Camelot Clearinghouse: Sources for Arthur, Merlin &c. up through AD 1600

[svalbard]

Einion Offeiriad was a Welsh poet from the middle 14th century. His patron was a powerful Welsh noble Rhys ap Gruffydd. In his poetry he compares Rhys to Arthur referring back to a Golden Age.

His poetry is amongst the first in Welsh to use 'llyfr cerddwriaeth' which is(and I am no expert here) incorporating Latin into a strict Welsh metre of poetic composition called the 'cerdd dafod' which literally means 'tongue craft'. A title that may hark back to the days of Aneirin and Taliesin in the 7th century and maybe quite older.

Again I am no expert, do not speak Welsh but truly enjoy the translations.

 

[svalbard]

'A second Arthur, a lord praised in verse,
A second Gwalchmai, faultless, his nobility is without stain,
A Peredur with a steel blade, a rampart guarding riches'

Einion Offeiriad in praise of his patron Sir Rhys. We recognise Arthur, Gwalchmai is Sir Gawain and Peredur is Sir Percival.

 

[Extollager]

Michaelmas 2023

It turns out that Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote not only the famous book about the British Kings, but, it seems, an accomplished Latin poem written between 1148 and 1151. This is the Vita Merlini, which begins with an account of how, beholding a savage battle, Merlin is overcome by devastating grief and flees the company of human beings, living as a wild man with forest animals.

A messenger finds him at last and sooths him with music and arouses him to concern about his wife, friend of the queen. His reason returns to Merlin and he goes to take up his life again. However, in the midst of so many people, Merlin can't endure them and his madness returns. He longs for the forest.

It's evidently the great Caledonian forest, and I wondered if anyone's read this book & thought it was good:

The great wood : the ancient forest of Caledon : Crumley, Jim, 1947- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

xvii, 173 p. ; 20 cm

archive.org

 

[svalbard]

I haven't read the poem. However it is based on the Legend of Myrddin Wylt. He also fled to the Great Wood after the m death of his King, Gwenddoleu at the Battle of Arfderydd. Both the king and battle are historical and involved Northern British kingdoms fighting each other.

Myrddin appears in the Life of St Kentigern where he relates the above events and prophesies that he is going to die by the Triple Death and asks for the Sacrament. The following day or days Myrddin is murdered by some Shephard's by means of bludgeoning, strangulation and drowning. A very pagan death. There is a theory that Gwenddoleu was one of the last pagan king's of the North and hence his destruction.

 

[hitmouse]

I think Myrddin Wyllt is discussed in the In Our Time episode on Merlin which I linked to in a parallel thread earlier this week.

 

[Extollager]

1 March 2024 St. David of Menevia

Baring-Gould was a Victorian, but I'm placing the link to his Lives of the British Saints here because he reviews medieval sources. He has quite a few pages on today's saint!

The lives of the British Saints : the Saints of Wales and Cornwall and such Irish Saints as have dedications i n Britain : Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine), 1834-1924 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Vol. 1. A-B -- Vol. 2. C-E -- Vol. 3. F-M -- Vol. N-Z

archive.org

Arthur Machen thinks there may be an important connection between St. David/Dewi and the Grail romances:

Arthur Machen, the Pilgrim

The following article was published in the February 27, 1926 edition of T. P.’s & Cassell’s Weekly. A short commentary follows. March 1: St. David’s Day It rained all the day …

darklybrightpress.com

 

[svalbard]

Great article on Machen.

"Indeed, Machen viewed the wandering Celtic saints as “monks-errant,” the source of the great Arthurian Legends that “leavened the literature of all Europe.”

The above extract is interesting. In early Welsh legend Arthur is portrayed as an enemy of the Church, a plunderer of monasteries. From memory I think there is such an episode in the Life of St Cador.