II. Early References to Arthur:

In the ‘British Historical Miscellany’, British Museum Harley mss. 3859 (compiled around 980 from earlier sources, existing mss. dated to around 1100) - two documents refer to Arthur: the Annales Cambriae and the Historia Brittonum.

The Easter Annals of Wales or Annales Cambraie (folios 190A & 190B), commencing AD 444-446, and compiled c.955, contain the following entries:

for Year 72 (AD 516-518) , ‘Battle of Badon in which Arthur carried the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ on his shoulder (shield?) three days and three nights and the Britons were the victors’;

and for Year 93 (AD 537-539), ‘Battle/strife (Gueith) of Camlann in which Arthur and Medraut fell, and there was death (plague?) in Britain and Ireland.’

It is not clear how contemporary or accurate these references may be (although the rest of the Annales are fairly reliable historically), nor are they in themselves very informative, giving us no clue who Arthur was fighting at Badon, whether Arthur and Medraut were on the same side or not at Camlann, and no idea where these battles took place.

However, the monk Gildas, in his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain) - supposedly written c.530-545, but possibly as late as 570 (mss. 11^th century) - referred to Mons Badonicus as a siege in which the Britons were victorious over the invading Saxons. He did not identify the British commander, and his convoluted prose allows Badon to be dated anywhere between 489 and 520.

The Venerable Bede in his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People), 731, drew heavily on Gildas, and dated Badon to 493, again without naming the victor.

Geoffrey of Monmouth placed Badon at Bath, and Camlann (Camblam) in Cornwall, but there seem to be no earlier justifications for these locations. Badon may well be Badbury Rings (Dorset) or Liddington Castle (near Swindon) – most putative locations are in the south. The strongest candidate for Camlann is however a fort on Hadrian’s Wall, Camboglanna, identified as either Birdoswald or Castlesteads, both on the River Irthing.

Camlann featured extensively in Welsh traditions, especially in the ‘triads’, abbreviated reminders to bards of related stories. Some triads date back to early medieval times, others are much later, and are collected in manuscripts dating from the 13^th century onwards. A hundred or so of these triads survive: some refer to stories known from other sources, others do not, and a few are cryptic and mysterious in the extreme.

In Triad 53, Camlann was the result of one of the Three Harmful Blows of the Isle of Britain, when Gwenhwyfar was struck by Gwenhwyfach (in Culwch and Olwen Gwenhwyach is given as sister to Gwenhwyvar). In Triad 54, hostility between Arthur and Medrawd is recorded in the Three Unrestrained Ravagings of the Isle of Britain, one where Medrawd raided Arthur’s court, consumed all the food and drink, and dragged Gwenhwyfar from her chair and hit her; the second when Arthur raided Medrawd’s court in revenge. In Triad 59, one of the Three Unfortunate Councils of the Isle of Britain was Arthur dividing his men ‘three-fold’ with Medrawd at Camlann. All of these triads are in The White Book of Rhydderch (compiled c.1300-1325) and/or the Red Book of Hergest (compiled c.1375-1425), and all refer to otherwise unknown legendary traditions. In Triad 84 (Peniarth 50, mss. c.1425-1456), Camlann is one of the Three Futile Battles of the Isle of Britain, caused by a quarrel between Gwenhvyfar and Gwenhvyfach.

Also in Harley 3859 (folio 187A) is the Historia Brittonum attributed to ‘Nennius’ (supposedly writing 858, but the text may have been composed around 800-830). This contains what looks like a battle-listing poem (in Latin, but probably taken from an older Welsh source) which translates as:

[A later, corrupted version, (the ‘Vatican’ text, c.945) places the second to fifth battles at River Duglas, no location is given for the ninth battle, the tenth is placed at Traht Treuriot, and the eleventh at Mons Breguoin].

‘Nennius’ placed this poem before his account of Ida of Northumbria (547), so it can be assumed the events described are supposed to be dateable to the early 6^th century, which is consistent with the Annales Cambriae.

Arthur is described here not as a king, but as a military commander dux bellorum (Duke of Battles), a rank that echoes that of Dux Britanniae (Duke of Britain), a post created in the later years of the Roman Empire to defend Britain from various raiders. This may suggest that the Britons in the early 5^th century, a hundred years after the Romans left, had resurrected a Roman-style defence strategy, with a Roman-style military commander. Omission of any reference to the final, fatal battle at Camlann, makes it just possible that the poem was originally composed as an eulogy in Arthur’s own life time. Certainly it is early enough for the place names to have become almost completely obscured in the mists of time.

In attempting to identify the sites of these battles, only two can be placed with any certainty, and they are both northern locations. Silva Celidon (= Caledonian Forest) is clearly Scotland (or perhaps the Penrith/Carlisle area), and Urbs Legionis (the City of the Legion) is probably Chester (although it might possibly be Caerleon). None of the others can be located securely. Some scholars (see for example Kenneth Jackson and Leslie Alcock) have suggested Northumberland or Lincolnshire for River Glein; around Loch Lomond (or perhaps Lindsey in Lincolnshire) for Linnuis; an unknown Scottish site for River Tribruit; and the Roman fort of High Rochester in Cheviot for Mount Breguoin [i.e. Agned (which Geoffrey of Monmouth placed at Edinburgh)]. River Bassas and Castellum (Castle) Guinnion remain unplaceable.

More speculatively, John Roby (1867) and Harold Broderick (1902) claimed Linnuis meant ‘Land of Lakes’ and may have referred to the Lake District or Lancashire - identified as a Land of Lakes because of Martinmere, near Southport (originally one of the largest lakes in the country). This would make the River Douglas in Lancashire the likely candidate to be the River Dubglas/ Duglas where Arthur fought four battles, and Broderick pointed out that ancient earthworks at Holmeswood (near Southport) were popularly known as ‘King Arthur’s killing pits’ and were reputedly haunted. Other traditions identify Tribruit with the Ribble in Lancashire, and translate Wigan as ‘Place of Battles’. Overall, the best efforts at identifying the battles in ‘Nennius’, and the origin of the name Camlann, all point to northern roots for Arthur.

Other early references to Arthur include Aneirin’s poem Y Goddodin (composed between c. 600-850, in the Book of Aneirin, originally 9^th century, mss. c. 1250). This concerns a heroic defeat of a Celtic force at Catraeth (= Catterick, Yorkshire) in the 590s, and refers to one Gwawrddur as a great warrior ‘although he was not Arthur’. This suggests that Arthur’s name was proverbial by then. A poem in the Black Book of Carmarthen laments the death of Geraint mab Erbin at a battle at Llongborth, in which a contingent called ‘Arthur’s men’ fought. This may be the battle referred to in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle at Langport in Somerset in 710, and if so it reinforces the idea that Arthur’s name was remembered in military circles long after his death.

Adomnan’s Life of St Columba (c. 700) refers to Artuir, son of Aedan of Dalraida (Argyll), killed in battle against the Pictish Miathi around 600. Some scholars believe this was the original ‘King’ Arthur, and certainly Scottish folklore supports this, one tale clearly links Artuir with Arthur, recounting how he recaptured Wander from Mordred the Pict and executed her. It is more likely however that Arthur was becoming a popular name for princes by the end of the 6^th century, a view supported by the Genealogy of Dyfed which names one Arthur map Vortiper (also c. 600). If that is the case, it suggests these princes (one in Scotland, one in Wales) were being named after an earlier Arthur of great renown, whose reputation was national.

Several figures associated with Arthur have demonstrably northern roots:

Gawain: William of Malmesbury placed Walwen in Galloway, and Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed Walgan came from Lothian. In the later medieval period, Gawain was the hero of a number of poems and stories composed in Lancashire and Cumbria.

Melwas: although linked to Glastonbury in the Life of St Gildas, his earliest appearance was in Culwch and Olwen as Maelwas, son of Baedan ( = Baedan mac Cairill, an historical Scottish ruler, who appeared as Baedemagu, Meleagaunt’s father in Chretien’s Lancelot).

Peredur: a major figure in Welsh legend, appearing as Pryderi in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, and best known as the origin of Perceval the Grail knight, Peredur featured earlier in the Descent of the Men of the North in Peniarth 45 (mss c. 1250-1300), along with Gwenddolau and Vryen (of whom more below) and in the 11^th century De Situ Brecheniaue (mss. 13^th century) was given as Urien’s nephew. He is also mentioned twice in the Annales Cambriae: as the victor of the Battle of Arfderydd in 573, and being killed in 580. Arfderydd can be placed in Cumbria (see below), and Triad 30 (Peniarth 16, 45, 47, 50) put Peredur’s death at Caer Greu in battle against Eda (= Ida of Northumbria).

Several other names associated with Arthur can be placed in the north as well (e.g. Tristan: although associated with Cornwall, has a Pictish name – Drustanus), but the northern connection receives strongest support from evidence relating to Merlin, the Grail and Avalon.

Merlin: The Merlin of romance was a composite figure, based on Geoffrey of Monmouth’s conflation of two distinct characters in Celtic tradition.

The first character appears in the Historia Brittonum of Nennius as the child Ambrosius who prophesied for Vortigern on the outcome of the struggle between the Welsh and the Saxon invaders (Ambrosius saw a final victory for the Welsh). In 1134, Monmouth, in his Prophecies of Merlin, gave this child the name ‘Merlinus’ and attributed to him a string of spurious predictions. In his Historia Regum Britanniae (1136) Merlinus prophesied for Vortigern, moved Stonehenge from Ireland to Salisbury Plain, and arranged for Uther to sire Arthur on Gorlois’ wife Igerna. This began the tradition in the medieval romances of Merlin as Arthur’s tutor and court wizard, even though in Monmouth Merlinus and Arthur did not meet.

The other character was Myrddin, referred to in the Annales Cambriae as fighting alongside Gwenddolau at the battle of Arfderydd in 573 against Peredur and his brother, and running mad when Gwenddolau was killed. A poem in the Black Book of Carmarthen refers to the same events, Triad 29 (Peniarth 16, 45, 47, 50) describes Gwenddolau's teulu as one of the Three Faithful Warbands because they continued to fight on at Arfderydd after their lord was killed, and in Triad 84 (Peniarth 50), Arfderydd is referred to as one of the Three Futile Battles of the Isle of Britain, caused by a lark’s nest.

Monmouth muddled up the child Ambrosius with Myrddin, calling his composite creation Merlinus (thus avoiding an unfortunate pun in Norman French mispronunciation of the Welsh ‘Myrddin’), and further confusing the story of Myrddin by having him fight against Gwenolaus at Arderydd in his Vita Merlini (1151).

Giraldus Cambrensis (1193) realised Monmouth had conflated two separate figures, and distinguished Merlin Ambrosius or Emrys (the child prophet from Carmarthen) from the northern Merlin Sylvester (‘Merlin of the Woods’, known to the Welsh as Myrddin Wyllt, ‘the Wild’).

The battle of Arfderydd can be firmly located in the north. Arfderydd has been identified with Arthuret (near Longtown, Cumbria), and Gwenddolau’s name may survive in Carwinelow on the River Eske (three miles from Longtown). The lark’s nest cited as the cause of the battle may be Caer Laverock.

Avalon and the Grail: The Glastonbury connection is demonstrably a 12^th century hoax which has often served to obscure much earlier links between Arthur, the ‘Grail’ and Avalon.

In The Spoils of Annwn (probably 10^th century origin, found in the The Book of Taliesin mss. c.1200), Arthur engaged in a seven-fold quest (cf the Elucidation to Perceval), raiding Annwn (the Otherworld) which was accessible through a ‘glass castle’. The second raid was to bring back the cauldron of Annwn which was guarded by nine girls at Caer Sidi [Caer Wydr (= Ynys Witrin?)] and ‘which boils not the food of cowards’ (cf the Graal in Robert de Boron’s trilogy). Caer Sidi means revolving castle, and is described as being cornered (i.e. bannawc). Caer Bannawc may be the origin for Corbenic and Carbonek, the Grail Castle in Huth Merlin and Malory respectively.

The 10^th century story Culwch and Olwen has Arthur aiding Culwch bring back from Ireland a magic cauldron which does not feed the unworthy.

The link with Ireland is of interest. The Irish Leabhar Gabhála Éireann (Book of Invasions, mss. 12^th century) refers to the Fomhoire ruling Erin from a Glass Tower on Tory Island off Donegal, until they were defeated and expelled by the Tuatha Dé Danaan, who in turn, defeated by the Gaels, retreated into sídh, fairy mounds or round barrows (=Caer Sidi?). Among the treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danaan was the cauldron of the Dagda. It is plainly this cauldron that Arthur and Culwch fetch from Ireland, and it is this cauldron that features in Branwen, Daughter of Llyr, one of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi (10^th century, mss. Peniarth 6, c.1225, the White Book of Rhydderch and the Red Book of Hergest). In this, the earliest British ‘grail quest’ story, Brân, the British raven king, was in possession of the cauldron of rebirth, initially obtained from the Lake of the Cauldron in Ireland. Brân gave this cauldron to the King of Ireland when he married Brân’s sister Branwen. When Branwen was insulted by her husband, Brân attacked Ireland to bring her back. In the fighting, the cauldron was broken, and Brân (referred to cryptically as ‘Pierced Thighs’) was mortally wounded in battle which devastated the land (cf the effect of the maiming of the Fisher King in the romances when the Dolorous Blow is struck, and the plague in Britain and Ireland when Arthur fell in Annales Cambriae). Brân’s surviving seven comrades (including Pryderi) cut off his head and carried it on a dish (cf the head on a platter in Peredur) where it sustained them with food and drink. Finally the head was buried on the White Hill in London to protect the realm (hence the legend that Britain is safe so long as the ravens remain at the Tower of London, built by the Normans on the White Hill). In Triad 37a (Red Book of Hergest) Arthur dug up Brân’s head in one of the Three Unfortunate Disclosures. Brân was clearly the prototype Fisher King, the origin of Bron in de Boron’s trilogy, and his story lies behind the Arthurian quests in The Spoils of Annwn and Culwch and Olwen.

The cauldron is the prototype of the Grail, and its origin lies in the Otherworld (Caer Sidi, the sídh, the Lake of the Cauldron). In Welsh traditions, the Otherworld was Annwn, accessible through a Glass Castle, and was ruled by Arawn (in Pwyll, Lord of Dyfed, in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, c.10^th century). In Câd Goddeu (in The Book of Taliesin) Arawn of Annwn fought the sons of Dôn in the Battle of the Trees, and was defeated when the name of his secret ally was revealed and spoken by his enemies. This was one of the Three Futile Battles of the Isle of Britain (Triad 84).

In the Black Book of Carmarthen and Triad 70 (Peniarth 47), Arawn is the brother to Lleu and Urien. Lleu appears as Lot in Geoffrey of Monmouth and subsequently, and is father to Walgan (Gawain). From Wace onwards, he is usually designated King of Orkney.

Urien is one of the major figures on Welsh legendary history. As King of Rheged (Lancashire and Cumbria) he appears in the Historia Brittonum defeating Theodric of Northumbria at Lindisfarne (c.600) until murdered by another Briton; he is celebrated (along with his son Owein) in several poems in the Book of Taliesin (mss. 13^th century), and features in a number of triads as a great leader. Triad 33 (Peniarth 16) describes his death as one of the Three Unfortunate Assassinations of the Isle of Britain, and in a 9^th century poem in the Red Book of Hergest, Llywarch Hen laments that he has killed Urien and now carries his head. The parallels with Brân and Peredur are evident.

A fragment in Peniarth 147 has Urien seduced by the daughter of the King of Annwfn at a ford, and she bears him Owein (a story that parallels an Irish tale of the seduction of Dagda by Morrigan, the war goddess). Triad 70 (Peniarth 47, mss. 15^th century) identifies Owein and his sister as one of the Three Fair Womb-Burdens of the Isle of Britain, naming their father as Urien and mother as Modron, daughter of Afallach.

Modron may have derived originally from Matrona, an earth goddess, or Morrigan, Irish war goddess, and she is herself the origin of Morgan le Fay, who presides over Avalon. This connection is clinched by Triad 51 (Red Book of Hergest) where Arthur’s resting place is given as the Isle of Afallach, and in the Huth Merlin where Morgan le Fee is given as Urien’s wife.

The Petit Saint Graal (c.1200) records Perceval killing Urban with a blow that desolates the land, and being attacked by ravens. Defending himself, he kills a raven, and it turns into a dead girl. Urien (Urban) is clearly the Fisher King, maimed in a Dolorous Stroke, and identifiable with Brân, the raven king. The ravens who flock to attack Perceval are Modron/Morgan of Afallach/Avalon and her girls. In the romances, Urien’s kingdom is given as Gore (=Goirre, Meleagaunt’s castle = Voire = Isle of Glass).

Drawing a few strands together, it is clear that the original Grail story is a quest to retrieve the cauldron of life/plenty/rebirth from the Otherworld (Annwn/ Afallach/ Avallach/ Avalon), ruled by Arawn/Afallach, the father of Modron /Morgan le Fay/ Morgain. It is to this Otherworld that Arthur goes after Camlann.

The role of Urien, brother of Arawn and husband of Modron (Morgan), who parallels Brân, the Fisher King, and Melwas, all with their respective connections to the Otherworld, is crucial, as it confirms our quest to find Avalon, not at Glastonbury, but in Rheged.

The idea that Avalon is in the north is not new. Eccentric Victorian enthusiasts like John Roby – over-inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites and Tennyson – claimed that Lancashire was ‘Lancelot’s shire’ and that Lancelot had been raised by the Lady of the Lake at Martinmere, and that this was Avalon. More scholarly opinion makes other claims. For example, Dr. Norma Goodrich (1986) centres Arthur’s military and political power on Stirling and Carlisle, and his religious capital at Peel Castle on St Patrick’s Isle (Isle of Man), making this her ‘Avalon’.

Well, perhaps. But we suspect the key to finding the crossing of the ways, the sacred precinct of the Grail, the ‘resting place’ of Arthur, is to find the Glass Castle, the true portal to Avalon.

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