Glastonbury Tor As Seen From Cadbury Castle
On the surface of it, as Gereint’s Dumnonia of the 5th century almost certainly embraced the island of Glastonbury, and assuming that we allow for his son to be Arthur (see my previous blog posts on this subject) and for their forward base to be Cadbury Castle, we are not justified in summarily dismissing the tradition which has Arthur buried at the site of the abbey.
It is well known that Glastonbury’s name was associated with the Welsh Ynys Witrin (urbs vitrea in Caradoc), the ‘Island of Glass.’ W. glas, of course, was only wrongly associated with the words for ‘glass.’ In reality, glas meant ‘green, grass coloured, covered with green grass’ (see the Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru), a poetic reference to a grass-covered fairy mound or sidh (cf. the Green Chapel of the famous Middle English poem 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'). Scholars have insisted that the name should instead be related to the Latin glastum for ‘woad’, itself from a Gaulish root related to W. glas. Latim vitrum also can mean ‘woad.’
Arthur is brought into connection with Glastonbury in the Life of St. Gildas. A prince named Melwas is said to have abducted Arthur’s queen, Guinevere (the Welsh equivalent of the Irish Goddess of Sovereignty, Findabair), and taken her to his stronghold of Glastonbury.
We need to ignore the usual derivation from W. mael, 'prince', and gwas, 'boy, servant.' He is not found in any of the royal genealogies attached to Glastonbury, nor is he to be related to any Cornish or Breton personages. Some have sought to identify him with Gwynn son of Nudd, who is also placed at Glastonbury, but there is no real justification for doing so. The idea that the name represents Maelwys son of Baeddan ('Prince Pig son of Little Boar') of CULHWCH AND OLWEN is slightly more attractive, given the foundation story of Glastonbury involving a sow (see The Archaeology and History of Glastonbury Abbey: Essays in Honour of the Ninetieth Birthday of C.A. Ralegh Radford, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1991). However,
"This theory has been more recently rejected most notably by Proinsias Mac Canna, Rachel Bromwich, and D. Simon Evans in favor of John Rhys's 1891 assertion that the name derives from the Irish Mael Umai mac Baitan—an early seventh century king who fought with the Scottish king of Dal Riata Aedan mac Gabrain (d. 608) against the English invader Aethelfrith at the battle of Degsastan (SAL, pp. 51, 344, CaO, p.69, DAB, p. xxxiv)."
Melwas could be (given the ease with which w/v and m could be substituted in many medieval MSS.), the Malmes- of Malmesbury. In fact, we have examples of charter spellings for this place-name such as 'Malves-' and 'Malues-'. The spelling as Malmesbury is found in the Domesday Book, with coins (1016-66) showing forms Mealmas, Melmes. Many variants of the place-name are known (see The Place Names of Wiltshire by J.E.B Gover, Allen Mawer and F.M. Stenton Volume XVI published in 1939). The actual personal name preserved in the first component of Malmesbury is Maeldu(i)b, later wrongly conflated with Maelduin. Both are Irish names, and we are reminded that in the SANAS CORMAIC Glastonbury is referred to as 'Glasimpere na nGaedel' or "Glastonbury of the Irish (see below)."
The 7th century St. Maeldub was considered the founder of the monastic settlement at Malmesbury.
If this identification is correct, then why did Caradog of Llancarfan, the author of the Vita of St. Gildas, place this saint at Glastonbury?
The answer is straight-forward and simple: as Maelduin, Maeldub was associated with the Irish hero of that name from the Immram Maele Dúin or the Voyage of Máel Dúin, who had visited 1) an island with the branch of an apple tree, where they are fed with apples for 40 nights and 2) an island of apples, pigs, and birds. Hence, this saint of Malmesbury was linked in story with the Isle of Apple Trees, viz, Avalon, and placed at Glastonbury.
None of this proves that Arthur was buried at Glastonbury, of course.
The Harleian Genealogies contain the following pedigree for the founder of Glastonbury:
Glastening
[I]udnerth map Morgen map Catgur map Catmor map Merguid map Moriutned map Morhen map Morcant map Botan map Morgen map Mormayl map Glast, unum sunt Glastenic qui uenerunt [per villam] que uocatur Loytcoyt [Roman LETOCETUM, ‘Grey Wood’; modern Wall, Staffordshire, 2.5 miles south of Lichfield; Welsh Caer Lwytgoed].
To learn more about Glast himself, he is the excellent entry on him from P.C. Bartrum's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY:
GLAST. (470?) The name of the eponym of Glastonbury, his descendants being called Glaestings and their city Glestingaburg, whence Glastonbury. The genealogy of the descendants of Glast is given in the ‘Harleian’ genealogies (HG 25 in EWGT p.12). Here he is the father of Morfael and eleventh in descent from him is Idnerth ap Morien, the last of the line. The pedigree ends: Unum [read unde] sunt Glastenic qui uenerunt [per villam] que vocatur Loytcoyt, Whence are the Glaestings(?) who came [through the town] which is called Lichfield. A later version of the pedigree is found in the expanded ‘Hanesyn Hen’ tract, one version of which (in Peniarth MS.177 p.217 by Gruffudd Hiraethog) ends: Oddyna y Glastyniaid a dyfodd o Gaer Lwydkoed i Gaer a elwir yr awr honn Aldüd. Whence the Glastonians who came from Lichfield to the city called Aldüd today. See ABT §19 in EWGT pp.106-7. A confused story of Glast and his founding of Glastonbury is told in an interpolation in William of Malmesbury's De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiae, (ed. Thomas Hearne p.16). Here Glast is incorrectly called Glasteing and his eleven descendants (whose names are correctly given except for minor differences) are wrongly said to be his brothers, great-grandsons of Cunedda. Then it says: Hic est ille Glasteing, qui [venit] per mediterraneos Anglos, secus villam quae dicitur Escebtiorne. This is that Glasteing, who [came] through the midland Angles, otherwise the town which is called Escebtiorne. The correspondence with the earlier text is close if we accept the words in [ ] and cut out the words ‘mediterraneos Anglos, secus’ in the second version. The other differences are 'Glasteing' for 'Glastenic', Escebtiorne for Loytcoyt, and treating Glasteing as a personal name. Esceb = 'bishop' (modern Welsh esgob), and may well refer to Lichfield which was a bishop's See (A.W.Wade-Evans in Notes and Queries, 193 (1948) p.134). Here we are told that Glast was a great-grandson of Cunedda and it is interesting to note that Glas (q.v.) ab Elno, of the line of Dogfeiling, was also a great-grandson of Cunedda. The identity of the two was suggested by E.W.B.Nicholson (Cy. 21 (1908) pp.100-3). The interpolation goes on to say: [Glasteing], following his pigs as far as Wellis [Wells] and from there through a pathless and watery way, called Sugewege, that is ‘Sow's Way’, he found his sow near the church of which we are speaking [Glastonbury], suckling under an apple tree, whence it has reached us that the apples of that apple tree are called Ealdcyrcenas epple, that is ‘Old Church Apples’. For that reason, also, the sow was called Ealdecyrce Suge [Old Church Sow], which, wonderful to relate, had eight feet, whereas other sows have four. Here, therefore, Glasteing, after entering that island, saw it abounding in many ways with good things, came to live in it with all his family, and spent the course of his life there. And from his progeny and family which succeeded him, that place is said to have been populated. It is seen that the simple statement of the Harleian pedigree has been supplemented by a legend conerning a sow, and the introduction of an apple-tree. The latter is probably connected with the late identification of Glastonbury as the Isle of Avallon, and the explanation of Avallon as the Isle of Apple-trees [Welsh afall, ‘apple-tree’]. The introduction of pigs suggested to R.Thurneysen that the story was developed from an incident in the legend of St.Patrick (Zs. f. rom. Ph. XX (1896) pp.316 ff). For in the ‘Glossary’ attributed to Cormac mac Cuilenáin, the bishop-prince of Cashel, c.900, s.n. Mugeime, Glastonbury is referred to as follows: Glassdimber .... That is the abode wherein dwelt Glass the son of Cass, the swineherd of the king of Iruath, with his swine a-feeding, and he it is whom Patrick brought to life afterwards, that is, six-score years after he had been slain by MacCon's champions. This is probably an interpolation (Whitley Stokes, Three Irish Glossaries, p.xlviii n.2). The story is apparently taken from Tirechán's Memoirs (c.670) which say that during his travels in Connacht Patrick came upon a huge grave, 120 feet in length. His followers were amazed and inclined to doubt that a man of such size had really existed. To satisfy them, Patrick recalled the dead man to life. He arose and in reply to their question told them: I am the son of Cas son of Glas, and I was swineherd to Lugar, king of Hirot. The war-band of MacCon slew me in the reign of Coirpre Nia Fer. (Ed. Whitley Stokes, The Tripartite Life of St.Patrick, pp.324-5). Here Glas is the father of Cas. Similarly in the Tripartite Life (loc.cit. pp.122-3). But in the Dindshenchas of ‘Loch nDechet’ [in Connacht] we are told that Dechet son of Dergor was the servant of Glass mac Caiss in the time of Áed Ruad grandson of Mane Milscoth (Revue Celtique, 15 pp.475-6; Royal Irish Academny, Todd Lecture Series No.10 pp.410-3). The monks of Glastonbury adopted Patrick into their propaganda. Then it seems that the son of Cas son of Glas, the swineherd in the legend of St.Patrick, became Glas the son of Cas, the swineherd, and then was identified with Glast, the founder of Glastonbury. Whence Cormac's ‘Glossary’. So Glast(eing) with his pigs came into being (PCB).
To cut through all the legendary accretions and discover the actual founder of Glastonbury, we need to start with the following passage from the Irish SANAS CORMAC (courtesy Francis J. Byrne's IRISH KING AND HIGH KINGS)
"For when great was the power of the Irish over the British they divided Alba amongst them in districts, and each of them knew his friend's habitation, and the Irish dwelt on the east of the sea no less than in Scotia [Ireland], and their mansions and their royal forts were built there. Inde dicitur Dinn Tradui, i.e. Dun Tredue, i.e. the three-fossed fort of Crimthann Mar mac Fidaig, king of Ireland and Alba and down to the Ictian Sea [the Sea of the Isle of Wight], et minde Glasimpere na nGaedel [Glastonbury of the Irish], a church on the border of the Ictian Sea. In that part is Dind Map Lethain in the lands of the Cornish Britons, i.e. Dun Maic Lethain, for mac is the same as map in British. Thus did each tribe of them divide, for there was an equal proportion of the east, and they possessed that power long after the coming of Patrick."
(For the Irish text from this passage of SANAS CORMAIC, see
In the above-quoted section from Cormac's Glossary, a few statements are noteworthy. First, Crimthann Mar is singled out. His father, Fidach, was brother to Eochu Liathan, the eponymous head of the Ui Liathain. The same Ui Liathain who are known to have been in southern Wales and Cornwall. Liathain derives from the Irish word liath, "grey."
Second, the Sons of Liathain are specifically said to have had a fortress (unidentified) in Cornwall.
And, third, Glastonbury, said to be "of the Irish", is listed as a holy place central to the area where the Ui Liathain raided and established settlements.
But what scholars have not noticed is that there was an Irish tribal group called the Ui Glaisin, a sub-sept of the Ui Meic Caille, themselves a sub-set of the Ui Liathain. Here is the meaning of glaisin from the Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language:
1 glaisín
Cite this: eDIL s.v. 1 glaisín or dil.ie/25959
n woad , see glasen.
glasen
Cite this: eDIL s.v. glasen or dil.ie/26010
Forms: gla(i)sín, glaisine, glainsine
n (n s. also gla(i)sín and glaisine, see Cáin Ad. § 52 . Laws iv 276.6 ). ā,f.
(a) woad; a plant yielding a blue dye; the dye extracted from woad. Cf. Quandam enim herbam orten- sem antiqui habebant, nomine glassen, ex cuius succo tincturam pannorum ... faciebant , V. SS. Hib. i 95 § 27 . n s. Angelica ┐ anagailicus .i. glasen coille, Arch. i 335.88 ; 61 . in ghlaisin coille (gl. barba silvana), ib. 341.40 . asara .i. glasin lena (= gariofila agrestis), ib. 330.7 . ásfaid in glassen, RC xiii 462 § 63 . ni dernad ... glaisin bhudh commaith ria, ar cidh edach Ceniuil Fiachrach uili doberthi ina hiarcain (leg. iarcaui? after-cup?) nos-gormfadh (of the dye), Lism. L. 4079 . lin ocus glaisin, Laws ii 370.30 Comm. glainsine (sic), iv 276.8 Comm. fasta[d] iarcae in datha .i. corcair no glaisin, O'Dav. 1295 . fri bratt ngorm, | glan a glaissin, Bruchst. i § 23 . d s. and a s. dofeotar cáircha glassin na rigna ate the queen's woad, RC xiii 460 § 63 . na mill umam ... in nglaisin, Lism. L. 4078 . rug L. in ngúbreith isin glaisin, Dinds. i § 35 ( RC xv 283 ). fon roid ┐ glaisīne ┐ sep, Cáin Ad. § 52 . guirmidir gas do glaisin blue as a sprig of woad, Ériu iv 96 § 14 . g s. trian a cruib glaisne, Laws ii 372.17 . i n-aimsir buana na glaisni, 418.5 Comm. oc denumh glaisne, Lism. L. 4063 . lomrad na cairech il-lomrad na glasne, RC xiii 462.2 .
Compd. ¤gort a field of woad: hi llomrad glassenguirt na rīgna, ZCP viii 311.30 .
(b) By extension a dye (in general); glasen (gl. sandyx), Sg. 69a28 .
I would say, then, that the legendary Glast who founded Glastonbury was, in fact, a member of the Ui Glaisin. We have seen that Glast is said to come to Glastonbury from "Loytcoyt", Welsh Llwydcoed, the Roman period Letocetum, the "Grey Wood". However, the ancient seat of the Ui Glaisin was Killeagh in Co. Cork, and I find this place-name parsed as follows:
An Choill Liath
genitive: na Coille Léithe
validated name
(Irish)
Killeagh
(English)
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Glossary
coill(also: coillidh, coillte, coille) wood
liath(also: léith) grey, grey place, grey horse
In other words, 'Loytcoyt' or Grey Wood is an exact Welsh translation of Irish Killeagh.
Leaving behind the foundation of Glastonbury by the Irish, we do have evidence that Glastonbury fell within the territory of the Dark Age kingdom of Dumnonia.
From The Early History of Glastonbury Abbey: A Hypothesis Regarding the 'British Charter' by
Martin Grimmer (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/33305716.pdf):
“The earliest actual documentary evidence that derives from the Glastonbury archives that can be used to argue for a pre-Saxon origin and for British continuity at the site is a charter which appears to date from the early seventh century. It is the aim of this paper to discuss the authenticity and implications of this so-called 'British charter'.
The charter begins an account ofgrants to Glastonbury contained in William of Malmesbury's De antiquitate Glastonie ecclesie, commissioned by the abbey c.1129' William's task in writing the De antiquitate Glastonie was to produce a document which validated Glastonbury's antiquity, as well as to counter a claim made by Osbem of Canterbury that Glastonbury's foundation only occurred in the mid-tenth century." The De antiquitate Glastonie does not survive in the original; the earliest version (MS T) is from the mid-thirteenth century and incorporates a number of later interpolations.'! However, the charter was also included, with some modification, in Version C of the Gesta regum Anglorum, compiled by William after he had written the De antiquitate Glastonie, most likely for presentation to Glastonbury." Thus, its place in the De antiquitate Glastonie can safely be ascribed to William." The British charter, drawn up by a Bishop Mauuron, records a grant to the 'old church' made by an unnamed king of Durnnonia offive hides ei Ineswitrin." at the request of Abbot Worgret. William records the grant as follows:
On the estate of Ynswitrin, given to Glastonbury at the time the English were converted to the faith. In 60I AD the King of Dumnonia" granted five cassates on the estate called lnesuuitrin to the old church on the petition of Abbot Worgret. I, Bishop Mauuron wrote this charter. I, Worgret, abbot of that place, have subscribed. The age of the document prevents us knowing who the king was, yet it can be presumed that he was British because he referred to Glastonbury in his own tongue as Yneswitrin which, as we know, was the British name. But Abbot Worgret, whosename smacks of British barbarism, was succeeded by Lademund and he by Bregored. The dates of their rule are obscure but their names and ranks can clearly be seen in a painting to be found near the altar in the greater church. Berthwald succeeded Bregored.
… The hypothesis offered in this paper is that the so-called 'British charter' in 'William of Malmesbury's De antiquitate Glastonie may in fact be West Saxon in origin, and may represent an authentic record of a donation from Geraint of Dumnonia in the 670s to the Saxon monastery of Glastonbury. It is possible, of course, that the charters with scribal attestations in the Glastonbury archive could have provided a model for a later forger, and that this accounts for the existence of the scribal attestation contained in the Ineswitrin grant. However, the circumstances enumerated in this paper, and the peculiarly early Anglo-Saxon features of the charter, at least allow that the hypothesis is worthy of consideration. Therefore, while the 'British charter' cannot stand as evidence for a British community resident at Glastonbury before the Saxon foundation, it is nonetheless significant in terms of what it implies about relations between the West Saxon church and the kingdom of Dumnonia. There may not have been any continuity between Romano-British and West Saxon Christian communities at Glastonbury," but there still appears to have been interaction across the frontier.”
If the author of this study is correct, then it was one of the later Gereints who had counted Glastonbury as part of his kingdom. The implication, of course, is that an earlier Gereint – namely the father of Arthur, styled Uther Pendragon after his famous predecessor Gerontius MVM – would also have considered the holy site to be part of his dominion.
With Cadbury Castle only some 20 kilometers (approximately 12 and a galf miles) to the southeast, there is no barrier to having Arthur buried at Glastonbury.
NOTE: In the following source -
- evidence is provided that proves there was a relationship between the Camels at Cadbury Castle and Glastonbury in the early English period.
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