at the confluence of the Stag Water would make a lot of sense.

Tinto Hill is situated between Drumelzier to the east and Glasgow to the northwest.  It is also only a few miles north-northwest of the headwaters of the Clyde and Tweed.  Thus it just happens to stand exactly where we would expect the hill of Myrddin to be found. 

The hill’s name was discussed long ago by W. J. Watson in his GENERAL SURVEY OF AYRSHIRE AND STRATHCLYDE, History of the Celtic Placenames of Scotland, 1926 (reprinted 1993 by BIRLINN, Edinburgh, ISBN 1 874744 06 8):

“Tinto appears in 'Karyn de Tintou,' 'Kaerne de Tintou,' c. 1315 (RMS); in Macfarlane it is Tyntoche once, Tynto thrice; in Scots, Tintock, as also in the Retours ; it is for teinteach, 'place of fire'…”

Atop Tinto Hill is Tinto Cairn, of Bronze Age date and the largest summit cairn in all of Scotland.  Details on the hill and cairn can be found here:

http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/47525/details/tinto+cairn/

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/biggar/tinto/index.html

http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/search_item/image.php?service=RCAHMS&id=47525&image_id=SC342977

Different reasons have been supplied for why this hill is called ‘place of fire’. One suggests it gets its name from the fact that its exposed red Felsite rock can be given a fiery glow by the setting sun.  This geology is discussed here:

http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/gcrdb/GCRsiteaccount401.pdf

Another possible explanation is that the hill was used for beacon fires or even for Beltane fires:

“Long a beacon post and a place of Beltane fires, it took thence its name of Tinto, signifying the ‘hill of fire’.” [Groome, 1885, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland]

I would say these apparently conflicting ideas are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, it may precisely have been the red-glowing color of the rocks in the light of the setting sun that drew people to this mountain as being particularly sacred, and they may then have used it for Beltane fires. 

It would surely be significant if Myrddin were thought to be communing with the ancestral ghosts at a huge Bronze Age cairn atop a mountain known as the Place of Fire.  This would intimately connect him with seasonal Beltane rites.

Friday, September 14, 2018

ALL MYRDDIN/MERLIN RESEARCH COMPLETED; EMBARKING ON "A SCATTERING OF SONG"


Now that I'm finally satisfied with my findings concerning Merlin, I'm ready to start writing A SCATTERING OF SONG...



A NEW IDENTIFICATION OF GWENDDYDD, MYRDDIN'S/MERLIN'S SISTER

The Stone of Goronwy (or Gronwy; see https://clasmerdin.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html)

Late Welsh tradition insists that Gwenddydd, Myrddin's sister, is the Morning Star (Venus).  Here is the entry for Gwenddydd from the GEIRIADUR PRIFYSGOL CYMRU:

gwenddydd 

[gwen+dydd] 

eb. (a hefyd fel e.p. Gwenddydd, chwaer Myrddin).

Y seren ddydd, y seren fore, y blaned Gwener pan welir hi yn y dwyrain cyn toriad dydd:

the morning star, Lucifer, the planet Venus visible in the east before dawn. 

Dchr. 17g. J 10 98, gwenddydd, Lucifer.

1707 AB 217, gwenddydd, the morning-starr. [Henry] S[alsbury].

1722 Llst 189, gwenddydd, f. the morning star.

1753 TR.

1770 W d.g. aurora [the morning star], Lucifer [the morning-star], morning, morning-star [the planet Venus so called when she appears in the morning].

1800 P.

This identification may partly have been based on Geoffrey of Monmouth, who has Ganieda (= Gwenddydd) build a stone circle observatory for Merlin:

"So raise me a house... Before the other buildings build me a remote one to which you will give seventy doors and as many windows, through which I may see fire-breathing Phoebus with Venus, and watch by night the stars wheeling in the firmament..." [LIFE OF MERLIN]

As the reader will note, Venus is given special prominence in the list of celestial bodies that are to be observed.

Her name also doubtless contributed to her being thought of as the Morning Star.  'White Day' or 'White like the Day' does bring to mind a planet that heralds the dawn.  

I've also recently connected her with Degastan/Dawston in Liddesdale, where 'Day's Stone' - an English place-name - may well have replaced an earlier Cumbric name for a standing stone sacred to Gwenddydd.

While contemplating this stone, I came up with an interesting question: suppose the stone did not only refer to a goddess called 'Day' or 'White Day', but to a particular day that was sacred to the goddess?  This was an unusual shift in meaning, but I found some basis for pursuing the notion in the Welsh story MATH SON OF MATHONWY.  In this tale the god Lleu and his wife Blodeuedd are associated with a stone that has marked seasonal properties.  As I've indicated in much of my past research, Myrddin may either be a demoted version of Lleu or a sort of Lleu-avatar.  It is, therefore, always important to thoroughly analyze the mythical motifs associated with the god when we are trying to better understand Gwenddydd's brother.  

Before I clarify this last statement, let us take a look at the entry on Blodeuedd from P.C. Bartram's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY:

"BLODEUEDD, BLODEUWEDD. (Legendary). Blodeuwedd is the commoner spelling, which may be translated ‘flower-like’; the earlier form is Blodeuedd, meaning ‘flowers’ in a collective sense. (John Rhys, Hib. Lect., p.239 and note). Compare Ifor Williams, Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi, p.283. In the Mabinogi branch of ‘Math’ we are told that Arianrhod had put a destiny on Lleu Llaw Gyffes that he should never have a wife ‘of the race that is now upon this earth’. So Math and Gwydion by charms and illusion enchanted a woman for him out of flowers. ‘They took the flowers of the oak, and the broom, and the meadow-sweet, and out of them invoked the fairest maiden that man ever saw ... and gave her the name Blodeuedd.’ (WM 100-1, RM 73). This is referred to in a poem called ‘Cadair Ceridwen’ in the Book of Taliesin (BT 36): Gwydion ap Dôn, of mighty powers, Who made by magic a woman from flowers. (Trans. Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones, The Mabinogion, Everyman edition, p.xiii). 

  She was wedded to Lleu Llaw Gyffes, but later fell in love with Gronwy Befr of Penllyn, and helped him to slay Lleu, who was transformed into an eagle. Later, however, Gwydion restored Lleu to life again and then invaded the lands of Gronwy. When Blodeuedd heard that they were coming, she took her maidens with her and set out for the mountain. And through the river Cynfael they reached a court that was on the mountain. Fear caused them to proceed with their faces turned backwards, so that they fell into a lake and were all drowned except herself. Gwydion overtook her and said: ‘I will not slay you but will do what is worse for you. I will let you go in the form of a bird, and because of the shame which you have done to Lleu Llaw Gyffes you will not dare to show your face in the light of day, through fear of all birds. It shall be in their nature to mob and molest you wherever they find you. And you will not lose your name but will ever be called Blodeuwedd.’ So the owl (Welsh dylluan) is still called Blodeuwedd. (WM 101-9, RM 73-80). It appears that the owl was called ‘Blodeuwedd’ in medieval times by the Welsh but it does not seem to be in use today. (T.P.Ellis and J.Lloyd, The Mabinogion, I. p.130 note). The lake where the maidens of Blodeuedd perished is supposed to be Llyn y Morynion, ‘Lake of the Maidens’, near Ffestiniog, at the head of the river Cynfael. (Lady Charlotte Guest, The Mabinogion, Everyman edition, p.302). Grid reference SH 7342 (Rhestr). In a poem ascribed, uncertainly, to Dafydd ap Gwilym, Blodeuwedd is said to be the daughter of a lord of Môn, ‘a second Meirchion’. Because of her infidelity with Gronwy Befr, she was punished by Gwydion ap Dôn, who transformed her into an owl at a place on the river Conwy. (W.J.Gruffydd. Math vab Mathonwy, pp.253-5). Another poem, by Anthony Powel, describes her as the daughter of Meirchion lwyd, and implies that she was overwhelmed by a remarkable rock called Craig y Ddinas in the Neath valley. (John Rhys, Celtic Folklore, p.439). It seems possible that this Blodeuwedd may have had a relationship with Eliwlod (q.v.) similar to that of the earlier Blodeuwedd with Lleu Llaw Gyffes. (PCB) For another version of the legend of Blodeuwedd, see Huan ap Gwydion. The ‘Hanesyn Hen’ tract makes Blodeuwedd the daughter of Math and Arianrhod, and sister of Lleu Llaw Gyffes and Dylan ail Ton (ByA §26 in EWGT p.90). W.J.Gruffydd thought that Blodeuedd, the maiden made from flowers, who was unfaithful to her husband and caused his death, was originally distinct from Blodeuwedd, ‘flower-face’, who was turned into an owl. The former may be connected with the Irish Bláthnat, wife of CúRoí, through an intermediate form Blodeunad. The stories were combined because of the similarity of the names. (Math vab Mathonwy, pp.253-295)." 

Now, as part of her plan with her lover Gronwy to kill her husband, Lleu, the goddess has all the goats of the cantref brought together at the Afon (River) Cynfal [1].  The goat and bathtub between which Lleu stands when he is mortally wounded, represent, respectively, the goat of Capricorn and the water-bearer of Aquarius. Lleu’s annual death thus occurred originally at February 1 or Imbolc, if calculated around 1200 A.D., the approximate date for the Mabinogion tale in which he is featured. In 3000 BCE, the sun was between these two signs on the Winter Solstice.

Lleu’s solar twin, Gronwy Pebr, ‘the Radiant’, would himself be killed by his resurrected rival either on Lughnasadh/August 1 (assuming an Imbolc death for Lleu) or on the Summer Solstice (assuming a Winter Solstice death for Lleu). Lleu's spear, a typical divine lightning weapon, passes through a stone that Gronwy is attempting to use as a shield.  The hole in the stone, therefore, would mark an exact day of the sacred year.  

If we wish to "get Freudian", the pierced stone may literally represent the goddess, with the god's lightning-weapon having a decided phallic quality.  Her failure to shield Gronwy would represent a betrayal of her lover that matches her earlier betrayal of her husband.

To add some good, old-fashioned (and some would say defunct or discredited) solar mythology to the tale, we could interpret Gronwy the sun god covered by the lunar shield as being symbolic of a total solar eclipse.  This is always a good time to stage the sun's death.   

Blodeuedd’s sacred bird was the barn owl, a nocturnal bird whose round, white face symbolized the full moon. Thus she is the same goddess as Lleu's mother Arianrhod ("Silver Wheel", a poetic description for the full moon). [NOTE: The late tradition identifying the heavenly Caer or Castle Arianrhod with the Corona Borealis/Northern Crown probably came about because the crown was mistakenly viewed as a 'silver wheel', i.e. as the goddess herself.]

Granted, Blodeuedd is Lleu's wife.  She is never designated as his sister.  In Irish mythology, Lleu's counterpart Lugh has a sister named Ebliu (or or Eblenn, Eibhleann).  According to D. O'Corrain and F. Maguire (IRISH NAMES), the first element of this goddess's name is probably from Old Irish oiph, 'sheen, beauty, radiance.'  She also bears the epithet soluscnis meaning (according to the Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language) 'radiant-skinned' or 'fair-skinned.'   Alas, we aren't really told anything about her in the Irish tradition.  

It would not be unrealistic, though, for 'White like the Day' to be a reference to the moon goddess.  The moon is, after all, remarkably white. In my book THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON, I presented the following Classical definition of the divine name Diana, the Roman lunar goddess counterpart of the Greek Artemis:

Modern philologists as well as Romans (see Carin M.C. Green’s “Roman Religion and the Cult of Diana at Aricea”, Cambridge University Press, 2007) derive Diana’s name from the same root found in Latin dies, ‘day’, and Diana (like Juno and Hekate) was given the bynames of Lucina, ‘the light-bringing’ or ‘bringing to light’ (lucina being, ultimately, from L. lux) and Lucifera, ‘light-bringer’.  The Vulgate and Post-Vulgate either associate the Lady of the Lake with Diana, or literally identify the two goddesses.  This identification came about because the goddess was also Diana Nemorensis, whose shrine was in a wood on Lake Nemi.  Her Greek counterpart Artemis was called Limnaie/Limnaea, ‘Of the Lake’.

Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2. 27 (trans. Rackham) (Roman rhetorician C1st B.C.) :

“The name Apollo is Greek; they say that he is the Sun, and Diana [Artemis] they identify with the Moon . . . the name Luna is derived from lucere ‘to shine’; for it is the same word as Lucina, and therefore in our country Juno Lucina is invoked in childbirth, as is Diana in her manifestation as Lucifera (the light-bringer) among the Greeks. She is also called Diana Omnivaga (wide-wandering), not from her hunting, but because she is counted as one of the seven planets or ‘wanderers’ (vagary). She was called Diana because she made a sort of Day (Dia) in the night-time. She is invoked to assist at the birth of children, because the period of gestation is either occasionally seven, or more usually nine, lunar revolutions, and these are called menses (months), because they cover measured (mensa) spaces.”

Also in THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON I touched upon the Welsh Goleuddydd ('Light or Brightness of Day'), whose name is strikingly similar to that of Gwenddydd:

Goleuddydd as wife of the son of Celyddon, who gives birth to Culhwch, the ‘Lean Pig’, may be an educated reference to the Greek Artemis (= Roman Diana), who sent the Calydonian Boar.  One of the primary sub-plots of “Culhwch and Olwen”, of course, is the hunt for the monstrous boar Twrch Trwyth.

It is also worth noting that when Goleuddydd became pregnant she went “gwyll”, i.e. gwyllt, usually defined as “mad”, but more accurately as “wild” (see Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru for gwyllt/gwyll, ‘wild, living in a natural or primitive state, uncivilized, savage; demented, raving, frantic, mad), and wandered in uninhabited places.  This is also a hallmark of Artemis/Diana the Huntress, who lived in the wilderness. Finally, madness is typically associated with the moon.

Given all of the above, I can only come to the conclusion that Gwenddydd has been wrongly taken to be the Morning Star/Venus, and that in reality she was originally a lunar deity.

[1] To further complicate matters, the sacred calendar day of the goddess Brighid was February 1, Imbolc or Oimelc.  Her special animals were the sheep and goats who were birthed and suckled at this time.  All evidence strongly suggests Brighid (the Roman period Brigantia) was a sun goddess.




COMING SOON: A New Identification of Gwenddydd, Myrddin's/Merlin's Sister

Thursday, September 13, 2018

THE HOUSE AND OBSERVATORY GWENDDYDD BUILDS FOR HER BROTHER, MYRDDIN

Long Meg and Here Daughters Stone Circle, Cumbria

"So raise me a house... Before the other buildings build me a remote one to which you will give seventy doors and as many windows, through which I may see fire-breathing Phoebus with Venus, and watch by night the stars wheeling in the firmament..."

- from Geoffrey of Monmouth's LIFE OF MERLIN

Where is Gwenddydd’s house and its adjoining observatory, built for Merlin/Myrddin?

In my book THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON, I had provided an argument in support of the idea that both of these places were in Cumbria, not in Lowland Scotland.  Until just the other day, I had literally forgotten this earlier work - and so wasted considerable time and energy searching for alternative candidates for these monuments.  My apologies to my readers.  What is posted below is a slight revision of the material excerpted from my book.  Having gone over this carefully, I'm now confident that this is what lies behind the Galfridian tradition.  

***

Well, Ryderch (Rodarch) is called by Geoffrey of Monmouth the king of Cumbria, not Strathclyde.  This may be a reflection of Carruthers and Carrutherstown in SE Dumfriesshire. The former is near the Caerlaverock or Lark’s Nest said to be the cause of the Arderydd battle.  Both are also near ancient settlements and hill-forts, as well as the various Mabon place-names found here.  Cair Riderc or Fort of Rhydderch is the origin of the family name lying at the root of these town names. At Carruthers is the Birrens Hill settlement, while between the two towns is the mighty Burnswark fort and Roman camp.

Gwenddydd is represented as the sister of Rodarch.  If the court of this particular relocated Rhydderch is not to be found in Strathclyde, but here near the border with Cumbria, can we figure out where Merlin’s house and observatory are located?

We are fortunate in possessing an early 14th century elegy by Gwilym Ddu that says Myrddin descended from the tribe of Meirchiaun.  This is Meirchiaun Gul of the North, whom I’ve suggested (in my book THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY) may belong to the area of Maughanby (earlier ‘Meirchiaun’s By’) in Cumbria, hard by the great Long Meg and Her Daughters stone circle, and only a few miles from the Voreda Roman fort at Old Penrith.  This is in the heartland of the ancient Carvetii kingdom.

Meg is a common nickname for Margaret, and the person in question is said to be a 17th century witch, Meg of Meldon.  I have wondered whether ‘Meg’ could be a late substitution for a name similar to that of the ancient Irish goddess Macha, i.e. Imona the horse goddess (see Chapter 6).  Voreda can be compared with Welsh gorwydd, ‘horse’, and according to philologist Kenneth Jackson means ‘Horse stream’.

While Meirchiaun is a Welsh form of the Roman name Marcianus, it may well have been linked to the Welsh plural for horse, viz. meirch.  The son of Meirchiaun was Cynfarch of the Mote of Mark hill-fort in Dumfries.  The name Cynfarch means ‘chief horse’ (cf. Irish conn for Cyn-/*Cuno- in this context).

A possible association of Long Meg and Her Daughters with Myrddin is interesting, given the circle’s description (from English Heritage’s Pastscape Website):

 “A stone circle located north of Little Salkeld and east of the River Eden. One of the largest extant stone circles in England, the monument currently comprises 69 large stones, some standing and some fallen, arranged in a flattened oval circa 110 metres by 93 metres. There are two apparent entrances, one to the southwest and the other to the northwest. According to Barnatt, the stones were set in a low bank visible intermittently around the site's circumference except to the north. The enclosure's northern side is "flattened", ie straight rather than curved. Air photography has demonstrated the presence of a large cropmark enclosure (NY 53 NE 21) on this side of the stone circle, and it appears that the stones were here following the line of the enclosure ditch - at least 10 of the stone appear to have stood on the outer lip of the enclosure ditch (which must therefore be earlier than the stone circle). The stone circle's northwest entrance appears to face directly into the entrance of the enclosure. To the southwest of the stone circle, circa 22.5 metres from the southwestern entrance, is a single outlier, an upright red sandstone block some 3.65 metres high known as Long Meg. One face of this boulder is covered with rock art, comprising linear grooves, concentric arcs, spirals, cup marks and grooves. Not all appear finished, and there is some modern graffiti. When viewed from the centre of the circle, Long Meg marks the direction of the midwinter sunset. It has been suggested that two of the stones in the circle's northern arc also feature possible spiral designs. Dating is problematic. No excavations are known to have been undertaken at the site, and a broad later Neolithic/Early Bronze Age date would probably encompass both stone circle and rock art. The enclosure NY 53 NE 21 is equally undated, but probably belongs to the same broad time-span.

Like many stone circles, Long Meg and Her Daughters have had a slightly troubled history. A narrow road runs roughly north-south across the eastern half of the circle, and a short distance to the west of this is the line of a former wall. Traces of ridge and furrow are also evident within the circle. In 1599 Camden noted 77 stones, compared to the 69 currently known. William Stukeley subsequently recorded that several stones had been broken up shortly before he visited in 1725. Subsequent accounts also mention the removal and, occasionally, the replacement of stones. Camden also referred to two "heaps of stone" within the circle. These have been regarded as possible burial mounds, although a later edition of Camden's "Britannia" referred to them as field clearance. In the later 17th century, Aubrey referred to "giants bones, and body" being found within the circle, although there is no confirmation from other sources. Note that Stukeley also referred to a second, smaller circle to the southwest (NY 53 NE 12) of which no trace now remains. (13-19).”

This circle sounds suspiciously like the house of seventy doors and as many windows Myrddin asks his sister Ganieda (Gwenddydd; see below) to build for him in the Vita Merlini of Geoffrey of Monmouth.  We can visualize the doors as the stone uprights of the circle, and the opens spaces between those uprights as the windows.  There is no other stone circle in all of the North which could have been said to contain 70 stones.  

And what of the house Gwenddydd builds for her brother - one that is said, along with other "buildings", to be remote from the stone circle?

I suspect this is a reference to Little Meg, a curb cairn located not too far from Long Meg:

https://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=12218&sort=4&search=all&criteria=Little%20Meg&rational=q&recordsperpage=10

Little Meg

There were some other such cairns in the area, including one at nearby Glassonby:


Glassonby 


Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Gwenddydd and the Daystone at Dawston: A Reappraisal

Dawston Rigg, Liddesdale, Home of Gwenddydd and Her Brother, Myrddin

Not long ago I wrote the following rather rambling piece, a sort of loose, unorganized approach to the possible equation of Degastan/Dawston with a stone dedicated to Gwenddydd.  

http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-actual-location-of-degsas-stone.html

Since then, I've done a significant amount of new research on the Dawston area.  My conclusion has been, in brief, that Dawston as the 'Day Stone' or, more properly 'Day's Stone', is probably an English rendering of a non extant standing stone deemed sacred to Gwenddydd ('White day' or 'White like the day').  She was likely a British goddess or a sacred queen. 

A thorough treatment of the Dawston site and its possible association with the Degastan battle was written in the 1800s.  Although replete with the usual antiquarian errors, it is still worth reading.

http://www.dgnhas.org.uk/transonline/SerII-Vol11.pdf

Murray, A D. (1896) 'A famous old battlefield', Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natural Hist Antiq Soc, 2nd, vol. 11, 1894-5. See Pages 89-96.

The location of Dawston Rig(g) was also a bit hazy until I realized, upon further exploration, that its name had come to be replaced by the modern Hudshouse Rigg.  Here is a Blaeu map (17th century) showing the ridge, here called 'Dasten'. Hudshouse can be clearly seen just below it.


Some later county maps, like this one by Tennant (fl. 1835-1850, Map of the County of Roxburgh), also still show Dawstone Rigg:


As for the "British camps" supposedly once present on the rigg, these are only shown on later maps.  Here is a very modern one from CANMORE.


CANMORE also has an excellent description of these forts or "settlements":


NY59NE 2 582 983.

(A: Centre : NY 58199836) FORTS (NR).

(B: centre - NY 58249838)

OS 6" map (1923)

Settlement, Caddrounburn Culvert. The remains of a small settlement are situated on a gentle slope facing SE, 200 yds. SW of Caddrounburn Culvert and at the SE end of the dykes described under No.129 (RCAHMS 1956). The settlement, which is 160 yds. from the right bank of the Liddel Water, at a height of 640 ft. OD, consists of two separate enclosures (Fig.130). The larger is a three-sided enclosure with rounded corners, which measures 170 ft. from N to S by 140 ft. transversely. It is formed by a drystone wall, the debris of which is spread to a width of as much as 25 ft. and stands to a height of 5 ft. on the SE side. No facing-stones are visible, but the wall was probably about 7 ft. in thickness.

There is a single entrance, 7 ft. wide, in the SE side, immediately within which the ground is depressed and marshy. In the SW part of the enclosure an area of about one-third of the whole is cut off by the ruins of a cross-wall of similar proportions to that of the enclosure wall itself. It runs from NW to SE with a gap between each end of it and the enclosure wall. There are no features within the part of the enclosure that lies SW of the cross-wall, but in the remainder there are four circular hut-foundations, of stones covered with turf but with no apparent entrance gaps; the walls of these huts are 2 ft. 6 in. in thickness and a few inches in height. The westernmost hut is 19 ft. in diameter, the other three 14 ft. A length of ruined wall runs SSW from the side of the northernmost hut for a distance of about 30 ft., then becoming lost in marshy vegetation.

The smaller enclosure lies a few yards ENE of the larger. It is an enclosure of irregular shape, measuring 110 ft. from E to W by 80 ft. transversely. It is formed by a drystone wall, once probably about 5 ft. thick but now spread to a width of up to 15 ft.; a well-preserved portion in the SE side, just SW of the entrance-gap, stands to a height of 2 ft. The entrance is about 8 ft. in width; it has been disturbed by a drain which passes through it to carry off water from the boggy interior. Within the entrance there is a depressed marshy area and immediately to the N. of this a natural terrace on which there is a circular hut-foundation 19 ft. in diameter with a low wall 2 ft. 6 in. in thickness. Like those in the larger enclosure this hut shows no sign of a doorway.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 1949

As described above.

Visited by OS (JLD) 7 October 1960

In my opinion, if Gwenddydd does lie behind the Dawston name, then these forts/settlements on the south flank of Dawston Rigg are, in all likelihood, the home of Myrddin.  Being on Liddesdale, his reputed lord was Gwenddolau, who ruled from Carwinley at the foot of the valley.  This is assuming, of course, that Myrddin was a man and not a demoted version of the god Lleu.  I've elsewhere shown that the Tweeden Burn, a tributary of the Liddel, was later mistakenly identified with the Tweed much farther north in Lowland Scotland.  The Powsail Burn of the Tweed (not Drumelzier Burn) means 'Willow Pool' and is a transferred site from the Willow Pool on the River Esk between Carwinley and the Liddel Strength.  In short, everything points to Dawston as Myrddin's place of origin.

It is a shame that the famous Day Stone or Day's Stone has suffered the fate of so many ancient megaliths.  Did it tumble into the burn?  Or was it removed by a farmer?  Was it broken up and used for building material.  Who knows.  We can only say that once a holy stone stood on Dawstone Rigg, a monument to Gwenddydd.  





Monday, September 10, 2018

Once Again Myrddin's/Merlin's Grave

Tinto Hill Summit Cairn

I've written several pieces about the best candidate for Myrddin's/Merlin's grave.  The site with the most merit, I feel, is still the following:


I discussed Tinto as the mountain of Aber Craf (correctly carf) in my book THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON.  This mountain is mentioned in the Welsh poem "The Separation Song of Myrddin in the Grave." As far as the author of the poem is concerned, Myrddin is in the grave (cairn) atop Tinto with the 'wild men', i.e. the spirits of the battle-slain.  

While the French romances place Merlin in different types of Otherworld prisons and assigns them various locations, so far as I know the 'Separation Song' is the only Welsh source to specify the exact whereabouts of Myrddin's tomb.

As some of my readers may be interested in more details concerning Tinto, here is a selection from the above-mentioned book:
The Pre-Romance Mountain of Myrddin

The reference to the location of this mountain is found in Gwasgargerd vyrdin yny bed, the “Separation-Song of Myrddin in the Grave” of the Red Book of Hergest.  There Myrddin says:

‘Gwasawg, your cry to Gwenddydd
was told to me by the wild men of the mountain
in Aber Caraf.’

From other references in the early poetry we know that Gwasawg was a ‘supporter’ of the Christian champion Rhydderch Hael, King of Strathclyde. The name is a diminutive of Welsh gwas, ‘lad, servant’.

As it turns out, St. Kentigern as a boy (see Chapter 8 of Jocelyn's Vita) is called servuli, from servulus, a dim. of Latin servus, with a meaning 'sevant-lad, young slave'.

As Kentigern is brought into close connection with Myrddin as Lailoken in the saint's life, and Kentigern's royal patron was Rhydderch, I'm proposing that Gwasawg is a Welsh rendering of servuli and that the former is thus St. Kentigern himself.

Note that Myrddin is said to be chased by the hunting-dogs of Rhydderch, and Kentigern or *Cuno-tigernos means "Hound Lord."

While Aber Caraf has been rendered by at least one translator as Aber Craf (Peter Goodrich, The Romance of Merlin, 1990), a location in south-central Wales, we can be sure it is actually to be found in Lowland Scotland. 

We have seen how Merlin/Lailoken is present in both the region of Glasgow and at Drumelzier on the Tweed.  It has long been thought that his mountain must have been somewhere between these two places, and most likely at or not far from the sources of the Clyde and Tweed, a sort of symbolic ‘center’ of the southern ‘Caledonian Wood’. 

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. 

Given Myrddin's association with the stag in Geoffrey of Monmouth's "Life of Merlin" (see Chapter 5), and his placement historically at Arferderydd/Arthuret in Cumbria in what was the northwestern limit of the ancient Carvetti (Stag-people) territory, a mountain at the confluence of the Stag Water would make a lot of sense.

Tinto Hill is situated between Drumelzier to the east and Glasgow to the northwest.  It is also only a few miles north-northwest of the headwaters of the Clyde and Tweed.  Thus it just happens to stand exactly where we would expect the hill of Myrddin to be found. 

The hill’s name was discussed long ago by W. J. Watson in his GENERAL SURVEY OF AYRSHIRE AND STRATHCLYDE, History of the Celtic Placenames of Scotland, 1926 (reprinted 1993 by BIRLINN, Edinburgh, ISBN 1 874744 06 8):

“Tinto appears in 'Karyn de Tintou,' 'Kaerne de Tintou,' c. 1315 (RMS); in Macfarlane it is Tyntoche once, Tynto thrice; in Scots, Tintock, as also in the Retours ; it is for teinteach, 'place of fire'…”

Atop Tinto Hill is Tinto Cairn, of Bronze Age date and the largest summit cairn in all of Scotland.  Details on the hill and cairn can be found here:

http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/47525/details/tinto+cairn/

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/biggar/tinto/index.html

http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/search_item/image.php?service=RCAHMS&id=47525&image_id=SC342977

Different reasons have been supplied for why this hill is called ‘place of fire’. One suggests it gets its name from the fact that its exposed red Felsite rock can be given a fiery glow by the setting sun.  This geology is discussed here:

http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/gcrdb/GCRsiteaccount401.pdf

Another possible explanation is that the hill was used for beacon fires or even for Beltane fires:

“Long a beacon post and a place of Beltane fires, it took thence its name of Tinto, signifying the ‘hill of fire’.” [Groome, 1885, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland]

I would say these apparently conflicting ideas are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, it may precisely have been the red-glowing color of the rocks in the light of the setting sun that drew people to this mountain as being particularly sacred, and they may then have used it for Beltane fires. 

It would surely be significant if Myrddin were thought to be communing with the ancestral ghosts at a huge Bronze Age cairn atop a mountain known as the Place of Fire.  This would intimately connect him with seasonal Beltane rites.