MYRDDIN LLALLAWG/LLALLOGAN, GWYLLON, ELLYLLON AND THE CHWYFLEIAN: THE LAND OF THE DEAD BEYOND HADRIAN'S WALL

A funeral inscription from Netherby, Cumbria, showing D.M. for 'Dis Manibus'

The "madness" of Myrddin is, in reality, a spectral state.  I've written at length about this elsewhere, so will not repeat what I've said before.  But I would like to briefly address the significance of divine spirits of the dead in the context of our exploration of Myrddin's nature and character.  

One of the most important early sources to mention the prevalence of the dead north of Hadrian's Wall is that of Procopius, HISTORY OF THE WARS 8.20.42-8:

"Now in this island of Britain the men of ancient times built a long wall, cutting off a large part of it; and the climate and the soil and everything else is not alike on the two sides of it.  For to the south of the wall there is a salubrious air, changing with the seasons, being moderately warm in summer and cool in winter. But on the north side everything is the reverse of this, so that it is actually impossible for a man to survive there even a half-hour, but countless snakes and serpents and every other kind of wild creature occupy this area as their own.  And, strangest of all, the inhabitants say that if a man crosses this wall and goes to the other side, he dies straightway. They say, then, that the souls of men who die are always conveyed to this place."

In isolation, this statement seems bizarre, even silly.  But if we look at the early Myrddin poetry (and the Suibhne Geilt material on the Irish side of things), it becomes evident that wild areas in Celtic belief were the home of ghostly 'wild men.' And the extensive forest of the Scottish Lowlands, the haunt of Myrddin, was just such a place.

We cannot know how much this belief was influenced by the Romans, who deified their own dead.  The common formula "D.M" on Roman tombstones is, perhaps, the best example of such a practice.  I asked Professor Roger Tomlin his thoughts on this and he was kind enough to provide me with the following response:

"I hope I am not over-simplifying it ... but DIS is an adjective, dative plural, contracted from DIVIS ('divine'), which of course is also the substantive DIVUS (a 'god', especially a deified emperoir). MANES (plural) are the spirits of the Dead, regarded as minor deities. So a tombstone is a dedication to 'the divine Dead' collectively, 'the Shades of the Dead'. If SACRVM is added, it refers to the tombstone, or at least to the act of dedication 'to' the Manes.

The god of the Underworld is DIS PATER, which I take to be 'Father' DIVUS contracted (or at least a cognate word). He is equated with Pluto, Hades, etc., but tombstones are not dedicated to him, but to the Divine Shades, the DI MANES.

Like us, the Romans found this difficult, since they are often unsure whether to follow D M with the deceased name's in the genitive, as if it were 'his' Manes, or in the dative, as if it were a dedication to him too."

Perhaps the most important part of Procopius' story is where he says the dead were conveyed to the region north of the Wall.  Conveyance implies a conveyor, and in Greek and Roman religions such a divinity was known as a psychopomp.  The Roman psychopomp was Mercury and it is Mercury who was identified with the god Lugus, the Welsh Lleu.  I and others have drawn strong parallels between Myrddin and the god Lleu.  At one time I was convinced Myrddin either was Lleu or a Lleu-avatar.

Below I have drawn the more important words connected with ghosts and wild men from the GPC.  My readers may wish to check the definitions for these words and draw their own conclusions as to how such words may have come to be applied to the spirits of the dead. 

I would also hasten to add that there may have been a god named Alletios at Corbridge on Hadrian's Wall.  His name derives from the same root as the Welsh words ellyll, llall and that of Myrddin's nickname Llallawg/Llallogan.  Here is what I have on Alletios, drawn from a couple of previous essays:

Dr. Graham Isaac, now with the National University of Ireland, Galway, commented as follows on this place-name:

"The form of the name Elleti is corroborated by the instance of 'palude [Latin for “marsh” or “swamp”] Elleti' in Book of Llan Dav (148). But since both that and HB’s campum Elleti are in Latin contexts, we cannot see whether the name is OW Elleti (= Elledi) or OW Ellet (= Elled) with a Latin genitive ending. Both are possible. My guess would be that OW Elleti is right. As the W suffix -i would motivate affection, so allowing the base to be posited as all-, the same as in W ar-all 'other', all-tud 'exile', Gaulish allo-, etc. Elleti would be 'other-place, place of the other side (of something)'."

If Isaac is right, we are fortunate in that Elleti may be found in the form of a personal name at the Corbridge Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall. A fragment of a large grey urn was found there bearing the name ‘ALLIITIO’ (Fascicule 8, RIB 2502.9; information courtesy Georgina Plowright, Curator, English Heritage Hadrian’s Wall Museums). This could be the potter’s name, perhaps a form of the nomen Alletius, or the name of the god portrayed on the fragment. J. Leach (in “The Smith God in Roman Britain”, Archaeologia Aeliana, 40, 1962, pp. 171-184) made a case for the god in question being a divine smith, primarily due to the presence on the urn fragment of what appears to be an anvil in relief, although there were also metal workings in the neighborhood of Corbridge. Anne Ross (in her Pagan Celtic Britain, p. 253) associates the name Allitio with the same all-, “other”, root Dr. Isaac linked to Elleti. She thinks Allitio may have been a warrior/smith-god and very tentatively offers “God of the Otherworld” for this theonym.

On the name ‘ALLIITIO’, Dr. Isaac agrees with Ross:

“Taking the double -ll- at face value, as I would be inclined to do as a working hypothesis,that would be connected the W all- that I have mentioned before.”

It may be worth noting that the ( ? ) divine name Allitio, again according to Dr. Isaac, can be associated with Myrddin's/Merlin's Welsh nickname, Llallogan or Llallawc.  This last derives from Proto-Celtic *alal( I )yo- 'another, other', cf. Old Irish arail, Middle Welsh arall (OW and MW), Middle Breton al( l )all, arall, Cornish arall.  This is a reduplicated, intensive variant of Proto-Celtic *al( I )yo- 'other', cf. Old Irish aile [io], Middle Welsh eil, all-, Middle Breton eil, Cornish yl, Gaulish Allo-broges, allos, Proto-Indo-European *h2elyo- 'other', Latin alius, Go. aljis.  Celtic-Iberian ailam, which has been interpreted as the Acc. of this pronoun, has also been taken to mean something like 'place, abode'.

Treating more fully of ‘ALLIITIO’ in a private communication, Georgina Plowright, Curator, English Heritage Hadrian’s Wall Museums, says that the name

“…occurs twice on one piece of pottery showing feet and a base. This is always assumed to be the base of an anvil, with the feet being those of a smith god. There are a number of sherds of grey pottery from Corbridge with very distinctive applied decoration, with two recognisable themes, the smith god shown with hammer and anvil, and a wheel god who is shown with wheel and club. The fact that the wheel god is depicted by a mould suggests that this type of pottery was being made at Corbridge, though it appears on a number of other sites. The reading occurs twice on this piece of pottery, once in the frame created by the anvil base, and then on the pot below the feet of the standing figure.  Another sherd showing the smith god does not have any inscription.  John Dore and Stephen Johnson, who did the captions for the Corbridge gallery, have assumed that the name might be that of a potter, though RIB seems to go for either god or potter.  I haven’t got a copy of the Leach reference easily to hand, but my memory tells me the item should be illustrated there.”

For an online article that mentions the 'Allitio' found at Corbridge, please see:

http://romanpotterystudy.org/new/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/JRPS-2-Webster-2-28.pdf

***

Relevant terms drawn from the GPC:

gwyllt, gwyll3 

[H. Grn. asen guill, gl. onager, Crn. gwyls, gwylls, H. Lyd. gueld-enes, gl. insula indomita et inhabitabilis, H. Wydd. geilt (bnth. efallai o’r Frth.; cf. yr epithed yn e.’r ddau gymeriad Myrddin Wyllt a Suibhne geilt): < *u̯eltī, sef ff. yn cynnwys estyniad -t- ar y gwr. IE. *əl- ‘troi, cordeddu’ neu *u̯el- ‘tynnu, plicio’, cf. Alm. wild, S. wild; am y ff. gwyll, cf. gwell am gwellt (er mai mater o org. ydyw weithiau)]

frantic, raving, demented, distracted, mad (as in the name Myrddin Wyllt)
 b  (yn y ff. l. gwyll(i)on) Rhai sy’n wyllt, cyflym, &c. (e.e. meirch ysbrydol neu nwyfus, milwyr sy’n ymladd fel pe baent wallgof), gwallgofiaid; pobl ddidoriad, rhai heb eu gwastrodi; ysbrydion, bwganod:

wild ones (e.g. spirited horses, warriors fighting as if mad), madmen; turbulent or unruly people; sprites. 

gwyllon, gwyllion 

[camystyr a roes John Davies i enghrau. o ff. l. gwyllt, gwyll3 drwy eu cysylltu â gwyll1]

e.ll.

Ysbrydion y meirw, cysgodion, drychiolaethau, bwbachod; rhodienwyr neu ladron nos, gwylliaid:

manes, the spirits of the dead, shades, ghosts, sprites, hobgoblins; night-prowlers, night-thieves, vagabonds. 

1632 D, *gwyllon, tenebriones, manes.

1688 TJ, gwŷll, gwâg ysprŷd: a Hag, Goblin or Ghost.

id., gwŷllon, gwâg ysprydion: walking Spirits, Goblins.

1753 TR, †gwyllon, spirits, ghosts, hobgoblins; night-walkers, night-thieves.

c. 1753 Gron 97, Ewch … / At wyllon y tywyllwg, / I oddef fyth ei ddu fwg.

1773 W d.g. ghosts of the dead, manes.

1793 Dafydd Ionawr: CD 196, Y Ddaear sydd yn ddiau / Ym mron gan y Gwyllon gau.

1800 P, gwyllion, shades, ghosts; hobgoblins; night-walkers.

id., gwyllon, shades, phantoms; ghosts.

Gw. hefyd gwyllt, ŵyll.

ellyll 

[?all (yr elf. a welir yn arall)+-yll neu hyll, ond cf. yr e.p. Gwydd. Ailill < Aillill]

• eg. (un. bach. ellyllyn) ll. ellyllon, ellyllion, ellyllod, ellyllau.

a  Coblyn, un o’r tylwyth teg, drychiolaeth, lledrith, ysbryd, aneilun, bwbach, bwci; ysbryd drwg, anysbryd, Beibl. math o ddiafol yn trigo mewn adfeilion, ysbryd dewiniaeth; un dieflig o greulon:

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

llall [from which Llallawg and Llallogan are derived]

[tebyg fod y llall yn ff. ddbl. ar all-, cf. arall, H. Lyd. al(l)all, a’r H. Wydd. alaill, ff. ddiryw ar alaile ‘y llall’]

rh. ll. lleill, a’i ragflaenu gan y fan.

a  (Yr) un arall (rhai eraill, gweddill, rhelyw); (y) nesaf, (yr) ail, (yr) un cyfatebol:

(the) other (others, rest); (the) next, (the) second

*chwyfleian, chwimleian, chwimbleian, chwibleian

[chwŷf+lleian ‘un llwyd ei wedd’ (llai ‘gwelw, llwyd’); hen org. am chwyfleian yw chwimleian, chwibleian oherwydd sgrifennu m a b am f. Oherwydd camddeall yr elf. olaf, aeth y gair i olygu ‘daroganwraig’, &c.]

eg.b. ll. -od.

a  Gŵr gwyllt gwelw ei wedd, crwydryn:

wild man of pallid countenance, wanderer. 

13g. C 519-10, disgogan hwimleian hwetil adiwit.

id. 557-8, Rimdyuueid huimleian chuetyl enryuet.

c. 1400 R 5809-10, Wi awendyd wenn mawr adrasdil gogan chwipleian chwedleu.