Arthuriana: Early Arthurian Tradition and the Origins of ...

1 arthuriana arthuriana Early Arthurian Tradition and the Origins of the Legend Thomas Green THE LINDES PRESS. As with everything, so with this: For Frances and Evie. First published 2009. The Lindes Press Louth, Lincolnshire Thomas Green, 2009. The right of Thomas Green to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing of the Author. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

2 ISBN 978 1 4452 2110 6. Contents Preface vii 1 The historicity and historicisation of arthur 1. 2 A Bibliographic Guide to the Welsh Arthurian Literature 47. 3 A Gazetteer of Arthurian Onomastic and Topographic Folklore 89. 4 Lincolnshire and the Arthurian Legend 117. 5 arthur and Jack the Giant-Killer 141. a. Jack & arthur : An Introduction to Jack the Giant-Killer 143. b. The History of Jack and the Giants (1787) 148. c. The 1711 Text of The History of Jack and the Giants 166. d. Jack the Giant Killer: a c. 1820 Penny Book 177. e. Some Arthurian Giant-Killings 183. 6 Miscellaneous arthuriana 191. a. An Arthurian FAQ: Some Frequently Asked Questions 193. b. The Monstrous Regiment of Arthurs: A Critical Guide 199. c. An Arthurian Reference in Marwnad Gw n?

3 The Manuscript 217. Evidence Examined d. The Other Early Arthurian Cycle: the Tale of Tristan and 222. Isolt e. Myrddin & Merlin: A Guide to the Early Evolution of the 234. Merlin Legend f. But arthur 's Grave is Nowhere Seen': Twelfth-Century and 239. Later Solutions to arthur 's Current Whereabouts g. A Bibliographic Guide to the Characters of the Pre- 257. Galfridian Arthurian Legend h. A Guide to Arthurian Archaeology 271. vii Preface This book collects together the academic and popular articles which have appeared on my Arthurian Resources' website since 1998.* It has been created in response to requests from readers for a print version of the site, in order to ease both the reading and referencing of the material archived there; as such, the articles from the website are reproduced here with the minimum of alteration, aside from some necessary reformatting.

4 The historicity and historicisation of arthur ' was the first piece to appear on the website; it takes the form of an extensive review article which gathers together and critiques scholarship on the sources for a historical arthur '. Although an up-to-date expansion, development and revision of the views presented there can be found in my Concepts of arthur (Tempus, 2007), the article continues to be made available due to its long independent existence and the fact that has been cited in current scholarship on the Early Arthurian legend, for example in N. J. Higham, King arthur , Myth-Making and History (Routledge, 2002), and in N. J. Lacy (ed.), The History of Arthurian Scholarship (Boydell, 2006). A Bibliographic Guide to Welsh Arthurian Literature' and A Gazetteer of Arthurian Onomastic and Topographic Folklore' represent detailed guides to their respective topics.

5 The first offers a discussion of virtually every piece of Early Welsh Arthurian literary material, including an indication of its content, recent scholarship, and the availability of editions and translations. The second provides a discussion of the Early evidence for arthur and his companions appearing in local topographic and onomastic folklore, along with a detailed gazetteer (with grid references) of all such items which take the form arthur 's X'. In contrast, Lincolnshire and the Arthurian Legend' is a more speculative piece, a what-if'. If we were to make the assumption that arthur did actually exist, then who might he have been? This piece attempts to answer this question in light of recent academic work on both the Arthurian sources and the archaeology and history of post- Roman Britain, before noting the essential caveats which must accompany any such identification'.

6 The last two sections encompass a number of different articles and * The website was first located at ~ but moved to its current location in 2001. viii pieces within them. arthur and Jack the Giant-Killer' begins with an introduction to the tale of Jack the Giant-Killer and an analysis of the links between this character and the Welsh and Cornish folkloric' arthur . It then goes on to include transcripts of several Early versions of Jack's tale and examples of analogous Arthurian giant-killings. Finally, Miscellaneous arthuriana ' consists of a variety of more informal thoughts on Arthurian issues which have appeared on the site over the last decade, along with answers to some of the most common questions. All told, the collection provides a guide to a significant proportion of the Early Arthurian legend and it is hoped that it will be found to be of some value.

7 It should be noted, incidentally, that no attempt has been made to harmonise the different referencing systems used by the articles. Not only was it the aim of the present work to reproduce the website articles as closely as possible, but the different methods of referencing do to some degree reflect the different aims of the pieces, so that the bibliographic essays give full references, analyses use parenthetical references, and the edited transcript of a 1787 chapbook uses footnotes. Thomas Green October 2009. 1. The historicity and historicisation of arthur 3. The historicity and historicisation of arthur 1. Introduction Many different theories are available as to the identity' of arthur and some brief methodological notes will be found here regarding the making of such identifications.

8 While these theories are interesting, they fail to address fully one important question was there a historical post-Roman arthur ? Many books, articles and web-pages simply make the a priori assumption that there has to be a historical figure behind the Arthurian legends. Such an assumption is totally unjustified. As anyone at all familiar with medieval literature in general will know, the historicisation of non-historical/mythical personages often through association with some important event of the past is not in any way an unusual occurrence. Some examples of this that will probably particularly interest readers of this article are Hengest and Horsa, who were Kentish totemic horse-gods historicised by the eighth century with an important role in the fifth-century Anglo-Saxon conquest of eastern Britain (see Turville-Petre, 1953-7; Ward, 1969; Brooks, 1989.)

9 Yorke, 1993); Merlin (Welsh Myrddin), who was an eponymous founder- figure derived from the place-name Caer-fyrddin and historicised with the deeds of one Lailoken (see Jarman, 1991); and the Norse demigod Sigurd/Siegfried who was historicised by being associated with a famous historical battle between the Huns and the Burgundians dated 437, in the Nibelungenlied (Thomas, 1995: 390).1 Given this, no a priori judgements can be made as to whether a figure is, in origin, historical, mythical or fictional each individual case must (and can only) be decided by a close examination of all the relevant material. When we have figures such as arthur being portrayed as historical we are therefore, on a very basic level, looking at either a historical figure or a legendary figure who became historicised, with neither explanation enjoying priority on a priori grounds.

10 It must be recognised that one can only say that there has to have been a historical arthur once all the material has been evaluated and this has been shown to be the case; there is no possible justification for simply assuming this. The following article is intended to provide a summary account and bibliography of the latest academic research into arthur with a particular focus on the question of historicity . Aside from the various articles and 4. books cited, much of what is below has been discussed in detail on the discussion list of the International Arthurian Society, Arthurnet, in a moderated debate that I had the great pleasure of chairing. The results of this discussion, including all posted comments, can be found in the Arthurnet archives.