'Arthur vendigat' passage from KADEIR TEYRNON
(Nerys Ann Jones, ARTHUR IN EARLY WELSH POETRY, p. 129)
In KADEIR TEYRNON, Arthur is called vendigat, i.e. bendigad. When I first read this, I wondered about bendigad, 'blessed', being an epithet, i.e. Arthur the Blessed. But Nerys Ann's translation seem to belie this possibility.
As always, when I found myself doubting such things, I consulted Welsh language expert Dr. Simon Rodway of The University of Wales. Here are the questions I put to him, followed by his answers in boldface italics:
"In Nerys Ann Jones' Arthur in Early Welsh poetry, the line ' Arthur vendigat' of KADEIR TEYRNON - which follows the line 'y vendigat Arthur' - is rendered "Arthur has been blessed".
Shouldn't vendigat in the second instance be seen as an epithet, i.e. Arthur the Blessed?
Jones seems instead to connect Arthur vendigat to the following line ar gerd gyfaenat, in harmonious song. Which, however, seems to relate to the last 2 lines of the poem."
The first thing to say is that l. 18 of the poem reads y vendiga6 Arthur (6 = the 'six-shaped' Middle Welsh v, here for -w), i.e. 'to bless Arthur'. In l. 19, the MS reads Arthur vendigan, which is certainly to be emended to vendigat for rhyme. Nerys Ann Jones follows Marged Haycock (Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin, second edition (Aberystwyth, 2015), 9.19, note on p. 302) in taking this to be impersonal preterite of the verb bendigaw 'to bless' (presumably imagining there to be an omitted leniting particle a before it). Alternatively (and preferably, I think) we can take this as an (otherwise unattested) adjective bendigad 'blessed' (cf. J. Lloyd-Jones, Geirfa Barddoniaeth Gynnar Gymraeg (Cardiff, 1931-63), p. 55).
"So perhaps 'blessed Arthur', rather than 'Arthur the Blessed'.
Correct? In other words, NOT an epithet, as with Bran the Blessed."
The opposite, in fact. It has to be an epithet rather than a descriptive adjective because of the mutation. 'Blessed Arthur' would be 'Arthur bendigat' because Arthur is a masculine noun, but epithets are normally (but not always) lenited regardless of the gender of the proper noun (thus Hywel Dda etc.).
"Oh!
So Arthur the Blessed it may be after all."
I think so, but I'm a bit cautious because bendigad is otherwise unrecorded in Middle Welsh as an adjective (although formally unproblematic).
This was enough for me to go on. If Blessed was an epithet, it seem to fly in the face of Arthur's appearance in the Welsh hagiographical and didactic sources. Nerys Ann Jones briefly discusses the nature of this Christian treatment of Arthur, and she refers to Patrick Sims-Williams statement in his "The Early Welsh Arthurian Poems" (THE ARTHUR OF THE WELSH: THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND IN MEDIEVAL WELSH LITERATURE, ed. Rachel Bromwich, A.O.H. Jarman and Brynley F. Roberts).
Sims-Williams translates the relevant section of the KADEIR TEYRNON as follows:
Granted, Arthur was portrayed as the great Christian champion against the pagan Saxons as early as the HISTORIA BRITTONUM and the ANNALES CAMBRIAE, in which he carried Christian religious symbols of his shield. But that he himself was viewed as "blessed" is a designation only found in the poem being considered here.
According to the GPC, bendigaid has the following meanings:
worthy of worship or praise, glorious; blessed, beatified; sacred, holy.
We may relate this Welsh word to Latin benedīcō, found in Lewis and Short thusly:
bĕnĕdīco, xi, ctum, ĕre, v. n. and a., to speak well of any one, to commend, praise.
I. In gen., in class. Lat. always as two words, v. bene, I. B. 1.
II. Esp.
A. In late and eccl. Lat. with acc.
1. Deum, to bless, praise, or adore (Heb. [??]), App. Trism. fin.; Vulg. Psa. 112, 2.
Pass.: benedici Deum omni tempore condecet, Tert. Orat. 3: Deus benedicendus, App. Trism. fin.; Vulg. Gen. 24, 48; id. Jacob. 3, 9.
Rarely with dat.: benedic Domino, Vulg. Psa. 102, 1 sq.
2. Of men and things, to bless, consecrate, hallow (Heb. [??] and [??])’ requievit die septimo eumque benedixit, Lact. 7, 14, 11; cf. Vulg. Gen. 2, 3; id. Marc. 6, 41: altarium, Sulp. de Vita S. Martini, 2, 2: benedictum oleum, Hier. Vit. Hilar. med.: martyres, Tert. Mart. 1; Grut. 875, 3 al.
Sometimes with dat.: benedixit domui Israel, Vulg. Psa. 113, 12; 64, 12.
B. Herba benedicta, the plant also called lagopus or leporinus pes, App. Herb. 61.
Hence,
1. bĕnĕdictum, i, n. (prop. as two words), v bene, I. B. 1. g.
2. bĕnĕ-dictus, i, m., an approved person, blessed one (eccl. Lat.): venite, benedicti Patris mei, Vulg. Matt. 25, 34 al.
This made me think of the cognomen of Lucius Artorius, viz. Castus. Again citing Lewis and Short, castus has can be defined with these terems:
1. morally pure, unpolluted, spotless, guiltless
2. pure, chaste, unpolluted, virtuous, continent
3. pious, religious, holy, sacred
Etc.
We can see, plainly, that bendigad could mean "holy, sacred" - as could castus.
Is it possible, I wonder, that Arthur vendigat is a traditional reflection of Artorius Castus?
For now I am content with merely pointing out that an epithet used for Arthur in an early Welsh poem is semantically analogous with the cognomen Castus. There is no way to demonstrate, of course, that the Arthur of the KADEIR TEYRNON is actually a folk memory of the 3rd century Roman general.
