Gelligaer Roman Fort, Glamorgan, Wales
Gelligaer (Artist's Reconstruction)
For quite awhile now I've remained unsatisfied with the identification of Celli ("Grove") in the Welsh poem PA GUR. We are told in that work that Cai fought bravely at the site, and that the grove was lost (although who exactly lost it is impossible to tell from the context).
The best that top Arthurian scholars have been able to do so far is best summarized in see Nerys Ann Jones' ARTHUR IN EARLY WELSH POETRY, p. 40, Note 33, where it is suggested Celli may be Arthur's Cornish Kelliwic.
In the past, given that the majority of the PA GUR battle sites are in the North, I've sought to situate Celli in that region of Britain. The Ravenna Cosmography's Medionemeton or Middle Sacred Grove was a logical candidate. This nemeton may be Cairnpapple in West Lothian, although the Roman stone temple of Victory called Arthur's O'on on the Antonine Wall has also been proposed.
Alas, I overlooked two things. One, Cai of the PA GUR is otherwise placed in contests in Derbyshire and in Gwynedd. He is referred to as a Lord of Emrys (the Ambrosius who supposedly ruled Gwynedd from Dinas Emrys). And, two, we have Cai in a saint's VITA fighting - and winning! a battle at a place that is literally overlooking the Roman fort of Gelligaer in Glamorgan, Wales. Gelligaer is, transparently, the 'fort of the grove.' I'm talking, of course, about Fochriw Carn, where Arthur, Cai and Bedwyr are found sitting in the Life of St. Cadoc:
After a long interval of time the aforesaid king Gwynllyw, depending now on his kingdom, desired with ardent affection on account of the excessive sweetness of her fame that a certain girl should be joined to him in lawful wedlock, born of most noble lineage, of elegant appearance, very beautiful moreover in form, and clad in silk raiment, whose name was Gwladus, the daughter of a certain regulus, who was called Brychan. Accordingly he sent very many messengers to the virgin’s father to the end that they might more resolutely demand that she might be given to him as wife. But the father of the girl, having received the message, was indignant, and, full of anger, refused to bestow his daughter on him, and slighted the messengers, and dismissed them without honour. They, taking this very badly, returned, and told their lord what had been done to them. When he had heard, the king, raving with excessive fury, armed with all possible speed three hundred of his young men to take the aforesaid girl by force. Then starting at once on their journey, when they reached the court of the aforementioned regulus, which is called Talgarth, they found the said virgin sitting with her sisters before the door of her chamber and at leisure in modest conversation, whom they immediately took by force, and beat a hasty retreat. When this was known, her father, Brychan, moved by grief of heart, sorrowing inwardly at the loss of his beloved daughter, called to his aid all his friends and his subjects to recover his daughter. When all his helpers had assembled together, with rapid steps he follows up the enemy and his confederates. Gwynllyw, when he had seen them, ordered that the oft-mentioned girl should be brought up to him, and he made her ride with him. He, carrying the girl cautiously with him on horseback, preceded the army not indeed for flight, but to await his soldiers and to exhort them manfully to war. But Brychan with his men, boldly attacking the savage king and his satellites, slew two hundred of them and followed them up as far as the hill, which is on the confines of either country, which in the Britannic tongue takes the name Boch Rhiw Cam, which means the cheek of the stony way. But when Gwynllyw had arrived at the borders of his land, safe in body with the aforesaid virgin, although sorrowful at the very great slaughter in the fight with his adversaries, lo, three vigorous champions, Arthur with his two knights, to wit, Cai and Bedwyr, were sitting on the top of the aforesaid hill playing with dice. And these seeing the king with a girl approaching them, Arthur immediately very inflamed with lust in desire for the maiden, and filled with evil thoughts, said to his companions, ‘Know that I am vehemently inflamed with concupiscence for this girl, whom that soldier is carrying away on horseback.’ But they forbidding him said, ‘Far be it that so great a crime should be perpetrated by thee, for we are wont to aid the needy and distressed. Wherefore let us run together with all speed and assist this struggling contest that it may cease.’ But he, ‘Since you both prefer to succour him rather than snatch the girl violently from him for me, go to meet them, and diligently inquire which of them is the owner of this land.’ They immediately departed and in accordance with the king’s command inquired. Gwynllyw replies, ‘God being witness, also all who best know of the Britons, I avow that I am the owner of this land.’ And when the messengers had returned to their lord, they reported what they had heard from him. Then Arthur and his companions being armed they rushed against the enemies of Gwynllyw and made them turn their backs and flee in great confusion to their native soil. Then Gwynllyw in triumph through Arthur’s protection together with the aforesaid virgin Gwladus, reached his own residence, which was situated on that hill, which thenceforward took from his name the British appellation Alit Wynllyw, that is, Gwynllyw’s Hill. For from Gwynllyw is named Gwynlliog, and Brycheiniog from Brychan.
Fochriw Carn may be one of the cairns on Mynydd Fochriw, but others prefer to identify it with the more significant cairn of Bugail.
https://coflein.gov.uk/en/
The folks at CADW, for instance, opt for Carn y Bugail:
When Arthur came to Gelligaer
The cairns at Fochriw captured
the imagination of our medieval
ancestors and were drawn into
Arthurian legend. Sometime
in the 1070s or 1080s, a monk
from Llancarfan in Glamorgan
by the name of Lifris wrote a
Latin ‘biography’ of St Cadog,
the Vita Cadoci, and among the
tales he tells about the saint is
an account of his birth.
A local Gwentian king called
Gwynllyw — after whom
Gwynll[g (the western part of
Gwent) was named — eloped
with Gwladys, a daughter of
Brychan, king of Brycheiniog.
Brychan, naturally being
somewhat put out at this unruly
behaviour, gave chase with his
warriors.
When he had almost
caught the couple, Gwynllyw
and Gwladys came to a hill
named Boch Rhiw Carn where
they met Arthur and his boon
companions, Cei and Bedwyr,
playing dice. In later French and
English tales these red-blooded
Celtic heroes were transformed
into the rather surly Sir Kay
and wishy-washy Sir Bedivere.
The ‘three vigorous heroes’
(tres heroes strenui) promptly
defeated Brychan and his men
in a bloody battle, but not
before Arthur has considered
kidnapping Gwladys for himself!
The happy couple went on
their way, and the result of their
newly-wed passion was the holy
St Cadog himself.
Boch Rhiw Carn (‘the cairn of
Fochriw’) is clearly a reference
to Carn Bugail. So here we have
Arthur, Cei and Bedwyr fighting
a battle on the bleak moors
above Rhymney — at least in
the fevered imagination of an
eleventh-century cleric.
A further reminder of the
story can be found at Capel
Gwladys, about 3 miles (4.5km)
along the Roman road and
about 1 mile (1.5km) from
Bargoed (ST 125993).
Here, within an impressive
boundary dyke, you can see
the restored foundations of a
small, rectangular chapel with a
modern carved cross marking
the site of the altar. Although
tradition has it that the chapel
was founded by Gwladys in the
sixth century, these remains
are medieval in date. A carved
grave slab found here and dated
to the eighth or ninth century
can be seen in the porch of
Gelligaer church.
On the open moorland of
Fforest Gwladys, about 550
yards (0.5km) to the southeast of Capel Gwladys, is one
of the best-preserved and
most accessible of the Roman
practice camps (ST 131991).
The following excellent source tells us more about Fochriw Carn and its relationship to nearby Gelligaer:
Fochriw (originally boch+rhiw+garn)
(phonetic: voch-riw)
OS Grid Reference - ST 103 054
The more recent form of the name should correctly be Y Fochriw and the literal translation of this
village name is often given as “slope of the pigs” as the assumption is that the word “moch” (pigs)
has mutated to “foch”. The original word however, was “boch” as the full name for the settlement
is Bochriw’r Garn. This changes the meaning, as “boch”, though usually meaning “a cheek” as on a
face, can also mean a bulge in the ground or a hill, possibly referring to a rounded piece of rock
on the slope (“rhiw”) below the “carn”, the Roman stone found above the village on Gelligaer
Common. Examples of the name can be found as far back as c1170 with Bohrukarn, later y
voyghryw garn c1700 and Y Fochriw in 1867.
Gelligaer (gelli+caer)
(phonetic: gare-ll-ee-guy-rr)
OS Grid Reference - ST 135 969
Literally meaning “grove by the fort”, the village gets its name from its history as a Roman
auxiliary fort and even further back in history from when there was an Iron Age fort on the
adjoining hill, Buarth-y-gaer that is immediately to the east of the village. One of the greatest
Welsh saints of the 6th century, Cadog, was born in Gelligaer (the local ward name is Saint
Cattwg) and legend has it that he was a monk, had magical powers, was a kind and generous host
and was a very successful dairy farmer - in fact the name carries on in Llangadog in West Wales,
famous for the now closed creamery that produced fantastic custard and rice pudding, and you
can still purchase the Welsh Cadog cheese in local supermarkets. The spelling of Gelligaer has
altered over the years in reflection of the way the name has been pronounced e.g. Gelligâr from
1750. Gelligaer Church Hall, erected in 1911 has a plaque with the spelling Neuadd Kell Y Gaer
1911 which is still there. Early map spellings also have the name beginning with the letter K, such
as Kil-gaer 1281, Kylthy-gaer in 1307, Kilthi-gaer in 1349 and Kethlygajer on Pieter van den
Keere's map of Monmouthshire in 1605.
Gelligaer Common / Comin Gelligaer (gelli+caer)
(phonetic: com-in-gare-ll-ee-guy-rr)
OS Grid Reference - ST 125 985
Not so much a settlement as a scattering of dwellings on this open upland, the main population
being Welsh Mountain ponies and other horses. Running roughly northwards across the Common
is the Roman road from Cardiff to Y Gaer, near Brecon and this is still clearly visible above
Fochriw.
I now have no reason to believe that Cai's 'Celli' is anything other than Gelligaer, and the 'grove' was lost to Brychan.
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