The Mammoth Book of King Arthur

by Mike Ashley

  However, we have to fit another sequence into this. In 410 Guthelinus had appealed to Aldroenus, whom he describes as the fourth ruler in line from Cynan who had been granted territory in Armorica by Magnus Maximus in 383. The four kings would be Cynan, Gadeon, Saloman, and then Aldroenus. Do we know enough about these semi-legendary rulers to date their reigns? The brothers Cynan and Gadeon, sons of Eudaf, may have ruled together, and would have been in their sixties and possibly older by the early 400s. Although Alain Bouchart and Bertran d’Argentré have assigned the dates 405–412 to Saloman’s reign, these dates are highly dubious. The chronology of the various rulers of Armorica is almost impossible to piece together, and the details in Table 3.10 should be regarded with some circumspection.

  We do not know the ancestry of Saloman, but we do know that of Aldroenus, called Aldwr by the British. Aldwr and his brother Constantine (Custennin) were the sons of Cynfor ap Tudwal, a chieftain in southern Cornwall who lived in the mid fifth century, a good generation or two adrift from Geoffrey’s timescale. Cynfor has been identified with Cunomorus, whose name is inscribed on a stone at Castle Dore near Fowey. This Cunomorus is also associated with the Tristram legend, and is sometimes identified as King Mark. However, this Cunomorus lived later, in the early sixth century. Although Cynfor himself is unlikely to have migrated to Brittany, it is entirely possible for Aldwr to have done so. His brother has been called Custennin Fendigiad (the “Blessed”) and Custennin Waredwr (the “Deliverer”), and is included in the list of “The Twenty-Four Mightiest Kings”. Evidently this much-praised prince succeeded his father as king in the West Country, but must have spread further afield, as his name is associated with the founding of Chepstow, Warwick and Worcester. He was probably contemporary with Arthur of Badon (see Table 3.10), and thus is too late to fit into Geoffrey’s timescale.

  Geoffrey probably latched on to the name Constantine because of the usurper emperor who ruled from 408–411, whose son Constans was indeed murdered, by his general Gerontius. So Geoffrey took the real history of Constantine III and transplanted it onto the Dumnonian prince Custennin, with the evil Vortigern taking on the role of the commander Gerontius.

  If we cannot place much credence in Geoffrey’s Constantine and Constans, is it any more likely that Constantine was the father of Ambrosius and Uther? We have already seen the plausibility of an Ambrosius the Elder, of whom Vortigern was afraid, and since the younger Ambrosius was, according to Geoffrey, still a baby in 428, he is clearly not the antagonist at the battle of Guoloph in 437. Therefore, in Geoffrey’s world, Ambrosius the Elder would be equal to Custennin/Constantine. The association of Custennin with Chepstow and Worcester is interesting as both these towns are in the Severn Valley, in the area of Gwent and the Gewisse, and would be associated with both Ambrosius and Vortigern. Though it is almost certainly oral tradition, it places Custennin in the right location. However, this would mean that either Custennin or his father Cynfor “wore the purple”, to tally with Gildas’s description. Clearly Constantine III, on whom Geoffrey’s Constantine is based, did wear the purple, but Gildas would have regarded him as a usurper and a tyrant, and would not have heaped praise on him as he did on Ambrosius and his father. So we cannot accuse Gildas of confusing the Constantines as Geoffrey did. Custennin/Constantine does not fall neatly into the pattern of the Ambrosii, and Geoffrey’s jigsaw is simply forcing the wrong pieces together.

  So far, little that Geoffrey has written holds much water, yet his date for the birth of Ambrosius, around 427/428, is ideal for the chronology that has been developing. It would make Ambrose in his thirties and forties at the height of his glories in the 460s and 470s, and he could still, although elderly, have witnessed Badon. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the way of concrete evidence to support Ambrosius’s birth at that date, so we remain in the realms of conjecture.

  Returning to Geoffrey’s narrative – with Vortigern’s rise to power the young Ambrosius and Uther are taken to Armorica where they are welcomed by King Budicius (Budic), who ensures that they are properly cared for and educated. Meanwhile, in Britain, Vortigern’s treachery is discovered, and he now lives in fear, knowing that Ambrosius and Uther are alive and may yet take their revenge.

  There were several rulers of Armorica called Budic, but none at this time. The earliest, the grandson of Iahann Reeth (the possible Riothamus), did not reign until around 510. The Brut Tysilio, however, calls the ruler Emyr Llydaw. Emyr Llydaw, was not a name but a title – Leader of the Men of Llydaw, (a territory in northern Ergyng – see Chapter 8).

  The Celtic Stanzas of the Graves credit this Emyr with a son, Beidawg Rhudd, a name that could easily be construed as Budic. The original story may have meant that Ambrosius and Uther were kept safe in Llydaw in Ergyng, not in Armorica. This would tie in with Nennius’s claim that the young Ambrosius was found in Gwent.

  Geoffrey next announces the arrival of Hengist and Horsa with a boatload of warriors. Vortigern, who is in Canterbury, agrees to meet them. Hengist explains that it is their country’s tradition to draw lots now and again, sending the surplus population to look for new lands. So they set sail, and their gods have brought them to Britain. Vortigern is disappointed that they are pagan, but willing to negotiate. He suggests that if Hengist and his men offer to help him fight the Picts, he will consider their request. Soon afterwards the Picts cross the Wall into the North Country, and the Saxons join a British army to do battle. The Saxons are so powerful that the British hardly have to fight, and the Picts are soon defeated. Impressed, Vortigern grants Hengist and his men land in Lindsey.

  Hengist reminds Vortigern that there is a faction keen to make Ambrosius king, and suggests bringing reinforcements from Saxony. In return, Hengist asks for a title. Vortigern refuses, but does grant him enough land to build a settlement. In due course Hengist builds his castle at Thanceastre (Kaercarrei in British). The name means Castle of the Thong, because Hengist measured out the land by a long leather thong, cut from the hide of a bull. There are places called Thong in Kent and Thwing in North Yorkshire, but Hengist’s settlement is unlikely to be either of these. The most likely place is Caistor near Grimsby, for which the old Saxon name was Tunne-Caistor, and which was known to be an earlier British settlement called Caeregarry. Bede refers to the town, and notes that the town’s name came from the monk Tunna, who lived in the late seventh century. Near to Caistor is Horncastle (previously Hornecaestre), which could equally have been Geoffrey’s original source. Both towns are on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds in the territory of Lindsey, thus supporting the idea that this was the Saxons’ first settlement, and not Thanet in Kent. Lindsey, like Thanet, was an island in those days, cut off from the surrounding land by marshy fens. Several village names in Lindsey, such as Firsby, Freiston and Friesthorpe, attest to early settlement by Friesians, Hengist’s kinfolk.

  Geoffrey’s narrative continues, telling of the arrival of reinforcements in Britain, including Hengist’s daughter whom he calls Renwein. The story continues as per Nennius, with a drunken Vortigern besotted by Renwein and desiring her as a wife even though he is already married. Hengist agrees, exchanging his daughter for the territory of Thanet, allowing for a second, more plausible settlement in Thanet.

  Geoffrey now recounts the visit of Germanus and Lupus to Britain (vi.13). We know this to have happened in 429, and it seems scarcely credible that all that Geoffrey has recounted since Vortigern seized the throne could have happened in one year. Geoffrey gives no clue as to a time span, but the implication is that Ambrosius is old enough to have become a threat, and that we must have moved on perhaps twenty to twenty-five years, taking us to 448–453. Interestingly, this is the period often attributed to Germanus’s second visit to Britain, although, as we established earlier, 436 is a more likely date. This passage appears in the Brut Tysilio as an interpolation, which suggests its compiler did not know where to place it and just guessed, so that if Geoffrey was drawing upon Tysilio he perpetuated the error.

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p; Geoffrey’s narrative follows closely the story in Nennius. Under the spell of Renwein, Vortigern gives in to Hengist’s demands, and Hengist is allowed to bring in further reinforcements, including his sons Octa and Ebissa, and a man called Cherdic (spelled Chledric in Tysilio). This sounds suspiciously like Cerdic, and it is strange that Geoffrey, Tysilio and Nennius all mention him, as he does not reappear. Later, when referring to Cerdic of Wessex, Geoffrey calls him Cheldric. It is as if Cherdic had been introduced for a future story and then forgotten about, so that when Geoffrey picks up the thread again the name has changed. It is rather too late for him to be the same Ceretic as Hengist’s interpreter, since Hengist seems to have coped well enough without him for the last decade or more. The Tysilio refers to Octa and Ebissa as Octa (or Offa), Hengist’s son, and his uncle Ossa. Ossa may be a confusion for Horsa, although Ossa (or Oisc/Aesc) was also the name of Octa’s son. It is also worth noting that the Offa who was the ancestor of the East Anglian kings was a contemporary of Octa (see Table 3.11), and, since the area around Lindsey was where Octa first settled, they could well have been related.

  The growing Saxon forces unsettle the British and Vortigern’s son Vortimer rebels. Commanding the British, he succeeds in defeating the Saxons and driving them back to the coast. Geoffrey notes the same battles as listed by Nennius, on the River Derwent, at Episford and on the sea-coast, from where they took refuge on Thanet.

  The Saxons eventually sail away, but leave their women and children behind. Renwein, a folkloristic image of the evil stepmother, poisons Vortimer. Vortigern is restored to the throne, and Hengist returns to Britain, now supported by 300,000 troops. Although this figure is an obvious exaggeration, it is probably indicative of an overwhelming force. Vortigern convinces his fellow earls and counts to join him in a celebration of peace with the Saxons. What follows is the account of the “Night of the Long Knives”, in which Hengist’s men treacherously slay the British nobility (a figure is given later of 480 leaders [viii.5]). Only one man apart from Vortigern survives – Eldol (or Eidiol), Count of Gloucester, who, armed only with a stake, kills seventy men and escapes to tell the tale.

  This section gives us two options. On the one hand, we can presume that Hengist arrived soon after Vortigern’s accession, around 428/9, the date given by Nennius. The alternative is that the first wave of Saxons was pushed back, to return in a second major adventus during the 440s, and that this was when Hengist arrived. For many years, this has been most historians’ standard interpretation. To resolve these two theories, we need to know more about Hengist.

  4. Hengist

  The name Hengist appears in both the epic poem Beowulf and the related fragment, The Fight at Finnesburg. In both tales Hengist is a prince of northern Frisia, driven into exile by interdynastic rivalries, who joins an army of Half-Danes, a mercenary warband led by Hnaef. While visiting Finn, king of the East Frisians, at Finnesburg, Hnaef is killed when a fight breaks out. The rest of the Finnesburg poem is lost, but an aside in Beowulf tells us more. After Hnaef’s death Hengist became leader of the Half-Danes. They were forced to winter at Finnesburg, but the following spring, fighting resumed. This time, Hengist’s men were victorious and Finn was killed. We do not know for certain that Geoffrey’s Hengist and the Hengist of Beowulf are the same, but the respective descriptions of him as “banished” and an “exile” are suggestive, and it seems somewhat beyond coincidence that there would be two princes called Hengist exiled from Frisia at the same time.

  Of course, this assumes that we are speaking of a real individual recorded in contemporary documents. Since we know no more about when any of these documents was composed, other than that it would have been at least three centuries later, then Hengist could simply have been a standardized hero dropped into any story as a recognizable character. The main argument against this is that Hengist is not central to Beowulf, but is mentioned as an aside, giving the story the feeling of authenticity. The legend of Hengist was so well known that it is almost certainly based on fact, and there is no reason to presume that the tales relate to more than one individual.

  Unfortunately, neither Beowulf nor the Finnesburg fragment provides a date for these events, and testing the chronology of the genealogies also causes a dilemma. Hengist is regarded as the ancestor of the kings not only of Kent, but also of Swabia through another son, Harthwig (or Hartwake). Dates for the Swabian rulers are as uncertain as for the early Kentish kings, but a later king of Swabia, Bertold, is assigned the dates 568–633 with some degree of certainty. He was fifth in descent from Hengist, and allowing the usual average of 25–30 years per generation gives a mid-life date for Hengist of about 460.

  We can compare this to the ancestors of the Icelingas, the tribe of Angles who settled in Britain under Icel. Icel’s great-great-grandfather, Wermund, and Wermund’s son Offa, are remembered in the heroic poem Widsith and in the Danish history by Saxo Grammaticus. Describing conflict between the Angles and the Saxons, these two works place Wermund’s long reign towards the end of the fourth century. This would place Icel’s mid-life at about 485. The genealogies make Icel contemporary with Hengist (see Table 3.11), which would give Hengist a prime-of-life of around 470–500, which overlaps with the previous calculation though could place him as much as a generation later.

  We can also test it against Cerdic’s ancestry. Amongst Cerdic’s ancestors are Freawine and his son Wig, and both also feature in the life of Wermund as told by Saxo Grammaticus. From this we may calculate Wig’s mid-life at around 400. Cerdic is four generations descended from Wig, making his mid-life around 510. We know that Cerdic is at least a generation later than Hengist, giving a mid-life for Hengist of around 480.

  All of these calculations, no matter how vague the data they are based on, bring us to a mid-life date for Hengist of 460–490. According to the ASC, he was dead by 488. It is difficult to push his life back earlier.

  If this is true, then it is impossible for Hengist to be the individual whom Vortigern welcomed to Britain in 428, and more plausible for him to belong to the second adventus in 449. It means we do not know who met Vortigern in 428 – if that date is correct – although Table 3.11 suggests it may have been any of a half-dozen names, including Soemil (who we know from Nennius was in Britain by 450) and, more intriguingly, Cerdic’s great-grandfather Gewis (see page 210).

  We could conjecture that although Saxons had been arriving and settling throughout the first half of the fifth century, the significance of the adventus under Gewis was that he became integrated into the British administration under Vortigern, most likely as some sort of personal bodyguard. This could have been in 428, and would have allowed for a generation to become established by the time of the second adventus in the 440s. Gewis and his army may subsequently have settled in Lindsey, but it is more likely that if they did serve as Vortigern’s personal army their land would initially have been near Vortigern’s court, possibly in or around London or, more likely, near Powys. Intriguingly, flowing down from the Berwyn Mountains in North Powys, and joining the River Vyrnwy just a few kilometres north of the Gaer Fawr hill fort at Guilsfield, is the River Tanat. It is possible that Gewis and his family were granted land in the Valley of the Tanat, a name which became confused with Thanet when Hengist and his followers claimed land there a generation later.

  Before we set the above in stone, however, we need to follow the rest of Geoffrey’s narrative. After the massacre of the British nobility, the Saxons release Vortigern, but only after his total capitulation and handing over of his townships. They capture London, York, Lincoln and Winchester, ravaging the countryside as they go. Vortigern flees to Wales and summons his magicians. Calling them “magicians” suggests that Geoffrey’s narrative has now turned to fantasy, and that he is in fact paving the way for the introduction of Merlin. Geoffrey is recounting the same story as told by Nennius, except that Nennius uses the phrase “wise men”, sometimes translated as “wizards”. This is also the point at which Nennius introduces Ambros
ius Aurelianus. Since Geoffrey had already introduced Ambrosius by this point, he adapted this section to introduce Merlin.

  Merlin warns Vortigern that Constantine’s sons, Aurelius Ambrosius (as Geoffrey calls him) and Uther, are sailing for Britain and will land the next day. Vortigern seeks safety in his castle at Genoreu, in Ergyng, usually identified as the hillfort at Little Doward, northeast of Monmouth, and near Symonds Yat, where the tiny village of Ganarew survives today.

  Ambrosius and Uther arrive, and Ambrosius is crowned king. He demands the immediate death of Vortigern, marches on Genoreu and burns down the castle. Ambrosius then turns his attention to the Saxons. Having heard tales of his bravery and prowess, the Saxons retreat beyond the Humber. Hengist is encouraged when he discovers that Ambrosius’s army is only some 10,000 men compared to his 200,000. Overconfident, Hengist advances south. The first engagement, at Maisbeli, goes in favour of the British. Hengist then flees to Cunungeburg (almost certainly Conisbrough, near Doncaster) for the showdown. Maisbeli, which has not been satisfactorily identified, means “the field of Beli”, which could indicate a site of pre-Christian worship sacred to the earlier British king Beli, or it may be a field where the Beltane festival was celebrated. A possibility is Hatfield, the old name of which was Meicen, which had been a small Celtic territory in the locality of Doncaster.

  After re-establishing his base at Gloucester, Ambrosius would have led his army along Ryknild Street, the main Roman road from Gloucester towards the Humber. Following this he would have passed through Conisbrough and Hatfield, all only a few kilometres inland from the original Anglo-Saxon settlements in Lindsey.