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Overview
"Author Tyler R. Tichelaar has performed impeccable research into the Arthurian legend, fi nding neglected details in early sources and reigniting their significance. Great brainstorming fun! I am proud to add this to my personal collection of Arthurian non-fiction."
--Debra Kemp, author of The House of Pendragon series "Tyler R. Tichelaar's in-depth analysis of the plausibility of King Arthur's children reaffirms the importance the King Arthur legacy continues to have for society and the need of people all over the world to be able to connect to and believe in King Arthur and Camelot."
--Cheryl Carpinello, author of Guinevere: On the Eve of Legend About the Author
Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., is the author of several historical novels, most notably The Marquette Trilogy and the award-winning Narrow Lives. King Arthur's Children reveals his findings into the Arthurian legend as a precursor to his upcoming novel King Arthur's Legacy.
Learn more at www.ChildrenOfArthur.com from the Reflections of Camelot Series at Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781615990665 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Modern History Press |
| Publication date: | 01/01/2011 |
| Series: | Reflections of Camelot |
| Pages: | 208 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.44(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Gwydre
The only mention of Gwydre, the son of King Arthur, in any chronicle, appears in The Mabinogion tale of "Culhwch and Olwen." Arthur and his men are out hunting Twrch Trwyth, a prince who has been turned into a giant boar for his sins, because they need to obtain the comb between his ears as one of the tasks Culhwch must accomplish before Olwen's father will let him marry her. Arthur's men hold the boar at bay, which causes him to slay four of Arthur's champions, and "after he had slain those men, again he stood at bay against them there, and slew Gwydre son of Arthur" (Jones, The Mabinogion, 132). This passage is the only place in the tale that Gwydre, son of Arthur, is mentioned. He is not even listed earlier in the tale as being among Arthur's companions. When Gwydre dies, no mention is made of anyone weeping over his death, even though he is the son of a king; nor is there a story of his funeral. Norris J. Lacy and Geoffrey Ashe, judging from Gwydre's seeming insignificance, suggest that since neither Arthur nor anyone else seems to be upset over Gwydre's death, he was probably illegitimate (Lacy, Arthurian Handbook, 357).
Although nothing else is written about Gwydre in the Arthurian legends, Jennifer Westwood notes that Welsh tradition holds that the hunt for Twrch Trwyth took place in Powys, Wales where a monument stands to Arthur's sons who were killed in the hunt. This place is the Ty-newydd, also known as Cerrig Meibion Arthur, "The Stones of the Sons of Arthur" in the parish of Mynach log-Ddu, Dyfed (Westwood 338). Where this tradition of plural sons arises from is unknown. "Culhwch and Olwen" only mentions one son, so if more than one son was killed by Twrch Trwyth, those sons' names have disappeared into oblivion.
Even Gwydre's tale is so small that if more of it ever existed, it has long since been lost and forgotten. However, considering that Gwydre is a king's son, his story could have once been both significant and well-known. In many cases, certain Arthurian characters have been tracked back to mythological roots or stories that were cast onto them. Although no scholar has suggested it before, Gwydre may be such a case if we look at some characters from earlier Celtic myths and legends who have similar names and stories.
In his Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance, R.S. Loomis compares the Celtic tale of Gwri to that of Mordred, and he states that the story was later cast onto Pope Gregory. Loomis describes Gwri's tale as one of illegitimate birth, which is exactly what Lacy and Ashe suggest for Gwydre. However, Loomis is only conjecturing about this illegitimate birth existing in a lost source since The Mabinogion version of the tale does not include an illegitimate birth. Loomis further describes Gwri's story as being one of exposure, fosterage by fishermen, enchainment on an island, and eventually deliverance from this imprisonment (335). This story does have obvious similarities with Mordred's tale, but perhaps we should also explore the idea that Gwydre's tale is based upon Gwri's.
One simple reason for believing that Gwydre and Gwri have a connection lies in the resemblance between their two names. One can easily see the spelling similarities between Gwri and Gwydre, and the connection becomes even more obvious when we learn that Gwri also had the name of Pryderi. If we conjecture that Gwri and Pryderi were combined to form a now forgotten name of Gwyderi, might it not be possible that the name was later condensed to Gwydre? The spelling similarity between Gwydre and Gwri is fairly obvious; however, if the tale comes from an oral tradition, we must look beyond the spelling to the pronunciation of the two names. If there had been the form of Gwyderi, could local dialect or rapid speech have caused the middle syllable to be omitted, leaving us with Gwydre? Perhaps Gwydre simply became confused with the character Gwri because their names sounded alike. Another possibility is that if the name of Gwydre were rapidly spoken, the "d" might not have been fully pronounced so that Gwydre would have sounded like Gwri to the undiscerning ear. We might even consider that Gwri is the earlier form of Gwydre because an intrusive "d" is not uncommon in English. Such possibilities would allow a closer connection between the two names, besides the similarity in their stories.
Gwri/Pryderi's tale is told in "Pwyll Prince of Dyfed" in The Mabinogion. Pwyll and his wife Rhiannon were without an heir to their kingdom. Pwyll's nobles urged him to take another wife. Pwyll said he would wait one more year, and if there were no heir by then, he would do as his nobles wished. Before the year was over, Rhiannon gave birth to a son. Six women sat up to watch over the mother and infant at night, but as morning approached, they all fell asleep. When the women awoke, the infant was gone. The women, in fear of being punished, concocted a terrible plot in which they killed the cub of a staghound, laid the bones by Rhiannon, and smeared her face and hands with blood. When Rhiannon awoke, the ladies told her that she had devoured her child in the night and overpowered all her women when they tried to stop her.
Despite Rhiannon's alleged crime, Pwyll still refused to have his wife put away. Instead, she was made to do penance every day by sitting at the gate of the castle, telling her tale to every stranger who came, and then carrying them on her back to the castle.
Meanwhile, Teirnyon of Gwent Is Coed had the most beautiful mare in the world, but although the mare foaled on the night of every 1 of May, no one ever knew what became of the colts. Teirnyon finally decided to find out what was happening, so he sat up on the night of the next colt's birth. As he was admiring the newborn's strength, he heard a great noise outside. Then a long, clawed arm came through the stable's window and laid hold of the colt. Teirnyon cut off the arm at the elbow with his sword so that it fell into the barn. He then heard a great wailing outside, but when he ran out of the barn, he could see nothing because of the night's darkness. He followed the noise for a short distance, but he finally returned to the stable where he found an infant, wrapped in swaddling clothes and a mantle of satin, lying by the door.
Teirnyon brought the infant to his wife, who was childless. She told her women she had given birth to it in the night, and so she adopted it as her own. The child was named Gwri of the Golden Hair, "for its hair was yellow as gold; and it grew so mightily that in two years it was as big and strong as a child of six" (Rolleston 364).
While the child was growing up, Teirnyon heard the tale of Rhiannon and noticed that Gwri resembled Prince Pwyll. Teirnyon then rode to the palace with the child. There he told the royal couple his story and how he suspected his foster son, Gwri, was really their child. Upon hearing this, Rhiannon cried, "I declare to heaven that if this be true there is an end to my trouble." Then a chief named Pendaran said, "Well hast thou named thy son Pryderi ('trouble') and well becomes him the name of Pryderi son of Pwyll, Lord of Annwn" (Rolleston 365).
Unlike Loomis' version of the tale, Pryderi/Gwri does not have an illegitimate birth in The Mabinogion version; however, the same tale of exposure seems to exist here, and in both cases, the child is raised by foster parents, although in The Mabinogion tale, they do not appear to be fishermen. The tale of Gwri may be the source for the lost tale of Gwydre; whether or not it definitely is, we cannot say, but for the moment, let us leave it open to possibility. We should also notice that in Gwri's tale, Rhiannon is barren at first, which must suggest to us the barren Guinevere. Secondly, we have another connection between Pryderi and Mordred; Tiernyon's baby colt disappears on the night of every May 1. Although the text does not state the exact night that Pryderi was born, the night of his birth appears to be the same night that he was stolen. Doubtless, the creature who stole Pryderi was returning from his first theft via Tiernyon's home to steal the colt. Therefore, it can be assumed that Pryderi was born and stolen the same night the colt was born and stolen, on the night of May 1, the same day that is the traditional birthdate of Mordred (Loomis, Celtic Myth, 339). Pryderi may then be a mythological ancestor to two of King Arthur's sons, both Gwydre and Mordred.
Now let us continue our comparison between Gwydre and Pryderi by looking at the tales of Pryderi's life as an adult. After the death of Pryderi's father, Pwyll, Pryderi's friend Manawyddan marries Pryderi's mother, Rhiannon. Pryderi and Manawyddan then make several failed attempts to gain their livelihood before they finally become hunters.
One day they started a wild white boar, and chased him in vain until he led them up to a vast and lofty castle, all newly built in a place where they had never seen a building before. The boar ran into the castle, the dogs followed him, and Pryderi, against the counsel of Manawyddan, who knew there was magic afoot, went in to seek for the dogs.
He found in the center of the court a marble fountain beside which stood a golden bowl on a marble slab, and being struck by the rich workmanship of the bowl, he laid hold of it to examine it, when he could neither withdraw his hand nor utter a single sound, but he remained there, transfixed and dumb, beside the fountain. (Rolleston 374)
Notice the similarities between Gwydre's hunting and being slain by a boar, and Pryderi's hunting of the boar. Pryderi is not slain by this boar, but it is the boar who leads him into the castle, the result of which is his touching the bowl and becoming like a statue; this state does not seem too dissimilar to death.
The tale continues with Manawyddan entering the castle, seeing what has happened, and returning home to tell Rhiannon. Being a mother, she rebukes Manawyddan for not stopping her son and his friend. The next day, Rhiannon visits the castle, and still seeing Pryderi clinging to the bowl, unable to move or speak, she also grabs hold of the bowl and joins him in his fate. Immediately afterwards is heard a peal of thunder and then a heavy mist falls. When the mist clears, the castle has vanished, along with Pryderi and Rhiannon.
The boar leading Pryderi into the castle has caused not only his immobility, but also his vanishing, which we might equate with death, thus saying that like Gwydre, Pryderi was killed by a boar. However, Manawyddan accidently stumbles upon the cause of his friend and wife's disappearance, and through his cunning, Pryderi and Rhiannon are restored to him. Therefore, the boar really was not the end of Pryderi in this tale.
Pryderi ruled over one-and-twenty cantrevs of the south at the same time that Math was King of Gwynedd. King Math had two nephews, Gilvaethwy and Gwydion, and Math allowed them to run his kingdom while he "lay with his feet in the lap of the fairest maiden of the land and time, Goewin daughter of Pebin of Dol Pebin in Arvon" (Rolleston 378). Now Gilvaethwy fell in love with Goewin, and when he confided his love to his brother, Gwydion decided to help Gilvaethwy have his desire. Gwydion then went to Math and asked his leave to visit Pryderi and ask, as a gift for Math, for the herd of swine that Pryderi had received from Arawn, King of Annwn. Math gave his permission and Gwydion went to Pryderi's court. Pryderi, however, told Gwydion he was under a compact with his people neither to sell nor give the swine away until they had produced double their number in the land.
"Thou mayest exchange them, though," said Gwydion, and thereupon he made by magic arts an illusion of twelve horses magnificently caparisoned, and twelve hounds, and gave them to Pryderi and made off with the swine as fast as possible. (Rolleston 379)
The intended result then happened — Pryderi invaded the land to regain his swine and Math went to meet him in battle, which gave Gilvaethy the opportunity to make Goewin his wife, although she was unwilling. The war was decided by single combat between Gwydion and Pryderi.
And by force of strength and fierceness, and by the magic and charms of Gwydion, Pryderi was slain. And at Maen Tyriawc, above Melenryd, was he buried, and there is his grave. (Rolleston 379)
After the battle, Math returned home to discover what Gilvaethwy had done. Math took Goewin to be his queen, while Gwydion and Gilvaethwy had to submit to Math for their punishment. Math then turned them into deer for a twelvemonth and told them to return at the end of that time. They returned with a young fawn, which was transformed into human shape and baptized. Then Math turned them into swine for a year, and again they came back with a young one who was treated as the fawn had been. The two brothers then underwent one more year of punishment as wolves, again returning with a young wolf. This time their penance was deemed complete, and they were returned to their human forms.
In this second tale of Pryderi, no boar hunt occurs, but there is a battle over swine, and since it resulted in his death, it could be said that the swine killed Pryderi. More striking, however, is that Gwydion, the murderer of Pryderi, as punishment for his crimes, was transformed into various animals, including a swine. This story almost perfectly resembles that of Gwydre, with the exception that his slayer, Twrch Trwyth, is a prince, son of King Taredd, who has already been transformed into a boar for his sins; here Gwydion is transformed after he commits murder because the transformation is his punishment for the murder.
Probably, the motif used in the case of Pryderi's murder is based on the classical or universal motif of a young man dying while still in his prime. In this case, if Pryderi's tale were used as a source for Gwydre's tale, obviously the same motif was used; however, the writer chose to be creative and reverse some elements of the motif so the killer of Gwydre is already a boar rather than someone turned into a boar after committing murder. No explanation is given of the sin the prince committed that led to his transformation into Twrch Trwyth, but it may not be too much of a stretch to assume that Gwydre and Twrch Trwyth's tale is the fragment of a larger tale that may go back to Pryderi and Gwydion.
One final point that must be made again connects Gwydre to Mordred. In almost every version of Mordred's story, he fights King Arthur in single combat, and the two end up slaying each other. Both Gwydre and Mordred are said to be King Arthur's sons, and if we accept Gwydre as being Pryderi, both are killed in single combat. Rolleston, among others, has tried to make the connection that Arthur has a mythological source in Gwydion (349). However, although Gwydion and Arthur both slay someone, Pryderi is no relation to Gwydion, unlike the blood relation that usually exists between Arthur and Mordred. There seems to be little evidence to make a case for Arthur being some form of a solar god as Gwydion seems to be, so although the connection between Arthur and Gwydion is possible, it is not likely.
Gwydion and Pryderi's combat may be a tale that the Welsh writer of "Culhwch and Olwen" chose to adapt rather than use as a direct source for the tale of Gwydre since both Mordred and Gwydre would then be related to Arthur, with whom they do combat. Another possibility is that Gwydre never was Arthur's son until the writer of "Culhwch and Olwen" simply decided to attach this connection to him. One reason why the character of Gwydre could have been connected with Arthur may lie in another Gwydre mentioned in "Culhwch and Olwen" in the list of Arthur's companions. This Gwydre is not Arthur's son, but rather "Gwydre son of Llwydeu by Gwenabwy daughter of Caw, his mother (Hueil his uncle stabbed him, and thereby there was feud between Hueil and Arthur because of the wound)" (Jones, Mabinogion, 103). The recorder of the "Culhwch and Olwen" tale may have made the connection between Gwydre being stabbed by his uncle, Hueil, and Arthur and his nephew, Mordred, fighting each other. Perhaps the writer thought it would be clever to make this Gwydre Arthur's son and have him killed by a boar. The author, however, was not consistent in then changing the tale of the earlier Gwydre, son of Llwydeu.
The creation of a son of Arthur who is killed by a boar could be significant if the boar were meant to represent Arthur. King Arthur is often referred to as "The Boar of Cornwall," so could it not be said that Mordred, like Gwydre and Pryderi, was slain by a boar? Is Mordred's story then a later version of Gwydre's, which itself goes back to Pryderi? Or is it possible that the writer of "Culhwch and Olwen" knew nothing of Pryderi's tale, and simply borrowed Gwydre whose name already existed in "Culhwch and Olwen"? If such is the case, since The Mabinogion as we now have it was not written down until the late fourteenth century, then Mordred's tale could be older than Gwydre's rather than vice versa.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "King Arthur's Children"
by .
Copyright © 2011 Tyler R. Tichelaar.
Excerpted by permission of Loving Healing Press, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Figures ..................................................................................... ii
Introduction ........................................................................... iii
Part I: The Earliest Children in the Welsh Legends .................... 1
Chapter 1: Gwydre .................................................................. 3
Chapter 2: Amr ..................................................................... 13
Chapter 3: Llacheu ................................................................ 19
Part II: Mordred ....................................................................... 33
Chapter 4: Mordred’s Birth and Origins ................................ 35
Chapter 5: The Character of Mordred................................... 47
Chapter 6: Mordred and the Abduction of Guinevere ........... 53
Chapter 7: Arthur, Mordred, and Guinevere: A Romantic
Triangle ................................................................................. 65
Chapter 8: The Battle of Camlann ......................................... 77
Chapter 9: Mordred, Scotland’s Beloved King ....................... 85
Chapter 10: Mordred’s Sons .................................................. 91
Chapter 11: Constantine ....................................................... 97
Part III: Arthur’s Descendants ................................................. 107
Chapter 12: Arthur, Cerdic, and Vortigern.......................... 109
Chapter 13: Arthur and the English Royal Family ............... 115
Chapter 14: Smervie and the Clan Campbell ....................... 123
Part IV: The Forgotten and Fictional Children ....................... 129
Chapter 15: The Minor Children in the Middle Ages and
Renaissance ......................................................................... 131
Chapter 16: King Arthur’s Children in Modern Fiction ....... 139
Conclusion .......................................................................... 173
Appendix: Mordred and Modron ........................................ 177
Bibliography ........................................................................ 181
About the Author ................................................................ 189
Index ................................................................................... 191
Figures
Genealogy suggested by Geoffrey Ashe ............................... 110
The Ten Generations above Colin Mór ..............................112