I'm reposting this piece with slight revisions (mostly added supportive material from Dr. Simon Rodway, Welsh expert at The University of Wales). My final reading of the key section of the Uther elegy poem does not allow for the name Sawyl being found in the text. And this fact negates, quite definitively, I feel, my earlier attempt to identify the 'Terrible Chief-dragon/warrior' with Sawyl of Ribchester. At the same time, the following translation explains where Geoffrey of Monmouth got his ideas for Uther's transformation into Gorlois and Uther's dragon-star.
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/02/uther-pendragongorlassar-and-dragon-star.html
I have finished treating exhaustively of the first portion of the Elegy of Uther Pendragon (MARWNAT VTHYR PEN). The results are rather surprising, I think. Before I begin discussing my new reading for a couple key lines of the poem, here are editor Marged Haycock’s notes on the two most important, but very troublesome lines in the relevant section:
6 a’m rithwy am dwy pen kawell G emends am dwy > an Dwy(w) ‘our Lord’,
understood as the subject of 3sg. subjunct. rithwy ‘transform’ etc., but yn adwy
‘in the breach’ or yn ardwy ‘as a defence’ would give a more regular three
syllables in the central section. Kawell ‘basket, pannier; cradle; fish-trap; creel,
cage; quiver; belly, breast’ (GPC) seems unlikely, as do cowyll ‘maidenhood-fee;
clothing, covering’ (with G s.v. coŵyll), sawell ‘chimney, kiln’ (see on §4.246),
or nawell ‘nine times better’. Cannwyll is sometimes a rhyme partner for tywyll
(e.g. AP line 88 cannwyll yn tywyll; CC 18.13; R1056.15), and would yield full
rhyme. ‘May our Lord, the guiding/chief light, transform me’ is a possibility; or
(with yn adwy) ‘May the guiding/chief light (i.e. God) transform me in the
breach’. Or is pen kawell a basket to collect up the heads he cuts off (line 18)? If
Uthr is the speaker, is vb rithaw to be connected with his transformation through
disguise (see introduction)? Obscure.
7 eil kawyl yn ardu G emends kawyl > Sawyl, the personal name (from Samuelis
via *Safwyl). Sawyl Ben Uchel is named with Pasgen and Rhun as one of the
Three Arrogant Men, Triad 23, as a combative tyrant in Vita Cadoci (VSB 58);
and in CO 344-5. Samuil Pennissel in genealogies, EWGT 12 (later Benuchel),
Irish sources, and in Geoffrey of Monmouth. Other Sawyls include a son of
Llywarch, and the saint commemorated in Llansawel: see further TYP3 496,
WCD 581 and CO 104. Ardu ‘darkness, gloom; dark, dreadful (GPC), sometimes
collocated with afyrdwl ‘sad; sadness’ (see G, GPC).
And the lines under consideration follow…
Neu vi luossawc yn trydar:
It is I who commands hosts in battle:
ny pheidwn rwg deu lu heb wyar.
I’d not give up between two forces without bloodshed.
Neu vi a elwir gorlassar:
It’s I who’s styled ‘Armed in Blue’:
vy gwrys bu enuys y’m hescar.
my ferocity snared my enemy.
5 Neu vi tywyssawc yn tywyll:
It is I who’s a leader in darkness:
a’m rithwy am dwy pen kawell.
. . . . .
Neu vi eil Sawyl5 yn ardu:
It’s I who’s a second Sawyl in the gloom.
ny pheidwn heb wyar rwg deu lu:
I’d not give up without bloodshed [the fight] between two forces.
Kawell of Line 6 is ‘creel, fishing basket.’ No one has been able to make any sense of pen kawell. I once thought it might be a place-name, but my search for such failed to yield any significant site or notable feature. However, Geoffrey of Monmouth or his source may have guessed the same thing, as he placed Uther’s transformation into Gorlois at the headland of Tintagel. Welsh pen is frequently used of promontories. A headland of the fish basket is not an unreasonable construction for a place-name. However, we would expect Pen Cored or similar (“Headland of the Fish-Weir”) instead. A Pen Kawell may have been called such because the headland itself resembled a basket, or because fish-baskets had to be carried up to or over it.
Taken literally, pen kawell is either ‘basket-head’ (a not very flattering description or nickname!), “chief basket” or “Chief of the Basket.” I once thought this last could be a designation for either Taliesin himself, who transforms from Gwion Bach while inside a hide-covered basket or coracle, or it could be a reference to Gwyddno Garanhair, who not only owned the weir in which Taliesin’s coracle became trapped, but who also possessed a magical mwys, ‘hamper, basket’ (= cawell, according to the GPC). However, in the Taliesin story the hero is placed not in a cawell, but in either a ‘korwgyl ne vol kroen’, i.e. a coracle or a skin bag. Neither is the same thing as a cawell.
Fortunately, there is a solution to the problem posed by this line. Welsh has both cawell and cafell. These words come from Latin cauella. Here is cafell in the GPC:
cafell1
[amr. ar cawell, bnth. Llad. Diw. cauella, cf. cafod, cawod]
eb. ll. cafellau, cafelloedd.
a Cysegr, teml, cangell, côr eglwys, cell, siambr:
sanctuary, temple, chancel, choir, cell, chamber.
I suggest that kawell is here a slight error for kafell. Thus ‘pen kawell’ should be read ‘chief of the sanctuary/temple’, a perfect poetic designation for God. Dr. Simon Rodway of The University of Wales agrees that the meaning here would better fit cafell than cawell: "As cawell and cafell are phonological variants of the same word, you could easily make a case that they originally had the same semantic range."
Sawyl in Line 7 is an incorrect emendation. Instead, cannwyll works very nicely here, matching “the leader in darkness” of line 5. Haycock had suggested can(n)wyl(l) for the Pen Kawell line, but just as kawell cannot come from the Welsh word for horse (cafal, ceffyl; information courtesy Dr. Simon Rodway of The University of Wales), nor can it represent cannwyll. Cannwyll can mean both luminary as well as (metaphorically) leader. Presumably, Uther was a 'second luminary' in the sense that God was the first. Or he is referring to himself as opposed to the dragon-star itself.
Dr. Simon Rodway has informed me that cawyl could represent an error for cannwyll: "Yes, that’s possible. A copyist might have missed an n-suspension over the a, and single n for double nn is quite common in Middle Welsh MSS."
From the GPC:
cannwyll
[bnth. Llad. Diw. cantēla < candēla, H. Grn. cantuil, Llyd. C. cantoell, Gwydd. coinneal]
eb. ll. canhwyllau.
a Darn silindraidd o wêr neu gŵyr wedi ei weithio o gwmpas pabwyryn ac a ddefnyddir i roi golau, yn dros. am seren, haul, lloer, llusern, lamp, &c.; yn ffig. am oleuni, disgleirdeb, cyfarwyddyd, arweiniad, arweinydd, arwr, y pennaf, y rhagoraf, &c.:
candle, luminary, transf. of star, sun, moon, lamp; fig. of light, brightness, instruction, leader, hero, choicest or best of anything.
The entire portion of the poem, if I’ve rendered it correctly, should then read as follows:
It is I who commands hosts in battle:
I’d not give up between two forces without bloodshed.
It’s I who’s called the very blue:
my ferocity snared my enemy.
It is I who’s a leader in darkness:
Our God, Chief of the Sanctuary, transforms me.
It’s I who’s like ['eil' here means like/similar to, not 'second'] a star in the gloom:
I’d not give up fighting without bloodshed between two forces.
If I have this right, what – if anything – does it tell us about Uther?
Well, the transformation would appear to be into the luminary in question. As the word cannwyll can be used of a star, this may be a reference to the dragon-star in Geoffrey of Monmouth, as the latter is said to represent Uther himself. Of course, it is possible Geoffrey or his source got the idea of the dragon-star from the poem and not vice-versa.
Gorlassar is still mysterious, despite many attempts to divine its true meaning. With gleaming weapons or armor is the usual explanation. I had offered also the magical sea-green/blue cloak of the god Manannan mac Lir and the possibility that woad was involved. Julius Caesar in Book V of his GALLIC WARS says “Omnes vero se Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod caeruleum efficit colorem, atque hoc horridiores sunt in pugna aspect ("All Britons stain themselves with vitrum, which produces a dark blue color, and by this means they are more terrifying to face in battle.").
However, I had reminded my readers that comets (like the dragon-star of Uther) could appear to glow with a greenish-blue light. The following is excerpted from a past post:
"On his way to the battle, Uther saw a most remarkable spectacle in the skies. There appeared a star of such magnitude and brilliance that it was seen both day and night. The star emitted a single ray of light that created a fiery mass resembling the body and head of a dragon. Shining from the mouth of the dragon came two rays of light. One extended out across the skies of Britain and over Gaul. The other extended out over the Irish Sea culminating in seven lesser beams of light. Such was its magnitude, it could be seen all across Britain and beyond, and filled the people with fear and dread not knowing what it might portend."
Merlin tells the king this about the star:
"For the star, and the fiery dragon under it, signifies yourself, and the ray extending towards the Gallic coast, portends that you shall have a most potent son, to whose power all those kingdoms shall be subject over which the ray reaches. But the other ray signifies a daughter, whose sons and grandsons shall successively enjoy the kingdom of Britain.”
Thus the transformation in the poem refers to Uther's becoming, metaphorically speaking, like a star lighting up the night. Geoffrey of Monmouth or his source took this motif and ran with it.
Even more importantly, I now can explain why Uther calls himself Gorlassar, the 'very green/blue.' This has mystified scholars, and I myself have been guilty of making several rather implausible guesses as to its meaning. Now, though, I would propose that Gorlassar is a description of the color of a comet - which, as it happens, often appear with a distinct bluish-green hue. Simply put, Uther is referring to himself as a bright blue-green comet lighting up the night sky, a true symbol of a leader of his people.
If there is any truth to the comet story, we may be talking about the comet of 442 A.D. This “star” appeared at and entered into Ursa Major, the Great Bear. From Cometography: 1800-1899, by Gary W. Kronk:
In concluding, I really have only one question to ask - and it is an unanswerable one, unfortunately. While Uther's dragon-head standard is certainly a reflection of the Roman period draco, as the draco came into the Roman army through people such as the Dacians, Thracians and Sarmatians (all present in Britain as troops) might it have symbolically represented a cometary deity or monster belonging to the indigenous religion of these peoples?
I find this in the Wikipedia article on the Dacian draco (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacian_Draco):
The body of the standard, depicting a dragon-like balaur or a large snake, was seen by the Dacians as a manifestation of the sky demon or "heavenly dragon".[21][22] This relates to their supreme god Zalmoxis who was a sky god (cf. also Tomaschek[23]).[24] In the Hallstatt Period "proper", the decorative pattern of a dragon head or a serpent became quite common in Dacia. The dragon symbol is also represented on the silver Dacian bracelets of the Classical period.[25] The snake-shaped bracelets and other similar ornaments show not only the spread of the snake as a decorative motif but also its significance in Dacian material civilization.[26][27]
NOTE: The sources cited for this information appear to be quite old and I am not, therefore, convinced of their reliability. I would urge those who wish to learn more about the mythological applications of the draco to embark upon their own research.
