Heavenfield

St David had an uncanny knack at silencing other well-known churchmen who wanted to settle on the peninsula of Dyfed, today known as St David’s at Lands End, before he was even born. As out of the way as this site is today, but it would have been a prime site in the medieval period when the Irish sea was the primary western travel artery.

The first saint that was moved out of David’s way was St Patrick. He came to Lands End and liked the look of a place then called Vallis Rosina, later renamed Patrick’s Seat. He decided to stay there a few years but an angel appeared to him and said that he was to move from there because David would be born in 30 years and this place was reserved for him. After a couple angry confrontations with the angel, Patrick agreed to move on to Ireland. Before he left Porth Mawr (Great Port), he resurrected a man dead twelve years named Cruimther to be his ferryman and later made him a bishop in Ireland. Rhygyfarch claims this story is written among the Irish.

Appended to the end of Rhygyfarch’s Life of David (before 1120) are three prayers, the collect, secret, and post-communion thanksgiving. This story is reflected in the medieval collect:

O God, who foretold your blessed confessor and bishop, David, by message of an angel to Patrick, prophesying thirty years before he was born; we pray that by the intercession of him whose memory we celebrate, we may attain eternal joys, for ever and ever. Amen. (p. 155)

The second saint that David drove away from the peninsula of Dyfed before he was born was St Gildas son of Caw (Gildas the Wise). Gidlas is a famous figure among the Welsh, and known elsewhere mostly for his manifesto On the Ruin of Britain. He is often called Gildas sapiens, the wise, in medieval texts.

So as the story goes David’s mother St Non goes to church to receive the usual blessings for expectant mothers and to hear St Gildas preach but as soon as Non entered the church Gildas’ throat seized up and he could no longer preach. He could speak normally but not preach. So Gildas orders the church cleared and then tries to preach but still can’t. After searching the church he finds Non hiding in the church and concludes that he can’t preach in the presence of her unborn child, who will clearly be exceptional. He then prophecies that her child will have sovereignty over the entire island of Britain will pass to him and that he must leave for Ireland, leaving Britain to David! This all occurs during the time of King Tryffin of Dyfed, grandfather of Vortipor who Gildas roasts in his manifesto.

Interestingly, this same episode is nearly repeated in the Life of St Ailbe (8th-9th century), who David silences before his birth as in the Gildas story above. In Rhygyfarch’s Life of David, Bishop Ailbe of Munster in suddenly introduced to baptize David and cure a man with the water used to baptize David. He then just as suddenly disappears from the Life. So why is Ailbe in the Life of David at all? This is the same Ailbe from Brendan’s Navigatio. Well, according to the foundation legend of Dyfed, the people of Dyfed were from an Irish clan called the Deisi in about the 5th century. They arrived as the Romans were withdrawing about the same time that the first Anlgo-Saxons were arriving in Britain. There are several groups in Ireland called the Deisi; some were from Munster. So if these Irish did come from Munster then they would have considered Ailbe to the Apostle of Munster. According to some legends, Ailbe was evangelizing Ireland before the arrival of Patrick. So David is blessed by the Ailbe, Apostle to Munster, homeland of the Irish of Dyfed, and silences the Apostle to Ireland Patrick who moved out of the way for David. And by the way, he is wiser than Gildas the wise.

These stories of David’s birth are of course constructed to prove David’s role as patron saint of Wales. Yet, the degree that they were wide spread, apparently known in written sources in Ireland, and attached to place names in Wales testifies to David’s widespread cult.

Richard Sharpe and John Reuben Davies, eds. “Rhygyfarch’s Life of St David”, pp. 107-155 in St David of Wales: Cult, Church and Nation. Edited by JW Evans and JM Wooding. Boydell Press, 2007.

Every good medieval saint must have some kind of interesting vision or birth miracle associated with his or her birth, and St David of Wales is no exception. Today, we return to folklore Friday with a curious tale that begins the Life of St. David:

“One time, his father Sanctus (by merits and by name), who enjoyed sovereignty over the people of Ceredig … heard the voice of angelic prophecy in a dream: “When you wake up tomorrow, you will go hunting; having killed a stag near the river, you will find there beside the river Teifi three gifts: namely, the stag that you will pursue, a fish, and a swarm of bees situated in a tree, in a place called Llyn Henllan. You should set aside, out of these tree, the honeycomb, and a portion of the fish and the stag; and you should deliver them to the monastery of Meugan, keeping them for the son who is going to be born to you.” (To this day called the Monastery of the Deposit.) These gifts foretell his life. The honeycomb proclaims his wisdom, for just as honey is in the wax, so he he has understood the spiritual meaning of a literal statement. The fish signifies his watery life, for as the fish lives by water, so does he; rejecting wine and liquor and everything that can inebriate, he has led a blessed life for God on just bread and water; because of this he is surnamed David ‘of the watery life’. The stag signifies dominion over the ancient serpent, for just as the stag desires a spring of water when it has grazed on despoiled snakes, and having gained strength is renewed as if with youth, so he is established on the heights with stags’ feet, despoiling the human race’s ancient serpent of his power to harm him. Choosing the font of life by the constant flow of tears, renewed from day to day, he made progress, so that in the name of the Holy Trinity, he would have the knowledge of salvation <and> by the purer food the power of holding dominion against demons.” (Sharpe and Davies, p. 109, 111 “Rhygyfarch’s Life of St David” in St David of Wales: Cult, Church, and Nation, Ed. JW Evans and JM Wooding, Boydell, 2007)

Here we see the beginnings of St David’s association with water. His symbol the leek only grows in every watery areas. Contrary to what the life says, David is usually said to have lived on leeks, bread and water only. The leek is a member of the onion family. I grew up calling them ‘green onions’, and they grew wild in my area of the Mississippi River floodplain. The leek has long been a symbol of Welsh nationality and the wearing of a leek associated with St David. So if you wondered why Prince Charles was wearing an onion on his lapel in interviews last week about Prince Harry’s early return from Afghanistan, now you know; it was St David’s day and of course, as the Prince of Wales, Charles was wearing his leek.

There is also the interesting use of psalm 41/42 and 17/18 on stags. I don’t quite understand Sharpe and Davies note 9 that “the English, Psalm 42.1 ‘As a hart longs for flowing streams’, is not present in the Latin, sicut areola praeparata ad inrigationes aquarum“. No Rhydyfarch doesn’t use these words because they are from Jerome’s Hebraicum, not the more popular Gallican psalter. Rhygyfarch uses “sicut enim ceruus, exploiatis serpentibus pastus, fontem aque desiderans…”, which I still think is a reference but not quote of psalm 42.1. I’ve discussed snake eating deer before here and the early medieval psalter version of Ps. 41/42 here. This is the first place I have seen though where the snakes (or the water?) are supposed to renew the life of the deer.

The folklore element in the story is given away by the claim that the monastery that received Sant’s items is still called the “Monastery of the Deposit” to this day. It is really kind of a strange piece of folklore, but note that it is again preserved in triad form. Sant leaves not one thing but three items for his son that prophecy his life.

Ironically, David’s father “Sanctus” goes on to beget David by raping a nun named Nonnita (St Non). Of course, this is the only way that anyone as saintly as Nonnita/Non would ever have sex.

“And the king came across a nun named Nonnita, who was a virgin, and exceedingly beautiful girl and modest. Lusting after her, he raped her, and she conceived his son, the holy David. Neither before nor after did she know a man, but continuing steadfastly in chastity of mind and body, she led her life most devoutly; for, from the very time she conceived, she lived only on bread and water. In the place where she had been raped and conceived, there lies a small meadow, pleasant to behold, and filled with the gift of heavenly dew. In that field, at the moment she conceived, there appeared two large stones that had not been there before, one at her head and the other at her feet; for the land, rejoicing at his conception, opened its bosom, that it might both preserve the modesty of the girl and declare the significance of her offspring.” (Sharpe and Davies, p. 113)

Apart from the oddity of Welsh saints often being conceived by rape (also St Cadoc and if I recall correctly St Kentigern), there is a folklore element here in the stones that are known to people in the writers time (about the 11th century). Rhygyfarch is probably doing his best to put a positive spin on some ancient stones that the people associated with David but may have been pre-Christian.

These two stories are all of not the miracles and prophecies that surround David’s birth, but the others will have to wait for another post.

This month’s lost kingdom is Gododdin in southern Scotland (early medieval northern Northumbria). This post just gets longer and longer and still seems incomplete, so hopefully it will do to give you a flavor of this lost kingdom.

Gododdin is the one British kingdom that appears to have been conquered and annexed into Bernicia/Northumbria under King Oswald and his brother/successor King Oswiu. The Annals of Ulster records a siege of Edinburgh in 638, the middle of Oswald’s reign. It doesn’t record who won or if anyone was killed. Edinburgh would have been an impressive fortress and submission may have been as good as it got. Within months of Oswald’s death on 5 August 642, another battle was fought at Strathcarron east of Edinburgh between King Owain of Strathclyde and King Domhnall Brecc of Dalriada. The poem Y Gododdin records a victory stanza for Owain singing of Domhnall’s death.

“I saw a war-band, they came from Pentir [in Dalriada], and splendidly they bore themselves around the beacon. I saw a second, they came down from their homestead: They had risen at the word of Nwython’s grandson [Owain ap Beli ap Nwython]. I saw stalwart men, they came at dawn, and crows picked at the head of Dyfnwal Frych [Domhnall Brecc]” (B text, Y Gododdin, Clancy, p. 114)

The Annals of Ulster then record a batte between Oswiu of Bernicia and the Britons immediately afterwards. Given the breath of Bernician battles we don’t know where these Britons were, but I believe this was a battle between Bernicia and Strathclyde over control of Gododdin. I think Oswald’s death set off a contest between all the major northern powers — Bernicia, Dalriada, and Strathclyde — over the prime territory of Gododdin controlling the entire southern shore of the Firth of Forth. There is no evidence that Gododdin itself was involved in deciding its own fate, suggesting that the native dynasty of Gododdin ceased to be under Oswald or earlier. It is possible that Gododdin was already the territorial possession of another kingdom, possibly the Britons of Strathclyde/Dumbarton. Dalriada is also a possibility as Aedan mac Gabran was credited with a victory over Manau Gododdin, the northern region of Gododdin, around Stirling.

If Penda’s last seige of King Oswiu is correctly placed at Stirling (Urbs Iudeu), then the Gododdin would have been fully under Oswiu’s control by 655. Iudeu is the British name for the Firth of Forth. It is interesting to note that in Koch’s translation of Y Gododdin, he does find Oswiu’s name (Oswyd) in one of the elegies.

“The man dispatched to Catraeth with the day drank a mead feast at midnight. The lamentation of the assembled hosts was sorrowful for the mission compelled up the firey hero who died. None attacked Catraeth whose preparing for battle [while carousing] over mead drinking had been so mighty. None so completely drove off [?]Oswiu from the stronghold of Eidyn [Edinburgh]. Tudfwlch, [while he remained] for a long time away from his land and his settlements used to slay Saxons every seventh day. His maniliness will endure as a legacy through the memory of him amongst his splendid comrades. Wherever Tudfwlch — strength of the tribesmen — arrived, the place of spear shafts would be a bloody enclosure– Cilydd’s son [? or son of the Caledonian]” (Y Gododdin, A.13; Koch, p. 65)

It should be noted that Catraeth is also mentioned in a poetic elegy of Cadwallon of Gywnedd, who was slain by Oswald in 634. Makes me wonder if we have the dating of Catraeth so completely wrong. Needless to say if this is a reference to some action at Catterick that Cadwallon took part in c. 633-634, it is possible the same hero defended Edyn in 638. It is also possible that Oswiu was a major participant in the battle of 638 under his brother and his name is remembered as the final conqueror of Gododdin in his own reign.

From Oswiu’s reign it appears to be securely under Bernicia’s control. The Anglican diocese of Abercorn was in northern Gododdin to serve Pictland, so probably the edge of secure English territory in the early 680s. It seems likely that the majority of the former kingdom of Gododdin was securely in the diocese of Lindisfarne and the monastery of Coldingham was securely in Gododdin territory. Many of the battles with the Picts in the late seventh century were probably to protect Gododdin, now fully incorporated into Bernicia from Pictish encroachment.

Roman Times

In Roman times this region, which may have also extended into what we now call Bernicia, was heavily settled. It was always a frontier region of the Roman empire and only under direct Roman control when the empire was extended to the Antonine Wall. There are numerous hill forts and major settlements throughout the region. Traprain Law was one of the longest occupied hill forts and from it was found the Traprain Law hoard, mostly Roman silver. It is thought that the British of the Gododdin were alternatively employed by the Romans and raiders of Roman territory as suited the times. Most of the great silver neck chains with Pictish symbols discovered have been found in the territory of the Gododdin. It is thought that these neck chains may have been inspired by Roman uniforms. Other hillforts that may have been within the area considered to be Gododdin include hill forts at the modern places of Edinburgh, Dunbar, Coldingham, Bamburgh, Yeavering (and Yeavering Bell). There are also Pictish symbol stones in the Gododdin territory, although these may have come in the post-Roman times.

In some interpretations, Roman and immediately post-Roman Gododdin was a huge coastal kingdom that incorporated three territories: Manau (sometimes called Manau Gododdin, near Stirling), Lleuddinyawn (Lothian, Lleu’s territory), and Berneich (Bernicia). By this theory, Berneich/Bernicia was an area with some Anglican federates/mercenaries who settled just north of Hadrian’s Wall, eventually taking over that territory (perhaps in Ida’s time). Then by Oswiu’s time the territory of old Gododdin had been reunited into an expanded territory of Bernicia/Northumbria.

Votandini -> Gododdin -> Lothian

The kingdom of Gododdin does survive today in the regional name Lothian. Linguists seem to accept the continuous development of the Roman era name Votandini to Gododdin and eventually to Lothian. Given that ‘dd’ in Welsh is the ‘th’ sound its really only shortened with the V-> G-> L transition.

Y Gododdin elegies

Y Gododdin is a collection of about 300 elegies that claim to be all by one person named Aneirin. It reads like a collection of elegies remembering the recently fallen. The overall frame claims that the elegies are all from the battle of Catraeth (probably Catterick) sometime in the 5-6th century. However, linguists are sure that it has at least three phases of elegies — an original level from Gododdin, second level from its transmission to Strathclyde/Dumbarton (where the Domnall Brecc death notice is added), and finally to Gwynedd where it was finally preserved in the Book of Aneirin. Even the original layer from Gododdin probably includes elegies from a wider period of time beyond just one battle at Catraeth. I’ll give you a few of these elegies here from Koch’s translation to give you a feel for them.

“The rock of Lleu’s tribe, the folk of Lleu’s mountain stronghold at Gododdin’s frontier; the frontier was held. Counsel was taken, storm gathering; the vessel from over the Firth of a warband from over the Firth. [A man] who nurtures warbands came to us out of Din Dywyd to be an obstruction to the king’s warband. The shield of Grugyn before the bull of battle had a broken boss. [B2.24=B1.3=A.48, p. 3]

It was usual for him to be mounted upon a high-spirited horse defending Gododdin at the forefront of the men eager for fighting. It was usual for him to be fleet like a deer. It was usual for him to attack Deira’s retinue. It was usual for Wolstan’s son — though his father was no sovereign lord — that what he said was heeded. It was usual for the sake of the mountain court that sheilds be broken through [and] reddened before Yrfai Lord of Eidyn. [B2.28, p. 9]

More than three hundred of the finest were slain. He struck down at both the middle and the extremities. The most generous man was splendid before the host. From the herd, he used to distribute horses in winter. [Gorddur] used to bring black crows down in front of the wall of the fortified town — though he was not Arthur– among men mighty in feats in the front of the barrier of alder wood — Gorddur. [B2.38, p. 23]

Wearing an ornament of rank, in the front line’s array, armed in battle’s uproar, before the day[of his fatal battle] he was a hero in deeds, a centurion counterthrusting against armies. Five fifties would fall before his blades [there fell of men of Deira and Bernicia] twenty hundred laid waste at one time. Rather than to a wedding rite, his flesh went to wolves, rather than to an altar, his victory spoils to the crow, rather than a proper funeral, his blood flowed the ground, [all] in exchange for mead in the pre-eminent seat with the assembled hosts. For as long as there are singers, Hyfaidd will be praised. [A.5, A.1, p. 57]“

Legends of Gododdin

The Gododdin takes its place in early British lore in several enduring legends. It is traditionally considered the home of King Lot of Lothian in Arthuriana. His original name was Lleuddun Luyddog of Dinas Eidyn and is said to have been buried at the ancient hill fort of Dunpelder Law. The main ancient fortress of Traprain Law is also said to be his seat. The name Lothian is said to derive from his name Leudonia, but of course as a mythical/legendary figure it was the other way around. He is also connected with the Welsh god Lleu.

Like many early welsh figures, he is said to be the maternal grandfather of several saints. According to the Bonedd y Sant, his grandsons include:

• St Kentigern (Mungo) by his daughter Denw/Thaney and Owain son of Urien Rheged
• St Lleuddad and others by his daughter Tenoi, wife of Dingad
• St Beuno by his daughter Peren, wife of Bugi

He is mentioned in a the oldest fragmentary life of St Kentigern as a half-pagan king who is killed by a swineherd. Jocelin’s Life of Kentigern claims that when Thaney was found to be pregnant with Kentigern, his maternal grandfather tries to kill his daughter by throwing her from the cliff of Dunpelder. When she survives this she is set adrift in the Forth of Firth/sea where she landed at Culenros where St. Sevanus was living. She gave birth and St. Sevanus baptized them both. St Sevanus raised and educated Kentigern until he moved to Glasgow, where he founded a monastery and later became bishop. Kentigern is the patron saint of Glasgow.

After Geoffrey of Monmouth, as Lot of Lothian he is variously King Arthur’s uncle or brother-in-law. Exploring the development of the character Lot of Lothian is beyond this post, but here are his origins…

Other various legends of Gododdin include the origins of Cunedda, founder of the first dynasty of Gwynedd, is said to have come from Manau Gododdin, a northern section that wraps around the head of the Firth of Forth, to North Wales (Gwynedd). This claim is first made in the Historia Brittonum from c. 825. It seems likely that this whole legend has been greatly influenced by the origins of King Merfyn, founder of the second dynasty of Gwynedd, on the Isle of Man (Manau). As the Historia Brittonum was written in his time, placing the founder of the first dynasty of Gwynedd in another Manau could have helped justify his conquest. If it unclear if the Scottish region of Manau (where Aedan mac Gabran wins a battle) was ever really part of Gododdin or if this is a later creation of Gwynedd.

Sources:

Thomas Owen Clancy, ed. The Triumph Tree: Scotland’s Earliest Poetry AD 550-1350. Canongate, 1998.

Peter C Bartrum. A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend up to about AD 1000. National Library of Wales, 1993.

John T Koch, ed and trans. The Gododdin of Aneirin: Text and Context from Dark-Age North Britain. University of Wales Press, 1997.

Introducing a new feature… folklore Fridays, hopefully a lighthearted or whimsical way to spend your Friday. I’ll be blogging up to and through the holidays but if you’ll be off line through the holidays, have a Merry Christmas!

Since we are getting ready to celebrate a special birth next week, I’m going to start off with another otherworldly birth that comes up in Welsh Arthurian and ‘Men of the North’ lore (and in a mix-n-match sort of way in Marie de France).

Triad 70: The Three Blessed Womb-fuls of the Isle of Britain.

1. Urien and Eurddel, twins of Cynfarch the Old and Nevyn daughter of Brychan
2. Owain son of Urien and his sister Morwyd, twins of Modron daughter of Avallach
3. Gwrgi and Peredur and Ceindrech Wing-head, children of Eliffer of the Great Retinue and Eurddel daughter of Cynfarch. (Koch, p. 349)

So here we have a paraphrase of triad 70 that outlines the family of Urien Rheged — his sister and parents, his children, and his nephews and niece. Eliffer of the Great Retinue is associated with the city of York under British rule. The pregnancies are signaled as unusual by the three sets of twins, each of a boy and a girl. The last triplets are really more like twins because “Peredur and Gwrgi” are always together in Welsh lore. The Arthurian figure Perceval is linked to this Peredur.

Urien Rheged’s children are the product of a Loathy Lady motif, though she isn’t said to be ugly and its been relocated to Wales.

“In Denbighshire [North Wales] there is a parish called Llanverrys, and it is there that one will fine Ryd-y-gyfarthfa [Ford of the Barking]. And in former times, the dogs from the whole country used to come to that ford to bark, and no what dared to go to see what was the matter until Urien Reged came. And when he came to the bank of the ford, he saw nothing but a young woman washing. And then the dogs ceased their barking. And Urien grabbed hold of the girl, and he had sexual intercourse with her [this may be meant as rape, but the verb is somewhat ambiguous].

And then she said, ‘God’s blessing on the feet that brought you here.’

‘Why?’ said he.

‘Because I was fated to wash here until I get a son by a Christian. And I am the daughter of the king of Annwvyn [the Un-world] . Come here at the end of the year and you will get the boy.’

And so he came and he got the son and a daughter, none other than Owein son of Urien and Morfyd daughter of Urien.” (Koch, p. 348-349)

Koch notes that Urien’s mother Nevyn is the Old Welsh form of the Irish war-goddess Nemhain. Modron is the Celtic mother goddess who has a similar meeting with the future king ‘Parisi of Gaul’ 2400 years ago (Koch, p. 348). Modron is familiar Celtic goddess in northern Britain; Roman era altars to her have been found along Hadrian’s Wall. What is really important here is that Modron is usually said to be the mother of the Celtic divine son, Mabon, who is directly associated with Owain ap Urien in Welsh poetry. (See Mary Jones excellent encyclopedia on Mabon).

From the Book of Taliesin, ‘Tidings Have Come to Me from Kalchvynd*”:

“When [the army of] Erechwyd returned from the country of Cludwys [Strathclyde], no cow lowed for its calf. The [?] manifestation of Mabon from the other realm, [in] the battle where Owein fought for the cattle of his country. …

Whoever saw Mabon on his white-flanked ardent [steed], as men mingled, contending for Reget’s cattle, unless it were by means of wings that they flew, only as corpses, would they go from Mabon.

Of encounter, descent, and onset of battle in the realm of Mabon, the inexorable cleaver; when Owein fought to defend his father’s cattle, which washed shields of waxen hawthorn burst forth….

When the king, leader of chieftains [lit. 'dragons'], ordered battle…cattle for Mabon. In the encounter of [?]heroes, there were stiff red corpses, it was a joy which came to carrion crows. Men tell of it, after the [?] uproar of battle, no one escaped the shield of Owein. The broken shield of a fighter in the adversity of combat; he would not drive cattle without reddening faces….

…battle before great Owein, whose giving is great. Early in the morning, men fell fighting for land. Where Owein attacked for the sake of Erechwyd [part of Rheged] blessed land, he [?] secured his father’s battle-gains.” (Koch trans, p. 350-351).

The whole flowering of folklore may well come from the association of Owain ap Urien with the Celtic god Mabon. Owain’s father Urien died during the reign of Theodoric of Bernicia, who king lists place in the mid-570s. Owain’s brother Rhun is mentioned several times in the Historia Brittonum and may be related in some way to the baptism of Edwin of Deira in the 620s. Rhun’s granddaughter is believed to have been the first wife of King Oswiu of Bernicia/Northumbria. In general, Owain’s family was involved in fighting the establishment of the English kingdom of Bernicia and eventually marry into it.

*Kalchvynyd is a lost British kingdom mentioned several times in Old Welsh literature. It’s name means chalk or limestone mountain and is generally localized around the area of the Cotswolds or Chilterns in southern England. Here the poet is contrasting the ill tidings from battles in the south with their successes in the north.

Quotes from:

John T Koch (in collaboration with John Carey) The Celtic Heroic Age: Literary Sources for Ancient Celtic Europe and Early Ireland and Wales. Celtic Studies Publications, 1995.

Penda’s last campaign against Northumbria is one of the few scenes in Bede’s History where we can see Northumbrian propaganda exposed. At Penda’s siege of Oswiu in 655, Bede reports that Oswiu tried to offer a couple bribes to get out of the situation, first to Penda and then to God. Lets look at what Bede actually says:

“At length dire need compelled him to offer Penda an incalculable quantity of regalia and presents as a price of peace, on condition that he returned home and ceased his ruinous devastation of the provinces of his kingdom. But the treacherous king refused to consider his offer, and declared his intention of wiping out the entire nation from the highest to the humblest in the land. Accordingly Oswy turned for help to the mercy of God, who alone could save the land from its barbarous and godless enemy; and he bound himself with an oath, saying:’If the heathen refuses to accept our gifts, let us offer them to God.’ So he vowed that, if victorious, he would offer his daughter to God as a consecrated virgin and give twelve estates to build monasteries.” (Bede, Historia III:24, Farmer ed, p. 183)

It goes on to narrate Oswiu’s victory over Penda in the battle of Winwaed. Now the Historia Brittonum gives a different, garbled version.

“He slew Penda in the field of Gai, and now took place the slaughter of Gai Campi, and the kings of the Britons, who went out with Penda on the expedition as far as the city of Judeu*, were slain.

65. Then Oswy restored all the wealth, which was with him in the city, to Penda; who distributed it among the kings of the Britons, that is, Atbert Judeu. [Redistribution of Iudeu/Stirling] But Catgabail alone, king of Guenedot, rising up in the night, escaped together with his army, wherefore he was called Catgabail Catguommed. [Cadafael Battle Shierker)” (Historia Brittonum)

Ok, so the Historia Brittonum version is very garbled. I think this is mostly because the separate paragraphs have been copied/written to each make a separate point and there was little regard for putting them in the correct order. Paragraph 64 is a summary of Oswiu’s reign and it concludes with his victory over Penda and the slaughter of the British kings with Penda. That is fitting as it was Oswiu’s greatest achievement and responsible for all that followed after it.

I think the Cadafael paragraph is included so that King Merfyn (c. 825) could trash a rival as a battle shierker (Catguommed); it a pun on his name which means Battle-Prince (Cadafael) Battle Shirker (Catguommed) — sort of like Aethelred the Unred. I actually doubt that Cadafael abandoned Penda before a pending battle. Winwaed is usually placed somewhere in Elmet, and the Roman road toward Wales would have branched off before then, so it would have been natural for an army from Gwynedd to take the road over the mountains toward Chester rather than going down through the lowlands. Some of the lessor British warlords/’kings’ from say Powys may on the other hand have wished to stay with Penda as long as possible because they needed his support.

Normally, Bede’s version would trump all other versions, particularly from a text like the Historia Brittonum, but I just don’t buy it — the idea that Oswiu offered wealth turned down by Penda to God. It comes down to a couple of fundamental things:

1. You don’t crow about loot you don’t get! The Britons are bragging about the spoils they brought home. Note that Cadafael of Gwynedd and his army escaped from the battle and presumably brought their share of the loot home.
2. We are talking about completely different types of loot. Penda is being offered portable loot — gold, silver, jewels, and perhaps other portables as well, like livestock and slaves. Oswiu offers to God what Penda can’t carry away — land and his daughter (only if he defeats Penda). Livestock and slaves might have been just what slowed Penda’s army down enough that Oswiu could raise his army and catch up with them before they were inside Mercia.
3. The Annals Cambriae lists the death of Penda in 657 and in 658 “Oswy came and took plunder”. It could be that Oswy is just punishing the Britons for being allied with Penda (although he isn’t recorded as punishing other kings who came with Penda), or he could be trying to reclaim some or all of the loot that the Britons got home with. Reclaiming loot is particularly attractive if some of it had symbolic meaning.

Lets stop and consider what kind of immense loot Oswiu would have had to offer. Bamburgh and its kings had the accumulated wealth of kings Æthelfrith, Edwin, Cadwallon and Oswald. Æthelfrith, Edwin and Oswald had fallen on campaign away from home, so there was some hope that their wealth was passively taken by their successor. Cadwallon who had killed Edwin and taken Deira was killed by Oswald far from home and so Oswald likely reclaimed most of the Deiran wealth Cadwallon had taken from his camp. However, Aethelfrith, Edwin, and Cadwallon’s wealth had been immediately redistributed, Oswald had the ability by succession or conquest to collect it all at Bamburgh. Bede (HE III:16,17) also tells us that Penda had tried to capture Bamburgh rock before 651. Anglo-Saxons normally didn’t besiege fortresses, preferring open field battles. Consequently, Penda was unsuccessful in both the siege of Bamburgh in c. 650 and of Stirling in 655. Could Penda have been so persistent at trying to take the fortresses of Bernicia because they contained fabled wealth?

Getting back to Oswiu’s bribes, I don’t see any reason why Oswiu could not have tried both bribes. Paying off Penda to get him to leave and then not being able to stand the shame of it, mounting a rash attempt to catch up to Penda on his way home and ambush him. His offer to God stiffened his nerve to make such a rash assault. I’m sure afterwards Oswiu was convinced that had been God on his side; on paper it was a foolish attempt to take on Penda’s mighty army. Oethelwald’s refusal to take part in the battle, the early break up of Penda’s army, the flood swollen river, all turned in Oswiu’s favor and so he survived and died in his bed, an old man, undefeated.

As a side note, one of those 12 estates offered to God would have almost certainly been Whitby….so this story would have been preserved as part of Whitby’s foundation legend.

*Judeu/Iudeu has been identified with the site of Stirling castle. The city of Urbs Guidi may also be the same site. The evolution of the castle of Stirling has obliterated any early medieval archaeology that presumably lies under the current castle.

Thinking about this month’s lost kingdom of Craven, it calls to mind the episode in Stephan’s Life of Wilfrid where Wilfrid miraculously restores a boy to life and then later forcefully reclaims him at age 7. The miraculous healing of the British boy is given in the chapter immediately after Wilfrid is given lands in Craven.

“St Wilfrid was out riding on a certain day, going to fulfill his various duties of his bishopric, baptizing and also confirming people with the laying on of hands; among these there was a certain woman in a town called “On Tiddanufri”, sad at heart, moaning with grief and wearied with her load. For she held in her bosom the body of her first-born child, wrapped in rags and hidden from sight; she uncovered the face of the corpse for the bishop to confirm it amongst the rest, hoping thus to bring it back to life. Now our holy bishop, as soon as he perceived that it was dead, hesitated a little as to what he ought to do. But the mother fell to the earth before the face of the bishop on his perceiving what she had done, and, weeping bitterly, she boldly adjured him, in the name of the Lord his God, by virtue of his holiness to raise her son, to baptize him and free him from the mouth of the lion. …[she said] ‘Most holy man, do not destroy the faith of a bereaved mother but help thou my (un)belief, raise him up and baptize him and he will live for God and for you. By the power of Christ, do not hesitate!’

Then the holy bishop…uttered a prayer, and when he placed his hand on the dead body it breathed again forthwith, receiving the spirit of life. So he baptized the child which had been brought back to life again and gave it into the charge of the mother, bidding her, in the name of the Lord, give back her child to himself at the age of seven, for the service of God. The mother, however, when she saw how handsome the body was, listened to the evil counsel of her husband, made light of her promise, and fled from her country.

The bishop’s reeve, named Hocca, having sought and found him hidden among others of the British race, took him away by force and carried him off to the bishop. The boy’s Christian name was Eodwald and his surname was Bishop’s Son: he lived in Ripon serving God until he died in the great plague. (Stephan, Life of Bishop Wilfrid, Chapter 18; Bertram Colgrave, ed and trans. The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus Cambridge UP, 1985 reprint of 1927)

This passage brings up many issues. Included as it is after the consecration of Wilfrid’s new church at Ripon, the date of the event must be around 671-2. The boy was seven years old when he was brought to the bishop, who was exiled in 678. The following chapter on King Ecgfrith’s victory over the Picts and Audrey’s leaving him to 671-673 also fits with this event occurring in about 671-2.

This is yet another clue as to a “great plague” that occurred in the after 678. Abbess Audrey of Ely also died in a plague in 679. The Historia Brittonum (c. 825) also claims that King Cadwaladr son of Cadwallon died in a plague. It mistakenly says it was in the time of King Oswiu, and this has lead to problems over dating Cadwaladr. However, the Annals Cambriae (ends 954) is clear:

682: A great plague in Britain, in which Cadwaladr son of Cadwallon dies.

In his notes on the text, Bertram Colgrave notes that his is probably the same plague that attacked Jarrow in 685 where only Abbot Coelfrith and one boy, usually identified as Bede, survived. Adomnan of Iona also refers to a plague in the mid 680s on one of his trips to visit King Aldfrith. From 679 to 686 seems like a long time for one plague to rage, usually they burn out faster. There may have been several waves of plague. Its hard to tell how feasible that is without knowing what the plague causing organism is.

What stands out more than the plague is Wilfrid’s treatment of the boy and his parents. Wilfrid obviously takes the boy away from unwilling parents. Stephan’s claim that Wilfrid had the right because of his mother’s request doesn’t hold up. Mothers are not allowed to make their children an oblate without the father’s permission! Obviously the father did not give permission. Also note that Wilfrid completely renamed the British boy Eodwald/Eadwald Bishop’sSon (cognomine Eodwald et agnomine Filius Episcopi)*. He is making a claim of ownership with that surname and completely obliterating the parents existence. Is this a window into the process of name changes from British to English? Did English overlords have the right to rename their British servants or monastic oblates? Is this also a window into how English monasteries found enough ‘monks’ to do all the work on their large estates? Of course the best known menial laborer on a Northumbrian estate, Caedmon** the cow herd, had a very British name, probably indicating that the first religious vernacular poet in English was genetically British/Welsh.

*Farmer’s edition is a significantly different and less accurate translation. He completely leaves the boy’s new name out of the Age of Bede edition. Colgrave’s 1927 edition (reprinted 1985) is the authoritative, bilingual edition.

** Note the similarity of this name to Cadfan, Cadwallon, Cadwaladr, Cadfael, all kings of Gwynedd (North Wales) during the seventh century.

This month’s lost kingdom is the British kingdom of Craven. It has been identified by placenames only and its existence as a distinct district in the Domesday Book. The district of Craven is to the north-west of Elmet reaching to the rivers Ribble, Wharfe, and Aire. Note that in the past, most of Craven has been referred to as southern Rheged. So, now we know that this was not part of Rheged.

(from http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/celtpn.htm)

Wood asserts that the name Craven is Old Welsh from crafu ‘to scratch or to scrap’, meaning scraped land. This fits the faults, the rock formations, of this mountainous region. A large portion of Craven was in the Pennine mountains.

Wood describes Craven as “a large district in Anglo-Saxon times, controlling the upper dales of the Wharfe, Ribble, and Aire, and containing two possible shires in the eleventh century.” It seems to fit what Bede and contemporary writers called “regions” within the “provinces” (kingdoms). Wood notes that these “regions”, where evidence exists, appear to have once been independent tribes, clans or kingdoms.

Places in the region of Craven are mentioned once in Anglo-Saxon literature. When church of Ripon is consecrated, Bishop Wilfrid reads out a list of lands given to him by Kings Ecgfrith and his brother King Ælfwine. These lands were “holy places in various parts of the country which the British clergy, fleeing from our own hostile sword, had deserted….They gave Wilfrid land round Ribble, Yeadon, Dent, and Catlow” (Farmer, p. 124). These lands all fall in the district of the proposed kingdom of Craven and therefore date its transfer to Northumbria, probably recently under Kings Ecgfrith and Ælfwine in the early 670s. Expanding ‘Northumbria’ east of the Pennines appears to be Ecgfrith’s primary areas of conquest, probably against relatively minor opposition (compared to Mercia south of Elmet or the Picts north of Lothian).

Most English kings prior to Ecgfrith appear to have been willing or compelled to be satisfied with hegemony over their British neighbors. It may be that they simply didn’t have enough English retainers to fill all the necessary administrative positions within an enlarged kingdom. Yet, the last significant British power within what we normally consider Northumbria fell with Cadwallon at the battle of Denisesburna against Oswald in 634. The Bernician dynasty was still too weak in 634 to occupy and expel the British aristocrats. There is reason to think that, like his father Æthelfrith, Oswald was willing to work with British kingdoms, as evidenced by the marriage of his brother Oswiu to Rheinmellt great granddaughter of Urien Rheged. Likewise, Oswiu seems to have been satisfied by exerting hegemony over most of the northern British kingdoms. Although Oswiu exerted hegemony over distant kingdoms (Pictland, Dalriada, Strathclyde, Lindsey, and elsewhere), Ecgfrith is the first credited with expanding direct control over more British territory. Gododdin, their nearest northern neighbor, is the only region that Oswald and Oswiu seem to have annexed directly into Bernicia. Likewise, Edwin is only credited with permanently annexing Elmet.

References and suggested reading:

PN Wood (1996) “On the Little British Kingdom of Craven” Northern History 32: 1-20.

CM Taylor (1992) “Elmet: boundaries and Celtic survival in the post-Roman period.” Medieval History 2: 111-129.

Farmer, David (ed and trans) (198 “Eddius Stephanus: Life of Wilfrid” in The Age of Bede. Penguin.