Merlins Oak. History in photos

The Story of Merlin's Oak in Photos

Before 1856

Post 1856. Perhaps 1880's.

1936

!949

1962

1978, on the left my friend William Montgomery

1978. The end.

Present Day, (2020).

Merlin and Carmarthen

Merlin, Carmarthen and me.

This is an attempt to explain how I came to the conclusions I have come to regarding astronomy and cartography in the tales of the Mabinogion and other early Welsh prose, poetry and hagiography. It will take the form of a personal memoir and will be largely set down in chronological order, though it will also be necessary to move through time in a more fluid way. The past, the present and the future are the weave and weft, the very fabric of Merlin's universe, and of all of our universes. Myrddin does not feature in any of the tales of the Mabinogion, though there is more than a hint of Culhwch and Olwen in the Black Book of Carmarthen, where Myrddin does feature. It was in Carmarthen, in Merlin's Town that I first became aware of the intimate relationship between so called myth and legend, landscape and astronomy, place and time and memory.

Iconic photograph from the late seventies of graffiti on a derelict house near to St. Peter's Church.The scrubbed out legend to the right of Merlin's front door used to read something like "Merlin's out, he's probably down the Coopers Arms". (photo credit: Sian Boussevain).

In the Summer of 1969 when I was eight years old, my family moved from Luddenden near Halifax in West Yorkshire, where my Mum, June, comes from, to 17 Barn Road, Carmarthen or Caerfyrddin - Merlin's Town in West Wales, where my Dad, Rex, comes from.

My Dad was born and bred in Carmarthen, he was a St. Peter's boy, as they used to say around here, one born within earshot of the bells of St Peter's Church. He was well-known as the towns sign writer as well as for being a superb top tenor, a chorister and a rock 'n roll vocalist. Everyone knew him as 'Toffee Rex' and I inherited my nickname 'John Toffee' from him. He taught me how to sign write and about craftsmanship, though unfortunately I did not inherit his lovely singing voice.

After the first week of settling in to our new home, it may have been early August, I was allowed to go out and explore the town on my own, as long as I didn't go too far. After wandering aimlessly for a while I found myself looking up at the imposing bell tower of St. Peters Church, one of the oldest and largest parish churches in Wales. I vaguely knew that St. Peters was connected to the local legends about the famous wizard Merlin, so I entered into the sacred grounds through the impressive lych gate. I had heard from my cousin Kevin that if you walked three times widdershins around the church you would either see a wonder or you would go mad. So, on an impulse, I thought I'd give that a go. 

As I was about to begin the third lap of my march towards certain insanity I found my way blocked by a large smelly Welshman, a pig farmer I assumed (it was a Friday, pig mart day), also walking widdershins around the church. He stank of beer and of pig shit, he wore a flat cap over unkempt oily hair, he had on a mucky old raincoat and on his feet a soiled pair of green wellies. I slowed my pace to walk behind him, feeling somewhat intimidated by his presence when suddenly something fell from the inside pocket of his dirty old coat and landed on the flagstones ahead of me. It was a bundle of cash, as thick as a fat leek, held tight with elastic bands. It rolled along the floor and stopped at my feet. I picked up the roll of money. It was made up from fifties, twenties and tenners, I had never seen so much money. There in the palm of my hand was a wad of money worth thousands of pounds. I admit that it occurred to me, if only for a fleeting moment that I might keep that money, we weren't a rich family after all, but it also occurred to me that I was on holy ground. That seemed important to my eight year old mind. So, after glancing fearfully up at the church tower, I cleared my throat and said,

"Excuse me". 

No reaction, I tried a second time... same. On the third attempt I tugged his mucky sleeve and this time he turned around to face me, to look down at me all jowly, unshaven and watery eyed. 

"I think you might have dropped something", I said. 

He didn't say anything, just smiled drunkenly at me, took the wad of cash I'd held out to him, put it back in his pocket, sort of winked, turned about, swayed and went on his widdershin way. The memory of that moment has stayed with me all of my life. I didn't think it at the time but many years later I came to the realisation that I'd seen a wonder, that I'd had an encounter with Merlin himself or as he used to be known Myrddin Wyllt, whose only companion in his grief and madness was a little pig. And whose conception, according to legend, between an incubus and a virginal nun had occurred here within the sacred precinct of St Peter's church.

The Lych gate and Bell Tower of St. Peter's circa 1900

Later that year, on the hot late summer Sunday afternoon of September 20th 1969 my younger brother Jeffrey, seven years old, died in a tragic accident in the back garden of 17 Barn Road. That awful accident changed my world and my family's world forever.

We could no longer live at Barn Road and so after the funeral my Mum, Dad and my older brother and sister moved in with  my Uncle Delme (Dads brother) and Auntie Margaret. I was put with my Welsh grandparents, Nanna and Grandpa, who lived at 4 Morley Street in the centre of town. My Nanna, Vi, was a funny woman, every morning before I went to school she would enquire of me, "Have you cleared your bowels?" Some years later (1983, I was an art student in Coventry at the time) I went to visit her. She was watching the television intently, "Those bloody lesbians have been at it again", she growled as I came in. The news programme on the t.v. was reporting the bombing by Hezbollah of the American Lebanese Embassy in Beirut. She was a great one for malapropisms. Nanna, who rarely left Carmarthen, once took a train to London to visit her son, my Uncle Delme, where he was working as a plumber though she didn't know where he lived exactly. On leaving Paddington Station she asked a complete stranger if he knew where Delme Davies lived, "What, Delme the plumber?" came the reply, "Yes, he's just around the corner at number 22". Okay, I might have got the number wrong but the rest is true.

My Grandpa had a profound influence upon me. He was a deeply religious man, a Methodist, When he died he had hung on tenaciously until Good Friday so he could rise to Heaven on the same day that his Lord did. He died with a serene smile on is face. 

He used to drive around town in his red Mini rally car, it had bucket seats and roll-bars, though he rarely exceeded 20 miles an hour. He was known to everyone in Carmarthen as Will Jockey, for that was his job in his younger days. I remember when my elder brother Stephen and I had taken him for a drink to the Friends Arms in Johnstown on the edge of town once. We were sat down at a table enjoying a pint when, "Duw," he said suddenly, "I remember sitting here with Buffalo Bill!" We of course thought he'd gone doolally but actually it was true. Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show came to Carmarthen on the 13th May 1904. The show was put on at the Argos Fields not far from the Friends Arms. Local jockeys were recruited so as to take part in the show and they were trained by the Native Americans in certain techniques of horsemanship such as dropping off the saddle and riding the flank of the horse in a tight turn. My Grandpa taught me this skill in the living room of 4 Morley Street using a high backed chair for a horse. Me seated the wrong way round holding the chair-back, he holding the seat swinging me round in the air. "I won't let you fall" he would say, as I clung on. Many years later I was to remember this training, in an instant, on a real horse. It saved me from potentially serious injury.

Many years earlier... Grandpa was a friend of Dylan Thomas the writer, poet and playwright, and most Saturdays Dylan and Caitlin would get the bus up from Laugharne to Carmarthen so Caitlin could do the weekly shop. At around 10 o' clock a.m. Dylan would call at 4 Morley Street, where the door was always open and call down the hallway, "Will, are you coming out to play?" My Nanna, who didn't much care for Dylan, would come to the door and call back to Grandpa, who was usually in the garden, "Will, that man is here for you again!" The two of them used to go to The Mansel Arms at the end of the street, often before opening time, for several beers. My Nanna related this story to me once, Will and Dylan had gone for their usual Saturday morning pint at the Mansel and Dylan had got really drunk, standing on the tables reciting his latest verse, unfortunately he'd got so drunk he'd fallen asleep and there was no waking him. He was still in this state when Caitlin arrived back from shopping. There was only one bus back to Laugharne and the bus station was some way off. So my Nanna got my Grandpa to go fetch his wheel barrow. With the help of the landlord they managed to get him into the barrow and off they went, Nanna, Caitlin and my Grandpa with Dylan Thomas, fast asleep in the barrow. When they got to the station the bus was almost ready to go but with the help of the bus driver they managed to bundle Dylan onto a seat. The next Saturday Caitlin told my Nanna that as soon as the bus arrived in Laugharne Dylan had woken up, looked out of the window, saw that the bar at Brown's Hotel was open, made a bee line for it and started on the beer again.

Grandpa, a Welsh Nationalist and a proud Welsh speaker, knew his Welsh history and his semi-legendary history through the Brut y Tywysogyon ‘The Chronicle of the Princes’ and from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ‘History of the Kings of Britain’. He knew the works of the ancient Welsh poets such as Taliesin and Aneirin, the Cynfeirdd, or ‘earliest poets’, he had studied the praise poetry of the Gogynfeirdd ‘the not so early poets’ and he could recite from memory several of the poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym, some say Wales’s greatest poet. However, Grandpa's lasting gift was to introduce to me the tales of the Mabinogion and to the poems attributed to Myrddin from Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin ‘The Black Book of Carmarthen’.

I don't remember now how long it was that I stayed with my grandparents but at some point during 1970, the year following my brother's death, my immediate family came back together and we moved into number 80 Priory Street in the 'Old Town' of Carmarthen. Actually, the official name of our street was and is Oak Terrace which is a continuation of Priory Street, I didn't learn this until quite recently after studying maps of the area, anyway we knew it as Priory Street and the mail seemed to arrive regardless.

Both the 'Oak' of Oak Terrace and the 'Priory' of Priory Street have strong Merlinic connections as this part of Carmarthen, Old Carmarthen was indeed the heart of 'Merlin's Town'. The Oak being referred to was 'The Old Oak' or 'The Carmarthen Oak' but better known, in fact it became world famous, as 'Merlin's Oak'.

The classic photograph of Merlin's Oak in 1936.

Our House on Oak Terrace was on the left and is just hidden by the sad remains of the old tree. St. Peter's Church is behind us about 400 metres up the road the other way.

The history of the tree is, more or less, well documented. It is thought to have been planted in 1660 to celebrate the return to the throne of England by Charles II. However, by the 19th century some legends had developed connecting the tree to Merlin. During the mid 19th century the tree had became a focal point for local drinkers and ruffians and it seems that the tree was poisoned by an angry local trader in protest against this noisy revelry. It is recorded that the tree died in 1856.

Drunkards, blaggards, ruffians, ragamuffins and cheeky little urchins revelling in a threatening manner beneath Merlin's Oak, in leaf and clearly alive in this very early photograph, presumably taken prior to 1856.

Perhaps surprisingly the concrete base and iron railings appear to have been in place when the tree was still in good health. However, as traffic started to increase postcards from the 1960's show the Oak and its base in a poor state of repair. It jutted out awkwardly onto the A484 a really busy road and in 1978 what remained of the tree was deemed hazardous to traffic and was demolished. Two fragments survive, one is in a glass case in the entrance to St. Peter's Civic Hall. The other is at The Bishop's Palace Museum in Abergwili, just below Merlin's Hill.

There was a prophecy attached to the Old Oak:

When Merlin's Oak shall tumble down

Then shall fall Carmarthen Town.

Another version insisted 'Then shall drown Carmarthen Town', and in 1979, the year following the removal of Merlin's Oak, Carmarthen suffered the worst floods in living memory.

The ignominious end of Merlins Oak.

A little up the road from 80 Priory Street, just before you get to the Roman amphitheatre, there was a Belisha beaconed zebra crossing which led directly to the entrance to Parc Hinds, a playing field and a rec since the late 1920's. My elder brother Stephen and I, and our border collie Meg played football there, hunted for slow worms to frighten our sister Linda with, got into fights and into mischief generally. It's a steeply terraced patch of land which drops quickly down to the centre of a great horseshoe bend of the River Towy. This is the site of the 12th century Augustinian Priory of St. John the Evangelist originally founded by St. Teulyddog as a monastic settlement or clas in the 6th century. It was here, some time before 1250, that a Welshman patiently copied poems from older manuscripts dating back to the 9th century. It was a labour of love which took many years to achieve and it is now the oldest surviving manuscript written solely in the Welsh Language... Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin 'The Black book of Carmarthen'.  

Parc Hinds. Very little of the Priory remains above ground now. In the row of cottages on the left you can see the original gateway entrance, part of the precinct walls also survive and runs north-east from the end of the row. It is known locally as 'Nuns Walk', which has always reminded me of Merlins virginal mother. 

Myrddin prophesies. Remembers the future. He is not bound by time or place. 

There are three poems within the pages of the Black Book of Carmarthen which, at the least, pretend to be spoken in the vaticinatory voice of Myrddin Wyllt:

Yr Afallenau, 'The Apple Trees' 
Yr Oianau, 'The Oh's'
Ymyddiddan Myrddyn a Thaliesin, 'A Conversation between Myrddin and Taliesin'.

Myrddin is named in the Ymddiddan, and Caerfyrddin occurs in Yr Oianau. In the Afallennau a wild man of the woods, obviously Myrddin in the mind of the Welsh scribe, addresses a magical crab apple tree, whilst in the Oianau he addresses a little pig from the boughs of his apple tree. He laments his pathetic existence, icicles in his hair, sleeplessness, loneliness, his madness and his grief. And he prophesies the fate of the Welsh against the Saxons and in future battles against the Normans, prophecies that were fulfilled during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. These prophetic stanzas were evidently composed after the events they purport to foretell and are regarded as additions to a body of poetry composed much earlier, probably in the ninth or tenth century.

The earlier verses refer to the legend of a warrior (Myrddin) who went mad during the (historical) Battle of Arfderydd (ca. 573) between Rhydderch Hael, ('The Generous') and Gwenddolau, two rival kings of Brithonic speaking tribes in the 'Old North' Yr Hen Gogledd, (Strathclyde). Following the defeat of his lord Gwenddolau Myrddin fled to the Caledonian Forest where he lived as a wild man and where he acquired the gift of prophecy. (paraphrasing Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales).

To give a flavour of these ancient poems here is a sample from each of them:

Yr Afallenau, 'The Apple Trees' 

Sweet appletree, growing by the river, 
Who will thrive on its wondrous fruit? 
When my reason was intact
I used to lie at its foot
With a fair wanton maid, of slender form.
Fifty years the plaything of lawlessness
I have wandered in gloom among spirits
After great wealth, and gregarious minstrels,
I have been here so long not even sprites
Can lead me astray. I never sleep, but tremble at the thought
Of my Lord Gwenddoleu, and my own native people.
Long have I suffered unease and longing
May I be given freedom in the end.

Yr Oianau, 'The Oh's'

Listen, O little pig! utter not a whisper, 
When the host of war marches from Carmarthen, 
To support, in the common cause, two whelps 
Of the line of Rhys, the stay of battle, the warlike commander of armies
When the Saxon shall be slain in the conflict of Cymmerau,
Blessed will be the lot of Cymry, the people of Cymrwy.

Ymyddiddan Myrddyn a Thaliesin, 'A Conversation between Myrddin and Taliesin'.

Taliesin:
The seven sons of Eliffer, seven heroes,
Will fail to avoid seven spears in the battle. 

Myrddin:
Seven fires, seven armies,
Cynvelyn in every seventh place. 

Taliesin:
Seven spears, seven rivers of blood
From seven chieftains, fallen. 

Myrddin:
Seven score heroes, maddened by battle,
To the forest of Celyddon they fled.
Since I Myrddin, am second only to Taliesin,
Let my words be heard as truth. 

Translations are by Skene from The Four Ancient Books of Wales. Full versions in English and in Middle Welsh can be found here: https://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/index.html. Better translations can be found in 'The Black Book of Carmarthen' by Meirion Pennar. Llanerch Press; Reprint edition (1 Aug. 1989). The entire original manuscript has now been digitised and can be found on the National Library of Wales website.

John Speeds 1612 map of Carmarthen depicting the Old Town with the Priory top left and St. Peters just below it to the right, and the New Town surrounded by the defensive medieval walls built in the 1230's.

We lived on Priory Street for perhaps two years and I recall some happy memories from this time but not many, I missed my little brother, we all did. My elder brother and sister had both moved up to Ystrad Tywi County High School whilst I was still at The Model Junior School. With my Yorkshire accent I was an easy target for bullies and was daily picked on, 'English pig' was a phrase I got used to. One day I'd decided I'd had enough and started fighting back and eventually the bullying stopped, I'm friends with some of those same boys almost fifty years on, though I rarely see them these days. Home life was pretty miserable with my brother Jeffreys death still looming large. My Mum was grieving for the loss of her beautiful, funny, blonde haired, twinkly blue-eyed son Jeffrey. Carmarthen was still new to her, and like me, she suffered from an anti-English discrimination from some quarters. But she was (and remains) a determined woman and managed to feed and clothe the three of us more than well enough. My Dad, who worked as a painter and decorator then, was grieving also but he dealt with his grief in an altogether different manner. He would often come home drunk after work now and rows between he and Mum became frequent occurrences. One night he had come home very drunk and the usual fight had ensued, it started in the front room and moved through the house until it ended up in the back yard. It was dark and the three of us were upstairs in one of the bedrooms so we couldn't see what was happening though we could hear. The shouting match turned into a tussle, Mum pushed Dad away, he fell backwards and suddenly there was a loud metallic crash as the bins went over. Then it all went quiet.  Mum told us later that he had lain motionless amongst the fallen bins and the rubbish and she feared she had killed him. Long minutes passed before eventually we could hear our Dad groaning. Finally, we heard him calling Mums name who had retreated in shock to the kitchen. “June”, he groaned, “Last fag before die”, he said. I cannot recall now my Mum's response but I don't think it was polite. He lived.

The approximate limits of the Roman walls of the Old Town, and some of  the places referred to in the text.

That incident was the final straw for my Mum and a few days later after Dad had gone to work she gathered the three of us together in the front room, sat us down and relayed to us what she had in mind for the future. She told us that she wanted to leave Dad, to leave Carmarthen, to go back north to Yorkshire. But she couldn't leave us. How did we feel about going back to Yorkshire? Stephen and I assented readily, Linda, who had made friends, seemed hesitant at first but in the end we all agreed on this course of action.

So the four of us planned and prepared in secret for what we came to think of as The Great Escape. Cases were gradually packed with our personal essential and favourite things, we had to make difficult decisions as to what to leave behind, we hid the cases under Linda's bed. Outwardly, we carried on with life as normal, we went to school, Mum went to work as a waitress. Arrangements were made in Yorkshire by my Mums sister, Auntie Isobel, for a place where we could live in Luddenden village. Then a problem arose, the train leaving Carmarthen for a route to Hebden Bridge, (the nearest station to Luddenden) was no longer passenger carrying but was now freight only as far as Llandeilo, fifteen miles away, and we had our bikes and our border collie Meg to take in to account. Mum hatched a plan for that.

After some weeks the day came when the denouement to all our secret planning was to be put in to action. The timing had to be perfect. That morning we all said a cheery goodbye to Dad as he left for work, too cheerily Mum thought, then we waited for fifteen minutes just in case he'd forgotten something and came back unexpectedly. Mum had arranged for the three bikes to be taken by freight train directly to Hebden Bridge but we had to get them to Carmarthen Railway Station first, three quarters of a mile away. That was Linda and Stephen's awkward task, Stephen had the worst of it, having to ride his bike and guide mine by the handlebars at the same time, they had to “get there quick and get back quicker”, said Mum.

Mum and I had our own tasks, we carefully packed crockery and cutlery, and treasured photographs, brought the hidden cases downstairs and stowed the remainder of our belongings including a few more of my books, keeping everything to a minimum. Then we waited anxiously for Linda and Stephen to return, Mum said Meg knew there was something going on she seemed as nervous as we were. There was an urgent knocking at the front door, it was my brother and sister both out of breath. Then Mum called a family friend, a taxi driver who was aware of our plan and had who been sworn to secrecy, he arrived in a big car a quarter of an hour later. We put the cases and bags in the boot, Mum got in the front seat and the three of us with Meg got in the back seat. Minutes later we were on our way to Llandeilo to catch the only train that day that would take us back North, back to Yorkshire and Luddenden. And that was The Great Escape.

The four of us and Meg moved in to a small terraced, two up two down, stone built cottage in Luddenden village. It was a short walk away from my old junior school which I had attended three years earlier. Those years in Carmarthen had softened my previously broad Yorkshire accent and I now spoke with something of a Welsh lilt. Cue bullying once more, I got used to a new taunt, 'Welsh pig!'. There was one kid, Adrian Goodall was his name, who wanted to fight me. He was older and much bigger than me, he always seemed to be angry about something or other. One day he confronted me in the small tarmacked playground. I didn't want to fight but didn't want to back down either, so the other children formed a square around us. He stood red faced, pawing the ground and snorting like a bull about ten feet in front of me. Suddenly he charged full pelt towards me and dived as if to crush me in a bear hug, I side stepped, he grabbed thin air and came down on the tarmac on his head. I walked calmly to the place where he had been standing and turned to meet him a second time. He got up bloody fuming, redder then ever, a graze down one side of his face. He charged again, I side stepped again, he hit the tarmac again. I walked back to my starting position, turned and waited. He got off the floor, a new graze on his forehead, a bruise forming above his cheek, tears welling in his eyes, mad as hell. He charged me again with the same result and that was enough, his friends surrounded him, helped him up and tried to calm him down. I walked away back to the classroom totally unscathed, he looked like he'd gone five rounds with Joe Bugner, I hadn't laid a glove on him. The taunts didn't cease entirely after that incident but at least nobody else wanted to fight me.

The beautiful Luddenden valley.

Before I left junior school, then, I had experienced bullying and opprobrium for being both an 'English pig' and a 'Welsh pig'. This didn't help my sense of identity, instead it had fuelled a growing anxiety, a crushing sense of non-belonging. These experiences and the death of my brother, my father's aggression towards my Mum and also towards me, (which I haven't touched on here as yet) and the break up of my family had become utterly disorienting. The result was that at twelve years old I had entered into a period of internal turmoil, a miasma of grief, madness and isolation which culminated in what I now believe was a mental breakdown. One night I had cried uncontrollably for hours, I felt that I would never stop crying. Mum had had to call the doctor out. I recall the doctor asking me what my name was, I could not remember that it was Davies, when I tried there was a blank space where that name should have been. I hated the inherited nickname Toffee and had rejected that also, it too belonged to my Dad.  Medication and my Mums love and attention gradually helped me to recover, though I don't remember much of this period of my life.

Despite all of this instability I did well academically at Luddenden Junior School. The West Riding of Yorkshire didn't have the eleven-plus but instead had a different system known as the ‘Thorne scheme’. This was a means of allocating grammar school places to the ablest primary school children on the basis of teachers’ recommendations. Four pupils from our school could be nominated to the scheme, I was one of them. We four spent, if I remember correctly, three days at Halifax Grammar School being tested on all sorts of subjects and activities. I was to learn later that summer that I had been allocated a place in the highest form of the Grammar School. Though as it transpired this was not to be.

Before the school summer holidays of 1973, my Dad had travelled up from Carmarthen to Halifax  by train and had then waited in a taxi outside the gates of Calder High Comprehensive, where my brother and sister went to school. Dad and Linda, who hadn't really wanted to leave Wales, had secretly arranged to meet and, as I understand it, Linda then went willingly with my Dad back to Carmarthen.

During those summer holidays, some time in early August my brother Stephen and I were trying to master the art of skateboarding (a new craze then) on the sloping paths in front of Auntie Isobels flat on Kershaw Crescent in Luddendenfoot. Stephen was pretty good, I was hopeless, it was great fun. I noticed Mum and Auntie Isobel watching us through the window of the third floor flat. A taxi pulled up and a bearded stranger, wearing dark sunglasses got out of the taxi and walked over to us. “Do you know where your mother is?”, he asked us. We pointed up to the window where now only Auntie Isobel was watching. He walked towards the ground floor entrance and went inside. Stephen and I looked at each other with growing realisation, the bearded stranger was our Dad. Three days later Mum and Dad had become reconciled and shortly after that we moved back to Carmarthen, back to Merlin's Town, where we were now re-united as a family at 31 Sycamore Way on the Wauniago Estate.

Despite being allocated a place at Grammar school in Halifax, Carmarthenshire Education Authority did not recognise the result I had achieved on the Thorne Scheme there. I was forced to sit the Eleven-plus exam alone, in a small dark room in the Model School with only Mr Walters the Headmaster, acting as invigilator, for company. I was ill prepared, the curriculum here was different and I had no opportunity to take a mock exam, it seemed very unfair. The result was a place in the 'A stream' at Ystrad Tywi County High. So I started my secondary education there in September of 1973. There was one way in which I was grateful for that...there were no girls at Carmarthen Grammar School for Boys.

During these turbulent early years my interest in Merlin/Myrddin had grown and now on my return from the North to Carmarthen I began to pursue this interest with a renewed vigour. Some years earlier Grandpa had given me a copy of Lewis Thorpe's translation of The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth (completed 1136). It purports to be a 2,000 year history of Britain from its founding by Brutus through to the Saxon invasion in the 5th century. The 'History' is most famous for its portrayal of King Arthur as an all conquering emperor and for the subsequent all pervasive influence it had on Arthurian literature thereafter. But to my mind the dominant character in the 'History' was Merlin.

The episode containing the discovery of 'the boy without a father' playing football before the gates of Carmarthen was especially fascinating to me. I identified entirely with this image of the young Merlin, as I too had played football at about the same age before those same gates. I imagined that the argument between Dinabutius and Merlin had taken place in the Ampitheatre, where Vortigern's men had sat down 'in a ring' to watch the game. The position of the 'gates', the eastern entrance to Roman Carmarthen, Maridunum, was now marked by Merlin's Oak. I constructed a mental image of this entrance too. I was struck by the seeming authenticity of Geoffrey's description of post-roman Carmarthen and I believe Geoffrey must have visited Carmarthen or at the least had seen or heard of a first hand description of it.

Moridunum, Roman Carmarthen and the Amphitheatre in the 3rd century. Drawing by N. Ludlow.

Some remains of the roman town were still evident in Geoffrey's time as Giraldus Cambrensis bore witness to some 50 years later when he visited the old town. He mentions Carmarthen in his 'Journey' thus:

Caermardyn signifies the city of Merlin, because, according to the British History, he was there said to have been begotten of an incubus.

This ancient city is situated on the banks of the noble river Tywy, surrounded by woods and pastures, and was strongly inclosed with walls of brick, part of which are still standing.

To be continued...

Engraving by Thomas Pennant showing Carmarthen Castle above the River Towy and the Old Bridge (1781). 

The Bell tower of St. Peters Church can be seen peeping over the castle wall towards the right. At bottom right can be seen the remains of the Priory. Later that same year these ancient buildings were demolished and the site cleared by Lord Cawdor to make way for his lead smelting works. Behind the Priory the faintly drawn but distinct profile of Merlins Hill, Bryn Myrddin appears, though it is not possible to view it so from this vantage point. Artistic licence is here at play with a nod to the Merlinic connection between the Priory and the Iron Age Hillfort.

Myrddin's Carmarthen

Landscape and river of Stonehenge

And the landscape and river at Carmarthen

St. Peters to Bryn Myrddin. Aug 12th Sunrise

Stonehenge to Woodhenge. August 1st Sunrise

The Supernova of 1006.

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, theBibliotheke (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 ofthe 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.⁷²But 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' Commentaryupon 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 Dillusin 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 anAesclepium, 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, ifCulhwch'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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