BOOK 530. Battle of Llongborth. CHAP. III. Ancient BRITISH Accounts of the Battles with the WEST-SAXONS, and the authentic History of ARTHUR. SOM OME of the battles mentioned by the ancient Welsh poets are those between Cerdic and the Britons; one of these is the battle at Llongborth. In this conflict Arthur was the commander in chief'; and Geraint ab Erbin was a prince of Devonshire, united with him, against the Saxons. Llywarch Hen, in his elegy on his friend, describes the progress of the battle. The shout of onset, and the fearful obscurity which followed the shock, are succeeded by the terrible incidents which alarm humanity into abhorrence of war. The edges of the blades in contact, the gushing of blood, the weapons of the heroes with gore fast dropping, men surrounded with terror, the crimson gash upon the chieftain's brow, biers with the dead and reddened men, a tumultuous running together, the combatants striving in blood to the knees, and ravens feasting on human 'prey, compose the dismal picture which this ancient bard has transmitted to us of a battle in which he was personally engaged. THE Valiant Geraint was slain; "slaughtering his foes he fell." The issue of the conflict is not Llywarch Hen's Elegies, p. 9. 2 Ib. p. 3-7. 3 Llywarch Hen's Elegies, p. 7. The 20th triad names him as one of the Llynghessawg, the naval commanders of Britain. III. 530. precisely stated, but some ambiguous expressions CHA P. concur, with the absence of all triumphant language, to indicate that the Britons did not prevail. As Llongborth literally implies the haven of ships, and was some harbour on the southern coast, we may consider this poem as describing the conflict at Portsmouth when Porta landed. The Saxon Chronicle says, that a very noble British youth fell on that occasion, but does not mention his name. on the LLYWARCH mentions another battle on the Battle Llawen, in which Arthur was engaged. Gwen, Llawen. the poet's favourite son, exerted himself in the struggle. The battle was at the ford of Morlas. The bard describes his son as watching the preceding night, with his shield on his shoulder. He compares his impetuosity to the assault of the eagle; and laments him as the bravest of his children. "As he was my son, he did not retreat." Of the event of the battle, he only says, that Arthur did not recede, 5 Of the other contests which ensued before Wessex was colonised by Saxons, we have no further information from the British writers, except of the battle at Bath. Bath. GILDAS intimates, that until the battle of Bath Battle of the Saxons and the Britons alternately conquered; and that this was almost the last, but not the least slaughter of the invaders. Nennius makes it the The Welsh genealogies make him the son of Constantine of Cornwall, from Gwen the daughter of Gyngar. They give him a son named Seliff. Bodedd y Saint, Welsh Arch. vol. ii. p. 33. 4 Sax. Chron. 17. Fl. Wig. 206. 5 Llywarch Hen's Elegy on Old Age, p. 131–135. III. 530. 6 BOOK twelfth of Arthur's battles. The position of this battle has been disputed, but it seems to have occurred near Bath. Its chronology is not clear." The Welch MSS. in the red book of Hergest, says, that 128 years intervened from the age of Gwrtheyrn to the battle of Badon, in which Arthur and the elders conquered the Saxons." The probable history of Arthur. ARTHUR was the British chieftain who so long resisted the progress of Cerdic. The unparalleled celebrity which this Briton has attained, in his own country and elsewhere, both in history and romance, might be allowed to exalt our estimation of the Saxon chief, who maintained his invasion, though an Arthur opposed him, if the British hero had not himself been unduly magnified into an incredible and inconsistent conqueror. The authentic actions of Arthur have been so disfigured by the additions of the Minstrels, and of Jeffry, that many writers have denied that he ever 6 Gildas, s. 26. Nennius, s. 23. 7 Mr. Carte describes the Mount of Badon, in Berkshire, p. 205. Usher places the battle at Bath, p. 477. Camden also thinks that Badon Hill is the Bannesdowne, or that which overhangs the little village Bathstone, and exhibits still its bulwarks and a rampire. Gibson, ed. p. 470. 8 Gildas in a passage of difficult construction says, as we interpret, that it took place forty-four years before he wrote,annum obsessionis Badonici montis, qui que quadragessimus quartus ut novi oritur annus, mense jam primo emenso qui jam et meæ nativitatis est, s. 26.- Bede construed it to mean the forty-fourth year after the Saxon invasion, lib. i. c. 16., but the words of Gildas do not support him. Matt. West. p. 186. places it in 520. Langhorn, p. 62., prefers 511. 9 See this published in the Cambrian Register, p. 313. Pryse, in his Defensio, p. 120., quotes a passage of Taliesen on this battle, which I have not observed among his printed poems. III. 530. lived but this is an extreme, as objectionable as CHA P. the romances which occasioned it. The tales that all human perfection was collected in Arthur"; that giants and kings who never existed, and nations which he never saw, were subdued by him; that he went to Jerusalem for the sacred cross 12; or that he not only excelled the experienced past, but also the possible future 13, we may, if we please, recollect only to despise; but when all such fictions are removed, and those incidents only are retained which the sober criticism of history sanctions with its approbation; a fame ample enough to interest the judicious, and to perpetuate his honourable His existence was doubted very early. Genebrard said, it might be inferred from Bede, Arcturum magnum nunquam extitisse. Chron. lib. iii. ap. Usher, 522.—Sigebert, who wrote in the twelfth century, complained that, except in the then newly-published British history, nullam de eo mentionem invenimus. 1 Pistori Rer. German. 504.- Our Milton is also scep tical about him. Many others are as unfriendly to his fame. 11 And, in short, God has not made, since Adam was, the man more perfect than Arthur. Brut G ab Arthur. 2 W. Archaiol. p. 299. 12 Nennius, or his interpolator, Samuel, pledges himself that the fragments of the cross brought by Arthur were kept in Wedale, six miles from Mailros. 3 Gale, p. 114.— Langhorn, whose neat Latin Chronicle of the Saxon kingdoms I wish to praise for its general precision, adduces Jerom and others to prove that Britons used to visit Jerusalem, p. 47. 13 Joseph of Exeter, in his elegant Antiocheis, after contrasting the inferior achievements of Alexander, Cæsar, and Hercules, with those of his flos regum Arthurus, adds, Sed nec pinetum coryli, nec sidera solem Ap. Usher, p. 519. BOOK memory, will still continue to claim our belief and applause. III. 530. His birth. His actions. THE most authentic circumstances concerning Arthur, appear to be these: He was a chieftain in some part of Britain near its southern coasts. As a Mouric, king of Glamorganshire, had a son named Arthur at this period1⁄4, and many of Arthur's actions are placed about that district, it has been thought probable that the celebrated Arthur was the son of Mouric: but this seems to have been too petty a personage, and too obscure for his greater namesake, who is represented by all the traditions and history that exist concerning him to have been the son of Uthur. He is represented in the Lives of the Welsh Saints, with incidents that suit the real manners of the age. Meeting a prince in Glamorganshire, who was flying from his enemies, Arthur was, at first, desirous of taking by force the wife of the fugitive. His military friends, Cei and Bedguir, persuaded him to refrain from the injustice; and to assist the prince to regain his lands.15 A BRITISH chief having killed some of his warriors, Arthur pursues him with all the avidity of revenge. At the request of St. Cadoc, Arthur submits his complaint to the chiefs and clergy of Britain, who award Arthur a compensation." 16 AT another time, Arthur is stated to have plundered St. Paternus, and to have destroyed a monastery in Wales." These incidents suit the short 17 Ibid. Vita S. Paterni MS. Cei is mentioned as his companion in a poem of Taliesin's. |