ST. CURIG AT DINAS EMRYS: PROOF POSITIVE OF THE LLANILID CONNECTION

Curig's Church, Llanilid

Curig's Church, Capel Curig

Sometimes it pays off to do some old-school historical research on an area.  This is a case in point...

Given that "Ambrosius"is taken from Llanilid (Campus Elleti in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM) to Dinas Emrys in Eryri, I had found it interesting that Curig of Llanilid was also found in Eryri at Capel Curig.  See https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/04/is-dinas-emrys-in-wrong-place.htm. In that post I had floated the crazy idea that perhaps Dinas Emrys was the wrong site, and that we should instead look towards the Roman fort near Capel Curig.

However, I have just learned that Capel Curig, during the Middle Ages, belonged to the Priory of Beddgelert:

https://books.google.com/books?id=Zy2olxXGPhwC&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105&dq=%22St.+Curig%22%2B%22Beddgelert%22&source=bl&ots=GAWkf8Ux5x&sig=ACfU3U3nJGOMB-RTKDV30jdTitCjtEh3-A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwib1_LNgcjpAhVuFjQIHayyC9AQ6AEwCHoECBAQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22St.%20Curig%22%2B%22Beddgelert%22&f=false

http://www.monasticwales.org/site/42

This is very significant because Dinas Emrys is very close to Beddgelert and is, of course, in Beddgelert parish.

Capel Curig in Conwy is on the Afon Llugwy, the 'Bright Stream.'  W. llug is found as follows in the GPC, and I checked with the Historic Place-Names of Wales to confirm the etymology of the stream name:

llug1

[H. Wydd. luchair ‘disglair; disgleirdeb’, e. lleoedd Llad. Prydain Leuca, Leucarum, Leucomagus [diwyg.], e. prs. Llad. Gâl Leucus, o’r gwr. *leuk- ‘goleuni, disgleirdeb’, a welir hefyd yn amlwg, eglwg, golwg, lluched, ?ac yn e. afon Llugwy; cf. Gr. λευκον ‘golau, disglair, gwyn’, Llad. lūx ‘goleuni’]

eg. (bach. llugyn) ac efallai fel a.

a  Golau, goleuni, caneidrwydd, llewyrch, llathredd, disgleirdeb; ?gloyw, llathr, disglair, llachar, ysblennydd:

light, radiance, lustre, brightness; ?shining, brilliant, resplendent. 

The divine name Lleu is from the same Celtic root and meant 'the shining, brilliant, bright one.' I have also wondered about Edern/Aeternus, the father of Cunedda.  Edern's father was one Padarn/Paternus of the Red-cloak, a figure who made me think of Ambrosius' unnamed father who wore the purple.  

But knowing as I do now that Beddgelert held Capel Curig, we must take a closer look at this saint's possible connection with Dinas Emrys.

First off, there may have been a Welsh Curig who only later came to be identified with Cyricus/Quiricus.  The following entry is from P.C. Bartram's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY:

CURIG LWYD, ST. The saint of Llangurig in Arwystli, Eglwys Fair a Churig in Amgoed, Dyfed, Capel Curig in Arllechwedd, Gwynedd, Porthceri in Glamorgan, Capel Cirig (extinct) in Newport, Dyfed, and a chapel (extinct) under Langstone, Gwent (PW 98, 47, 85, 68, 58, 78). He has been confused and misidentified with the child-martyr, Cyriacus or Quiricus, the son of Julitta, a widow of Iconium, said to have been martryrd at Tarsus during the Diocletian persecution, about A.D.304. His mother Julitta has become Ilid in Welsh. They are commemorated on June 16. (Rice Rees, Welsh Saints, p.307). Owing to the confusion Capel Curig has been called Capel Curig a'i fam Iulitta, and Llanilid, a church in Glamorgan dedicated to the Welsh saint Ilid, has been called Llanilid a Churig (Welsh Saints, p.307, PW 71 n.1). The supposed staff of St.Cyric was preserved at St.Harmon's, near Llangurig, according to Giraldus Cambrensis (Itin.Kamb., I.1). The Welsh poets called him Curig Lwyd, and Lewys Glyn Cothi spoke of the coat of mail of the brave Curig Farchog (LBS II.193, 195). Buchedd Ciric, a translation into Welsh of the latin Life of SS.Cyriacus and Julitta is found in Llanstephan MSS.34 (end of 16th cent.) and 104 (18th cent.). The Life has an appendix which is edited in LBS IV.378-9 from Llanstephan 34. In it we are told that Ciric had an uncle, Maelgwn, who was a monk and lived at the place now called Llangurig. The story is hopelessly confused. We gather that Maelgwn Gwynedd confronted Maelgwn the monk and Curig, was discomfited, and made a grant to Maelgwn the monk and Curig for ever. Two other grants are mentioned, one by Mael, Duke of Maelienydd, to Maelgwn the monk, and the other by Ceredig, prince of Ceredigion, to Curig (LBS II.193-4). The fictitious nature of the story is clear. In one of the windows of Llangurig church Curig is portrayed as a bishop with pastoral staff, but in another, the maryrdom of the boy! LBS suggests that by eliminating all that pertains to Cyriacus the boy-martyr and his mother Julitta, we obtain the following as the current tradition relative to Curig: 1. That he was of unrecorded genealogy; 2. That he had been a warrior, but was converted and became a monk; 3. That he lived in the time of Maelgwn Gwynedd, and had a cell and church at Llangurig; 4. That near him lived a holy nun, named Elidan; 5. That he was esteemed to have become a bishop (LBS II.195-6). We may further eliminate No.4, since Elidan is none other than Ilid/Julitta. See s.n. Elidan. Regarding No.1 it may be suggested that there was no such person as Maelgwn the monk, but that Curig was really nephew to Maelgwn Gwynedd, who is said to have become a monk for a time (PCB). Egloskerry, 4½ miles west-north-west of Launceston in Cornwall, is said to be dedicated to Curig (LBS II.196). Kerry seems to be the ‘Keri’ in the Cornish list of the children of Brychan, but the church is styled ‘the chapel of St.Keria of Egloskery’ in Bishop Oldham's Register, 1506 (G.H.Doble, S.Nectan, S.Keyne, and the Children of Brychan in Cornwall, p.33 n.4). The form Keria suggests a female saint as assumed by Catherine Rachel John,(The Saints of Cornwall, 1981, p.41). See also Corentin. The church of Luxulyan in Cornwall claimed SS.Cyric and Julitta as patrons though the name Loc-sulian [=Locus Julianae?] suggests a Juliana. See Juliot. (Doble, loc.cit., p.16). The church of Calstock, near Plymouth, is dedicated to SS.Cyriacus and Julitta, while Newton St.Cyres, near Exeter, is dedicated to St.Cyriacus (LBS II 199-200). Owing to the popularity of SS.Cyriacus and Julitta among the Normans it is not possible to assert that all the churches dedicated to them, together or separately, have supplanted foundations of Curig and of Ilid. But in purely Welsh [and Cornish?] districts, the Welsh saints Curig and Ilid, are to be regarded as the probable patrons in most cases (LBS II.199). The Welsh Curig has taken over the day of Cyriacus, June 16 (LBS I.72, II.200).

We can see that there is a great deal of confusion over a possible Welsh Curig and the saint of that name.  So much so that it is impossible to disentangle the two?  

I think we can only take one critical point away from all this: Cyricus son of Julitta were probably taken as a Christian version of Mabon son of Modron.  Mabon was himself made into a saint in both Wales and Cornwall.  But in this case Cyricus' presence at Capel Curig, a chapel attached to Beddgelert hard by Dinas Emrys, confirms my suspicion that the divine/immortal boy at the fort is none other than the Divine Son Mabon.  The "Stanzas of the Graves" even places Mabon's grave in Lleu's Nantlle not far to the west of Dinas Emrys.  

See https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/05/was-dinas-emrys-fort-of-mabonmaponus.html for additional details.