Tag Archives: Welsh

04/4/13

Owain Gwynedd’s birthday

The Good Knight When was Owain Gwynedd born?  Here’s the truth:  no idea.

Okay, that’s not entirely true.  Like Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, nobody seems to have recorded the date Owain Gwynedd was born, or even the year.  This is fine as far as it goes, because we can make some general estimates.  The problem arises when the birthdays for his many, many children haven’t been recorded either.  Nor his siblings.  Nor the dates of his marriages.

My go-to-guide, John Davies History of Wales doesn’t discuss birthdays or ages, probably because he knows it’s fraught with difficulties, but many web sources try.  For example, here’s one huge root of the problem, the Wikipedia entry, citing a book by John Edward Lloyd  A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest (Longmans, Green & Co.) written in 1911.  This has Owain born c. 1100, and a long list of his offspring  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owain_Gwynedd):

Now, if you make the mistake of clicking on some of those links, for example, Iorwerth ab Owain Gwynedd, the eldest son of Owain’s first wife, Gwladys, you find that this same 1911 source has him born in 1145 while neither Rhun nor Hywel get birthdays.  As they were full grown men by 1143, when Hywel is tasked with rousting his uncle Cadwaladr out of Ceredigion, you have to think he’s at least 20 at the time.  While Owain might have had mistresses and wives concurrently, among the Welsh princes, that was actually uncommon.  In addition, there is no mention in the annals of any sons of Owain Gwynedd but Rhun (who died in 1146) and Hywel until the 1150s.

Click on Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd.  Once again, no birthday, but he is first mentioned in the annals in 1157, which means at the latest, he was born in 1143/44, since Welsh boys became men at the age of fourteen.  Obviously, we now have a problem, since this 1911 source has the eldest son of Owain’s first wife being born in 1145, and the eldest son of his second wife born a year earlier.

It gets worse.  The Castles of Wales site, normally very reliable, has Owain Gwynedd born as late as 1109.  If this is true, however, then for Hywel to be  20 in 1143, than he would have to been fathered by Owain at the precocious age of 14, and his elder brother Rhun even earlier.  Not impossible, but . . . http://www.castlewales.com/owain_g.html

Furthermore, Citing The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens (by Mike Ashley, Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc. New York, 1998), elsewhere on the site, it makes the claim that Owain was born c. 1100 (so I give them a pass on that), but now Dafydd, the eldest son of his second wife Cristina, was born in c. 1135.

Deeper into a search, the EBK site reports that Owain’s father, Gruffydd, married Angharad in 1195 (when he was 40) and had three sons (Cadwallon, Owain, Cadwaladr) and some daughters, including the youngest, Gwenllian.  http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/gruffcgd.html  Fine. But it is Gwenllian who elopes with the much, much older Gruffydd ap Rhys in 1113.  Whoa.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruffydd_ap_Rhys  Note that the particular entry on Gwenllian, which actually has citations, not all of which I have access to, has her born c 1197, which by necessity must push all these other dates back into the earlier 1190s to make any of this work.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwenllian_ferch_Gruffydd

Here’s a hilarious family tree, showing the problem of not analyzing what you’re reading.  It actually shows this first son of the first wife being born after the second son of the second wife (Rhodri this time).  I’d love to find those sources.  http://www.princesofgwynedd.com/pdf/LlywelynFamilyTree.pdf

03/7/13

Eryri (Snowdonia)

Eryri, Snowdonia in English, was the place in Gwynedd to which the Princes of Wales retreated, and their final stronghold when the English pressed on them from every side.  Mt. Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) has always been at its center, but it traditionally included the Carneddau range and essentially all the land west of the Conwy River. It is the land the Edward allowed Llywelyn ap Gruffydd to keep in the 1277 treaty.  Today, as a national park, it includes 838 square miles.

From John T Koch, Celtic Culture: An Historical Encyclopedia:
“The first literary mention of Eryri occurs in the 9th century Historia Brittonum, where an account is given of the downfall of the semi-legendary 5th century king Vortigern.  Pursued by his revolted Anglo-Saxon mercenaries and hated by his Brythonic countrymen, the king’s magi direct him to build a stronghold in a secure place on the far side of his kingdom.  Such a place is found in Eryri . . .

“The place-name Eryri has had two Celtic roots proposed to explain it:  1) that it describes a high place [from the Latin eryr]  or 2) that it denotes the abode of eagles [Welsh eryr 'eagle'].  Of course, even if Eryri had not originally meant ‘eyrie’, this idea would automatically occur to any Welsh speaker, writer, or poet . . . In a transferred sense, eryr is often used as a kenning for ‘hero’ in Welsh poetry, which adds further significance to the place-name as the traditional mountain stronghold of the strongest and most militaristic independent Welsh kingdom, Gwynedd.”

1262 marks the year that Llywelyn ap Gruffydd styled himself for the first time as “Prince of Wales and Lord of Snowdon (Eryri)”.  Llywelyn Fawr had referred to himself as ‘prince of Aberffraw’, which his grandson no longer mentions, although others continue to refer to him as its lord (J. Beverly Smith Llywelyn ap Gruffydd p. 145).  Because the latter was never recognized by the kings of England, the second Llywelyn chose to focus on Wales instead of Aberffraw   Both, however, were ‘lord of Snowdon’ and believed that this land encompassed not only Eryri as present historians have come to know it, but to all the lands in Gwynedd from the Dee to the Dyfi Rivers (Smith, p. 188).

The primary castles in Eryri are:  Dolwyddelan, Dolbadarn, Garth Celyn, and Castell y Bere.  The fort to which Koch refers is Dinas Emrys, on the western slopes of the Snowdonian mountains.

12/28/12

The Celts in Wales

The Irish, Welsh, and Scots all have a Celtic ancestry, but they settled their respective regions before the Roman conquest of Britain.  There is an amazing amount of debate as to the origin of the Celts:  were they Phoenician?  stocky and dark?  tall and blonde?  as culturally cohesive as the label suggests?   The standard theory is that the Celts were an Indo-European group that gradually migrated across Europe and Asia, with an identifiable, distinct culture by 750 BC.  As a group, they were well-known to the Greeks and Romans.  The map to the right shows the migrations of the celtic (or proto-celtic) groups around 1000 BC.   Note the expansion of the Celts in particular between 500 and 200 BC into the British Isles.  The Welsh tribes in particular consisted of the Ordovices, the Deceangli, the Gangani, the Demetae, and the Silures. http://archaeology.suite101.com/article.cfm/archaeology_and_the_celts

“History tells us that there were two main Celtic groups, one of which is referred to as the ‘lowland Celts’ who hailed from the region of the Danube. These people left their native pastures around 1200 BC and slowly made their way across Europe, founding the lake dwellings in Switzerland, the Danube valley and Ireland. They were skilled in the use of metals and worked in gold, tin and bronze. Unlike the more familiar Celtic strain these people were an agriculturally oriented race, being herdsmen, tillers and artificers who burned rather than buried their dead. They blended peacefully with the megalithic people among whom they settled, contributing powerfully to the religion, art, and customs they encountered as they slowly spread westwards. Their religious beliefs also differed from the next group, being predominately matriarchal.

The second group, often referred to as the ‘true’ Celts, followed closely behind their lowland cousins, making their first appearance on the left bank of the Rhine at the commencement of the sixth century BC. These people, who came from the mountainous regions of the Balkans and Carpathians, were a military aristocracy. Reputed to love fighting for the sake of it they were frequently to be found among the mercenaries of the great armies of those early times. They had a distinct class system, the observance of which constituted one of their major racial features. These were the warlike Celts of ancient history who sacked Rome and Delphi, eventually marching victoriously across much of Europe and the British Isles.”  http://www.joellessacredgrove.com/Celtic/history.html

The Celts had arrived in Britain and Ireland by 400 BC, super-imposing upon whatever native peoples were already there.  The Celts in these regions, then, were on the fringes of Celtic culture, not their heart, which was centered in Northern Europe, particularly in what is now Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

“Archaeological investigation of settlements shows that many people in the Iron Age lived in hilltop enclosures  or hillforts defended by one or more banks and ditches. The inner bank would have been topped by a wooden palisade or occasionally a stone wall.

Within the enclosure people lived in round houses often with porches over the single doorway. The houses were made usually with wattle and daub walls, wooden roofs thatched with straw or reeds and with clay or earth floors. In some areas where stone was plentiful the house walls were built of stone. This is true of north Wales at such hillforts as Moel-y-Gaer. Often the houses had a central fireplace and sometimes a clay oven for baking bread. The grain for the bread was ground on rotary querns. The smoke would have escaped through the thatch. A wooden loom might be found in some houses where people wove cloth from wool or flax.”  http://www.cpat.org.uk/educate/leaflets/celts/celts.htm

Hillforts to visit:

Caer Drewyn (near Corwen)
Moel Fenlli on the Clwydian Hills
Gaer Fawr (near Welshpool), Powys
Ffrydd Faldwyn (Montgomery), Powys
Roundton Hill (near Churchstoke), Powys
Castell Tinboeth, Radnor (also the site of a medieval castle)
Castell Dinas Bran (near Llangollen–also the site of a medieval castle)

11/25/12

Marriage in the Medieval Era

“Perfect love sometimes does not come until the first grandchild.”  –Welsh proverb

Marriage as we know it now is a new institution.  While ‘love’ (at least among the upper classes) transformed the internal workings of marriage in the modern age, in Wales prior to the Midde Ages, marriage was a contract between two families, with no relationship to the Church or State at all.  Even once the Roman Church got involved, it still had nothing to do with the State.

Probably the change had something to do with taxes.

Regardless, what we know of marriage in medieval Wales comes primarily from the Laws of Hywel Dda (see the footnotes in Wikipedia for the English sources):  “The second part of the laws begins with ‘the laws of women’, for example the rules governing marriage and the division of property if a married couple should separate. The position of women under Welsh law differed significantly to that of their Norman-English contemporaries. A marriage could be established in two basic ways. The normal way was that the woman would be given to a man by her kindred; the abnormal way was that the woman could elope with a man without the consent of her kindred. In this case her kindred could compel her to return if she was still a virgin, but if she was not she could not be compelled to return. If the relationship lasted for seven years she had the same entitlements as if she had been given by her kin.[7]

A number of payments are connected with marriage. Amobr was a fee payable to the woman’s lord on the loss of her virginity, whether on marriage or otherwise. Cowyll was a payment due to the woman from her husband on the morning after the marriage, marking her transition from virgin to married woman. Agweddi was the amount of the common pool of property owned by the couple which was due to the woman if the couple separated before the end of seven years. The total of the agweddi depended on the woman’s status by birth, regardless of the actual size of the common pool of property. If the marriage broke up after the end of seven years, the woman was entitled to half the common pool.[8]

If a woman found her husband with another woman, she was entitled to a payment of six score pence the first time and a pound the second time; on the third occasion she was entitled to divorce him. If the husband had a concubine, the wife was allowed to strike her without having to pay any compensation, even if it resulted in the concubine’s death.[9] A woman could only be beaten by her husband for three things: for giving away something which she was not entitled to give away, for being found with another man or for wishing a blemish on her husband’s beard. If he beat her for any other cause, she was entitled to the payment of sarhad. If the husband found her with another man and beat her, he was not entitled to any further compensation. According to the law, women were not allowed to inherit land. However there were exceptions, even at an early date. A poem dated to the first half of the 11th century is an elegy for Aeddon, a landowner on Anglesey. The poet says that after his death his estate was inherited by four women who had originally been brought to Aeddon’s court as captives after a raid and had found favour with him.[10] The rule for the division of moveable property when one of a married couple died was the same for both sexes. The property was divided into two equal halves, with the surviving partner keeping one half and the dying partner being free to give bequests from the other half.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_law

Furthermore, in the book, Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others (the subtitle based on the fact that the medieval concept of sex was that it was something one person did to another rather than something two people did together), passage pp. 70-71.:

“Consent between the parties could create a valid marriage even in the absence of intercourse. However, consent could be given in two different ways, a distinction clarified in the later Middle Ages. Words of present consent–”I take you as my wife”–created a valid marriage immediately. Words of future or conditional consent–”I will take you as my wife,” or “I take you as my husband if my father agrees”–did not. If, however, words of future or conditional consent were followed by sexual intercourse, the marriage immediately became valid; the parties were assumed to have dropped the condition. This meant that a promise of marriage given to seduce a woman into sex–”If you get pregnant, I will marry you”–was not merely enforceable but actually self-fulfilling. (It might or might not be enforceable, depending on whether or not there were witnesses, but according to canon law even if performed without witnesses and an officiant, the marriage was valid; they were married in the eyes of God, even if there was no evidence to convince a church court.)”

Thus, as my daughter pointed out, Meg and Llywelyn in Daughter of Time, were married by medieval canon law, even if they didn’t tell anyone about it.

Stephanie Coontz, in her book “A History of Marriage” writes:  “For most of history it was inconceivable that people would choose their mates on the basis of something as fragile and irrational as love and then focus all their sexual, intimate, and altruistic desires on the resulting marriage. In fact, many historians, sociologists, and anthropologists used to think romantic love was a recent Western invention. This is not true. People have always fallen in love, and throughout the ages many couples have loved each other deeply [as evidenced by the acknowledgement of elopement in Welsh law--SW].

But only rarely in history has love been seen as the main reason for getting married. When someone did advocate such a strange belief, it was no laughing matter. Instead, it was considered a serious threat to social order.”  http://www.stephaniecoontz.com/books/marriage/chapter1.htm

John Davies writes:  “The readiness to marry close relations reflected the central role of the bonds of kinship in early Wales.  In the age of Hywel Dda, it was a man’s standing in a network of kindred rather than his standing as the citizen of the state which determined his social status, his economic rights and his legal obligations” (History of Wales, p. 91).

As the Middle Ages progressed, gradually the Church began playing a greater role in marriage throughout Europe, whether in blessing the act or interfering with who could marry whom, although once again, it took longer to gain traction in Wales.  Llywelyn ap Gruffydd married Elinor de Montfort at Worcester Cathedral–and Edward I gave the bride away–but a church marriage was still not common in Wales in 1278.  Even in Europe, “If two people claimed they had exchanged marital vows — even out alone by the haystack — the Catholic Church accepted that they were validly married” up until the 16th century.  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/opinion/26coontz.html?_r=2&oref=slogin

10/9/12

Halloween in Wales

As I sit here munching candy corn (which my 8 year old declares ‘the best candy’–even better than chocolate), I’m thinking about one of the chapters in Daughter of Time. Near the end of the book, Meg experiences Halloween in Wales.  Except that during the Middle Ages, it was called ‘All Hallow’s Eve’, the day before All Saint’s Day, and it was less about candy and more about a belief in actual spirits.

All Hallow’s Eve, or Halloween, has its roots in an older, pagan tradition, called Nos Calan Gaeaf , Welsh for Samhain, a Gaelic word meaning ‘Summer’s End’.  This is the most well-known Halloween tradition in Wales.   http://www.controverscial.com/Samhain.htm  The Welsh translation, interestingly, is ‘the first of winter’.

From the National Museum of Wales:  “A pagan holiday dating back to the Iron Age Celts, Samhain was considered to be the Celtic New Year. It was adopted by the Romans as their own festival when they invaded Britain. Many parts of this festival are echoed in our modern Halloween parties.

Jack O lanterns were originally made from turnips and used to guide the dead back to earth, and the Celts also dressed in costumes much as we do today, but they would use animal skins!  The Romans believed that monsters, gods and magic spells were all around them.”  http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=3734

“November 1 was considered the end of the summer period, the date on which the herds were returned from pasture and land tenures were renewed. It was also a time when the souls of those who had died were believed to return to visit their homes. People set bonfires on hilltops for relighting their hearth fires for the winter and to frighten away evil spirits, and they sometimes wore masks and other disguises to avoid being recognized by the ghosts thought to be present. It was in these ways that beings such as witches, hobgoblins, fairies, and demons came to be associated with the day. The period was also thought to be favourable for divination on matters such as marriage, health, and death. When the Romans conquered the Celts in the 1st century ad, they added their own festivals of Feralia, commemorating the passing of the dead, and of Pomona, the goddess of the harvest.”  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/252875/Halloween

“November was also the month of death in the Celtic calendar, where animals were slaughtered to provide meat for winter. Indeed, the Modern Welsh for November Tachwedd literally means ‘The Month of Slaughter’. This often began with a feast on November 1st where pigs were slaughtered (part of this folklore is preserved in the Cymric (Welsh) legend of Arawn and Hafgan, as told in the Mabinogi of Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed.”  http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/halloween-recipes.php

With the coming of Christianity, these traditions were converted to blend in more with the Christian calendar and Christian sensibilities. “In 601AD, Pope Gregory made an important directive. He announced that Christian missionaries were to take a new tack when attempting to convert pagans to the Christian religion. Christian missionaries he said, where possible, should incorporate the beliefs, festivals and sacred sites of pagan beliefs into the Christian religion. This directive meant that the important Celtic festival of Samhain had to be marked in a Christian manner.

In the year 609 AD, All Saints Day was officially designated a Church feast, which was celebrated in May and was later moved to November by Pope Gregory in 835 AD. The Christian Church may have intended that people would spend their time praying for the souls of the dead on an important holy day. However, the fact that this was a day off from work gave many people even more of an excuse to celebrate Halloween with more excitement and excess than ever.

In the eleventh century, a further festival was added to the church calendar; All Souls Day on 2 November. The three festivals of All-Hallows Eve, All Saints and All Souls were together known as Hallowmas.” http://suite101.com/article/halloween-in-medieval-times-a71922

“Despite the Church’s success in establishing a Christian foundation for the autumn celebrations, many of the ancient customs and traditions associated with them were still practiced by the population. The carving of gourds and the wearing of costumes and masks to scare away malevolent spirits are typical of the superstitions carried over from these celebrations into the All Hallows Eve observance.

The custom of “trick-or-treating” has its origins in a ritual wherein the elders of a village or town would go from house to house and receive offerings of food and gifts for the souls of dead friends and relatives thought to visit on this night. This practice evolved during the Middle Ages, when beggars would travel from village to village and beg for “soul cakes”. Villagers would offer prayers along with the cakes to those who had died in the past year for their transition to heaven.”  http://www.sharefaith.com/guide/Christian-Holidays/all_hallows_eve.html

08/23/12

Welsh Faeries

The Welsh had a pantheon of gods and goddesses before the coming of the Romans.  With the defeat of the druids and the extermination of their sites on Anglesey, the druid religion in Wales went into decline–and perhaps that is the reason there are relatively few Welsh gods and goddesses compared to the Irish, whose religion flourished during the Dark Ages and also developed a unique form of Christianity alongside it.

Within the belief system, faeries, or Tylwyth Teg, the modern designation, had a role, divisible into five classes:  the Ellyllon, or elves, the Coblynau, or mine fairies, the Bwbachod, or household fairies, the Gwragedd Annwn, or fairies of the lakes and streams; and the Gwyllion, or mountain fairies.  http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/wfl/wfl02.htm

Ellyllon:  “The Ellyllon are the pigmy elves who haunt the groves and valleys, and correspond pretty closely with the English elves. The English name was probably derived from the Welsh el, a spirit, elf, an element; there is a whole brood of words of this class in the Welsh language, expressing every variety of flowing, gliding, spirituality, devilry, angelhood, and goblinism. Ellyllon (the plural of ellyll), is also doubtless allied with the Hebrew Elilim, having with it an identity both of origin and meaning. [Pughe's 'Welsh Dictionary.' (Denbigh, 1866)]  http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/wfl/wfl02.htm

Coblynau:  “The Welsh version of the Cornish Knockers, these mine spirits were relatively good humoured, and helped the miners by knocking in places with rich lodes of mineral, or metal. The Coblynau dressed in miners’ attire, and stood at around 18 inches in height.  Belief in these mine spirits was once widespread especially in Celtic areas which were heavily mined, for example Wales and Cornwall.”  http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/wales/folklore/the-coblynau.html

Bwbachod:  “The Bwbachod or otherwise known as the Bwca or Bwbach is a Welsh household spirit. The Bwbachod performs tasks when appreciated but becomes mischievous and destructive when offended. The Bwbachod detest people that don’t drink alcohol . . .”  The modern update is that this creatures also hates church and ministers.  http://www.mythcreatures.co.uk/celtic/bwbachod.asp

Gwragedd Annwn:  “The Gwragedd Annwn are Welsh water faeries who live in towns and villages beneath lakes. Often using glamour to disguise these dwellings, the most famous example of which was the Lady of the Lake, whose palace was disguised with a magical lake. Gwragedd Annwn as kithain do not live in underwater communities like those of their faerie cousins; the relative lack of glamour makes this impractical, and the encroachment of humanity, and the pollution it brings with it, on lakes and bodies of water makes the construction of underwater cities impossible. Now the Gwragedd Annwn have to cling to what sparing freshwater they can safely haunt.

They have an innate aptitiude for all things medicinal. There are reports of secret gardens hidden on islands in the middle of lakes, which are impossible to find except by a special entrance which is only opened on New Year’s Day. Everything in these gardens is sacred and removal of even the most trivial of items, such as a flower, leads to the permanent closure of the garden, except to the Gwragedd Annwn. Now, these precious few secret gardens serve as moderately powerful freeholds, but those which still exist are difficult in the extreme to enter, having long been left by their faerie denizens.

It is said of Gwragedd Annwn who take mortals for partners that if they should be struck three times causelessly, they must leave their partner, never to be seen by them again, and to Gwragedd Annwn, this is as strong as the most powerful oath. Gwragedd Annwn have contrary reactions to most collective emotions; they might cry and lament at a wedding, or laugh and sing at a funeral. These unusual feelings must be learned to be dealt with if the kithain is to get along in ordinary society.”  http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/dataweaver/play/changeling/gwargeddannwn.html

Gwyllion:  “The Gwyllion is a mythological creature from Wales. Even though these elfish creatures are mostly harmless you should always invite them into your house and treat them well, because if you don’t, it may result in destruction. The female faerie is very hideous and its only job is to cause travelers to become lost. Many times they just bother you or possibly frighten you by sitting on either side of a mountain path and following the traveler with their eyes. These ladies usually like on mountain trails, but if the weather becomes bad they resort to going to the valley. If you do happen to be threatened by a Gwyllion just take out a knife and point it directly at her. It is strongly recommend to have a knife handy if one plans on hiking in the night time, for this is there prime time for terror. Just beware next time you plan on going on any trails.”  http://www.pantheon.org/articles/g/gwyllion.html

07/29/12

Demons of the Ancient World

The Dark Age Celts had their share of supernatural creatures within the various mythologies (Welsh/Brittany/Ireland/Scotland), in addition to the pantheon of actual gods and goddess (for Wales, see Children of Don; Children of Llyr:  http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/the-sidhe/).

Here are some notable demons from Celtic mythology:

Cwn Annwn (Welsh hellhounds):  Yes, they really do exist outside of the TV show, Supernatural (great show, by the way.  Watch it at Netflix).  The Cwn Annwn are the hunting dogs of Arawn, Lord of the Otherworld and are associated with the Welsh form of the Wild Hunt.  ”The Cwn Annwn resemble small wolves. The pack leader, Fflyddmyr, is black while the other three hounds are white with red-tipped ears. Their abilities include super-speed and super-strength.”  http://otherworldseries.wikia.com/wiki/C%C5%B5n_Annwn

The Fomori:  ”In Celtic mythology, the Fomori are demons that live in the impenetrable darkness of the sea’s depths and in lakes and dark pools in the upper world. They were once ruled by Balor, who provided them with victims, but after his death they returned to their waters and prey on people, taking the form of sea-monsters, lake spirits, and the boggarts who lurk in the fens.”   http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/D_FOMORI.HTM

Ysbaddaden Bencawr, Chief of the Giants (Welsh): “A vicious giant residing in a nigh unreachable castle, he is the father of Olwen and uncle of Goreu fab Custennin. So huge is his frame, he requires great forks to prop up his eyelids.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ysbaddaden

The Crow:  ”The Crow features prominently within all Celtic cultures as a symbol of death. As carrion birds they act like vultures of the Celtic lands and soon arrive in droves after every battle. In the warrior culture of the Celts seeing the crows flock to a battle site and attack your fallen comrades, does much to anger a survivor. From anger, fear is just a stepping stone away. An excellent example of the use of Crows in Celtic Myth is found in the ancient Irish epic Tain Bo Cuilnge, the story of the death of Cu Chulainn. Here the goddess Morrigu attacks the hero Cu Chulainn in the form of a crow in response to his spurning of her love. In Scotland the term “Hoodie” has been applied to that of a crow and described as a half man, half crow figure who abides his presence in one form or the other depending on day or night. It is possible that this may be the early version of the Irish Banshee. In some stories of Hoodies, they are described as drinkers of Blood and may also be the Celtic version of Vampires.”  http://celticevents.com/2007/03/09/roots-history-legends-the-crow-%E2%80%93-demon-of-the-celtic-world/

The Bean-Sidhe (Banshee)–Irish:  ”An ancestral spirit appointed to forewarn members of certain ancient Irish families of their time of death. According to tradition, the banshee can only cry for five major Irish families: the O’Neills, the O’Briens, the O’Connors, the O’Gradys and the Kavanaghs. Intermarriage has since extended this select list.

Whatever her origins, the banshee chiefly appears in one of three guises: a young woman, a stately matron or a raddled old hag. These represent the triple aspects of the Celtic goddess of war and death, namely Badhbh, Macha and Mor-Rioghain.) She usually wears either a grey, hooded cloak or the winding sheet or grave robe of the unshriven dead. She may also appear as a washer-woman, and is seen apparently washing the blood stained clothes of those who are about to die. In this guise she is known as the bean-nighe (washing woman).”  http://www.irelandseye.com/animation/explorer/banshee.html

06/10/12

Medieval Monks

There were a lot of different orders of monks in the Middle Ages (still are, in fact), but the primary monasteries in England consisted of:

Dominicans:  Dominicans are about preaching and doctrinal conformity.  They were (no surprise) the order behind the inquisition, with the intent to rule out any doctrine that didn’t abide strictly by received Catholic theology.  “Domingo de Guzman (around 1170-1221), a Spanish priest travelling with his bishop Diego of Osma, encountered by chance Cistercian monks who tried to bring the Cathars of Southern France back to the Catholic Church. He saw the deficiencies of their attempts and decided to do a better job, by walking and dressing humbly, listening to and talking with people, being aware of contemporary developments, and first of all preaching the Gospel. He gathered a band of priests around him. After the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, at which preaching and confession had been stressed as important elements of priestly activities, Dominic got papal approval in 1216 from Honorius III for founding a new order to meet these needs, the “Ordo Praedicatorum”, using the Rule of St. Augustine. In 1207 Dominic had already founded a nunnery at Prouille, near Toulouse. He sent the members of his small group to all universities to study theology.”   http://home.kpn.nl/otto.vervaart/dominican_order.htm

In addition ,from a reader’s comment:  ”Dominicans are friars, who are not cloistered, but instead tasked with wandering about preaching. They were mendicants, like the Franciscans and Carmelites and others. Friars are not the same as monks. It is an easy mistake to make, one I was guilty of as well until a fellow re-enactor needled me about it.

The Dominicans founded their houses or priories near towns, where there was demand for their services. They were very much part of the community and were very important in the 13th century revival of Catholicism. (well maybe not quite revival, but they spread the gospel very well)”

Benedictines:  The first Benedictine house was established in 529 AD in Italy by St. Benedict.  While many similar houses were established in the next 1000 years, there is no ‘mother house’ in this order, with each community of monks being independent and autonomous.  “The Rule of St Benedict requires candidates for reception into a Benedictine community to promise solemnly stability (to remain in the same monastery), conversatio morum (an idiomatic Latin phrase suggesting “conversion of manners”), and obedience (to the superior, because the superior holds the place of Christ in their community). This solemn commitment tends to be referred to as the ‘Benedictine vow’”.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Saint_Benedict  They are known as the ‘black monks’ for their dark robes.

Augustinians: They’ve got an official web site!  http://www.osanet.org/home.asp?language=EN

From the web site:  “The concrete historical situation of the Christian world in the thirteenth century caused the Apostolic See to promote the formation of the Mendicant Orders. In this context Pope Innocent IV, with the Rule of St. Augustine as his basis, determined the norms according to which some groups of hermits of Tuscany were united and organized. From here the Order of Hermits of Saint Augustine arose juridically in March 1244. This first nucleus was consolidated and amplified by the aggregation of other religious groups in the Grand Union of 9 April 1256 promoted by Pope Alexander IV. This singular intervention of the Apostolic See determined its activity in a specific way in service to the Universal Church. [Constitutions of the Order 2008, n. 3]“  The focus on the Augustinian order is learning and knowledge, thus their collection of libraries and education and missionary work.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Saint_Augustine

Cistercians:  An offshoot of the Benedictines, “the Cistercian order came about through the actions of a group of break-away monks who left their monastery of Molesme in Burgundy, in order to try to adhere more strictly to the Rule of St Benedict. In 1098, they acquired a portion of land at Citeaux and founded what was to be the motherhouse of the Cistercian Order. By 1118, the monastery at Citeaux was well enough established to send out monks to create other Cistercian monasteries, and what was to be a Europe-wide spread began. Eventually, the Cistercians would have more than 700 religious houses throughout Europe.

The Cistercians followed the Rule of St Benedict and were known as the White Monks, because of the undyed wool habits they wore. It was impossible for them to live entirely free from the influence of the outside world and lay brothers were engaged in most monasteries; secular men who worked the lands belonging to the abbey and dealt with buying and selling the goods necessary to keep the monastery running.” http://www.suite101.com/content/the-medieval-origins-of-the-cistercian-order-a75209

Tintern Abbey in Wales (see video above) was the first Cistercian house established in Wales.  It was part of the first wave of Cistercian houses, supported by the Normans.  The second wave, which included Strata Florida (http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/?p=4863) and Valle Crucis (http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/?p=4810), were supported by the native Welsh princes and the abbeys, in turn, supported them in their struggle against the Norman conquerors.

The Cistercians were the religious order most sympathetic to the Princes of Wales and Welsh nationalism in the 13th century.  http://www.castlewales.com/abbeys.html

06/3/12

Buellt Castle

Buellt Castle (Builth Wells for the English) was the seat from which the Mortimers lured Llywelyn ap Gruffydd to his death near Cilmeri on 11 December 1282.  It was a major Edwardian Castle of its time, but all of the stone work as disappeared.

“Builth is nothing more than a series of earthworks – nothing visible remains to give testimony to the structure which once stood at the site. By 1183, documents record a clash here between the Welsh and Normans, and much of what we see reflects this original motte and bailey fortification. During the next 90 years, the castle saw repeated conflict and changed hands between the Welsh and English on several occasions. By the 1240′s masonry structures were established at Builth; however, it was as the result of Edward I’s initial campaign against the Welsh in 1277 that Builth’s modest stronghold was refortified and transformed into a formidable fortress.

…The final product of Edward’s remodelling effort at Builth was a castle centered atop a motte which supported a great round keep (the traces of which are barely visible today) and was enclosed by a small “chemise”, a masonry wall defended by 6 towers. The two Norman baileys remained, encompassed by a curtain wall and accessed through a twin-towered gatehouse which may have been similar to the gatehouse that still guards Rhuddlan Castle. Other structures included a kitchen block and the great hall, a chapel, and residential quarters. Apparently, construction was stopped at Builth in 1282 although the work on the gatehouse may not have been complete.”  http://www.castlewales.com/builth.html

06/2/12

The Death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd

It has been over 700 years since Llywelyn ap Gruffydd’s death on 11 December 1282.  J. Beverley Smith writes:

“Intimations of treachery, of breach of faith, are so often conveyed darkly, and no chronicle, nor any other source, provides the unequivocal teestomny which might enable us to unravel the threads in the various accounts of the tragic happening in the vicinity of Builth.  It was alleged at the time, or shortly afterwards, in the most explicit statement we have, that the prince’s decision to venture into the area was influenced by one of the sons of his old adversary, Roger Mortimer.  The Hagnaby chroinicler, an important source for the events of the day on which Llywelyn died, was quite definite:  Roger Mortimer, he says, but, more correctly, his brother Edmund Mortimer, drew the prince there by beseeching him to come to the neighbourhood of Builth to take his homage and that of his men. Along with other lords he hatched a plot to corner Llywelyn and kill him”  (Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, 1998:551).

The chronicle of Hagnaby Abbey is a historical document that begins in 1173 with the foundation of the Abbey in Lincolnshire.  It is now ruined.  It was a house Premonstratensian canons, “founded in 1175-1176 as a dependency of Welbeck Abbey. It gained independence and abbey status in 1250, and was supressed in 1536.”   http://www.pastscape.org/default.aspx

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/cottmanucoll/c/011cotvesb00011u00009v00.html

Whatever really happened, the entry from the Chronicle of the Princes (Ystrad Flleur) says it all:

And then Llywelyn ap Gruffudd left Dafydd, his brother, guarding Gwynedd; and he himself and his host went to gain possession of Powys and Buellt. And he gained possession as far as Llanganten. And thereupon he sent his men and his steward to receive the homage of the men of Brycheiniog, and the prince was left with but a few men with him. And then Edmund Mortimer and Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn, and with them the king’s host, came upon them without warning; and then Llywelyn and his foremost men were slain on the day of Damasus the Pope, a fortnight to the day from Christmas day; and that was a Friday.
—-Brut y Tywysogyon, Peniarth manuscript 20  (The Chronicle of the Princes)

His head was carried to King Edward I, who ordered that it be displayed on a pike, in London.  Apparently, it stayed on display for over 20 years.  The rest of his body is purportedly buried at Abbey Cwmhir, northeast of Rhayader in Powys.

Llywelyn’s brother, Dafydd, was eventually captured and hanged, drawn, and quartered, the first man of significance to experience that particular death.  His death was practice for what Edward did to William Wallace, two dozen years later.  Gwenlllian, Llywelyn’s daughter and only child, was kidnapped from Aber and sent to a convent in England, where she remained a prisoner her entire life.