THE VYTHNEINT ELEI OF THE 'PA GUR' POEM: A NEW INTERPRETATION OF THREE OF ARTHUR'S CHAMPIONS

The Afon Bannon (earlier Banon) near Cwymcerwyn

In the Arthurian 'Pa Gur' poem, we find the following lines:

vythneint Elei,

a ssivyon ell tri;

Mabon son of Modron,

guas Uthir Pendragon;

Kyscient mab Banon,

a Guin Godybrion.

'vythneint Elei' has always been emended to read wytheint 'birds of prey' or as gwytheint, 'anger, wrath, fury of war.'  So, instead of the three named warriors being 'the eight streams' of the River Ely in Glamorgan, we usually find translated the 'raptors of Elai' or similar.

The river-stream symbolism of vythneint/'eight streams', according to Patrick Sims-Williams (Arthurian Poems), may have caused Gwyn Godofrion to be included in the list, as he name means, literally, Gwyn Under-the-waters.  

However, after a recent discovery, I find myself wondering whether the emendation of 'eight streams' to 'raptors' is correct.

In CULHWCH AND OLWEN, we are told the great boar Twrch Trwyth is encountered at the River Nyfer (see map above).  There the beast kills several of Arthur's men.  Next the board goes to nearby Cwmcerwyn, and one of the men who die fighting him there is Yscawin son of Panon. The name has been shown to be a form (probably a corruption) of Kyscient mab Banon of the 'Pa Gur', itself probably a corrupt spelling of Kysteint or Constantius.  Banon is a Welsh word meaning 'queen.'

Well, a tributary of the Nyfer is the Afon Banon (later spelled Bannon).  This is a divine river-name, in all likelihood, and demonstrates that Kyscient's mother is a river.  Furthermore, the Banon has its source on the great Preseli hillfort, Foel Drygarn.

Yscawin may be closer to the original form of this character's name.  For Yscawin (see the note to the name Kysceint mab Banon in Nerys Ann Jones' ARTHUR IN EARLY WELSH POETRY), two etymologies have been proposed: ysgafn, 'light' (as in weight) or an eponym for Porth Ysgewin (modern Portskewett in Gwent). Ysgafn is fine, as its secondary meaning is "quick, swift, speedy, brisk, fleet, nimble, light-footed (GPC)", a fitting description for a water-course.  

[NOTE: the places associated with Yscawin are in Preseli, which I find recorded in 1303 as Presely.  The etymology is not known, although the first element is believed to be W. prys, a copse or a grove.  This leads one to wonder if the -eli portion of the mountain region name may have been confused for the Ely River.*] 

It has been suggested that Gwyn Godyfrion derives from a lost place-name.  This may be true, but is not necessary for our purposes.  It has been surmised that this is none other than Gwyn son of Nudd, King of the Fairies in Welsh tradition.  I am here quoting from P.C. Bartrum's A WELSH CLASSICAL DICTIONARY from his entry on Gwyn son of Nudd:

"According to the poet Dafydd ap Gwilym the owl was regarded as the bird of Gwyn ap Nudd.

The poet, having ridden one night into a turf bog on a mountain, calls it the ‘Fishpond of Gwyn ap

Nudd, a palace for goblins and their tribe.’"

This famous poet was of Ceredigion in Wales, so presimably the bog in question was located in that county.

I think we may then, credibly, describe Gwyn as a deity residing a a fairly typical Celtic underworld that was accessible through various bodies of water.  Anyone who has read about bog deposition of human sacrifice victims, weapons and the like will have no problem accepting this idea.

We also know that the Lydney Park temple in Gloucestershire, dedicated to Nodens ( = Nudd, father of Gwyn), had healing baths attached to it.

Interestingly, this particular aspect of Gwyn seems to be placed at Uther's Caer Dathal in Arfon. I recently identified Caer Dathal with either Dinas Dinorwig or Pier Camp at Hirael next to Bangor (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/05/caer-dathal-is-actually-identified-in.html).  From Note 288, Page 96 of Rachel Bromwich and Daniel Simon Evan's CULHWCH AND OLWEN: AN EDITION AND STUDY OF THE OLDEST ARTHURIAN TALE, The University of Wales, 1992:

"Gwynn Gotyuron: Gwin Godybrion is found in Pa Gur.  In a currupt form if appears as Gwyn Goluthon among the sons of Iaen."

I can think of no reason for Gwyn to be at Caer Dathal unless he were simply associated with Mabon servant of Uther, a fellow 'raptor' of Elei.  It is possible, I suppose, that the proximity of Moel Eilio (confused with Elei?) to Caer Dathal may have had something to do with this localization of Gwyn Below the Waters (see https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/10669/moel_eilio.html for Moel Eilio as a favorite fairy haunt). 

Gwyn son of Nudd has holy water thrown on him in the vita of St. Collen, something that happens on the Tor at Glastonbury.  And the same Gwyn is said in Black Book of Carmarthen poem 97 to have his home at Mynydd y Drum on the Tawe between Ystradgynlais and Capel Coelbren.

So, we have two of the three Elei warriors with strong water connections.  What about Mabon son of Modron?

We do know that in CULHWCH AND OLWEN, Mabon goes into the Severn with the great boar.  However, I believe it is his mother we should be focusing on.  Modron is the Welsh form of the Gallic Matrona, goddess of the River Marne.   Maponus was identified with the sun god Apollo, who was frequently associated with healing springs.  An inscription featuring the god's name was found at Chamalieres at a thermal spring

(https://www.persee.fr/doc/ecelt_0373-1928_1984_num_21_1_1761).

While it is uncertain whether the source of the 'Pa Gur' poem knew Mabon had strong associations with water, it seems as if all three of the Elei warriors were, indeed, water deities or, at least, aquatic-oriented demi-gods.  But why are these 'raptors' placed at the Ely? Especially as the three heroes with their water associations can easily be placed elsewhere?  Certainly Yscawin son of Banon belongs to Pembrokeshire with his mother the Afon Ban[n]on and the Gwyn of the medieval poet belongs in Ceredigion.  Mabon/Maponos was a northern deity in the Roman period (with a locus Maponi at either the Clochmabenstane or at Lochmaben, where there is an actual lake), but Welsh tradition also located him in Wales (his grave was in Nantlle, Gwynedd, and he takes part in the far-roaming boar hunt of CULHWCH AND OLWEN) and in Caer Gloyw/Gloucester, England.  The eponym of Gloucester/Glevum for the Welsh was Glywys, the traditional founder of the Glywysing in which is found Dinas Powys and the lower course of the Ely. The St. Mabyn in Cornwall may also be a relic of Maponos, and there is a Llanfabon and a couple of other Mabon names in southern Wales.  

And why point out in this context that Mabon is the servant of Uther Pendragon?  I have always thought this last was particularly important, as it might well tell us something important about Uther.  In the past I had tried to associate Mabon of the Ely with St. Illtud at Dinas Powys in his capacity as magister militum/princeps militum/terribilis miles.  And that had me going to Illtud as a possible candidate for Uther Pendragon, the Terrible Chief of Warriors.  

But is there something else going on here?  First and foremost, are we even right in seeing in Elei the Elai/Ely River in Glamorgan?  The water connection would prompt us to answer that question in the affirmative. [My earlier attempt to link Elei with the Eildons in the Scottish Lowlands does not have much to recommend itself.] And might vythneint or eight streams be correct?  I mean, perhaps originally these heroes belonged to the eight streams (tributaries) that were thought to have comprised the Ely.

The question that remains unanswered still is this: if all three water-based heroes have come to the Ely, why have they done so?  The only reason I can think of is to be at the place where Mabon could be the servant of Uther Pendragon - and that continues to be the Dark Age fortress of Dinas Powys.  We cannot say that they came from the Ely, as I've just shown that Gwyn and Yscawin belong elsewhere.  Saying that Mabon came from the Ely is possible, given that the lower course of the Ely was in Glwysing, and the church of Llanfabon was NE near the Taff, a river that shared an estuary with the Ely, but no where in the Welsh sources other than the 'Pa Gur' are we told Mabon belongs on the Ely.

My conclusion, therefore, is that 'Pa Gur' does, in fact, point strongly towards the presence of Uther Pendragon at Dinas Powys, and it is the unavoidable conclusion that at least as far as the author of the poem was concerned, Uther Pendragon was the Welsh rendering of the Latin military descriptors used for St. Illtud.  

*

While writing this article, I heard back from Schrijver and will attach the full discussion here. His responses are in bold-face type. 

"Peter, could the -eli of Preseli be akin to W. ail, Irish aile, fence, palisade? For something like brush-palisade mountain?"

"Not bad. If ‘palisade’ is indeed from *alese/a-, as I suggested, then -eli is what we would expect." 

"I was thinking about your River Ely theory...

What gave me the idea is this:

In the PA GUR, one of the raptors (?) of Elei is Yscawen (or Kysceint, maybe Kysteint) son of Panon/Banon.  In CULHWCH AND OLWEN, this character dies fighting the great boar at Cwmcerwyn in Preseli.  Just before that some other of Arthur's men had died at the Nyfer.  As it  happens, the Afon Banon (later spelled Bannon) empties into the Nyfer.  It seemed to me this was fairly typical use of a river-goddess place-name.  That Elei was used (thought to be the Ely River in Glamorgan in this context) suggests there may have been a confusion and the son of Banon actually belongs at Presseli precisely because the second element of the mountain name is present in the river-name.

Make sense?"

"Makes sense."