The Supernova of 1006 in Culhwch and Olwen.

The Supernova of 1006 in Culhwch and Olwen.

Abstract

One of the last times a British person might have looked towards the constellation anciently known as Therion, The Beast, (now as Lupus The Wolf) was on the Eve of May 1^st 1006. This was the occasion for the most violent event ever witnessed by humankind - the Super Nova of 1006. On this date at around mid-night an observer at a latitude of about 52° N in, say, the Plinlimon range of mid-Wales, would have witnessed at the horizon, far to the south, on the border between The Beast and The Horseman (Centaurus), a star suddenly explode with such ferocity that it reached an estimated magnitude of -9. This was the brightest apparant magnitude stellar event in history and it was recorded all over the northern civilised belt from China to Belgium. I think that this event was also recorded in the early medieval Welsh tale known as 'Culhwch and Olwen'. The evidence which suggests this begins with one of the seemingly impossible tasks, which Yspaddaden Chief Giant requires of the hero Culhwch in order that he may win the hand of this giant's daughter Olwen. Yspaddaden demands of Culhwch: ‘A leash from the beard of Dillus the Horseman'...

John N. Davies

The Supernova of 1006 in Culhwch and Olwen.

Part I: The Fire of Dillus the Horseman

Fig.i Φόλος the bearded Horseman singeing the Wild Beast over a Fire.¹

Introduction

The medieval Welsh tale known as Culhwch ac Olwen or Culhwch and Olwen is regarded as the earliest Arthurian tale in any literature. Its precise date of composition is not known but certain internal references appear to point to a date after 1083, whilst the apparent lack of Galfridian influence argues for a date earlier than 1136.² Neither is the author known, though it is likely he was a monk of one of the clasau or monastic settlements in West Wales.³ The earliest redactions of the tale are to be found in the two great medieval Welsh manuscripts The White Book of Rhydderch (c. 1350), where it is incomplete, and in The Red Book of Hergest (1382 – c.1410), which contains the full version. The main structure of the story is built around the international popular tale known as The Giants Daughter, in which the hero of the tale falls in love with, and wishes to marry, a giants daughter. In order to win her hand however, he must accomplish a series of nigh on impossible tasks set by the giant. The hero, with the aid of (usually six) helpers with special powers, duly achieves these tasks and returns to the giant's stronghold where he slays the giant and marries the daughter. Such are the barest bones of Culhwch and Olwen.⁴

This essay came about because I noticed what appeared to be textual references to certain well-known late classical 'astronomical tales' (which purport to describe the origins of the constellations) in the episodes in Culhwch involving the boar which Dillus the Horseman ’singes’ over his fire, and in the hunts for Yskythrwyn Chief Boar and the Twrch Trwyth. These 'astronomical' tales are to be found in that corpus of late classical literature which formed the basis for the discipline of Astronomy in the Quadrivium, the higher part of the medieval curriculum known as the Seven Liberal Arts.⁵ Mixed in with these literary references I noticed detailed 'word-pictures', which could be taken as descriptions of the traditional imagery associated with the Ptolemaic constellation figures, and these same literary vignettes seemed to contain pictorial details which do not occur in the late classical tales, suggesting familiarity, on the part of the author, with planispheric celestial charts.

The Ptolemaic constellations then, have stories attached to them which are known as 'astronomical tales' or 'astral tales', and they describe the motions and the spatial relationships of the constellations.⁶ The method of an 'astronomical tale' is to fix in the mind an image or a series of images which describe memorable configurations of fictional or mythical characters, beasts and artefacts in scenarios which mimic aspects of the constellations. A good example, which has particular relevance to what follows, is the simultaneous rising and setting of Scorpius and Orion which finds expression in just such a 'myth'. The version below is from the Phaenomena by Aratus of Soli (fl.early C3rd BC)

The winding River [the constellation Eridanus] will straightaway sink in fair flowing ocean at the coming of Scorpion, whose rising puts to flight even the mighty Orion. Thy pardon, Artemis, we crave! There is a tale told by men of old, who said that stout Orion laid hands upon her robe, what time in Chios he was smiting with his strong club all manner of beasts, as a service of the hunt to that King Oenopion. But she forthwith rent in twain the surrounding hills of the island and roused up against him another kind of beast – even the Scorpion, who proving mightier wounded him, mighty though he was, and slew him, for that he had vexed Artemis. Wherefore, too, men say that at the rising of the Scorpion in the East Orion flees at the Western verge.⁷

The point to remember here is that this short tale is rooted in the astronomy, the story has been invented in order to invoke in the minds eye the movement of these constellations; as Scorpius rises Orion sets. Another well known example concerns the more folksy designations of Bootes and the great asterism of Ursa Major as The Ploughman and the Plough respectively, this ancient idea refers to their relative positions and their motion around the Pole Star, where Bootes as The Ploughman pushes The Plough around the sky every twenty-four hours.⁸ There is an obvious reference to this ancient notion in 'Culhwch and Olwen' in the very first of the anoetheu, or the list of 'things hard to find', which the giant Yspaddaden requires of Culhwch the hero, he demands that 'yonder vast hill' be 'ploughed and sown in one day' and that the man who should till and prepare the land be Amaethon son of Don, where the name Amaethon means 'Divine Ploughman'.⁹

But it is in the latter part of Culhwch where there seems to be a remarkable concentration of these astronomical references; I regard that most, if not all, of the episodes which go to make up the final six 'achievements', (including the 'interpolated' abduction of Kreiddylat) of the tasks set by Yspaddaden PenCawr, to be closely related to these classical astronomical tales which describe the Ptolemaic constellations. This is not to deny the native traditional material or the international popular tales which Culhwch and Olwen is, in large part, undoubtedly founded upon.¹⁰ On the contrary traditional tales of this type were often bundled with astronomical material, take the two analogous Greek tales 'Jason and the Argonauts' and 'The Labours of Hercules', both contain much astronomical lore.¹¹ The evidence presented below suggests that the author has woven his knowledge of classical starlore into this native and popular international material with deliberate and knowing intent.

The Beast and the Horseman

The constellation Lupus has only been known as such since possibly as late as the 14th century, previously this constellation was known simply, but vaguely, as Therion - The Wild Beast.¹² However, some historians of Astronomy have suggested that this was at one time meant to be the Erymanthian Boar, the 'anoeth', as it were, of the Fourth Labour of Hercules. Donald H. Menzel noted that, ‘Lupus (the Wolf) has undergone many transformations in history. In my opinion, the original figure represented the Erymanthian boar, which Hercules hunted in company with the Centaurs'.¹³ More recently Emily Winterburn has said: ‘Lupus was more a general beast, possibly one killed for the nearby constellation Centaurus, possibly the original Erymanthian boar captured by Hercules in his fourth labour.'¹⁴

One of the last times a British person might have looked towards this constellation and recognised in its stars the figure then known as Therion, was during the three months following the Eve of May 1^st 1006. This was the occasion for the most violent event ever witnessed by humankind. Modern Astronomers refer to this major cosmic disturbance as SN 1006 - Super Nova 1006¹⁵. At around mid-night on this date an observer at a latitude of about 52° N in, say, the Plinlimon range of mid-Wales, would have seen at the horizon, far to the south on the border between Therion and Centaurus, a star suddenly explode with such ferocity that it reached an estimated magnitude of -9. This was the brightest apparent magnitude stellar event in history and it was recorded all over the northern civilised belt from China to Belgium. By all accounts its light lingered for at least another eighteen months before it eventually disappeared and its exact position was not rediscovered until the late 20^th century when the spectacular shell was revealed by radio telescope.

I think that this event was also recorded in the early medieval Welsh tale 'Culhwch and Olwen'. The evidence which suggests this begins with one of the seemingly impossible tasks which Yspaddaden Pen Cawr requires of Culhwch in order that he may win the hand of his daughter Olwen. Yspaddaden demands of Culhwch: ‘A leash from the beard of Dillus the Horseman (Dissull Varchawc)'.¹⁶ To which Culhwch replies: ''It is easy for me to get that, though thou think it is not easy.'¹⁷

As JK Bollard notes, at this point in the tale :'Both manuscripts read Dissull Varchawc D. the Horseman...¹⁸ Later he is consistently called Varuawc (= Farfog, from barfog 'bearded'), which seems more suitable than Varchawc'.¹⁹ On this point, all translators and commentators on Culhwch have made this same assumption but this is not actually the case, he is called ‘Horseman’ twice and ’Bearded’ twice in the Red Book, and ’Horseman’ once in the White Book, (where this task is missing).²⁰ There is an obvious play on words here and I hope to show that both epithets ‘Bearded’ and ‘Horseman’ are perfectly suitable descriptions of Dillus. The task itself is actually achieved by Bedwyr and Cei, Arthur's chief henchmen, and the incident is described as follows:

As Cei and Bedwyr were sitting on top of Pumlumon on Carn Gwylathyr, in the highest wind in the world, they looked about them and they could see a great smoke towards the south, far off from them, and not blowing across with the wind. And then Cei said, 'By the hand of my friend, see yonder the fire of a warrior.' They hastened towards the smoke and approached thither, watching from afar as Dillus the Bearded (dillus uarcuavc - d. horseman) was singeing a wild boar. Now, he was the mightiest warrior that ever fled from Arthur. Then Bedwyr said to Cei, 'Dost know him?' 'I know him,' said Cei; 'that is Dillus the Bearded (dillus uarruavc - d. bearded). There is no leash in the world may hold Drudwyn the whelp of Greid son of Eri, save a leash from the beard of him thou seest yonder. And that too will be of no use unless it be plucked alive with wooden tweezers from his beard; for it will be brittle, dead.' 'What is our counsel concerning that?' asked Bedwyr. 'Let us suffer him,' said Cei, 'to eat his fill of meat and after that he will fall asleep.' Whilst he was about this, they busied themselves making tweezers. When Cei knew for certain that he was asleep he dug a pit under his feet, the biggest in the world, and he struck him a blow mighty past telling, and pressed him down in the pit until they had entirely twitched out his beard with the tweezers; and after that they slew him outright.²¹

As I have mentioned, historians of astronomy have suggested that the ancient Greeks thought that Therion represented the Erymanthian Boar, but this interpretation does have difficulties - Hercules had already (accidentally) killed the two centaurs usually associated with the constellation Centaurus before he actually went to hunt and eventually capture the Erymanthian Boar.²² A more compelling hypothesis is that the constellation Therion represents the ’roasted meat’ which the centaur Pholus (Φόλος) must have 'singed' over his fire, as he entertained Hercules prior to the hunt for the Boar:

Travelling through Pholoe, Heracles stayed as a guest with the Centaur Pholos, the son of Seilenos and an ash-tree nymph. This Centaur offered Heracles meat that was roasted, but he himself ate his raw.²³

It seems reasonable to suppose that this 'roast meat' was meant to be a serving of wild boar, and with regard to this Richard Hinckley Allen commented:

Centaurus is from the Κένταυρος that Aratos used, probably from earlier times, for it was a universal title with the Greeks; but he also called it the Horseman Beast, the customary term for a centaur in the Epic and Aeolic dialects. This, too, was the special designation of the classical Pholos, son of Silenus and Melia, and the hospitable one of the family, who died in consequence of exercising this virtue toward Hercules. Apollodorus tells us that the latter's gratitude caused this centaur's transformation to the sky … with the fitting designation ‘Well-disposed‘.²⁴

Clearly then, there existed an astronomical tale relating to these constellations, which depicted Centaurus as Pholus (Φόλος) the Horseman roasting or singeing a wild boar (Therion) over the smoking fire of Ara (The Altar). It is this moment from the 'Fourth Labour of Hercules' which 'caused this centaur's transformation to the sky' and all of these details, except the flavour of the meat, are recorded in 'The Library' of Apollodorus. Interestingly, the earliest surviving depictions of the constellation Centaurus show him fully bearded as for instance on the Farnese Globe, later though, for example in the Leyden Manuscript, he is pictured ‘with a shaven face, but with a heavy mustache (!),’ (sic. Allen). Now these descriptions and depictions tally nearly perfectly with the image which Cei and Bedwyr saw from Plinlimmon Top:

The bearded figure of Dillus the Horseman singeing a wild boar over a fire, far to the south.

The bearded figure of Φόλος the Horseman singeing a wild boar over a fire, far to the south.

This duplication of such an unlikely set of circumstances, and the striking visual similarity of the names Dillus and Φόλος with the 'Horseman' epithet, strongly suggests borrowing from one tradition to the other, and it is a reasonable assumption that it was the Welsh author who was borrowing from the Greek tradition. I suggest that the author of Culhwch may have seen this name written in Greek (possibly in a copy of the 'Library' itself) and that, in transcribing the name Φόλος into Latin letters, he has mistaken, (perhaps deliberately, perhaps not) Φ for D, ό for i, and λ for ll.²⁵

Now Dillus the Horseman was a ‘mighty warrior’ and if Cei and Bedwyr were to pluck his beard they needed to trap him in a pit, ostensibly this was to avoid having to fight him, but also because they otherwise would not have been able to reach his beard on account of his enormous size. But I think that the narrator is communicating something on a far grander scale. So Cei and Bedwyr waited for him to eat his fill of the boar meat and then:

When Cei knew for certain that he was asleep he dug a pit under his feet, the biggest in the world, and he struck him a blow mighty past telling, and pressed him down in the pit

JK Bollard has suggested that the 'deep hollow by a farm called Erwbarfe ('Beards-Acre') in the Rheidol gorge near Devil's Bridge, just south of the Plumlumon Range, might be a suitable site for the pit in which Dillus was trapped'.²⁶ Surely though, this contradicts the point which our narrator is at pains to express, Dillus the Horseman is not at a nearby location but very far away. This idea of great distance is articulated several times; Cei and Bedwyr were 'in the highest wind in the world' and 'they could see a great smoke towards the south, far off from them, and not blowing across with the wind'. '...see yonder the fire of a warrior,' says Cei. They have to travel south, but are still 'watching from afar' when Cei eventually recognises that it is Dillus the Bearded who is 'singeing a wild boar', over the fire.

Having now been pressed into the 'biggest pit in the world', (surely, no mere local gorge) we can imagine that all that was showing of Dillus the Horseman above the earth was his head and his beard and if we are to equate this image with Pholus the Horseman (Centaurus) then a precessional epoch must be sought when, as seen from Plinlimon, just the head and neck of Pholus the Horseman were above the southern horizon. Two thousand years ago Centarus' entire upper torso was clear of the horizon and this would have made for a very dangerous situation for Cei and Bedwyr. So we need to press him down further into the biggest pit in the world. We can do this by winding the precessional clock forward, if we take it to 500 AD Dillus's arms are still free and Cei and Bedwyr are still vulnerable, and it requires another 500 years of precessional pit digging and pressing down before Pholus the Horseman is sufficiently buried up to his neck for his beard to be safely 'twitched'.²⁷ We are now in the early 11^th century, and fast approaching a period which most authorities assign to the committal of Culhwch and Olwen to writing, but just as importantly it brings us into the temporal vicinity of the SN 1006 event.

Supernova 1006

There are several records of SN 1006 in northern European annals, the two most northerly, being the Belgian Annales Leodiensis, and the Annales Laubienis compiled at Liege, (50°37' N, 5° 34'E) and Lobbes, (50° 21'N, 4° 15'E) respectively. Both sites are less than 2° south of Plinlimon. The entry for 1006 in both manuscripts reads:

‘1006. There was a very great famine and a comet appeared for a long time'.²⁸

The word ‘comet’ being the nearest available term for the rare supernova spectacle.²⁹ Stephenson, Clark and Crawford, consider that these Belgian records may be derived from St. Gallen in Switzerland, however it will be seen below that the St. Gallen record is of a different order when it comes to descriptive power and for this reason it's obvious that the Belgian annalists could not have been influenced by the St Gallen Annales entry for 1006. Their conclusion that ‘…there seems no reason to believe that it was seen as far north as Belgium‘ is by no means proven.³⁰ Indeed when the coordinates of these Belgian towns are fed into astronomy software such as 'Stellarium' with the sky set to about midnight on May day Eve 1006, this clearly shows that the celestial site of the supernova was a little over 2° above the local southern horizon.³¹ Considering the characteristic flatness of the Belgian landscape, the almost total lack of light pollution, the extreme brightness and the long period of visibility of the supernova, it would actually be very surprising if it was not seen as far north as Belgium.

Another sighting, this time in Metz (49°05’N, 6°10’E) in northern France, is also worth mentioning, it was recorded by Albertus of Metz, (d.1024) in the Alpertus de Diversitate Temporum, Lib. 1, (On the Diversity of Time). The language is remarkably similar to the description of Dillus’s Fire and it is hard to believe that they are not describing the same event: ‘Three years after the king (Henry II) was raised to the throne of the kingdom, a comet with a horrible appearance was seen in the southern part of the sky, emitting flames this way and that.’Compared with: 'they could see a great smoke towards the south, far off from them…And then Cei said, “...see yonder the fire of a warrior”.

Fig. ii The (still expanding) remnant of SN1006³²

The most notable northern European record of SN1006 was written by a monk, probably one Hepidannus, it occurs in a section of the chronicle Annales Sangallenses Maiores from the Benedictine abbey of St. Gallen in Switzerland. ³³ The latitude of St. Gallen is 47°.25'N and it has been calculated that the supernova would have appeared low in the sky, rising to at most 5° above the southern horizon and would have been visible for about 4-5 hours during the small hours of late Spring and early Summer:

“A new star of unusual size appeared, glittering in aspect, dazzling the eyes, causing alarm. In a wonderful manner this was sometimes contracted, sometimes diffused, and moreover sometimes extinguished. It was seen likewise for three months in the inmost limits of the south, beyond all the constellations which are seen in the sky.”³⁴

Accordingly, an observer, in the early hours of the First of May 1006 ‘sitting atop Plumlumon’ at 52.25°N would suddenly have noticed ‘far away toward the South’, ’undisturbed by the wind’ what would have appeared to be a great fire at the horizon between the constellations Therion and Centaurus, who is buried up to his neck in the Earth.

Judgement Day

It could be argued that there is no need to invoke SN 1006 because we have, in any case, already noticed a ‘fire’ in the form of the constellation Ara - the altar, it is this fire which cooks or 'singes' the (boar) meat of Pholus the Horseman, and this might be enough to explain the episode in Culhwch and Olwen of the acquisition of Dillus‘ beard, except for what happened ‘A little while before that’. After receiving the leash, made of the braided beard of the Horseman, from the hand of Cei, Arthur asks, "Which of the marvels is it best for us now to seek?" to which the reply is, "It is best for us to seek Drudwyn, the cub of Greid the son of Eri."³⁵ But instead of the expected quest for Drudwyn we are treated to the following digression:

A little while before that, Creiddylad daughter of Lludd Llawereint, went off with Gwythyr the son of Greidawl. But before he could sleep with her, Gwyn ap Nudd came and took her by force... Arthur heard about that and came to the North. He summoned Gwyn son of Nudd to him, released his nobles from his prison, and made peace between Gwyn son of Nudd and Gwythyr son of Greidawl. This is the peace that was concluded: to leave the maiden unmolested by either party in her father's house, and a battle between Gwyn and Gwythyr every May first, forever, until Judgement Day, from that day forth. The one that conquered on Judgement Day would get the maiden.³⁶

A natural reaction to the mention of the First of May in this context would be to categorise it with the numerous other mentions of May 1st elsewhere in medieval Welsh literature³⁷. The tale type itself is very old and has often been interpreted as a seasonal myth allegorizing the eternal struggle between Winter and Summer, but here it seems incongruous and is generally regarded as an interpolation. However, there may have been perfectly good reasons for its inclusion precisely at this point in the tale. First, all over the Old World the sudden appearance of the supernova of the First of May 1006 must have stoked already widespread millennial fears of the apocalypse and of a coming Day of Judgement. It appeared low in the southern sky, in the sign of Scorpio with the malefic planet Mars in attendance. In European monastic records it was invariably associated with famine, plague and war and even the Arab scholar Ibn Ridwan interpreted it as a portent of ill fortune, and he later noted that “calamity and destruction” in fact followed in that year.³⁸ Both the date May 1^st and the association with Judgement Day are present in this embedded tale of the abduction of Kreiddylat.

Second, the two characters Kreiddylat and her father Lludd Llaw Ereint (of the Silver Hand) have some interesting associations: the virginal Creiddylad or Kreiddylat has, for obvious reasons, often been equated with Persephone or Kore (The Maiden) as Apollodorus calls her. Kore is represented in the night sky as the Zodiacal constellation of Virgo³⁹, remembering that Arthur’s judgement was to leave the maiden (i.e. the virgin) unmolested by either party in her father's house.

Lludd is a reflex of the Romano-British god of healing Nodens (Irish Nuada).⁴⁰ There is good evidence which suggests that this divine healer Nodens was seen, via the interpretatio romana, as a British Aesclepius, the Greco-Roman god of healing⁴¹. Aesclepius is represented in the night sky as the constellation Ophiuchus – The Serpent Bearer, sometimes called the ‘Thirteenth House of the Zodiac‘. Virgo and Ophiuchus are neighbouring constellations which lie along the Ecliptic immediately north of Centaurus, Therion and Scorpius, effectively framing the site of SN1006. I think that the author of Culhwch incorporated this tale in order to draw attention to the potentially apocalyptic cosmic event which occurred in the vicinity of these constellations during the popular feast of the Blessed Virgin.on the First of May 1006.

Conclusion

There is a similarity between what I am suggesting here and the supernova of 1054 (The Crab Nebula) and the manner in which it was recorded in the Irish Annals of Tigernach and the Chronicon Scottorum. I reproduce here professor Mark Williams’ adaptation of Breen and McCarthy‘s translation of the 1054 entry:

A round tower of fire was seen at Ros Ela on the Sunday of the feast of St. George, for the

space of five hours of the day, and innumerable black birds passing into and out of it, and one great bird in the midst thereof, and when the little birds would enter the round tower they would come under her plumage. They came forth and lifted up the hound that lay amid the settlement up on high into the air, and they cast him down again, and he straightway died. And three mantles and two shirts they lifted up on high and down again they flung them. Now the wood whereon the birds perched fell beneath them, and the oak whereon the great bird sat was a-tremble with its roots in the earth.⁴²

Mark Williams’ observations concerning SN 1054 and the way in which 11^th century Irish monks recorded the event are illuminating:

… McCarthy and Breen make excellent sense of this enigmatic mixture by relating it to the medieval Antichrist legend. They identify the event that gave rise to this entry as the sudden appearance of a supernova in 1054, which continues to be visible to this day as the Crab Nebula. Thus we find here an unusual celestial phenomenon not only being viewed through an apocalyptic lens, but also being actively embellished with details drawn from pious legend. Secondly, this embellishment is obscured or distanced by the substitution of more homely, native elements for the key figures of the Antichrist legend. The medieval ‘Life of Antichrist’ has been transposed into a native key. For example, according to the legend, Antichrist will emerge from a bottomless shaft within a smoking pit…⁴³

In Wales, in the side by side tales of Dillus the Horseman and the Abduction of Creiddylad we find this same tradition, fully developed and evidently referring to another rare supernova event almost fifty years earlier than that recorded in the Irish example. Apocalyptic celestial signs, a bottomless shaft, a smoking pit, a horseman, Judgement Day... Moreover, this mixture has, in the Welsh text, been further enriched by allusions to the legends of the Ptolemaic constellations as found in Apollodorus, Hyginus, Eratosthenes, and Aratos, and to the planispheric charts which so often accompanied the medieval manuscript copies of these texts.

Fig. iii The Super Nova of May the First 1006, as seen from Plinlimon. Φόλος the Horseman (here shaven), buried up to his neck in the Earth, and 'singeing' the Beast over his fire, far to the south. Framed by Ophiuchus (Aesclepius - the healer) and Virgo (Kore - the Maiden).⁴⁴

Part II: The Twrch Trwyth Constellations

The Comb, the Scissors and the Razor

Fig iiii. The Claws, the Sting and the Legs resting between the two ears of The Beast.⁴⁵

I have argued that the author of Culhwch considered that the giant boar which Dillus 'singes' over his fire is to be identified with the constellation Therion, I now want to demonstrate that this celestial boar, the constellation Therion, which contains the site of SN1006, is also supposed to be, in the scheme of the author of 'Culhwch and Olwen', the mythical giant boar Twrch Trwyth.

Arthur tells us that the 'meaning' of Twrch Trwyth was that 'He was a king, and for his wickedness God transformed him into a swine'.'⁴⁶ It is hard not to be reminded of the story of Lycaon the king of Arcadia who, for his sins, Jupiter transformed into a wolf, hence modern Lupus.⁴⁷ This tale and its connection with the constellation Therion/Lupus may be much older than is generally supposed, maybe as old as the late Roman period.⁴⁸ Thus the tale of the transformation of Lycaon into the Wolf constellation could have entered the 'Celtic Insular' learned tradition from an early period. Might it have influenced this Welsh tale?⁴⁹

Whatever the answer, I think that the author of Culhwch was referring to the constellation Scorpius, which lies immedeately above Therion, when he described the Razor, the Scissors and the Comb which lay between the two ears of the Twrch Trwyth. I think that these 'precious objects' correspond thus: the Sting = the Razor, the Claws = the Scissors and the Comb = the Legs. These last, the Legs of Scorpius, lay between the two ears of Therion, which I have just identified as the giant boar being 'singed' by Dillus the Horseman or otherwise Centaurus.

Scorpius, was always considered as a single constellation, but the various parts - claws, head, body, tail and sting etc. - have from very early times been accorded special recognition, the Claws in particular recieved much attention, but it was 'the Romans (who) finally distinguished the Claws as a separate constellation to which they gave the name Libra ("balance")' which they depicted as two pans, in place of the claws, dissected by the ecliptic.⁵⁰ So it is easy to see how the Claws can become scissors, it's such a natural analogy, likewise the Scorpion's many legs between the two ears of the Beast may instantly be understood as a comb, and the sting in the tail of the Scorpion as a visual metaphor for the razor is matched in the shape of the tusk of Yskythrwyn Penbaedd, the razor originally demanded by Yspyddaden Pencawr for his 'shave'. In other words these are clever and humourous visual puns, naturally arrived at; but it is a thin disguise, designed to reveal, ultimately, the author's barely concealed agenda.

Menw son of the Three Shouts and Gwrhyr Interpreter of Languages

Fig v. The Little Bird above the lair of the Beast with Claws, the Sting and the Legs between his two Ears.

Following the hunt for the Chief Boar Yskythrwyn,⁵¹ Arthur sends his servant Menw vab Teirgwaedd to the lair of Twrch Trwyth in Esgair Oervel to see if the comb, scissors and razor are between the ears of the beast; but as far as the narrative is concerned the episode is utterly without point, as the author himself acknowledges, for it is already known that this is the case. The question must be: For what reason does the author include this redundant episode?

Both Hyginus and (pseudo) Eratosthenes recorded the same tale for the origin of Corvus. In both texts the constellations Corvus, Crater and Hydra are placed under a single heading (they are often described as a super-constellation). Here is the version from the Catasterismi:

This constellation is well-known from a famous episode. Each god has a bird as an attribute, and the crow is the attribute of Apollo. Once, when the gods were preparing a sacrifice, the crow was sent to bring a libation from a certain spring which was considered most sacred before wine was invented. Seeing a fig tree with unripe fruit near the spring, the crow waited until the figs were ripe. After a number of days, the crow ate the ripe figs, then realized his misdeed, snatching up the water-snake from the spring, the crow brought it back, along with the water-cup, alleging that the water-snake had daily been consuming the water from the spring. Apollo, however, knowing the truth, imposed on the crow the punishment of thirsting among men for a long period of time... In order to provide a clear warning about sinning against the gods, Apollo placed among the stars the image of the Water-Snake [Hydra], the Water-Cup [Crater] and the Crow [Corvus], and depicted the latter as if prevented from drinking or approaching the Water-Cup. (Hyginus has: 'The Crow appears to be shaking Hydra's tail with his beak, in order to gain access to the Water-cup').⁵²

Compare this to the episode in Culhwch and Olwen which describes the visit of Menw ap Tiergwaedd to the lair of the Twrch Trwyth :

And after Yskithyrwyn Penbaedd was killed, Arthur and his host departed to Gelli Wic in Cornwall. And thence he sent Menw the son of Teirgwaedd to see if the precious things were between the two ears of Twrch Trwyth, since it were useless to encounter him if they were not there. Albeit it was certain where he was, for he had laid waste the third part of Ireland. And Menw went to seek for him, and he met with him in Ireland, in Esgeir Oervel. And Menw took the form of a bird; and he descended upon the top of his lair, and strove to snatch away one of the precious things from him, but he carried away nothing but one of his bristles. And the boar rose up angrily and shook himself so that some of his venom fell upon Menw, and he was never well from that day forward.⁵³

Fig vi. Corvus and Hydra. '...but all he got was one of his bristles'

The same motifs are present in both tales: Apollo/Arthur sends the crow/his servant on an errand.⁵⁴ Though it wasn't part of his original task, the crow/little bird snatches up the sinuous body of the water-snake/the boar's bristle. The little crow was punished – his throat was made sore/he was never well from that day forward. Note too that the motif of transformation as a punishment for sinning against the gods or God is also present in both tales. It looks to me as if the Welsh author is testing, and jesting with, his readers; he is comparing the huge serpent Hydra, in Corvus the Crow's beak, to one of the bristles of the enormous boar Twrch Trwyth which Menw, in bird form, holds in his beak. This is a visual pun, comically exaggerating the boar's great size, (Hydra is the most extended of all the constellations) measured against this 'little' bird constellation of only seven stars.

Earlier in the tale, in the 'catalogue of the court', an apparantly non-sensical characacter called Medyr vab Methredydd (Aim son of Aimer) is invoked by Culhwch where it is noted of him (in the voice of the author) that 'from Gelli Wic he could, in the twinkling of an eye, shoot the wren through the two legs upon Esgeir Oervel in Ireland'. Is there a suggestion here that the author is hinting that the bird form which Menw adopted on his visit to Esgeir Oervel was that of the wren, the tiniest of birds?⁵⁵ In fact the English word 'wren' comes from vran or bran, Welsh for crow or raven and the wren is known in Welsh as cutti vran meaning 'little crow', which corresponds with the name Menw vab Teirgwaedd - Little son of Three Cries (Caw! Caw! Caw!) fairly precisely. It may also be intended as another joke.⁵⁶

The answer to the question, 'For what reason does the author include this redundent episode?', posed at the begining of this section therefore is, that our author wanted to describe an image which could be fixed in the mind. Having already drawn for us images of a great fire (SN1006) on the horizon far to the south, where Dillus the Horseman (Centaurus) is singeing a wild boar (Therion), and above this the Maiden (Virgo) in her father the healer's house (Ophiuchus) he now wishes to extend this ensemble and not without humour, to include: A giant boar (Therion) with a razor, scissors and comb (Scorpius) between his two ears and above him a tiny bird (Corvus) with an enormous bristle (Hydra) in its beak.

Fig vii. 'if you can speak, I'm asking one of you to come and talk to Arthur'.⁵⁷

A little further on a 'doublet' of this episode occurs. Arthur sent Gwrhyr Gwalstawd Ieithoedd (Interpreter of Languages) to try and talk to Twrch Trwyth. Gwrhyr, like Menw son of Three Shouts, had the ability to turn himself into a bird. So now the author wants us to imagine a talking bird, in other words a Corvid, above the lair of the beast with the razor, scissors and comb between its ears. But there are several other hints, which strongly suggest that we are here dealing with 'star lore':

Gwrhyr went in the shape of a bird, and settled above the lair of the boar and his seven little pigs. And Gwrhyr Gwalstawd Ieithoedd asked him, 'For the sake of him who shaped you in this image, if you can speak, I'm asking one of you to come and talk to Arthur'. Grugyn Gwrych Eraint (silver-bristles) answered; All his bristles were like wings of silver, and one could see the path he took through the woods and over fields by the way his bristles glittered.⁵⁸

Hygwydd, the Cauldron, the Smoke and the Ship

Fig viii. Hydra carrying the Cauldron, (smoke rising beneath it) on his back to the ship Argo.

Our author now wishes to further extend this complex series of images to include several more constellations. He does so, by slightly altering our focus westward, with the episode which follows immediately on from Menw's adventure in Esgair Oervel, and in which Arthur begins his campaign to acquire the cauldron of Diwrnach the Irishman. So, having asked for the cauldron and been denied it twice, Bedwyr decides to take matters into his own hands:

Bedwyr stood up, took hold of the cauldron, and placed it on the back of Hygwydd, Arthur's servant. The latter was a brother by the same mother to Cacamwri, servant of Arthur. This was his regular job: to carry Arthur's Cauldron, and to build a fire under it...

Arthur and his men took the cauldron - full of Irish treasures - and entered the ship before their very eyes. They disembarked at the house of Llwydeu son of Cel Coed at Porth Cerddin in Dyfed. And "Cauldrons Measure"is there.⁵⁹

Now, the boar's bristle, Hydra, becomes Hygwydd, the cauldron stands for Crater, the ship Prydwen is meant for the ship Argo and the fire kindled beneath the Cauldron is the 'smoke', actually another visual pun on the spray from the Clashing Rocks, into which the Argo sails. Compare also Hyginus' tale for the origin of Crater, which is in the same section as the origin tales for Corvus and Hydra: When the king ... 'discovered what had happened...he ordered that Mastusius be thrown into the sea, along with the wine-jar. For that reason the sea into which he was thrown was called Mastusian in his memory, and the port is to this day called Crater [“wine-jar”]. The ancient astronomers configured it among the stars...' ⁶⁰

Dunking Twrch Trwyth in Severn.

The events which occur in the Severn Estuary are described in fine detail:

And first they laid hold of his feet, and soused him in Severn till it was flooding over him. On the one side Mabon son of Modron spurred his horse and took the razor from him, and on the other Cyledyr the Wild, on another horse, plunged into the Severn with him and took from him the shears.⁶¹

These events correspond with breathtaking precision to the following tableau of constellations: The holding of Therion by the leg and his dunking in the Celestial River, (Via Lactea). Attacking on the one side is the Horseman Sagittarius who is nearest to the sting (the razor). On the other side, the attacker is another 'wild' Horseman, (Centaurus) plunging into the Celestial River, and nearest the Claws (the shears). The quantity and complexity of pictorial correspondences here would be remarkable if it was down to sheer coincidence alone, but for me it is obvious that this episode is a word picture describing the classical celestial imagery similar to that in fig viiii.

Fig viiii. The two 'Wild Horsemen' either side of The Woodland Beast with the claws, legs and sting between his ears, who is being held by the leg and 'dunked' in the Celestial River

Conclusion

I think that the author of Culhwch ac Olwen was in possession of a first-hand account of the first appearance, at about midnight on the Calends of May, 1006 of the brightest of all Supernovas. He sought further information regarding the position of this heavenly portent of the 'End of Days' in manuscripts on astronomy, and was subsequently influenced by several staple texts in both Greek and Latin, known or suspected to have been in circulation in Wales amongst learned ecclesiasts during the period which most experts assign to the composition of Culhwch ac Olwen. What I have in mind are: the Catastersmi or The Constellations by pseudo Eratosthenes, the Poeticon Astronomicon or Astronomia and the Fabulae by Hyginus, the Phaenomena by Aratus of Soli, The Dream of Scipio by Cicero and The Commentary on it by Macrobius, and, just possibly, the Bibliotheke (The Library of Greek Myth) by (pseudo) Apollodorus.⁶² He must also have had access to Ptolemaic constellation charts for the Northern and Southern celestial hemispheres, such as the Aratea which traditionally accompanied these texts and which were circulating north western Europe from the earliest medieval times. None of this material would have been out of place in the libraries and the scriptoria of 11^th century Welsh monastic settlements or clasau, such as Llancarfan and Llanbadarn Fawr,⁶³ where Astronomy was taught as part of the Quadrivium, and where manuscripts on Astronomy were not just kept but also copied and produced. In short, if it was the aim of the author of 'Culhwch and Olwen' to encode information on the celestial site of SN1006 into his tale, then he would have found the relevant material to hand and was, in any case, already familiar with it.

Plumlumon, at 52°25’N - the most northerly limit for the visibility of SN1006 - was one of the few places in Britain where the supernova might have been clearly seen, as it provided an elevated, uninterupted, dark sky view of the southern horizon.⁶⁴ The description of Dillus the Horseman’s campfire ‘far away to the south’ is, I suggest, based on an eye witness account of the upper limb of the apparent ‘disc’ of the supernova, (‘two and a half to three times that of Venus’ and 250 times more bright than the brightest star Sirius) dissected by the southern horizon. It is possible that the original observer was a monk based at the nearby monastic settlement of Llanbadarn Fawr, (just 12 miles distant) where observing the stars to determine the dates of feast days and the times of prayer must have been habitual.⁶⁵

The author of Culhwch ac Olwen, whatever else was on his agenda, was purposefully ’encoding’ an observed astronomical phenomena into his narrative. The image he gives of Dillus the Horseman singeing a wild boar over a fire is transparently an image of Pholus the Horseman singeing a wild boar over a fire, otherwise known as the constellations Centaurus, Therion and Ara. He accurately gives the celestial position of these constellations as being in the south. He uses pit digging and pressing down as a metaphor for the precessional motion of these constellations and he draws our attention to an epoch when the Horseman (Centaurus) was buried up to his neck in the Earth, precisely the position of these constellations at the time of the supernova of 1006.

The episode of the acquisition of Dillus’ beard which is used to make the (braided horse-hair) leash

to hold Drudwyn the whelp of Greid (Scorcher) son of Eri⁶⁶ is obviously linked to the episode immediately following where, instead of the promised quest for Drudwyn, the author has placed a story which ends with a fight every May the First until Judgement Day. He thus provides the precise date of the first appearance of SN1006 and then tellingly associates this date with an apocalyptic reference, echoing the almost universal millennial reaction to the sudden intrusion of this new blazing star into the sky⁶⁷ The inclusion in this tale also of the British figures Creiddylad and Lludd Llaw Ereint, whose Greek counterparts Kore and Asclepius just happen to be represented as the constellations Virgo and Ophiuchus reinforces this assessment.

In Part II I have presented a selection of incidents, (space does not allow a full rehearsal) from the 'Achievements' which corroborate and provide weight to the above conclusions. But there are more examples, for instance: The Twrch Trwyth diving into the sea from the southernmost point of the British Isles and his mysterious disappearance into the southern horizon is really the gradual disappearance of Therion into the southern horizon due to precessional motion. And, Arthur (Phoebus Apollo - the Sun) at the entrance to Uffern (the Infernal Regions of Dis), throwing Carnwennen – 'little white knife' (the Ecliptic or possibly Mars) and splitting the witch into two tubs (Libra).⁶⁸ There is also a sizeable list of the names of major characters which correspond closely with the constellations near to SN1006: Dillus the Horseman –Φόλος the Horseman . Drudwyn or Fierce/Bright hound of Scorcher son of Eri – Scorcher hound of Orion. Kreiddylat – Kore/Virgo. Yskythrwyn – ΎςΚαλυδωίος (The Caledonian boar - Therion?). Little son of Three Shouts – the little Crow (Corvus). Hygwydd – Hydra. Osla Big-Knife – Orion (Osiris) and his Sword, not to be exhaustive.

The evidence suggests that the Welsh Author's motive was to encode into his narrative both the celestial and the temporal position of the potentially apocalyptic event of the sudden appearance of the brightest star ever seen, on the southern Welsh horizon on May 1^st 1006 and it is worth quoting here the views of Mark Williams once more regarding the occurence of unusual celestial portents in early medieval Irish saga, but which I think applies equally well to this early Welsh prose tale:

...the embedding of expected celestial portents or events within a narrative seems on occassion to have prompted the annalists to set their own actual observations within a narrative framework, turning records of comets, eclipses and unusual meteorological phenomena into fantastical miniature stories. But the annalists seem to have gone a stage further, and begun to recast these apocalyptic miniature stories in Irish terms, with echoes of native mythology...this tendency to disguise celestial portents which are actually apocalyptic under a native cloak is more widespread than has been acknowledged, and that the imagery of apocalyptic celestial portents can also be found in native saga.⁶⁹

In Wales, as in Ireland, the recording of unusual celestial events was a feature of annalistic entries over a prolonged period and the following was recorded in the Brut y Tywysogion:

A.D. 1030.—A wonderful light was seen in the sky during the night, which rendered it as light as day. That year Joseph, bishop of Teilaw, ordered that no work or occupation should take place on the Sundays and holidays, and obliged the priests to learn to read the Holy Scripture without payment or gift, and to abandon controversies.⁷⁰

Perhaps surprisingly, there are no entries for 1006 or 1054, even though SN1054 was indisputably visible from Welsh latitudes. However, this particular entry is curious, and one could speculate that it may represent a later attempt to make obscure the entries for 1006 and 1054.⁷¹ There was, of course, a well known eclipse on August 1^st 1030, (partial in Wales) but I can find no other records for a supernova or a comet from this year, or anywhere near it The movement of the North geomagnetic pole had caused the auroral oval to be far from Britain during the early eleventh century, making it highly unlikely that this is a record of the Aurora Borealis. It may not be coincidental that the year 1030 is precisely mid-way between 1006 and 1054.

Finally, I think that the record of SN1006 in Culhwch and Olwen probably started life in an annalistic context soon after the event, in its simplest form it may have read: A great smoke far towards the south, like a giants campfire, between the Horseman and the Beast was seen from Plimlumon Top. This would reflect the widespread practice of astronomical observation in British, Irish and European monastic communities in expectation of the cosmic portents of Doomsday.⁷² But like the supernova of 1054 and the comet of 1066 it did not presage the 'End of Days', and the obscuration of the Ros Ela entry for 1054 in the Irish records is, Breen and McCarthy suggest, a somewhat later reaction to the (embarrassing) failure of these apocalyptic predictions in 'Revelations' and in later apocryphal works, to materialize. In Culhwch and Olwen someone undertook to preserve the record of SN1006 outside of an annalistic context, where, just as in the Ros Ela example, the apocalyptic material and the astronomy are covertly or cryptically presented, 'under a native cloak', but here, in at least seventeen sequential episodes and parading as fantastical prose.

Notes

1 This image is from Mercator's celestial globe of 1551. Celestial globes show the constellations as if seen from God's eye-view. Mercator has labelled these Constellations as Centaurus Chiron and Fera Lupus, but elsewhere they are known as Pholus (Φόλος) and Therion respectively.

2 'About 1100' is commonly given. For instance 'Culhwch ac Olwen,The Triads, Saint's Lives'. By Brynley F. Roberts. In The Arthur of the Welsh. The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature. Eds.Rachel Bromwich, A. O. H. Jarman, Brynley F. Roberts. (Cardiff UWP. 1991). But see The Date and Authorship of Culhwch ac Olwen: A Reassessment. Simon Rodway, University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies. No. 49. Summer 2005. Editor Patrick Simms-Williams.

3 Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale. Edited by Rachel Bromwich and D. Simon Evans (Cardiff. University of Wales Press. 1992).

4 For a full description see: Culhwch and Olwen. Edited by Rachel Bromwich and D. Simon Evans. Also: The International Popular Tale and Early welsh Tradition. Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson. (Cardiff. University of Wales Press. 1961).pp 73 - 74

5 By e.g. Hyginus, (pseudo) Eratosthenes and Aratus. See The Seven Liberal Arts: A Study in Medieval Culture. Paul Ableson. (New York. Teachers College, Columbia University. 1906).

6 Star Myths of the Greeks and Romans: A Sourcebook. Theony Condos. (Phanes Press. 1997). p 23 '...there are certain myths, attested only in literature similar to The Constellations, which most scholars believe to have originated from the relative position and movement of two or more constellations in the sky'.

7 Callimachus, Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron, Aratus. Translated by A.W and G. R. Mair. Loeb Classical Library Volume 129. (London. William Heinemann, 1921).

8 See for instance The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville.(III.lxxi). Translated with Introduction and Notes, by Stephen A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J.A. Beach and Oliver Berghof. (Cambridge University Press. 2006). pp 104-105.

9 Culhwch and Olwen. Bromwich and Evans. P 59, note 579. He would not be the only member of the family of Don to have been elevated to the constellatons; Gwydion son of Don, Aranrhod daughter of Don, Lleu Llaw Gyffes and Don herself were traditionally associatiated with The Milky Way, Corona Borialis, Perseus and Cassiepia respectively. I will explore the astronomy of Math vab Mathonwy in a seperate paper.

10 The standard discussion is in The International Popular Tale and Early Welsh Tradition. Kenneth Jackson. Pp ?

11 See Culhwch and Olwen. Bromwich & Evans and The International Popular Tale and Early Welsh Tradition. Kenneth Jackson. for the connection with Jason and the Argonauts.

12 But see below. For a comprehensive list of names associated with Therion see Star Names Their Lore and Meaning. Richard Hinckley Allen. Dover 1963. pp 278-279.

13 A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets. Donald H. Menzel. (Boston. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1964). Menzel was the Director of Harvard College Observatory.

14 The Stargazers Guide. How to Read Our Night Sky. Emily Winterburn. (London. Constable. 2008). Emily Winterburn was the Curator of Astronomy at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.

15 The Supernova of 1006. F. Richard Stephenson, David H. Clark, David F. Crawford. (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 180.1977), p.567-584.

16 My translation.

17The Mabinogion. Translated, edited and introduced by Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones. (Everyman’s Library. The Millennium

Library. 2000).

18 I.e. 'The Red Book of Hergest' and 'The White Book of Rhydderch'. Dissull = Dillus. A scribal error which both manuscripts inherited from a common ancestor.

19 The Companion Tales to the Mabinogi. Legend and Landscape of Wales. Trans. J. K. Bollard. (Gomer Press 2007).

20 See The White Book Mabinogion: Welsh Tales & Romances Reproduced from the Peniarth Manuscripts: Ed. J Gwenogvryn Evans. (Private Press, Pwllheli. 1907). Pp 247 - 248, columns 494 - 495. Where the text is taken from the Red Book of Hergest columns 837b -837c.

21 The Mabinogion. Jones & Jones. My parentheses.

22 Namely Pholus, the traditional host of Hercules and Cheiron, the friend and mentor of Hercules. So he could not have hunted in company with the centaurs as Menzel suggested.

23 Hyginus. Fab. [2.5]. p.31 Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae, Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology. Trans. R. Scott Smith and Stephen M.Trzaskoma. (Hacket. 2007). Dillus the Horseman is specifically described as 'singeing' the boar; this is a method used to de-bristle rather than to roast boars, which suggests that Dillus the Horseman, like Pholus the Horseman, had a penchant for raw meat. Recall too that Cyledyr the Wild, another Horseman, ate his father's heart, though we are not told if he ate it raw.

24 Star Names. Their Lore and Meaning. Richard Hinkley Allen. (New York. Dover Publications, Inc. 1963 ). pp 148-155.

25 Significantly, this may be compared with examples of garbled Greek words to be found in four works known to have been produced at Llanbadarn-Fawr towards the end of the 11^th century , namely the 'Life of David', 'the 'Psalter' and the 'Martyrology' by Rhygyfarch ap Sulien and the 'Macrobius Manuscript' MS Cotton Faustina C 1. (See Science and Phlosophy in Wales at the Time of the Norman Conquest; A Macrobius Manuscript from Llanbadarn. Alison Peden. (Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 2 (Winter 1981)). Ed. Patrick Simms Williams. See also Welsh Literature and the Classical Tradition Ceri Davies, (Cardiff. University of Wales Press. 1995). Cicero's Somnium Scipionis and Macrobius' Commentary upon it were a primary source for knowledge of Greek Astronomy throughout the Middle Ages, consequently the examples in the Macrobius manuscript and in the computistical Tables attached to the 'Psalter' are interesting because it shows a Welsh monk (Rhygyfarch) attempting, but failing, to translate Greek words into Latin within texts which are largely astronomical in content, which is precisely what I am suggesting has happened with the Greek Φόλος and the Welsh Dillus in Culhwch.

26 Bollard. 2007, following Bromwich and Evans - following Sir Idris Foster. See Culhwch ac Olwen. Bromwich & Evans.

27 Precession of the equinoxes or precession of the equator. 'is a slow revolution (0nce every 26,000 years) of the whole field of stars from west to east about the poles of the ecliptic' See The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy. James Evans. (New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press. 1998). pp 245 – 248. Pliny said that Hipparchus of Bythinia discovered precession after witnessing a supernova

28 The Supernova of 1006'. Stephenson. Clark. Crawford.

29 Ibid.

30 Ibid.

31 Stellarium is free planetarium software, first developed by Fabien Chereau.

32 Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Zolt Levay (STScI)

33 The Supernova of 1006'. Stephenson. Clark. Crawford.

34 The Supernova of 1006'. Stephenson. Clark. Crawford.

35. In Drudwyn the whelp of Greid son of Eri or Fierce-White the whelp of Scorcher son of Eri we surely have a barely underhand reference to Canis Major the Great Dog and its lucida the brightest star Sirius - the 'Scorcher' the Dog Star of Orion, which Aratus described in the Phenomena '… the tip of its jaw is inset with a formidable star, that blazes most intensely: and so men call it the Scorcher.

36. The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales. Trans. Ed. and Introduction, by Patrick K. Ford. (University California Press. 2008). My italics.

37. E.g. in Lludd and Llevelys and Math vab Mathonwy. Great importance was attached to this date; in Wales it is Calan Mai, in Ireland Beltane, the first day of Summer, one of the four cross-quarter day festivals of the Celtic year and, as Professor Stephen McCluskey has noted, it has a special connection with the Virgin Mary.

38. The Supernova of 1006'. Stephenson. Clark. Crawford.

39. From early Christian times Virgo was also associated with the Virgin Mary.

40. Christus und Asklepios. Erich Dinkler. Heidelberg. (Carl Winter Universitatsverlag. 1980). The temple of healing at Lydney overlooking the Severn Estuary dedicated to Nodens has been recognised as a British version of an Aesclepium, originally a Greek temple of healing named after the healer god Asclepius or Aesculapius, son of Apollo and Coronis.

41. Dinkler noted ‘the shrine of Nodens at Lydney was built in the last third of the fourth century, and its great days extended well into the fifth, long after the adoption of Christianity as the official state religion. Thus providing a vehicle for the retention and transmission of this knowledge.

42.Fiery Shapes. Celestial Portents and Astrology in Ireland and Wales, 700 -1700. Mark Williams. (Oxford University Press. 2010). Quoting McCarthy, Daniel & Breen, Aiden. Astronomical Observations in the Irish Annals and their Motivation. (Peritia Volume 11. 1997).

43. Fiery Shapes. Mark Williams.

44. This image has been put together using Adobe Photoshop 7. The ‘supernova’ is taken from astronomer Tunc Tezel’s carefully constructed ‘photograph’ of the event, in celebration of the millennial anniversary of SN 1006. By utilising the background stars as a template I was able to accurately place Tezel’s supernova onto a screenshot of the Plinlimon night sky at about 12.30 am May 1st 1006, from the open source planetarium for the computer ‘Stellarium’. The terrain was added from another screenshot, this time using Google Earth‘s ‘eye-level’ gadget. The image is looking south from an altitude of 742 metres from Plinlimon top, 52°28'N, 3°47'E. I have pictured the supernova at (approx) maximum altitude above the southern horizon, and its position has been checked against the schematic drawing ‘the apparent path of the star’ by F.R. Stephenson, D.H. Clark and D.F. Crawford in their paper ‘The Supernova of AD 1006’

45 'Map of the Heavens'.Giovanni Antonio da Varese. 1575. Ceiling Frescoe, Villa Farnese.

46 The Mabinogion. Jones & Jones. p.116. Yspaddaden says that the boar was Twrch Trwyth mab Taredd Wledig (wledic = king, ruler). P104.

47Hyginus. Fab. 176. Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae, Trans. Scott Smith and Trzaskoma. Hacket.

48Stargazer's Guide. Emily Winterburn

49 This is not to doubt the British and Irish provenence of the Twrch Trwyth's association with kingship. Still, if Culhwch's author were a monk it would be hard to argue that he had not read Hyginus' Fabulae, which contains the story of the transformation of Lycaon, the text was certainly current in Wales at this time.

50 Star Myths. Theony Condos. The author of Culhwch does not neglect to draw a picture of Libra, but more on this later. See also Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts. Volume II. The Marriage of Philology and Mercury. Translated by William Harris Stahl and Richard Johnson with E. L. Burge. (New York. Colubia University Press. 1977).(Bk.VIII. 839.)

51 The hunt for Yskythrwyn chief of boars should be compared with the hunt for ΎςΚαλυδωίος, or the Caledonian boar. Apd. 1. 66 _71

52 Star Myths. Translation by Theony Kondos. Apollodorus and Hyginus relate an altrnative origin for Corvus which explains how the Crow's colour was chnged from white to black

53 The Mabinogion. Translated with notes by Lady Charlotte Guest.(Bernard Quaritch, 15 Piccadilly. 1877. Facsimile Edition. John Jones Cardiff Ltd. Republication first edition, November 1977).

54 Arthur fighting the giant boar Twrch Trwyth (Therion) for the shears (the claws) for nine nights and days mirrors the nine day heliacal passage of the Sun through Scorpius. See Allen, Star Names p.???

55 Elsewhere, in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, it is Llew Llaw Gyffes who hits the wren 'between the sinew of its leg and the bone' as it is about to alight on Gwydion's magic ship (Argo Navis), hence Llaw Gyffes - Skillful Hand, this cross reference is highly significant and I explore this in a seperate paper on.the astronomy of Math vab Mathonwy

56 Welsh Folk Customs. Trefor. M Owen. (Gomer. 1994). Also Dryw bach, noting Menw's druid-like abilities.

57 The Mabinogion. Translated with an Introduction and Notes. Sioned Davies. (Oxford University Press. 2007).

58 Ibid.

59The Mabinogi. P. K. Ford.

60Star Myths. Condos.

61 The Mabinogion. Jones & Jones. It is interesting that the author chooses these two names as his 'horsemen' here. Gruffydd thought Modron (mother of Mabon) was to be identified with the Horse-Goddess' Epona, who 'was portrayed sometimes in the form of a horse'. See Rhiannon. An Inquiry into the First and Third Branches of the Mabinogi. (Cardiff. University of Wales Press. 1953). As regards Cyledyr the Wild, 'wildness' is of course the defining characteristic of the raw meat eating centaurs.

62 Perhaps also The Marriage of Philology and Mercury by Martianus Boethius. Book Vol. II. VIII. Astronomy. Particularly the section on simultaneous risings and settings.

63 Prime contenders both for the origin of Culhwch.

64 This is corroborated by estimates for the height of the supernova above the horizon at Cairo (30°N), where it was 23° above the horizon, and St. Gallen ( 47°.25'N) where it was 5° above the horizon

65 There is much evidence for a preoccupation with Astronomy at Llanbadarn Fawr. For example, 'The Computus Fragment', the LBL MS Cotton Faustina C 1. II (fols 66-99)., Rhygyfarch's 'Psalter' and Ieuan son of Sulien’s copy of the De Natura Rerum of Bede and his poem in praise of his family which paraphrases Boethius.

66It is apt that the leash made from the beard of the giant Horseman constellation is required to hold the gigantic Dog constellation

67 An interesting comparison ought to be made with the modern Millennial ‘End of the World’ predictions put forward by Harold Camping, and the global responses they have elicited. By complete coincidence, as I write, the time now is 4.30pm, May 21^st 2011. Camping has predicted that the End Time will occur in an hour and half from now. Fingers crossed...

68 For the celestial location of the cave in the uplands of Uffern - the Infernal Regions, with its centaurs and the Lernean Hydra lurking nearby, see Commentary on the Dream of Scipio by Macrobius Translated with an Introduction and notes. William Harris Stahl. (New York. 1990). Chapter XII. Pp 133 to 135.

69Fiery Shapes. Mark Williams

70 Brut y tywysogion: the Gwentian chronicle of Caradoc of Llancarvan Caradoc, of Llancarvan. Trans. Owen, Aneurin. (Kindle Location 8309). London : J.R. Smith.

71This sort of thing, the misplacement of similar but separate celestial events by later copyists, was not uncommon.

72 See McCarthy, Daniel & Breen, Aiden. Astronomical Observations in the Irish Annals and their Motivation. (Peritia Volume 11. 1997).

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