"The History of the Britons" and "The Welsh Annals"

The History of the Britons and the Welsh Annals

As we begin to reach into the 9th and 10th centuries, we really begin to  close in on many of the works that had influenced  Geoffrey of Monmouth and his groundbreaking work Historia Regum Brittaniae.  (If you are coming in late, I advise that you read my 1st entry on this work HERE)  Of course, there is doubtful chance anyone will ever find his "very ancient book in the British tongue", if it ever existed at all, but we can at least cover the books he probably read.  We'll cover two works today

I would like to start with a discussion on The History of the Britons (Historia Britionum) written by a christian monk who identifies himself in the text as Nennius.  Written around the early 800's, Nennius repeats some of what we have seen in Bede with the villainous king Vortigern summoning the Saxon forces led by Hengest and Horsa in order to defeat the Scots and Picts.  In this part of the chronicle Nennius writes of the 1st known appearance of Vortigern's failed tower episode.  In this brief story Vortigern attempts multiple times to build a fortification, but each night it topples.  His counselors advise the King to sprinkle the blood of a boy with no father on the foundation.  After his men seek out such a boy and return him to the King, the boy questions the wisdom of his counselors and instead advises the king to dig up the foundation and therein find a pool.  Within the pool, Vortigern is told, he will find vases, and inside, a folded tent, and inside that a red and white snake fighting each other.  The boy, who later identifies himself as Ambrosius, tells Vortigern that the snakes symbolize the battles of the Britons and the Saxons.  Some of you who read Geoffrey's HRB may recall this same episode with a few changes.  In Geoffrey's version, there is a pond, a stone, and two dragons; the young boy is instead Merlin.  Here Nennius mentions Vortigern's son Vortimer, who is more honorable than his father and loyal to the Britons.  Vortimer defeats the Saxons in 4 battles but dies afterward.  Vortigern, ever a friend to the Saxons, allows them back into Britain and in a meeting of supposed peace, the Saxons turn and slaughter all of the nobles, sparing only Vortigern.  Vortigern later perishes in his own castle with his wives by fire, here as a result of the prayers of St. Germanus.  Later, when Hengist has passed and Octha, his son, is leading the Saxon invaders, we are introduced to Arthur.  Depending on the dating of Y Gododdin this may be one of the earliest references to Arthur.  He is not a King but a "Dux Bellorum", a leader of battle.  Due to his prowess and leadership he defeats the Saxons in 12 battles, ending at the battle of Mount Badon where he sports the image of Mary in his shoulders and with God at his back and kills 940 soldiers all by himself. You will remember that Bede claims "Ambrosius Aurelianus" as the victor of that battle while Nennius has an "Ambrosius" as a child seer.

Already Arthur has become a being of legend by this point and this is one of his first known appearances in literature.  Nennius even makes his chronicle less credible by attaching to it a section known as the Mirabilia (aka Wonders of Britain) which show the wondrous landmarks of Britain.  Two of these are related to Arthur.  One regards a place called Carin Cafal (or Cabal, Caval) which is where one of Arthur's hunting Dogs, who, during the hunting of the boar Troit (or Troynt,  Twrch Trwyth) left a paw print on a stone cairn.  If this stone is removed by hand, even a days journey away it will always magically return the next day.  The other "wonder" is the grave of Amr (Anir) who is a son of Arthur.  According to Nennius, Arthur killed and buried his son by his own hand but it is never explained how or why.  When his grave is measured it always reveals a different length, Nennius attests to trying it himself.  So, despite being a chronicle, Nennius's work cannot be taken entirely seriously but, nevertheless, its importance remains because it establishes a few more pieces of Arthurian tradition.

Here are a few points to note on this work:

• One of the first mentions of Arthur in a written work.
• Expands the story of Vortigern and provides us with his son's story as well. (Vortimer)
• Assigns 12 battles to Arthur which will be duplicated by future authors.  
• Gives the final victory of Badon Hill, one of the 12 battles, to Arthur (over Ambrosius Aurelianus.)
• Clearly filled with magical and miraculous occurrences, it is a work of doubtful veracity.

The second work we will cover only makes 2 small references to Arthur.  The Annals of Wales  (Annales Cambriae) was created by an unknown person in about the mid-to-late 10th century.  The work covers approximately 500 years of history from the mid 400's to the late 900's.  The 1st relevant entry is for the year 516 where it mentions the Battle of Mt. Badon where Arthur carries the Cross for 3 days and nights on his shoulders (or shield) and was victorious.  You will notice this echos Nennius's account but substitutes the Cross for the Holy Virgin Mary.  The second entry is at year 537 where (at) "The battle of Camlann in which Arthur and Medraut (Mordred) fell."  This notation is important because it is the first mention we have of Arthur's death at the Battle of Camlann.  This is the legendary battle where, in later tradition, Arthur kills- and is killed by-Mordred.  You will note, however, that Mordred is not specified as his enemy here.  I say this because I want to touch on the idea that Mordred was not always seen in a negative light according to early welsh tradition.  It is later that Mordred becomes synonymous with betrayal The only thing to take away from this, at this point, is:

• The 1st mention of Arthur's death as well as the 1st known mention of of Mordred.

Thank you all for reading!  Our next story is going to be one of my personal favorites which is Culhwch and Olwen, which you can find in a book of Welsh tales called the Mabinogion.