Pa Gur

Pa Gur and it's interesting glimpse into the culture of the Brythonic Heroic Age and some interesting possibilities for some historical allusions.

WHO IS THE GATE-KEEPER?
'Glewlwyd Mighty-grasp. Who is asking?'
'Arthur and Fair Kei.'
'Who goes with you?'
'The best heroes in the world.'

The opening to the fragmentary poem Pa Gur, notoriously difficult to translate. It may contain some early pre-Galfridian tradition though.

There is major disagreement on the date of origin for the poem, with most scholars favoring no later than the beginning of the 12th century, while more speculative estimates place it even as early as the 8th century. Somewhere in between the two extremes is probably more correct. Even with the later date, Pa Gur seems to be free from influence of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Arthur narrative in Historia Regum Britanniae, with the exception of Uther. Uther is not wholly a Galfridian invention, as seen with ‘Marwnat Vthyr Pen’, ‘The Death-Song of the Terrible Chief’. The inclusion of the full ‘Pendragon’ epithet in Pa Gur betrays a small amount of potential influence from Geoffrey, however what association Arthur and Uther had prior to Geoffrey’s work is hard to say, as Geoffrey’s influence tangles itself into older works that were copied and changed after he was writing.

The cast of 'The best heroes in the world' within the poem begins to cement the modern conception of Arthur's knights. Familiar faces such as Chei, or Sir Kay, and Beduir Bedrydant, or Sir Bedivere are present, though more distant figures like Kysteint son of Banon, appear too.

The roster of heroes:

Mabon son of Madron, the man of Uthir Pendragon,
Kysteint son of Banon,
Guin Godybrion.
Manawidan son of Llyr
Manauid
Mabon son of Mellt
Anguas the Winged
Lluch Llauynnauc

Here real men mingle with gods within Arthur's retinue. Mabon is either the god Maponus or the poetic name for Owain ap Urien, Guin, Manawidan, and Lluch all have origins as gods, (though Lluch Llauynnauc may be a composite of the real figure Llenneac ap Masguid/Mar)

The poem contains many tantalizing fragments to stories that are now lost to us, such as 'The Fall of Celli' "When Kelli was lost, there was fury. Kei would be entreating them as he continued to hew them down. Though Arthur laughed" Possibly a reference to Arthur's court at Celliwig, as seen in the Triad listing the 'Three Tribal Thrones of the island of Britain' in which Arthur is chief prince in three places, Mynyw in Dyfed, Celliwig in Cernyw, Pen Rhionydd in the North.

It also corroborates one of the battles in Nennius' battle-list, Tribruit, here seen as Trywruid. 'Before four-sinewed Beduir on the shores of Trywruid in the struggle with Rough-Grey (Garwlwyd, a possible werewolf like figure) he was fierce in affliction with sword and shield.' This early appearance of Bedwyr is intriguing, though finding a historical analogue for the one-handed warrior seems elusive. Bedwyr appears quite a bit in early tales of Arthur, both here in Pa Gur, and again in Culhwch and Olwen. He also appears in a triad, though this triad is suspect, and his inclusion in it is almost certainly a later addition.

Drystan son of Tallwch,
and Hueil son of Caw,
and Cai son of Cynyr of the Fine Beard.
And one was diademed above the three of them: that was Bedwyr son of Bedrawc.

There are two tell-tale clues here that his addition here isn’t genuine. First is the fourth addition to the triad. The core triad itself may be genuine (though Cai’s father here is possibly in error) but the addition of a forth name is almost always a later interpolation. Second is Bedwyr’s patronym here Bedrawc, clearly a corrupted version of his earlier epithet bedrydant.

Much of the remaining fragments are boasting of Cai's prowess and power. Cai is the penultimate man of his time, a lord of battle, a cattle raider, a heavy drinker, and a general who refused to take hostages. Arthur's battle of Mount Agned which is adjacent to Tribruit in Nennius likely makes an appearance, with Cai fighting the 'cinbin' or Dog Heads of Edin 'In the Mount of Eidin he fought with dog-heads. Every group of a hundred would fall. There fell every group of a hundred.' Cai appears as a slayer of witches and lions, as well as combatting the fierce monster cat 'Cath Paluc' "Fair Kei slew nine witches. Fair Kei went to Anglesey to destroy lions. His shield was polished against Cath Paluc"

Cai is a renowned cattle raider (possibly stealing from Ambrosius Aurelianus himself): "Before the kings of Emreis I saw Kei hasten, leading plundered livestock, a hero long-standing in opposition." The mention of Emreis here is interesting, better known as Ambrosius, showing an early separation of Arthur and Ambrosius as different figures, casting further doubt on identifying him with Arthur. Cai drinks heavily: "His revenge was heavy. His vengeance was pain. When he drank from the ox horn, he drank them by fours." Towards the end of what we have of that poem there is a reference to Cei and Llacheu. There is no indication of any relation between Cai and Arthur other than him being one of Arthur's men, Llachau though is often called Arthur's son. Pa Gur then tells us that

"Unless it were God who accomplished it,
Cai’s death were unattainable.
Cai the fair and Llachau,
they performed battles
before the pain of blue spears"

Later romance writers seem to have taken this association, much like Arthur and Mordred's attachment together in the Annales Cambriae's entry for Camlann, and transposed this into Cei killing Llachau. In one of these later influenced stories Llachau after killing a giant named Logrin, lies down and falls asleep. Cei behends both Llachau and the Logrin, claiming that he was the one who killed the giant.

This is where I would speculate a little and possibly link this back to the Hen Ogledd. Arthwys, the Coeling candidate for Arthur has two sons that are more than just links in a pedigree these are Ceidio, and Eliffer. There are potential place names based on both Cei and Ceidio around Carwinley, where the kingdom of his son Gwenddoleu seems to have been. Ceidio’s father Arthwys, as I have proposed in a previous article, probably ruled the Picts towards the end of his reign as a king named Gartnait in their regnal lists. Gartnait dies in 537, the same year as the entry for Camlann in the Annales Cambriae, which tells us that ‘Arthur and Medraut fell’. Garnait is succeeded as king of the Picts by a 'brother’ named Cailtram. Seeing the Garnait - Cailtram couplet repeated as Arthwys - Ceidio, reinforces the relationship between the two. I have discussed the veracity of the Pictish Regnal Lists¹ before, and they are generally reliable in the transfer of power, though sometimes the parentage is dubious.

Ceidio’s son Gwenddoleu fought a famous battle noted in the Annales Cambriae’s entry for 573, The Battle of Arfderydd, where he was killed by his cousins Peredur and Gwrgi, the sons of Eliffer. Peredur and Gwrgi were seemingly co-kings of Ebrauc, the Brythonic kingdom centered around modern York. The sudden enmity between these two closely related branches of the Coeling is puzzling, and seems to stick out as the first nail in the coffin of the Brythonic kingdoms of the North. I have previously linked this to the possibility that there was a dispute about high-kingship amongst the Coeling at the time.² It may be that this dispute started earlier and can be explained with a small detail from later Arthuriana.

Eliffer is harder to link to Llachau linguistically than Ceidio is to Cei, however it could be a linguistic or scribal corruption of the name. I have previously linked Eliffer to Elifri, Arthur's head groom, which may be a memory of Eliffer as Arthwys' Penteulu³. Elifri to Llacheu is a much easier stretch and it may be that Llachau is actually Eliffer. This could explain the previously inexplicable enmity between Eliffer and Ceidio’s sons in the late 6th century, when the bonds of kinship started to break down amongst the Coeling.

I would propose then that the tale of Cei killing Llachau may be a distant memory of Eliffer's death, possibly fighting his own brother, as Ceidio's son was considered a 'powerful prince' of his time, seemingly power and riches inherited from his father. There may be more to the grouping of Cei and Llachau in Pa Gur than we can tell at first glance, giving us a unique insight into the threads of the overwhelming Coeling hegemony unraveling in the North.

Pa Gur is a wonderful piece that gives us a glimpse at a different picture of Arthur than what we get from Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Romance writers. Arthur and his battle-lords here is quite different, and far removed from the chivalry and shining armour of Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, these men are heavy drinking dark age warlords, who take no hostages, and lay their enemies low by the hundreds. Unfortunately for us the poem cuts off before Arthur can lay forward further boasts of his men's exploits, and who knows what other traditions could be corroborated or expanded upon had the rest of this poem been preserved.

Regardless of it's difficult and fragmentary nature, it is still valuable to see how this early Arthur was viewed, even if it's at least 400 years separated from his life.

1. The Pictish Regnal Lists.

2. Ken Dark's Brigantian High-Kingship and the Coeling

Read more about the possibility for a ‘Coeling High-Kingship’ here.

3. The Penteulu is a high-ranking position as head of the household troops. You can read more about Arthwys as his uncle Garbanian’s Penteulu here.

Arthur Pen(teulu)dragon