Culhwch ac Olwen, Authorship. (part one)

Culhwch ac Olwen, Authorship. (part one)

The Ricemarch Psalter, circa 1080, the start of Psalm 1:"Beatus vir..."

Who in eleventh/twelfth century Wales would write such a thing and why?

In his study of the Irish affinities in the Second Branch of the Mabinogi ' Branwen Daughter of Llyr' Proinsias Mac Cana showed that "a reasonable case could be made for attributing Branwen – and the Mabinogi as a whole – to Rhygyfarch or his father Sulien, or to the two in collaboration"ⁱ. In the same tentative spirit in which Mac Cana offered this suggestion, I think that an equally reasonable case could be made which suggests that Ieuan ap Sulien (again, perhaps in collaboration with Rhygyfarch and Sulien himself), may also be implicated in the writing of Culhwch ac Olwen. First of all, some of Mac Cana's more general arguments regarding the authorship of Branwen may be usefully employed here too. For instance, as Mac Cana says: 'It was in the (Irish) monasteries that the judgement and taste of the classical scholars were united with an enthusiasm for native tradition and literature. If this means anything in terms of Welsh literature, then the most likely place to look for the author of Branwen (for which read 'the author of Culhwch') is in a Welsh monastic community, in that same cultural atmosphere which produced Nennius and Gerald and Geoffrey'. Material evidence for this notion of a monastic backdrop within which Culhwch was composed has been noticed by Bromwich and Evans: 'Culhwch ac Olwen bears the signs of having been shaped by an author familiar with Christian customs and practices'. They point to mentions in the text of prayer, baptism, the use of 'God' in greetings, a bishop (Bitwini Escob), a priest (Kethtrum Offeiriad), a guardian angel, saints, devils, Hell, Creation and divine intervention. They further point to the 'author's evident familiarity with the native learning of the Welsh church', mentioning specifically: the Mirabilia attached to the Historia Brittonum, and Bonedd y Sant, The Life of St Cadog by Lifris of Llancarfan and the Life of St David by Rhygyfarch of Llanbadarn. Thus far both Rhygyfarch and Ieaun would have to be amongst the list of candidates, along with, say, Lifris of Llancarfan, who could have been the author of Culhwch. 

There is, however some additional internal evidence which, I believe, furthers the case for Ieuan son of Sulien considerably. The 'catalogue of the court' contains the following genealogical list:

'Teregud son of Iaen, Sulien son of Iaen, Bradwen son of Iaen, Moren son of Iaen, Siawn son of Iaen, and Cradawg son of Iaen – they were men of Caer Dathl, related to Arthur on their father's side (i.e. Iaen's)'.

The name Sulien (Sulyen in the MS) which means 'Sun-born' was 'extremely rare' in medieval Wales, and for that reason alone it jumps off the page here, so to find it linked to the patronym Iaen in this list is highly suggestive. Bromwich and Evans note: Iaen 'ice', but it does not stretch credulity to see here also a form of Ieuan 'John', Latin Iohannes, which is how Ieuan ap Sulien autographed his Latin poetry, (with the monogram IO). They point out the occurence of the names Siaun and Kyradawg, (Siawn and Cradawg) 'among the six sons and daughters of 'Iaen', as found in the late 14^th century Bonedd yr Arwyr 'Descent of Heroes', (which also refers to the familial relationship with Arthur). The full list goes:

Plant Iaen (Children of Iaen)
Dirmig, Gwyn goluthonⁱⁱ, Siaun, Kyradawg, Ievannwy, Llychlyn, Eleirchⁱⁱⁱ verch Iaen mam Kyduan ap Arthur.

The list of the sons of Iaen in the court list in Culhwch is followed immediately by a list of the many sons of Kaw and it cannot be coincidental that this is also the case in Bonedd yr Arwyr . Now, it has been argued that the Bonedd yr Arwyr genealogies, despite their late appearance, must represent the earlier tradition because if it were otherwise they would have followed more closely the lists in Culhwch. Note then, that the rare name Sulien does not appear in the Bonedd yr Arwyr genealogical lists, it has in fact been bodily inserted into the list as it appears in Culhwch, and it seems likely therefore, that the author of Culhwch has manipulated the pre-existing genealogy to suit his own ends, whatever they were. Bromwich and Evans, who would prefer a Carmarthen or Llancarfan origin for the tale, acknowledge that this 'was the name of the famous 11^th.-cent. Abbot of Llanbadarn Fawr and later Bishop of St. David's' and in view of several other internal references to St. Davids/Mynyw it can be taken as almost certain that the Sulien in this list is one and the same with the 'famous' Sulien of Llanbadarn-Fawr. An intriguing possibility arises from this assessment: either Sulien himself or his son Ieuan may have been responsible for this 'interpolation'.

Though none are recorded, it is possible that Ieuan son of Sulien may have had a son or sons of his own, but his obituary in the Brut y Tywysogyon hints of a life of celibacy, - s.a. 1136 (1137): 'In that year died Ieuan, archpresbyter of Llanbadarn, the most learned of the learned, having led a pious life without mortal sin till his death'. However, he almost certainly had a foster son, who was named after Sulien. The custom of naming the grandson after the grandfather was one which Ieuan's brother Rhygyfarch followed when he named one of his sons after Sulien^iv, Rhygyfarch died at the age of 42 and as a consequence his son Sulien ap Rhygyfarch became a "foster son of Llanbadern Fawr", which probably means that his uncle, Rhygyfarch's possibly childless brother Ieuan, the 'archpresbyter of Llanbadarn Fawr' became the foster father. It may not be a coincidence that Rhygyfarch died in 1099 and the most common date given for the composition of Culhwch is about 1100.

It may have been that Ieuan, supposing he was our author, in his trawl through the native genealogical material, (probably in the libraries at both Mynyw and Llanbadarn) in his search for names to enter into the hilariously overblown court list, came across a name very similar to his own in a version of Bonedd yr Arwyr, and, in the process of compiling the extended role call in Culhwch, he took the opportunity to insert his (foster) 'son's' name in to that list. Ieuan's praise of his father and brothers in his introductory poem to De Trinitate (see below) amply demonstrates his deep love for his immediate family members and his readiness to incorporate them into his literary output. Has Ieuan, at a stroke, written himself into his story by incorporating his recently berieved foster 'son' into the list of the men of Arthur's court, as an inclusive, affectionate and sympathetic gesture towards him? Ieuan mab Sulien's authorship of Culhwch might well explain the 'interpolated' Sulien mab Iaen in the Arthurian court list.

If there is any truth in this, 'Sulien son of Iaen' would be amongst only a handful of historical figures, to appear in Culhwch, who were alive at the time of its composition. One other such figure is Gwilhenen brenhin Freinc (William king of France) who 'probably stands for William the Conqueror'. It is highly likely, and of great significance then, that Ieuan had direct contact with William during his famous 'pilgrimage' to St. Davids in 1081, when his father Sulien was serving his second term as bishop of that cathedral. To quote Bromwich and Evans again:

'Sir Idris Foster stressed the historical events of the year 1081 as significant for the dating of Culhwch, and these events point to a period of composition similar to that indicated by the ecclesiastical sources. In 1081 Gruffudd ap Cynan came across from his exile in Ireland and landed (like the Twrch Trwyth) at Porth Clais near St. David's, where he joined with Rhys ap Tewdwr, the ruler of Deheubarth, and won the battle of Mynydd Carn. In the same year William the Conquerer is said to have visited St. David's, where it is most likely that he made peace with Rhys ap Tewdwr. It is not unlikely that these happenings were in the mind of the author of Culhwch, and that they had an influence on his portrayal of certain events in the story'. 

As Nora Chadwick surmised, 'I think that we can hazard a guess that it was Sulien or one of his family who was responsible for the negotiations between the two Welsh princes and the Conqueror at St. David's'. It is easy to imagine that Ieuan, along with Sulien's other sons, was present at this historic encounter and there can be little doubt of Ieuan's implication in these events, however peripheral^v. Ieuan's authorship of Culhwch might well explain the inclusion of Gwilhenen brenhin Freinc and the landings of the Twrch Trwyth (Gruffudd ap Cynan) at Porth Clais and of Arthur at Mynyw.

If this is true, as seems likely, that these events were 'in the mind of the author of Culhwch', then it is certainly true of the Latin 'Life of David' by Rhygyfarch. Again, Nora Chadwick has argued that the production of Rhygyfarch's Vita Davidus resulted from a desire to commemorate these, apparently peaceful, diplomatic outcomes overseen by Sulien, between William of Normandy and Rhys ap Twdwr and Gruffydd ap Cynan.^vi:

It would seem natural to suppose that the Life of St. David would be composed on this occasion, both in support of Sulien's policy, and in celebration of the visit of the Conqueror to St. David's. We may perhaps regard the Life as one factor in the rapprochement between the native princes of West Wales and their powerful Norman enemy, an appeal by the native Welsh Church to the Conqueror for his protection against encroachment from Canterbury... The shrine of St. David which he had 'honoured' must be duly 'celebrated'. It is probably as a factor in the implementation of this great compact at St. David's in 1081 that we must regard the composition of the Life of the saint.

Rhygyfarch's original version has not survived, but doubtless it would have exhibited all the production values which were lavished upon Rhygyfarch's Psaltery and Martyrology, and on Ieuan's De Trinitate, which have survived and which are decorated with Ieuan's beautiful 'Irish' initials. We may guess a similar arrangement in the making of the Vita and that, in all likelihood, it was Ieuan's expert hand which supplied the decorative initials there also. It seems clear then, that both Culhwch ac Olwen and the Vita Davidus commemorate, each in their own way, the historic events of 1081 at St. David's, and if Sulien and Ieuan ap Sulien are implicated in the one, they are also implicated in the other. These reasons alone, however speculative, provide a narrative which seems reasonable and natural enough to throw strong suspicion upon the family of Sulien, including Rhygyfarch and particularly Ieuan, as being the author/authors of Culhwch ac Olwen.

But now something else, the author of Culhwch seems to have been well versed, to say the least, in late classical astronomical literature and this is a description with particular applicability to the brothers Ieaun and Rhygyfarch.

iWhilst it is true that Mac Cana later took a step back from his emphasis on direct Irish borrowings in Branwen, his arguments placing the composition of these tales in a learned ecclesiastical setting still stand.

ii'Gwyn' - White, Fair, 'goluthon' - the Wealthy?

iiiElierch – 'Swans'. Elierch is 'a township in that part of Llanbadarn-Fawr which is in the upper division of the hundred of Geneu'r Glyn, … 8 1/4 miles [E.N.E.] from Aberystwyth'. This fact may also have caught Ieuan's eye.

iv And whose death was recorded in the year A.D. 1144: 'Julien ap Rythmarch, (sic) one of the college of Llanbadarn, a person of great reading and extensive learning, departed this life'.

v In the Domesday survey of 1086 we learn that Rhys paid the king an annual rent of £40...The argument must have been an official and technical one.

vi See also Wade-Evans' ominous assessment – that it was the related threat of domination by Cantebury which prompted the learned men of Mynyw and Llanbadarn to set down David's Life, as it asserted David's dominion over the whole of Britain in contravention of Canterbury's claims to hegemony.

The Super Nova of 1006 in Culhwch and Olwen. Appendix 1: The Very Black Witch Daughter of the Very White Witch.

The Super Nova of 1006 in Culhwch and Olwen. Appendix 1:

The Very Black Witch Daughter of the Very White Witch.

Note that the Scales are held by Astraea 'Justice'

Arthur said, 'Is there anything now that has not been got of the things hard to find?'

One of the men said, 'Yes, the blood of the Dark Black Witch, Daughter of the Bright White Witch from the Valley of Grief in the uplands of Hell.'

Arthur set out towards the North and came to where the cave of the witch was. And Gwyn son of Nudd and Gwythyr son of Greidawl counselled to send Cacamwri and Hygwydd, his brother, to fight with the witch. And as they came into the cave, the witch rushed towards them and took hold of Hygwydd by the hair of his head and struck him to the floor beneath her. And Cacamwri took hold of her by the hair of her head and pulled her off Hygwydd to the floor, and she turned on Cacamwri and thrashed the two of them soundly and disarmed them, and drove them out whooping and hollering. And Arthur grew angry at seeing his two servants nearly killed, and he sought to rush towards the cave. But then Gwyn and Gwythyr said to him, 'It is not fair and not pleasant for us to see you wrestling with a witch. Send Long Amren and Long Eiddyl to the cave. And they went. And if the trouble was bad for the two earlier, worse was the trouble of those two, so that God knew not one of those four was able to go from that place, except that the four of them were set on Llamrei, Arthur's mare.

And then Arthur rushed towards the entrance of the cave and from the entrance he threw Carnwennan, his knife, at the witch and struck her through the middle until she was as two tubs.

The opening sentence of the penultimate episode in Culhwch, 'Kychwyn a oruc Arthur parth a'r Gogled, a dyuot hyt lle yd oed gogof y wrach', 'Arthur set out towards the North and came to where the cave of the witch was,' coupled with the conspicuous roles played by the 'northerners' Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwythyr vab Greidawl, has suggested to all commentators that the Hag's cave is in The North, i.e. Yr Hen Gogledd, the Old North, the once Brythonic speaking area of what is now part of Strathclyde in South-West Scotland and Cumbria in the North-West of England. And there is no doubt that there are certainly some very old traditions which locate an entrance to the Otherworld somewhere North of Hadrian's Wall. However, there is another way of thinking about the location of this cave and one which does not necessarily contradict this common-sense view.

The more precise address of the Black Witch given by the author, Pennant Gouut yg gwrthtir Uffern, 'the Valley of Grief in the uplands of Hell' indicate that he was not just thinking of some place in North Britain, but also of a very particular place in the sky. The term 'Uffern' in Culhwch has always been translated as 'hell' or 'Hell' as if it were the Christian Hell but this is misleading. In later times this term did come to signify the Christian concept of Hell, as it does in modern Welsh, but patently this cannot be the case here. Neither could it be claimed that this is a description of the entrance to that Happy Otherworld or Annwfn, which we encounter elsewhere in the stories of the Mabinogion. It is well known that 'uffern' is derived from the Latin word inferno, and 'the infernal region' would therefore be the less loaded, more literal, English translation of this word in this context. Because what is being described here is strikingly similar to the entrance to the classical Hades, where the cave of the Very Black Witch in the Valley of Grief seems to be identical to the cave entrance to the 'infernal regions of Dis' in the valley of Grief and Anxiety which is guarded by the 'coal black' or 'pitch black' crone, the Erinye or Fury, Tisiphone. Roaming close by are said to be other mythical beasts including Centaurs and the Lernian Hydra, hinting at the celestial location of the cave.

What the author appears to be offering here is another word-picture; we may see in The Very Black Witch daughter of the Very White Witch an image of Kore (again) otherwise called Persephone, Queen of Hades, daughter of Demeter the goddess of the harvest. In the previous chapter on Dillus the Horseman I pointed out that the abduction of Kreiddylad by Gwyn ap Nudd from Gwythyr ap Greidawl has long been regarded as a British version of the abduction of Persephone by Hades. It should not surprise us, then, to find Gwyn and Gwythyr acting as advisors to Arthur in the matter of the Very Black Witch, for they have both had previous dealings with her, for it is they who will fight for her every May 1^st forever until Judgement Day. Kreiddylat/Kore/Persephone is represented in the night sky as the zodiacal constellation Virgo and the cave of this 'crone' is the constellation Crater, considered by the ancient poets and philosophers to be the souls' entry point into corporeality, situated, as it is, in the uplands of the 'infernal regions of Dis'. Aratus describes it thus:

But if during an evening in the Spring the observer faces South and looks almost overhead, he will see how the souls, passing through the descending portal of Cancer, by veering slightly to the left, would go by Crater.

Note that Aratus points us South and upwards not North, but this did not stop other Greeks and Romans from thinking of entrances to Hades / Dis as being somewhere in the North, or in the West, or for that matter at the Cave of Dionysus, or the Cave at Ithaca. Indeed Macrobius describes it as follows:

Cancer (is) the portal of men, because through it descent is made to the infernal regions; Capricorn (is) the portal of the gods, because through it souls return to their rightful abode of immortality, to be reckoned among the gods.This is what Homer with his divine intelligence signifies in his description of the cave at Ithaca.

Proving that these Cosmic entrance and exit caves could be said, in the same breath, to have both a celestial and a mundane location. A little later Macrobius adds more detail as to the specific celestial address of the cave, although a little confusedly because as Stahl and others have pointed out 'Crater is between Corvus and Hydra' or between Corvus and Leo not Cancer and Leo:

Another clue to this secret is the location of the constellation of the Bowl of Bacchus in the region between Cancer and Leo, indicating that there for the first time intoxication overtakes descending souls with the influx of matter.

So to recap, I think that the Very Black Witch corresponds to Virgo in her guise as Persephone Queen of Hades, (perhaps confused here with Tisiphone the 'pitch black' witch) and the cave of this crone is Crater also known as the Bowl of Bacchus, the portal of descending souls into the infernal regions (Uffern).

Earlier, I gave reasons which strongly suggested that Hygwydd who carries the cauldron on his back should be equated with the serpent Hydra who carries Crater on his back, and that his brother Cacamwri being pulled to the depths by two millstones should be equated with 'long and slender' Serpens being pulled to the depths, (by two mill wheels) due to the precession of the Vernal equinox along the ecliptic. As can be seen from fig ix, if the Black Witch is meant to be Persephone/Virgo then it is now easy to appreciate the author's meaning when he says, 'the witch ... took hold of Hygwydd by the hair of his head and struck him to the floor beneath her. Cacamwri grabbed her by the hair and pulled her off Hygwydd'. This is very much the picture which could be seen from Plinlimon Top on the southern horizon at midnight, May 1^st 1006, the occasion of the first appearence of SN1006: Virgo above and dominating Hydra who is laid out on the ground along the southern horizon, Serpens, ready to strike, above Virgo.

Just in case we missed it the author, as is his wont, tells it again but now Arthur's two servants are called Hir Eiddyl and Hir Amren.

And Arthur grew angry at seeing his two servants nearly killed, and he sought to rush towards the cave. But then Gwyn and Gwythyr said to him, 'It is not fair and not pleasant for us to see you wrestling with a witch. Send Long Amren and Long Eiddyl to the cave. And they went. And if the trouble was bad for the two earlier, worse was the trouble of those two...

The meaning here, unambiguosly, of Hir is 'Long'. Bromwich & Evans suggest for Eiddyl 'weak', and Y Geiriadur Mawr gives 'eiddil FEEBLE, FRAIL, but also SLENDER. Surely Hir Eiddyl should be translated 'Long and Slender', terms often used to describe Serpens and which seems to make much more sense, in any case, than 'Long and Weak'. Hir Amren is also 'Long Something or other', (the meaning of Amren is unclear to me). Who are 'Long and Slender', and 'Long Something' if not these two Serpent Constellations once again?

The jocular image of all four of these 'men' being carried away together, draped across the back of Arthur's mare Llamrei (Grey Leaper), might appear to challenge this analysis, but measured against the accumulative weight of the surrounding evidence it is hardly a killer blow. Firstly, the sending of two lots of two of Arthur's servants to fight the Black Witch is patently another one of those 'doublets', which keep cropping up, to go along with the two boar hunts, the two birds visiting Twrch Trwyth and so on. The narrator consistently uses these doublets to reinforce an image or to get across some other specific aspect of an image. Sometimes this is not immediately apparent, for instance, the image of Hygwydd with the cauldron on his back and the image of Menw with the boar's bristle in his beak are really two aspects of the same 'super constellation' of Hydra, Crater and Corvus. I don't think it is a coincidence that this habit of relating two versions of the same story is also a noted characteristic of the star tales related by Hyginius and Eratosthenes. In addition, in one or other, or both of these doublets it is usual to find that the names of the characters appear to be fairly transparent 'codewords' for the constellations, not just any constellations mind, or made up ones, but only those classical constellations in the vicinity of SN1006, and it is worth repeating here some other examples along side Hir Amren and Hygwydd, and Hir Eiddyl and Cacamwri:

The 'maiden' uorwyn Kreiddylad – Kore - The Maiden = Virgo 
The Very Black Witch daughter of the Very White Witch - split into two tubs –  Persephone Queen of Hades, daughter of Demeter (Tisiphone - 'the pitch black crone'?) = Astraea/Libra?Virgo 
Dillus the Horseman – Pholus the Horseman = Centaurus 
The marchawc 'horseman' Kyledyr Wyllt ('the Wild') – The Wild Horseman = Centaurus 
Menw ab Teirgwaedd (in Bird form) - Little son of Three Shouts - Corvus the Crow
Gwrhyr Interpreter of Languages (in Bird form) - Corvus the Crow
Hygwydd carrying Cauldron = Hydra carrying Crater 
Hir Amreu – Long something = Hydra 
Caccymuri? being pulled to the depths by 'millwheels' = Serpens 
Hir Eiddyl - Long and Slender = Serpens

I said earlier that I thought the author was likening Arthur, in his nine day and nine night battle with Twrch Trwyth for the 'precious things', to Phoebus Apollo's, (the Sun), nine day and nine night journey through Scorpius. What he seems to be describing now, in the denouement to this episode, where Arthur throws Carnwennan, his 'little white knife' at the witch and cuts her in two, is the Sun's journey through Virgo at the Autumn Equinox, the place along the ecliptic where the sun slices through Virgo, splitting her into two parts, and where, in the present 'Age of Pisces' night and day are also divided into two equal parts:

And then Arthur rushed towards the entrance of the cave and from the entrance he threw Carnwennan, his knife, at the witch and struck her through the middle until she was as two tubs.

For the two thousand or so years of the Age of Aries the Autumnul equinox occurred in Scorpius, until around 6BC when the Age of Pisces began, but at some point in late antiquity, (no one knows precisely when) a new constellation was invented, Libra, the Scales, which took the place of The Claws of Scorpius (this is the reason why the sun spends only nine days and nights in the present, curtailed Claws). Hinckley Allen pointed out that it was often said of Libra or 'The Balance', which consists of two pans either side of the thin white line of the ecliptic, 'that the constellation was invented when on the equinox, and so represented the equality of day and night. Virgo was (and, as Justice still is), often pictured holding these Scales.

Astraea's scales have weighed her minutes out, Poised on the zodiac

The sequence of zodiac constellations in this area of the ecliptic which have been progressively 'pulled in to the Depths' at the Autumnal equinox in historical times, if we incude Ophiuchus/Serpentarius – 'the thirteenth house' and Libra the late replacement for the Claws of Scorpius, is as follows: Sagittarius, Scorpius, Serpentarius, Libra, Virgo. this suggests an interesting possibility: Arthur's (The Sun) fight with Twrch Trwyth for the 'Precious Things' (Scorpius), Cacamwri (Serpens/Serpentarius) being dragged to the Depths, and Arthur (Phoebus) splitting into 'two tubs' (Libra) the Very Black Witch (Virgo) with his little white knife (the ecliptic) may well be a display of knowledge concerning this sequence

In 6BC Virgo 'returned to the frame' at the Autumnal equinox, just as Pisces now ruled the Vernal equinox, a cosmic event famously heralded by Virgil as the start of a new Golden Age and which later Christians took as a prophecy of the birth of Christ the Fish, son of the Virgin, a belief which held particular currency in Wales. Virgil said:

“Now comes the last age by the song of the Cumaen sybil;

the great order of the ages is born anew;

now the Virgin returns,

now the reign of Saturn comes again;

now a new child is sent down from heaven above.”

This, of course, is the 'prophecy' alluded to in the ` 'legendary' Taliesinic poem Cad Godeu:

Sages, wise men,

prophesy Arthur!

There is something which has been before

[and] they sang of that which has been:

and one came about

because of the story of the Flood,

and [the second was] Christ's Crucifixion

and [the third is] The Day of Judgement to come.

[Like] a magnificent jewel in a gold ornament

thus I am resplendent

and I am exhilarated

by the prophecy of Virgil

Perhaps there is a suggestion here that the appearance of SN1006 was seen as heralding the emergence of a saviour, a new Arthur, in line with this prophecy. As David Carpenter has pointed out 'The biography of Gruffudd ap Cynan saw its hero as specifically another Arthur, 'king of the kings of the Isle of Britain'.ⁱ

fig ix. The Southern Horizon, Midnight, May 1^st, 1006 A.D. From Plinlimon Top

iThe Penguin History of Britain: The Struggle for Mastery: Britain 1066-1284. By David Carpenter. No wonder an Anglo-Norman survey of Britain in the 1150s lamented how the Welsh 'threaten us... openly they go about saying, by means of Arthur they will have [the island] back... They will call it Britain again'

The Journey of the Swine. Appendix 1: 

Images in Cambriae Typus

The Northern Celestial Hemisphere may be rotated around its centre until Virgo is almost perfectly superimposed over the female figure of the Wirral 

The 'Wyral' or 'Cilguri' on Cambriae Typus. Note the non-existent island 'il bre' which becomes the head of an unmistakeably female figure.

Virgo as drawn by Schaubach.

The Wirral from a modern map.

 Bran

 Horse

 Janus. (Nysien and Efnysien?)

Two Ladies of the Court

Goat

Salmon

Mochyn

Y Ddraig Goch

Dragon heads. The Dragon head at bottom left is taken from the Black Book of Carmarthen.

Cacamwri, Osla Big-Knife and Llyn LLiwan.

Cacamwri, Osla Big-Knife and Llyn LLiwan.

 Serpens wrestling Ophiuchus along the celestial equator.

Orion the Hunter with his short-broad knife in its sheath and one foot in Zalos the 'Whirlpool' in the River Eridanus.

In Culhwch and Olwen during the frenzied events in the Severn estuary Cacamwri, the half brother of Hygwydd, is described as being dragged 'into the depths by two millstones', while his comrade Osla Big-knife is also dragged 'into the depths' by his sheath 'being full of water'.

Of all the harm that was got from seeking those treasures from him (Twrch Trwyth), worse was got trying to save the two men from drowning. Cacamwri, as he was being pulled up – two grindstones pulled him into the depths. As Osla Big-knife was running after the boar, his knife fell out of its sheath and he lost it; and his sheath thereafter being full of water, as he was dragged forth, it dragged him back into the depths.

In the 'catalogue of the court' the author prepared the way for this curious couplet full of loaded imagery by firstly associating Cacamwri's physical strength with the destructive power of an iron threshing flail:

Cacamwri, Arthur's servant – show him a barn, though there would be in it the work of fifty ploughs, he would thrash away with an iron flail until the boards, the rafters, and the side beams would be no better off than the fine oats in the heap of corn-sheaves at the bottom of the barn.

and secondly by describing Osla's big knife and sheath as being as big and as useful as a bridge:

Osla Big-Knife, who carried Bronllafn Ferylldan, ('Short-Broad-Breast-Blade'). When Arthur would come with his hosts to the edge of a torrent, a narrow place over the water would be sought, and the knife would be placed in its sheath across the torrent. Enough of a bridge would it be for the hosts of the Three Islands of Britain and its Three Adjacent Islands and their spoils.

The episode, then, has the feel of a previously rehearsed set piece; the author has carefully fed his readers a couple of lines in the 'catalogue' and the punchlines duly appear here in the 'achievements'. Cacamwri's propensity for extreme violence, compared in the 'catalogue' to the destructive power of an iron flail upon the threshing barn itself - until it was 'no better off than the fine oats in the heap of corn-sheaves at the bottom of the barn' - is now, ironically, the cause of his own undoing, for it is the weight of millstones, the instruments subsequently required to grind the oats and corn to flour, which drag him to the depths. Likewise Osla's vast knife and sheath, previously of great beneficial value as a bridge over water, are now the cause of his demise, as it is the sheath which drags him into the water.

It is possible to construe in this some sort of wisdom tale, however ironic, and if this were indeed true, then logic would lead us to believe that at this point in the tale both characters ought to have drowned, which is what the text appears to say, but this turns out not to be the case certainly as far as Cacamwri goes, for we will meet him again a little further on very much alive and, significantly, in a wrestling match. Osla Big-Knife, on the other hand, is not mentioned again, at least in this tale and it is therefore apparent that Cacamwri was successfully dragged up from the depths, despite the impression to the contrary, and that Osla was not.

There are instances of millstones in association with the sea or 'the depths' and with punishments in the New Testament, this from Mathew 18.5

And whoso shall receive onesuch little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

The British hagiographical legend of St. Perran appears to draw on this when it is said that Irish pagans tied him to a mill-stone and pushed him over a cliff-edge into the storm-tossed sea, which of course became instantly calm as the saint floated safely and righteously away to eventually land in Cornwall. A further reference comes from Revelations 18.21

And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, 'Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all'.

Whether any of this has anything to do with Cacamwri and Osla Big-Knife being dragged into the depths of the Severn is difficult to assess, although it would be hard to argue that the author of Culhwch, a man of considerable ecclestiastical learning, was not familiar with these biblical passages, he may even have known the St Perran legend judging by his evident familiarity with the Vitae of Welsh, Irish and Cornish saints (see below).

However that may be, there is another possible explanation for the presence, here, of these millstones. In their controversial book 'Hamlet's Mill' Heartha von Dechend and Giorgio de Santillana believe that they have identified a very widespread and apparantly very old tradition attested in many myths and legends throughout the world which suggests that mythic millwheels have to do with the slow eastwards motion of the vernal equinox through the ecliptic, (the path of the sun and the planets) at its junction with the celestial equator and known as the precession of the equinoxes. These tales consistently tell of the destruction of a Mill which sinks to the bottom of the sea and von Dechend and de Santillana have argued that this odd but persistent image stands for the dragging into the southern celestial hemisphere - 'The Depths' - of a succession of zodiacal constellations which have marked the sun's rising at the Vernal equinox through a series of 'World Ages'. A characteristic of these 'precessional myths' is that the destruction of this Mill, whoever the owner is at the time, marks the 'World's End' and the beginning of a new 'World Age'. These 'precessional myths' also relate that the sinking of this mill, with its millwheels, causes a whirlpool to come into existence at the place where it becomes submerged. Martin Bulgerin explains the idea in clear language:

Two very common mythic motifs concerning precession are the Whirlpool and the Millstone. The daily rotation of the Earth was viewed as the entire cosmos rotating about our heads, much like the rotating millstones used to grind grain. These cosmic millstones were not only a symbol of regularity and order in the universe, but were revered as the mills that ground out the fates of men and gods. The axis of this mill was the north pole itself, the creative center that represented divine power. Unfortunately, due to precession, the cosmic millstone sometimes broke its axle and fell into disrepair. Quite often, this broken mill fell into the ocean... disappearing into a giant whirlpool to the center of the earth. The whirlpool could be either pre-existing or caused by the falling millstone itself.

It seems remarkable then that the pulling of Cacamwri by two millstones into the depths occurs 'betwixt Aber Gwy and Llyn Lliwan', a miraculous lake which is described in the Mirabilia appended to the Historia Brittonom as a 'whirlpool'. Earlier in the tale, during the search for Mabon son of Modron, the Eagle of Gwernaby relates how he too was drawn 'down into the depths' by the Salmon of Llyn Llyw, just as Cacamwri and Osla were, which is again all very suggestive of whirlpools. It would be well to try to find the location of Llyn Lliwan with its whirlpool and its millwheels, though it has hitherto proved illusive.

The text of Culhwch regarding Twrch Trwyth's route to Llyn Lliwan is a little vague and several interpretations are possible, this has led, perhaps not surprisingly, to much confusion amongst all commentators of Culhwch as to the whereabouts of Llyn Lliwan. For instance, Bromwich and Evans thought that 'Evidently it was a lake or pool which over flowed into the Severn Estuary', maybe on the 'English shoreline in Gloucestershire', but most likely 'on the Welsh side of the Severn Estuary'...probably 'between the mouth of the Wye and Gloucester', but their map shows it at the mouth of the Usk! Bollard suggests tentatively, in his map, that Llyn Lliwan is about midway between Aber Gwy and Caer Loyw (Gloucester), whilst Jones & Jones have it midway between Aber Gwy and the mouth of the Usk. Tatlock suggested 'somewhere on the Llymon Brook which flows from Cross Ash in the middle of Gwent until it joins the River Trothy at Court Farm, but the etymology of Oper Lin Liuan makes this unlikely and Llyn Lliwan remains a mystery.'ⁱ In recent years The Caerwent Historic Trust has focussed attention on the Whirly Holes on the Neddern Brook near Caerwent, but even this promising theory suffers from the fact that these inland 'whirlpools' are far from the Mouth of the Wye and the waters of the Severn.

As mentioned, the site of Llyn Lliwan is described in the Mirabilia, in obscure and confusing language, and Geoffrey of Monmouth appears to closely paraphrase this in the Historia Regum Britaniae. One thing, however, is clear – the major inference in both texts is to the creation of the Severn Bore by a whirlpool in a 'bottomless pit' at the Mouth of the Severn. The two passages run as follows:

There is another wonder, which is Oper Linn Liuan. The mouth of this river flows into the Severn and when the Severn is flooded at high tide, and the sea likewise floods in the mouth of the aforesaid river and is received in the waters of the estuary like a whirlpool, and the sea does not rush up; there is a shore beside the river, and whenever the Severn is flooded at high tide this shore is not covered, and when the sea and the Severn recede, then lake Liuan throws up everything swallowed from the sea and that shore is covered, and like a mountain in one wave it throws up and breaks.

Arthur also told Hoel that there was a ... pool in the parts of Wales which are near the Severn. The local people call it Lin Ligua. When the sea flows into this pool, it is swallowed up as though in a bottomless pit; and as the pool swallows the waters, it is never filled in such a way as to overflow the edges of its banks. When the tide ebbs away, however, the pool belches forth the waters which it has swallowed, as high in the air as a mountain, and with them it then splashes and floods its banks. (Lewis Thorpe)

When, in Culhwch, the Eagle of Gwernabwy and Arthur's men visit the Salmon of Llyn Llyw at 'the place where he was', which must mean Llyn Llyw, it is implied there that the lake is to be found in the Severn itself, in the Salmon's assertion that 'With every tide I go up along the river until I come to the bend of the wall of Caer Loyw'. This makes best sense if we envisage this conversation as occurring in the Severn. Indeed, one doesn't have to look further than the banks of the river to find a 'lake', as the Severn itself contains many pools and lakes, for example: Salmon Pool, Count Lake, Plython Lake and Oldbury Lake are all within 4 miles up river from Aber Gwy, as are the suggestive Sturch Pill and Pighole Pill, both nearby inlets on the west bank of Severn. The description in the Mirabilia is also clear that the whirlpool is actually in the River Severn at the place where the incoming tide (the Bore) meets the river in full spate.

From Porth Clais to Beachley Point

With all this in mind it is worth now considering the route, as described in Culhwch, which leads to Llyn Lliwann and there is one interpretation which, it seems to me, fits the evidence contained in all of these texts whilst supplying a fitting denouement to the chase. It is also one which displays a general's, or at least an expert hunter's, grasp of the terrain, indeed I suspect that the author of Culhwch may have had access to a reasonably accurate map with which he worked out the entire route and especially the climax to the chase. ⁱⁱ

Arthur's plan is a clever one, he uses his (the author's) knowledge of the lie of the land to trap the Boar and force him into the Severn in a classic ambush:

Twrch Trwyth went from there to between Tawy and Euyas, and Arthur summoned all Cornwall and Devon unto him, to the estuary of the Severn, and he said to the warriors of this Island, "Twrch Trwyth has slain many of my men, but, by the valour of warriors, while I live he shall not go into Cornwall. And I will not follow him any longer, but I will oppose him life to life. Do ye as ye will." And he resolved that he would send a body of knights, with the dogs of the Island, as far as Euyas, who should return thence to the Severn, and that tried warriors should traverse the Island, and force him into the Severn.(Jones & Jones)

The strategy appears to have been to catch up with the Boar in Ewyas and then to chase him across the Wye into the toungue of land between there and the Severn, they then pressed him southwards through the Forest of Dean and towards the west bank of the Severn where the land narrows dramatically into the Beachley peninsula. He now has nowhere to go but into the Severn itself, he cannot attempt to cross the Wye because presumably Arthur and the rest of his men are lining the opposite bank, waiting in ambush, perhaps the men of Devon and Cornwall line the east bank of the Severn also.

According to the Welsh tale the place where the Twrch Trwyth was driven into the Severn is 'betwixt Llin Lliwan and Aber Gwy', and Bromwich and Evans note that in the Brut Dingestow the 'location of the tidal pool is here given as near the Welsh border'. They then assume that the border referred to is the old border, which Humphrey Lhwyd and later Camden insisted upon, of the Severn itself, which eventually led them to insinuate that the tidal reach of the Severn at Gloucester was somehow also in the frame. But this seems to be a mistake because there are two other Welsh borders to take into consideration. In 928AD king Aethelstan defeated the Welsh and established the River Wye as the border and about 150 years earlier in the latter half of the 8^th century Offa of Mercia built the southern section of his famous dyke, which began near Slimeroad Pill, someway below Sturch and Pighole Pills, and from there crossed the mile or so over to the Wye, effectively isolating the Beachley peninsula. It seems reasonable then that we should concentrate our search for Llyn Llywan, the tidal whirlpool, in this restricted area, namely somewhere off the Beachley peninsula south of Offa's Dyke, (which obviously contains the ancient Severn border but also these more recently established borders of Wales), and upstream of Aber Gwy.

And it is obvious from this that the large river pool known as 'Whirls End' is the place which the author of Culhwch thought of as the location of Llyn Llywanⁱⁱⁱ. Whirls End! The word 'Llywan' means 'Rudder' giving 'The Lake of the Rudder' and as any local boatman will tell you this is the one thing that is required in this most turbulent part of the Severn Estuary. The mystery is: why has nobody suggested this before?

Whirls End - Llyn Llywan

As mentioned Cacamwri is described in the 'catalogue of the court' as destroying a 'barn' which contains the work of 50 ploughs and the connection with millstones or quernstones is obvious and later explicit. One is reminded of the 50 tridents in the back of the Salmon of Llyn Llyw (the same as Llyn Lliwan), who we meet in that portion of Culhwch known as the Oldest Animals, an international popular tale which recounts the quest of a hero or heroes who visits a succession of animals, each one vastly older than the previous one, until finally he meets the oldest creature ever created. Now, whilst this may not be a theory of the precession of the equinoxes it is a surprisingly good description of one; the Hero may be seen as the Sun moving through the Zodiac i.e. 'The Circle of Animals', in this case the Ousel, the Stag, the Owl, the Eagle and the Salmon

I showed earlier that there are very strong reasons for believing that the author of Culhwch wanted Hygwyyd to represent the serpent constellation Hydra, (pseudo Eratosthenes being the most likely source) perhaps this is a clue to a celestial identity for his (half) brother Cacamwri; might he also be a serpent constellation? There are, besides Hydra, two other serpents anciently depicted in the sky, Serpens and Draco, (a fourth, Hydrus the Little Water Snake, was added in the late 16^th century). Circumpolar Draco, 'the serpent of the Hesperides' is in fact said to be the brother of Hydra, their parents being Typhon and Echidna, (Hesiod, Hyginus &c.), but Draco, being circumpolar, is never dragged to the 'Depths', never even sets below the horizon, and it is therefore clear to me that in the Welsh author's scheme it is the constellation Serpens, (often confused with Draco) the great Serpent winding along the celestial equator which Ophiuchus wrestles, that Cacamwri is supposed to correspond with. This 'long and slender' Serpent poised above Virgo as if ready to strike at her, is traditionally drawn looped around either the torso or one of the legs of Ophiuchus who holds the Head Kaput in his left hand and the Tail Cauda in his right, in an eternal wrestling match.

What of Osla Big-Knife, what constellation, if any, did the author have in mind for this character? It has been stated that the historical origins of Osla most likely lie with the 8^th century Mercian king Offa, whose name was occasionally spelt Ossa, and in Bonedd y Saint it is given as Offa Kyllellvawr vrenin Lloegr – 'Offa Great Knife, king of England'. Others have suggested the saxon Octha son of Hengist 'of the long knives' and this idea seems to be reinforced by the portrayal of Osla as the enemy of Arthur at Badon in the later (but related) medieval tale The Dream of Rhonabwy. So it is notewothy that in Culhwch, the earlier tale, Osla is depicted as a fully integrated member of Arthur's warband and any historical associations with enemy Saxon kings have been entirely suppressed, instead he is presented here as a mythical giant huntsman who is the owner of a vast knife and sheath capable of forming 'enough of a bridge' to cross 'a narrow place over the water'. In this tale Osla Big Knife is explicitly a giant, a warrior and a hunter, and there can be no doubt that we have here a perfect description of the constellation figure of Orion (Osiris) 'the Giant, the Warrior and the Hunter' (Allen, Star Names), the owner of the three stars known as The Belt of Orion from which hangs the asterism called The Sword of Orion. This celestial, short-broad blade appears to form a bridge in the sky over the narrows of the river constellation Eridanus.

There is another important element to the myth of the Millwheels and the Whirlpool and it is to do with the celestial location of the Whirlpool. Orion's left foot is in the River Eridanus and is marked by the star Rigel, apparently known as the 'whirlpool star', and it is true to say of both Osla and (Osiris) Orion that during the hunt, as he was 'running after the boar' the giant was dragged into the Depths, I might as well add 'at the Western verge'. This is how Brady, following Hamlet's Mill^iv, descibes the situation:

'Whatever the story, and there are many, the Golden Mill fell to earth, landed in the Oceans of the sky, and created a whirlpool. ...The whirlpool was located at the tip of the constellation Orion, at the point occupied by the fixed star Rigel, the foot of Orion, the point which slipped into the great starry ocean.'

Now if Cacamwri – Serpens,, (in his wrestling match with Ophiuchus) is being pulled up from the Depths in the east, (in spite of the two 'millwheels' which are tring to drag him down), then Osla Big-Knife – Orion, on the opposite side of the sky in the west, is being dragged down into the whirling Depths because his huge sheath is filling with water. This is strikingly similar to the astronomical tale, mentioned earlier, which Aratus tells for the rising of Scorpius and the setting of Orion, in the Phaenomena, except Scorpius, which was sometimes depicted as a serpent, has here been actually substituted by the constellation figure of Serpens, which is more truly on the opposite side of the sky from Orion.

One hour before the first appearance of SN1006. Serpens rose on the eastern horizon, 'was dragged up from the Depths' as Orion the Hunter set beneath the western horizon, 'was dragged into the Depths'.

NOTES

iTatlock, J. S. P., (1950), The Legendary History of Britain, p.76.

iiAs an aside, it is noteworthy that, following the crossing of the Irish Sea, Twrch Trwyth comes to land at a port, why does a monstrous boar need to come in at a port? The next time that he has to cross a major body of water he finds himself at Aber Towy, where from very ancient times a ferry has operated between Llanstephan and Ferryside, why does a monstrous boar need to catch a ferry? And again, the point where Twrch Trwyth crosses the Severn is also the site of an ancient ferry crossing between Wales and England. Curious.

iii The Blaenau Gwent County Council website reports in the section on Arthurian Gwent: 'Ewyas was originally one of the comotes of Ergyng and covered the eastern area of the Black Mountains. It is now split between Wales and Herefordshire, but the name survives in the Herefordshire village of Ewias Harold. Dyffryn Ewias ("The Vale of Ewias") is where Llanthony Priory now stands. Aber Gwy ("The Mouth of the Wye") speaks for itself, perhaps Beachley Point under the Welsh end of the old Severn Bridge is the spot referred to in the tale'.

iv“That there is a whirlpool in the sky is well known; it is most probably the essential one, and it is precisely placed. It is a group of stars so named (zalos) at the foot of Orion, close to Rigel (beta Orionis, Rigel being the Arabic word for ‘foot’), the degree of which was called ‘death,’ according to Hermes Trismegistos, whereas the Maori claim outright that Rigel marked the way to Hades (Castor indicating the primordial homeland). Antiochus the astrologer enumerates the whirl among the stars as Taurus. Franz Boll takes sharp exception to the adequacy of his description, but he concludes that the zalos must, indeed, be Eridanus ‘which flows from the foot of Orion.’” (Giorgio Santillana and Hertha Von Dechend, Hamlet’s Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge and Its Transmission Through Myth (Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc., 1998, 1969), p. 210)