Chapter 2

Arthur's magic possessions form a prominent element in Welsh tradition, and their appearance in the early chronicles is an important testimony to the diffusion of Welsh legend. _Kilhwch and Olwen_ contains a list of his belongings, all of which there is reason to believe, from record or from logical inference, were of otherworld origin. Each has its significant proper name, which in most cases conveys the idea of brilliant whiteness, a characteristic of Celtic fairy objects. His ship, for example, is named White Form, his shield "Night Gainsayer," his dagger "White Haft." The _Dream of Rhonabwy_ [20] describes his carpet (or mantle), "White," which had the property of retaining no colour but its own, and of making whoever was on it (or wrapped in it) invisible, and also his sword, "Hard-breacher," graven with two serpents from whose jaws two flames of fire seemed to burst when it was unsheathed, "and then so wonderful was the sword that it was hard for any one to look upon it." This sword (Caletvwlch, Caliburn, Excalibur) is a Pan-Celtic marvellous object, and is one of Arthur's most famous possessions. The deadly blows attributed by Nennius to him in the Battle of Mount Badon without doubt traditionally were dealt by Caliburn. Geoffrey of Monmouth recognised it as a fairy sword, and says that it was made in Avalon, namely, the Celtic otherworld. We may also feel confident that the full panoply of armour with which Geoffrey equips Arthur (ix. 4) consisted of magic objects, although Geoffrey, who in general, as an historian, rationalises the supernatural, merely describes them as amazingly efficacious. The shield he calls by the name of Arthur's ship in Welsh sources, Pridwen (evidently a fairy boat, limitless in capacity), either from some confusion in tradition, or because, being enchanted, Pridwen might, of course, serve as either ship or shield.

Layamon adds further information about Arthur's weapons. His burny, he says (vs. 21133-34) "was named Wygar" (Anglo-Saxon _wigheard_), "Battle-hard," "which Witeze wrought," Witeze being a corrupted form for Widia, the Anglo-Saxon name of the son of Weland, the Teutonic Vulcan, a famous maker of magic weapons in romance, with whom his son might easily become identified in legend.

This is the explanation given by Professor G.L. Kittredge of the above lines, as a correction of Sir Frederic Madden's translation: "he [namely, the smith who made the burny] was named Wygar, the witty wight." Layamon says (v. 21147) that Arthur's helmet was called Goswhit, a name that is evidently a translation of some Welsh term meaning "goosewhite," which at once classes the helmet with Arthur's dazzlingly bright fairy belongings. Moreover, Layamon says (vs. 21158, 23779 ff.) that his spear Ron (a Welsh common noun, meaning "spear") was made by a smith called Griffin, whose name may be the result of an English substitution of the familiar word _griffin_ for the unfamiliar _Gofan_, the name of the Celtic smith-god. These facts are mainly important as testimony to the Celtic element in Arthurian romance, and especially to Layamon's use of current Welsh Arthurian tradition. The large variety of magical possessions assigned to Arthur is also a notable indication of the great emphasis that Welsh legend laid upon his mythological attributes and his character as otherworld adventurer.

[The above facts have been established and discussed by Professor A.C.L. Brown in his article on the Round Table (p. 199, note 1) cited below in Excursus II.; also in _Iwain_, Boston, 1903, p. 79, note 1; _Modern Philology_, I., 5-8; _Publications of the Modern Language Association of America_, XXV., 25 ff. See also the notes on the lines cited from Layamon in Sir Frederic Madden's edition of the _Brut_. For other magic possessions of Arthur, see below, Excursus II.]

EXCURSUS II.--THE ROUND TABLE

(Wace, _Brut_, vs. 9994 ff., 10555, 13675; Layamon, vs. 22736 ff.)

Our earliest authority for the story of the Round Table is Wace. He and Layamon agree in calling it a tale of the Britons, and in saying that Arthur had it made to prevent rivalry as to place among his vassals when they sat at meat. Layamon, however, expands the few lines that Wace devotes to the subject into one of his longest additions to his source, by introducing the story of a savage fight for precedence at a court feast, which was the immediate cause for fashioning the Round Table, a magical object. Ancient sources prove that the Celts had a grievous habit of quarrelling about precedence at banquets, probably because it was their custom to bestow the largest portion of meat upon the bravest warrior. It was also their practice to banquet seated in a circle with the most valiant chieftain of the company placed in the middle, possibly owing to the circular form of their huts, possibly for the sake of avoiding the disputes that so commonly disturbed their feastings. The Round Table, accordingly, is to be regarded as a Pan-Celtic institution of early date, and as one of the belongings that would naturally be attributed by popular tradition to any peculiarly distinguished leader. Layamon's version so closely parallels early Celtic stories of banquet fights, and has so barbaric a tone, as to make it evident that he is here recounting a folk-tale of pure Celtic origin, which must have been connected with Arthur before his time, and probably before that of Wace; for this story was undoubtedly one of those "many fables" which Wace says the Britons told about the Round Table, but which he does not incorporate into his narrative.

[See A.C.L. Brown, _The Round Table before Wace in Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature_, VII. (Boston, 1900), 183 ff.; L.F. Mott, _Publications of the Modern Language Association of America_, XX, 231 ff.; J.L. Weston, as above (p. xv.), pp. 883 ft.]

EXCURSUS III.--THE HOPE OF BRITAIN

(Wace, _Brut_, 13681 ff.; Layamon, 23080 ff., 28610 ff.)

The belief that Arthur would return to earth, which was firmly established among the Britons by the beginning of the twelfth century, does not in early records appear clothed in any definite narrative form. In later sources it assumes several phases, the most common of which is that recorded by Layamon that Arthur had been taken by fays from his final battle-field to Avalon, the Celtic otherworld, whence after the healing of his mortal wound he would return to earth. Layamon's story conforms essentially to an early type of Celtic fairy-mistress story, according to which a valorous hero, in response to the summons of a fay who has set her love upon him, under the guidance of a fairy messenger sails over seas to the otherworld, where he remains for an indefinite time in happiness, oblivious of earth. It is easy to see that the belief that Arthur was still living, though not in this world, might gradually take shape in such a form as this, and that his absence from his country might be interpreted as his prolonged sojourn in the distant land of a fairy queen, who was proffering him, not the delights of her love, but healing for his wounds, in order that when he was made whole again he might return "to help the Britons." Historic, mythical, and romantic tradition have combined to produce the version that Layamon records. Geoffrey of Monmouth (xi. 2), writing in the mock role of serious historian and with a tendency to rationalisation, says not a word of the wounded king's possible return to earth. Wace, with characteristic caution, affirms that he will not commit himself as to whether the Britons, who say that Arthur is still in Avalon, speak the truth or not. Here, as in the story of the Round Table, it is Layamon who has preserved for us what was undoubtedly the form that the belief had already assumed in Celtic story, through whatever medium it may have passed before it reached his hands.

In the _Vita Merlini_,[21] a Latin poem attributed by some scholars to Geoffrey of Monmouth, a curious version of Arthur's stay in Avalon is given. The wounded king is taken after the battle of Camlan to the Isle of Apples (for such was understood to be the meaning of the name _Avalon_), which is the domain of a supernatural maiden, wise and beautiful, Morgen by name, who understands the healing art, and who promises the king that he shall be made whole again if he abides long with her. This is the first mention in literature of Morgan la Fée, the most powerful fay of French romance, and regularly the traditional healer of Arthur's wounds in Avalon.

The Argante of Layamon's version is doubtless the same being as Morgana, for whose name, which in any of its current spellings had the appearance of a masculine proper name, Layamon either may have substituted a more familiar Welsh name, Argante, as I have already shown he might easily have done (_Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance_, Boston, 1903, pp. 26-28), or, as Professor J.L. Bruce, with equal plausibility, has recently suggested, he may have used a corruption of one form of the fay's name, Morgant (_Modern Language Notes_, March, 1911, pp. 65-68).

[I have discussed the various versions of Arthur's stay in Avalon in _Studies in Fairy Mythology_, chapter III. On Avalon, see _id._, p. 40, note 2. On the early belief in Arthur's return to earth, see Geoffrey of Monmouth (_Everyman's Library_), Introduction, p. 10.]

NOTES:

[1] i.e., Paris, in the Ile de France. Vs. 10440 ff.

[2] Vs. 16530 ff.

[3] _Roman de Rou_, vs. 6415 ff.

[4] _Roman de Brut_, vs. 10038 ff.

[5] _Id._, vs. 7733 ff.

[6] _Id._, vs. 11472 ff. Cf. for other examples: Arthur's conquest of Denmark, _Historia_, ix. 11; _Brut_, vs. 10123 ff.; Arthur's return to Britain from France, _Historia_, ix. 11; _Brut_, vs. 10427 ff.; Arthur's coronation, _Historia_, ix. 12 ff.; _Brut_, vs. 10610 ff.

[7] Vs. 13149 ff.

[8] See _Excursus II_.

[9] Vs. 11048 ff.

[10] See _Excursus III_.

[11] Vs. 1 ff.

[12] Layamon's statement that he "read books" at Arnley is interpreted to mean that he read the services in the church.

[13] The poem is written in part in alliterative lines on the Anglo-Saxon system, in part in rhymed couplets of unequal length.

[14] Vs. 18086 ff.

[15] Vs. 20110 ff. More famous speeches still are Arthur's comparison of Childric the Dane to a fox (vs. 20827 ff.) and his taunt over his fallen foes, Baldulf and Colgrim (vs. 31431 ff.).

[16] Vs. 12972 ff.

[17] Vs. 27992 ff.

[18] Vs. 19887 ff.

[19] discussion of this point see J.L. Weston, in _Melanges de philologie romane offerts à M. Wilmotte_, Paris, 1910, pp. 801, 802.

[20] See _Mabinogion_, translated by Lady Charlotte Guest, London, 1849.

[21] Ed. Michel and Wright, Paris, 1837.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GENERAL WORKS OF REFERENCE FOR THE CHRONICLES

R.H. FLETCHER, _The Arthurian Material in the Chronicles (Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, X)_, Boston, 1906.

W. LEWIS JONES, King Arthur in History and Legend, London, 1911.

M.W. MACCALLUM, _Tennyson's Idylls of the King_, Glasgow, 1894.

H. MAYNADIER, _The Arthur of the English Poets_, Boston and New York, 1907.

G. PARIS, _Histoire littéraire de la France_, Paris, 1888.

J. RHYS, _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_, Oxford, 1891.

W.H. SCHOFIELD, _English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer_, New York and London, 1906.

B. TEN BRINK, _Geschichte der Englischen Literatur_, and ed., A Brandl, Strassburg, 1899. Translated into English, 1st ed, I., H.M. Kennedy, New York, 1888, II., i., W.C. Robinson, 1893, II., ii., L.D. Schmidt, 1896.

AUTHORS AND WORKS

GEOFFREY GAIMAR, _L'Estorie des Engles_, ed. T.D. Hardy and T.C. Marten (Rolls Series), 1888-1889.

GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH, _Historia Regum Britanniae_, ed. San Marte (A. Schulz) Halle, 1854. Translated, J.A. Giles, _Six Old English Chronicles_, London, 1896; S. Evans, London, 1903.

LAYAMON, _Brut_, ed. with translation, Sir F. Madden, 3 vols, London, 1847. WORKS ON LAYAMON--Introduction, Madden's ed. of _Brut_. H. Morley, English Writers, London, 1888-1890, III, 206-231. L. Stephen and S. Lee, _Dictionary of National Biography_, London, 1885-1904, under Layamon. For a further bibliography, see Fletcher (as above), p. 148, note 1.

WACE, _Roman de Brut_, ed. Le Roux de Lucy, 2 vols, Rouen, 1836-1838. _Roman de Rou_, ed. F. Pluquet, 2 vols, Rouen, 1827, H. Andresen, 2 vols, Heilbronn, 1877-1879, translated by E. Taylor (_Chronicle of the Norman Conquest_), London, 1837. WORKS ON WACE--E. Du Méril, _La vie et les ouvrages de Wace_, in _Jahrbuch für romanische u. englische Literatur, I, i ff.; also in his _Etudes sur quelques points d'Archéologie_, Paris and Leipzig, 1862. Grober, _Grundriss der romanischen Philologie_, Strassburg, 1888-1902, II, i, 635 ff. H. Morley, _English Writers_, III, 55. G. Paris, _Romania_, IX, 592 ff. L. Stephens and S. Lee, _Dictionary National Biography_, under Wace. A Ulbrich, _Romanische Forschungen_, XXVI, 181 ff. For further bibliography, see Fletcher (as above), p. 128, note 1.

WACE'S ROMAN DE BRUT

Constantine came to Totnes, and many a stout knight with him--there was not one but was worthy of the kingship. The host set forth towards London, and sent messages in every part, bidding the Britons to their aid, for as yet they were too fearful to come from their secret places. When the Britons heard these tidings they drew, thick as rain, from the woodlands and the mountain, and came before the host in troops and companies. To make short a long matter, these marched so far and wrought such deeds that in the end they altogether discomfited those evil men who had done such sore mischief to the land. After these things they held a great council at Cirencester, commanding thereto all the lords and barons of the realm. In that place they chose Constantine as their king, with no long tarrying, none being so bold as to say him nay. So when they had ordained him king, they set the crown on his head with marvellous joy, and owned themselves as his men. Afterwards, by their counsel, Constantine took to wife a dame who was come of gentle Roman blood. On this lady he begat three sons. The eldest--whom the king named Constant--he caused to be nourished at Winchester, and there he made him to be vowed a monk. The second son was called Aurelius, and his surname Ambrosius. Lastly was born Uther, and it was he whose days were longest in the land. These two varlets were held in ward by Gosselyn, the archbishop.

So long as Constantine lived the realm had rest and peace; but he died before his time had come, for he reigned but twelve short years. There was a certain Pict of his household, a traitor, a foul felon, who for a great while had been about his person. I cannot tell the reason why he bore the king so mortal a grudge. This Pict took the king aside privily in an orchard, as though he would speak to him of some hidden matter. The king had no thought to keep himself from this false felon, who whilst he made seeming to speak in his master's ear, drew forth a knife and smote him therewith so shrewdly that he died. Then he fled forth from the garden. But many a time have I heard tell that it was Vortigern who caused Constantine to be slain. Great was the sorrow the lords and all honest people made above their king, for the realm had now no prince, save only those children of so tender an age. They laid him in his tomb, but in no wise put him from remembrance. The whole realm assembled together that they might make to themselves a king. They doubted sorely which of the two young children they should choose, for of them they knew neither good nor ill, seeing they were but small and frail, and yet in their warden's charge. As to Constant, the eldest son, who was of more fitting years, they dared not to pluck the habit from his back, since all men deemed it shame and folly to hale him forth from his abbey. The council would have ordained one of the two children to be king had it not been for Vortigern, who arose before them all. This Vortigern came from Wales, and was earl in his own land. He was a strong knight of his body, exceeding rich in goods and kin. Very courteous was he of speech; right prudent in counsel; and long since had made straight the road that he coveted to tread. "What reason is here," said he, "for doubtfulness? There is naught else to do but to make this monk, Constant, our king. He is the rightful heir; his brothers are not long from the breast; neither is it fitting that the crown should be placed upon a stranger's head. Let us strip the gown boldly from his shoulders. I charge the sin upon my own soul. My hand alone shall draw him from the abbey, and set him before you as your king." But all the lords of the council kept silence, for a horrible thing it seemed in their eyes that a monk should wear the mantle of a king. Vortigern, purposing evil in his heart, took horse, and rode swiftly to Winchester. He sought Constant at the abbey, praying the prior of his courtesy that he might speak with him in the parlour. "Constant," said he, "thy father is dead, and men seek to bestow his throne upon thy brothers. Such honour is not seemly, for thine is the crown and seat. If thou bearest me love and affiance, and for thy part wilt promise to make richer all the riches that are mine, on my part I will free thee from these sullen rags and array thee in the purple and ermine of a king. Choose now between this monastery and the heritage that is thine own." Very desirous was Constant of the lordship, and little love had he for his abbey. Right weary was he of choir and psalter, and lightly and easily he made him ready to be gone. He pledged oath and faith to all that Vortigern required, and after he had so done Vortigern took him with a strong hand from the monastery, none daring to gainsay his deed. When Vortigern was assured of his fealty, he caused Constant to put off the monk's serge, and clothe him in furs and rich raiment. He carried him to London, and sat him in his father's chair, though not with the voice and welcome of the people. The archbishop who should have anointed the king with oil was dead, neither was any bishop found to give him unction, or to put his hand to the business. It was Vortigern alone who took the crown and set it on his head. This king had no unction nor blessing, save from the hand of Vortigern alone.

Constant reigned in his father's stead. He who had betrayed the commandment of God, was not one to hold his realm in surety; and thus he came to an evil end. Sorrow not thereat. The man who sells his master with a kiss may not hope to spend the wages of his sin. Vortigern held Constant and his senarchy in the hollow of his hand. The king did all according to his pleasure, and granted freely to his every need. Very quickly, by reason of divers matters, Vortigern perceived that the king knew but little of the world, since he was nourished in a cloister. He remembered that the two princes were of tender age. He saw that the mighty lords of the realm were dead, that the people were in sore trouble and unrest, and judged that the place and time were come. Mark now the cunning craft with which he set about to take his seisin of the realm. "Sire," said he, "I have learned and would bring to your knowledge that the sea folk are gathered together from Norway, and from the country of the Danes. Since our knights are few in number, and because of the weakness of the land, they purpose to descend upon the kingdom, and ravish and spoil your cities. Draw now together thy men, to guard the realm and thee. Set food within the strong places, and keep well thy towers. Above all, have such fear of traitors that thy castles are held of none save those true men who will hold them to the death. If you act not after this counsel right speedily there must reign another king." "I have granted," answered Constant, "everything to thy hand, and have done all according to thy will. Take now this fresh burthen upon thee, for thou art wiser than I. I give you all the realm to thy keeping, so that none shall ravage it or burn. Cities and manors; goods and treasure; they are thine as constable. Thy will is my pleasure. Do swiftly that which it is seemly should be done." Vortigern was very subtle. None knew better how to hide away his greed. After he had taken the strong towers, the treasure, and the riches to himself, he went again before the king. "Sire," said he, "if it seem good to the king, my counsel would be that he should send to the Picts of Scotland to seek of them horsemen and sergeants to have with him about his household. In that place where the battle is perilous we can call them to our aid. Through these Picts and their kindred we shall hear the talk of the outland men. They will parley between us and these Danes, and serve as embassy between us and our foes." "Do," replied the king, "at thy pleasure. Bring of these Picts as many as you wish. Grant them as guerdon what you deem befits. Do all which it is seemly should be done."