Ddraig Goch or Red Dragon of Wales
My readers will know by now that I've treated extensively of the story of the two worms or dragons of Dinas Emrys. And that the basis of the story is the burial of two 'dragons' (Welsh poetic metaphor for chieftains), cremated, their bones wrapped in cloth and deposited in funeral urns. I've suggested a link with the double red snakes of the Segontium garrison insignium. But there is another element present that I'd not thought of until just today.
If we are assuming a dead chieftain is the dragon, and he is somehow red, we might think of the grandfather of Cunedda, Padarn Beisrudd, Paternus of the Red Cloak. It will also be recalled that in Gildas we are told Ambrosius's parents had worn the purple and were slain it. Here is a good description of Padarn from P.C. Bartrum's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY:
"PADARN BEISRUDD. (300)
‘P. of the Red Tunic’. Son of Tegid and father of Edern father of Cunedda Wledig (HG 1, GaC 1, JC 6, etc. in EWGT pp.9, 36, 44, etc.). The cognomen ‘Red Tunic’ suggests the official purple under the Roman administration, while the distinctly Latin names Edern [Aeternus], Padarn [Paternus] and Tegid [Tacitus] in this part of the pedigree suggest also that the family was ruling subject to Roman authority in North Britain (CB p.118; WCO 36-37; TYP p.484).
As grandfather of Cunedda (q.v.) it may be assumed that Padarn Beisrudd ruled the district of Manaw Gododdin inhabited by the Votadini. Friendly relations seem to have existed between the Votadini and the Romans from the second century at least. After the reorganisation following the irruptions of A.D.367-9, the tribal chief was probably recognized as an independent king, with forces of his own, responsible for holding part of the northern isthmus. This would fit in with the date of Padarn Beisrudd (I.A.Richmond in Roman and Native in Northern Britain, 1958, pp.124-5).
The tunic (pais) of Padarn Beisrudd is included as one of the ‘Thirteen Teasures of Britain’ which had the property that it would fit well on a nobleman but not on a churl. Other versions say that no harm would come to anyone wearing it, or that it would fit nobleman or churl whether great or small and no harm would come to one wearing it, or that it would only fit Padarn himself. See Études Celtiques, 10 (1963) pp.469-470."
In other words, if the cloth in which the cremated remains of the chieftain were wrapped was red in color, he would, literally, be the Red Dragon. According to the following scholarly source, fibulae have been found in urns, indicating that the cremated remains were wrapped in clothing such as that which the deceased would have worn in life.
Now, as for the White Dragon... We can resort to the Welsh tradition which portrays all Otherworld animals as being red and white. Certainly, we cannot take seriously the idea that a Saxon wearing white or whose cremated remains were wrapped in white was buried in an urn next the the Red Dragon. Romans did wear white togas, of course. However, there is another possibility.
I had a look at the several variants for the Seguntienses shield pattern found in the MSS. For the proper link, go here:
It will immediately be noticed that one example has a white field color, and two others, while faded, appear to show the same. If the Segontium shield device was two red serpents on a white field, such a pattern could easily have become the white and red dragons of Dinas Emrys. We might imagine a cloth embossed with the military insignium being wrapped about the honored bones of a cremated chieftain. Such an occurrence could have accounted for the chieftain becoming known as a dragon in later story. Not unreasonable to assume that a unit from Segontium had been put in charge of Dinas Emrys in the Roman period, or that a sub-Roman ruler of the site may have inherited the Segontium shield device.
If Cunedda were buried in the way I have described above, he might have come to be called the Terrible Chief-dragon.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.