Finding Arthur (23 page)

Gwenddolau, son of Ceidio, son of the Sky God, the “Other” or Uther Pendragon, was a man of the Old Way, as were almost all the people of the Pen Dragons. As such he would have allowed a measure of freedom of belief and so undermined the progress Christianity had been making under the late king Vortigern. When people were free to choose they tended to revert to the Old Way, in the memorable words of Gildas, who had clearly been reading his bible, like “dogs to their vomit.” Consequently the Christians of the allied British kingdoms were opposed to Gwenddolau being allowed into their circle of allies.

The Christians found ready allies in their opposition to the Pen Dragons in the established aristocracies, because Emrys and Gwenddolau had killed Vortigern, the last king of the southern Gododdin, and worse, because Emrys and Gwenddolau led their people on merit alone. These things represented a threat to the social order. For an established king to have recognized Emrys or Gwenddolau’s rule or to have accepted them as an allies would have been to condone their actions, something no king could have countenanced. So it was that the Church and what passed for the State in the sixth century had common interests and powerful reasons to come together and crush
Gwenddolau and his counselor Merlin-Lailoken and the people of the Old Way.

This Church–State partnership, later called Christendom, was in an early stage of development at this time, but it must have been evident to Merlin-Lailoken that if Gwenddolau and the people of the Pen Dragons fell to an allied army marching under Christian banners, the end of the Old Way would follow swiftly.

6

The Sword in the Stone

T
HE EARLIEST REFERENCE TO
M
ERLIN
-L
AILOKEN IS THE
A
NNAL
ENTRY
for the year 573, which tells of the “Battle of Arderydd, between the sons of Eliffer and Gwenddolau son of Ceidio, in which battle Gwenddolau fell, Merlin went mad.”
¹

The Battle of Arderydd is one of the most celebrated battles in the poems of the late first millennium. It was the last pitched battle in which the people of the Old Way stood in arms against the Christians. It was a cataclysmic defeat for the people of the Old Way.

The battle was fought at Caer Gwenddolau, today the Liddel Strength, a fort eleven miles north of Carlisle, on the Liddel Water that forms the modern Scotland–England border. According to tradition the legendary Arthur fought at the Battle of Arderydd. There is evidence for this, literally on the ground, in the parish of Arthuret, the church of Arthuret, and the hills of Arthuret, all of which are near the battlefield and Arthur Seat, seven miles to the east. The name Arthuret has inevitably led to the area being associated with the legendary Arthur. It has been said he was buried there, that Camelot was there, and that Camlann, where Arthur fought his last battle, was in this area.

It is sometimes said that
Arthuret
originally meant “Arthur’s Head,” although Skene says it is a modern form of
Arderydd
. However
Skene did not make the connection between
Arderydd
and the Ardrey place-names in Argyll, and so did not go on to connect
Arderydd
with Arthur Mac Aedan. If he had done so he would have seen that that Arthur Mac Aedan was connected to the place-name Arthuret because Arthur Mac Aedan’s father’s Men of Manau fought in the Arderydd campaign (and it is likely that Arthur was with them), and because, well, the names Arthur and Arthuret are all but the same. If this is a mere coincidence it is quite an amazing one. It is likely that the tradition that has the legendary Arthur fighting at Arderydd arose because Arthur Mac Aedan fought at Arderydd. (The young Arthur’s elevation to warlord in the following year suggests he fought well.)

If the historical Arthur Mac Aedan fought at Arderydd when he was a young man, there would have been no reason for anyone to have taken any particular notice of him. If however, in later decades, the historical Arthur Mac Aedan became famous, and in later centuries became the legendary Arthur, then there would be reason for people who lived near the battlefield to remember his connection with Arderydd. It seems likely that a battle that was probably originally called the Battle of Caer Gwenddolau came to be called Arderydd because of its association with the high lord Arthur Mac Aedan, and with the high lords of war, Arthur Mac Aedan’s
Ard Airighaich
.

Why would the Q-Celtic
Ard Airigh
be remembered in the P-Celtic-speaking lands in which the Battle of Arderydd was fought? Perhaps because of Q-Celtic poems that kept the memory of Arthur Mac Aedan alive for a time. Those who prefer a southern Arthur have to explain how there came to be a battle in the north in the late sixth century that involved a man called Merlin, when their southern Arthur was a man of the south in the early sixth century. It has been said there were two battles fought on the same ground, the first involving an Arthur—who this Arthur was is never made clear—in the early sixth century and the second involving a Merlin in the late sixth century. Of course, this precludes Arthur and Merlin being contemporaries and so begs the question, How come they end up together in the legends? It has been said there were two Merlins. Nothing is too much trouble for those who believe in a southern Arthur.

If Arthur was Arthur Mac Aedan, then he was about fifteen years
old and Merlin-Lailoken was about thirty-three years old when they both took part in the Battle of Arderydd in 573, and there is no need for two battles at Arderydd or two Merlins. In my book there was only one Merlin and one Arthur.

Aedan, a close neighbor and ally of Strathclyde, joined the campaign against the people of the Pen Dragons, and the army of Manau fought alongside the army of Strathclyde at the Battle of Arderydd. Skene says Aedan was on the “Roman” side, that is, the side of the Christian party, in the Arderydd campaign. This does not mean Aedan was a Christian. Neither was Strathclyde a Christian land, not really. The army of Manau doubtless included Aedan’s young son, Arthur, then about fifteen years old. This was to be his first campaign. Aedan and Arthur were, of course, men of the Old Way, indeed inveterate enemies of Christians like Columba-Crimthann. The Christians may have been ascendant in Strathclyde in the early 570s, and a Christian may even have been chancellor at the time of the Arderydd campaign, but the main mass of the people and Rhydderch himself were of the Old Way. Christian influence was strong, however, and growing, and so the allied army that marched against Gwenddolau (the Uther Pen Dragon), Merlin-Lailoken, and the people of the Old Way was, if not a Christian army then at least an army marching under Christian banners.

Rhydderch, prince of Strathclyde and Merlin-Lailoken’s brother-in-law, led the allied army of the Britons south against the people of the Pen Dragons. The main bulk of his army was made up of the contingents of Strathclyde and the Gododdin but also included Aedan’s Men of Manau and son, the young Arthur.

The motives of the various allies were mixed. Strathclyde and the Gododdin were spurred on by increasingly assertive Christian activity, and both were keen to avenge Vortigern, the leader of the southern Gododdin, who had been killed by the Pen Dragons in the 550s. Only Aedan was indifferent to these motives. He went along with the invasion simply to ensure he did not antagonize Strathclyde. He would need Strathclyde as an ally when he made his move to take the throne of Dalriada and become king of the Scots. None of this would have mattered to the young Arthur, who was only fifteen years old and about to fight
in his first pitched battle—all he would have cared about was advancing fast and engaging the enemy.

The armies of Ebruac (York) and of the Pennines advanced from the south. Gwgon Gwron son of Peredur came in on the Pen Dragon’s western flank. The Angles on Gwenddolau’s eastern flank prudently kept out of it. Gwenddolau and his people of the Pen Dragon were effectively surrounded and vastly outnumbered.

Gwgon Gwron was the man remembered in the
Triads
as one of the “Three Prostrate Chieftains of Britain,” specifically, as a man who “would not seek a dominion, which nobody could deny to [him].” When the Angles staged their coup in 547, Gwgon Gwron was one of the aristocrats who, along with their coward king, Vortigern, deserted their people and, literally, headed for the hills. It was this leadership vacuum left by these poltroons that was filled by the Pen Dragons: first by Emrys and then, after Emrys was assassinated, by Gwenddolau. The Angles chased Vortigern and the southern Gododdin aristocracy away from the seacoast into the west but did not capture and kill him. Emrys and Gwenddolau, finally frustrated by their ineffectual king, burned Vortigern to death in his fort.

Gwgon Gwron and his fellows then went further west, and there they sat and nursed their grievances until the time came when they could retake (what they thought of as) their lands. As the poem says, Gwgon Gwron was not prepared to take action to recover what was “rightfully” his (not until backed up by overwhelming force, worm that he was).

When they were sure that they would be on the winning side, Gwgon Gwron and the men of the west were the first to attack. As enemies closed in all around him, Gwenddolau had no choice but to fall back. I picture the young Arthur riding out ahead with the Men of Manau to seek out the enemy, while behind him the main force came on more slowly, pillaging as it went.

Gwenddolau fell back to his capital fortress, Caer Gwenddolau, and there turned and made a stand. He had no choice. His warriors were hardened fighting men who had won victory after victory against the Angles, but now they were vastly outnumbered and had no real chance of victory. Caer Gwenddolau is not open to attack from the
north; the north wall of the fort faces onto a cliff that falls steeply down to the Liddel Water far below. Consequently, Strathclyde and her allies crossed the River Esk before joining the forces of Ebruac (York) and the Pennines and attacking from the south, from the direction of Arthur Seat and the Arthuret Hills.

Hardly had the chiefs had time to dress their lines before “the troops were fighting, falling on both sides in a miserable slaughter.”
²
As the clash of armies continued, “the slaughter was terrible, Shields shattered and bloody.”
³
One warrior, Maelgwn, was young, able and brave that day at Arderydd. When Maelgwn went into battle, “The host acclaimed him.”
⁴
(Maelgwn would go on to become the third and last Pen Dragon and would end his days a pensioner at Merlin-Lailoken’s fireside, where Ardery Street in Partick, Glasgow, is today.)

Merlin-Lailoken was in the shield-wall when, “Again and again, in great throngs they came … The savage battle was unceasing.” The lines rushed together, blood flowed everywhere, and people died on both sides. Maelgwn led charge after charge against the enemy. “Swiftly came Maelgwn’s men / Warriors ready for battle, for slaughter armed. / For this battle,
Arderydd
, they have made / A lifetime of preparation.”

Three of Gwenddolau’s brothers, chiefs in their own right, “Who had followed him through his wars, always fighting, cut down and broke the battle lines [slaying the enemy with] their hateful swords.” But it was all to no avail: “[Gwenddolau’s brothers] rushed fiercely through the crowded ranks with such an attack that they soon fell killed.” When Merlin-Lailoken saw them fall he knew the battle was over. Sorely grieved he cried out, “You who so recently were rushing in arms through the troops, cutting down on every side those who resisted you, now are beating the ground and are red with red blood!”

Gwenddolau’s army broke. “A host of spears fly high, drawing blood. / From a host of vigorous warriors— / A host, fleeing; a host, wounded— / A host, bloody, retreating.” Strathclyde and her allies, including Arthur among his father’s Men of Manau, launched a final attack from all quarters. “[They] wounded [Gwenddolau’s warriors] and cut them down, nor did they rest until the hostile battalions turned their backs and fled through unfrequented ways.”

Gwenddolau died shortly after the battle. Merlin-Lailoken, “Departed secretly, and fled to the woods not wishing to be seen as he fled.”
⁵
The allied cavalry set out in pursuit, no doubt with the young Arthur among their number. They hunted Merlin-Lailoken across the rivers, over the hills, and through the trees of the southwest quarter of the Caledonian Wood.

The scattered remnants of Gwenddolau’s army kept up a running fight that was later commemorated in the
Triads
. The
Triad of the Faithful Warbands
tells of the war-band of “Gwendoleu son of Ceidyaw at Arderydd, who maintained the contest forty-six days after their lord was slain.” This long aftermath of battle suggests Merlin-Lailoken’s people were hunted down with exceptional determination and ferocity. Be that as it may, Merlin-Lailoken and his fellow escapees found safety in the Caledonian Wood. “Sweet appletree in the glade, / Trodden is the earth around its base. / The men of Rhydderch see me not.”
⁶

Merlin-Lailoken eluded his hunters and, “For a whole summer after this, hidden like a wild animal, he remained buried in the woods, found by no one and forgetful of himself and of his kindred.” “A whole summer” is poetic license. In reality Merlin-Lailoken hid out in the forest for seven years, during which time even the influence of his twin sister, Languoreth, a princess of Strathclyde, was not enough to bring him safely back.

Tutgual, king of Strathclyde, the man Merlin-Lailoken had betrayed when he deserted Strathclyde to fight for the Pen Dragons, died circa 580. He was succeeded by his son Rhydderch and so Languoreth, Merlin-Lailoken’s twin-sister, became queen. It was only then that Merlin-Lailoken was able to return to favor in Strathclyde.