Aranrhod and Andromeda

Aranrhod and Andromeda.

All this begs a question. Is there any evidence to show that Aranrhod was ever associated with Andromeda in Welsh traditions? It can be shown that the respective traditions of Aranrhod and Andromeda are remarkably similar. Both are associated with constellations, both are princesses, both are beautiful 'virgins', both have 'snow white arms', both are associated with a rock or rocks at the edge of, or in, the Ocean. Both are central to legends of oceanic inundations. Both are associated with chains or fetters, Andromeda is famous as The Chained Lady and the Taliesin persona refers to the 'fetter of Arianrod':

My beloved is below,
In the fetter of Arianrod
It is certain you know not
How to understand the song I utter,

In the Etymologies. Isidore of Seville informs us that: “...There a rock is displayed which still retains traces of the fetters of Andromeda.”. Likewise, in reference to a variant of the Fourth Branch, Lewys Mon penned: "My plaint concerning a maid is greater than (that of) Math hen son of Mathonwy. The arm of a chaste white-armed wise maiden was every night his pillow, Arianrhod white as snow; that man might not live without her.". AchilIes Tatius, in the second century, writing of a painting by Evanthes of 'Perseus and Andromeda', described Andromeda thus : 'Her white arms were extended, and lashed to the rock; but their whiteness partook of a livid hue, and her fingers were like those of a corpse'. Andromeda is chained to a rock by her parents and Arianrhod too suffers the same indignity of imprisonment in very similar circumstances as those described of Andromeda:

"Over her, Luminary of the countryside, is a keeper as strong as the wall, an angry husband, a veritable churl of low degree, who is skilled in watching a woman; and again, there is her father with his eyes (upon her) and her mother, and this is all the worse for me. The lissom lady dare not jump onto the cliff, these people will not let her."

The Fettered Lady

These lines from Kadeir Kerrituen in the 'Book of Taliesin' supply further detail:

I saw desperate fighting in Nant Ffrancon
Early on Sunday morning between raptors and Gwydion.

On Thursday, for sure, they went to Anglesey
to look for a crafty one, and for enchanters.

Arianrhod, famed for her appearance surpassing the radiance of fair weather, her terrifying was the greatest shame (to come) from the region of the Britons;
a raging river rushes around her court,,
A river with its savage wrath beating against the land:
destructive its snare as it goes round the world
(Bede's books don't tell lies).

In [Manilius, Astronomica 1st century A.D., Book 5, p.344-351] the story of Andromeda is described thus:

"There follows the constellation of Andromeda, whose golden light appears in the rightward sky when the Fishes have risen to twelve degrees. Once on a time the sin of cruel parents [Cepheus and Cassiopeia] caused her to be given up for sacrifice, when a hostile sea in all its strength burst upon every shore, the land was shipwrecked in the flood, and what had been a king's domain was now an ocean. From those ills but one price of redemption was proposed, surrender of Andromeda to the raging main for a monster [Cetus, the sea-monster] to devour her tender limbs.

..."Then as soon as the procession reaches the shore of the tumultuous sea, her soft arms are stretched out on the hard rocks; they bound her feet to crags and cast chains upon her; and there to die on her virgin cross the maiden hung. Even in the hour of sacrifice she yet preserves a modest mien: her very sufferings become her, for, gently inclining her snow-white neck, she seemed in full possession of her liberty. The folds of her robe slipped from her shoulders and fell from her arms, and her streaming locks covered her body.

..."You, princess, halcyons in circling flight lamented and with plaintive song bewailed your fate, shading you by linking their spans of wing. To look at you the ocean checked its waves and ceased to break, as was its wont, upon the cliffs, whilst the Nereids raised their countenance above the surface of the sea and, weeping for your plight, moistened the very waves. Even the breeze, refreshing with gentle breath your pinioned limbs, resounded tearfully about the cliff-tops.

There is here a close correspondence with the traditions surrounding Aranrhod, in particular the phrase 'Andromeda, whose golden light appears in the rightward sky' where one is strongly reminded of "Arianrhod of famous beauty, surpassing the hue of sunshine." from (the poem mentioned above) Ceridwen's Chair in B.T., but also themes such as the weeping of the waves and the wind resounding tearfully 'about the cliff-tops', but now we are reminded of Dylan Eil Ton, Aranrhods aquatic son. Compare also the phrase, “and again, there is her father with his eyes (upon her) and her mother, and this is all the worse for me. The lissom lady dare not jump onto the cliff, these people will not let her." with “Once on a time the sin of cruel parents [Cepheus and Cassiopeia] caused her to be given up for sacrifice, when a hostile sea in all its strength burst upon every shore” and, “ a raging river rushes around her court, A river with its savage wrath beating against the land” with, “destructive its snare as it goes round the world the land was shipwrecked in the flood, and what had been a king's domain was now an ocean”. 

Caer Aranrhod is not the only tradition relating to land lost to the sea in these parts, Aranrhod's son Dylan 'as soon, as he was baptized he made for the sea. And there, as soon as he came to the sea, he took the nature of the sea' (Translation by Will Parker) surely relates to the huge glacial erratic on the shore, a mile and a half to the south of Caer Aranrhod, known as Maen Dylan, which appears to be eternally about to dive in to the the ocean, ( I suspect that Maen Dylan may have been brought from somewhere nearby and deliberately placed at this precise point). Then about a mile and a half to the north of Caer Aranrhod is the Iron-age hill fort known as Dinas Dinlle, The City of Lleu's Fort (Dylan's twin) which is actually still crumbling into the sea. The legends of the loss of Cantref Gwaelod and of Llys Helig to the sea are also part of a broader pattern of ancient memories of the permanent inundation of an earlier, extended Welsh coastline.

Aranrhod and her equidistant sons, Lleu and Dylan.

The pale beige line is the present beach.  But perhaps it is only the most recent coastline? Looking further east, ten or more, (highly pixelated darker blue) physical features can be discerned are these indications of even earlier coastlines  In fact, the visible evidence, from these Google maps alone suggests multiple episodes of catastrophic coastal erosion due to major storm events and to rising sea levels.

The coast overlain with an aerial photo showing the circular formation of Caer Aranrhod and her equidistant twins Lleu and Dylan.

Recent research has indicated that this area of the Welsh coast is particularly vulnerable to coastal erosion. This from a recent paper: Welsh Coastal Storms, December 2013 & January 2014 – an assessment of environmental change. Editors: Catherine Duigan, Nicola Rimington, Mike Howe

'We have significant evidence of the impact of historical storm events in Wales, with numerous examples cited by Davies & Jones (2014). These include reports of wrecks of the Great storm of 1859, which scattered wrecks along the whole of the Welsh coast, and a quote from Giraldus Cambrensis on the winter of 1171-2:

“The wind blew with such unprecedented violence that the shores of South Wales were completely denuded of sand….the seashore took on the appearance of a forest grove, cut down at the time of the flood….The tempest raged so fiercely that conger eels and many other fish were driven up on the high rocks…”

Looking back over the longer term, the last 2000 years or so, we know from work by Bristow (2009, 2011) at Morfa Dinlle in north Wales that there is evidence of storm events. Bristow identified the presence of around 20 low-angle erosion surfaces, tentatively interpreted to have been formed during storm events. From dating information and the number of erosion surfaces, the evidence suggests that the storm erosion events which formed these may have occurred on a 100 year time scale'.
https://naturalresources.wales/.../welsh-coastal-storms-december-2013-and-january-2

The graves of Dylan and Lleu are recorded in 'The Stanzas of the Graves'. Lleu's grave is 'under cover of the sea'.

Britain around 7000 BC.

Britain around 3000 BC. 
Note the shrinking coastline along the Llŷn and Anglesey.

These are clips from an animation which you can find on YouTube @ Sea Level Rise: 13,000 bp to 5,000 bp in the British Mesolithic - TemporalMapping.org. A short description reads: ''Sea level is calibrated to Global Sea Level estimates with data points at 1000 year intervals. This model does not yet account for isostacy, or glaciation'.

However, this amply illustrates how this part of North Wales was witness to radical changes to the coast throughout the mesolithic and the neolithic - changes which would, no doubt, have been of great interest to the local inhabitants. It is noteworthy that certainly two of the sites resulted from the retreating ice sheet some 13,000 to 10,000 years ago; Dinas Dinlle was built on 'an isolated mound of glacial drift 'known as a drumlin, Maen Dylan is a glacial erratic, I'm less sure of how Caer Arianrhod was formed, information is hard to find, but I wouldn't be surprised if this striking feature was also linked to rising sea levels and the retreating ice sheet. These three remarkable, stand-out features were all part of this otherwise low-lying post glacial landscape. Could they have been chosen as the repository of the tale of Aranrhod and her twin sons Dylan and Lleu in order to alert future generations to the relentless onslaught by the sea on the land?

A map illustrating predicted future land loss due to rising sea levels caused by global warming. Note the west coast of Anglesey and Morfa Dinlle on the north coast of Gwynedd.

Some recent Headlines:

Entire Welsh village to be evacuated before it’s lost to the sea

Residents of a ‘sinking’ town are hoping for £100million in compensation after authorities said they should be evacuated. A report said Fairbourne, a village in the north Welsh county of Gwynedd, would see sea levels rise by one metre over the next century, eventually becoming lost to the sea.

Ashitha NageshThursday 11 Feb 2016 11:04 am. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

Erosion and rising seas threaten Wales's most beautiful beaches

Historic sites at risk from storms and tidal surges
National Trust report calls for action to tackle crisis

The Guardian. Steven Morris. 13.02.2007

The story continues....

There's a very good informative general introduction on the wider implications of changing sea levels - past, present and future - for Britain's coasts available on Youtube: Time Team Special 26 (2007) Britain's Drowned World.