BATTLE 7
Battle No7 at Cat Coit Celidon.
Researching each of Arthur's battles has been fraught with problems but none more so than Battle No 7 where past writers have conflated some of the detail of three battles, two against Arthur, and one against King Rhydderch some 34 years later.
The two against Arthur were very close in time to each other, and all three were geographically in the same immediate vicinity. Nennius describes Arthur's Battle No 7 as having been fought at Cat Coit Celidon, and the records refer to Rhydderch's as having been at Cellyddon.
Rarely across the many claims for Arthu's other battle-sites are we given the name of Arthur's adversary, but in the case of Battle No 7 two names appear. Huail, and the Cerdic of Battle No 1. Huail, a pirate, was the son of King Caw of Strathclwyd, and was the brother of Gildas. Huail operated around the coast of Cambria and the presumption is that he had a base in 'Elmet' near the mouth of the River Clwyd with the research for this battle showing that he had a small castle at Llanegwad where these three battles took place.
Because King Caw and his family came from Strathclwyd in North Wales, and because all things related to that region have been wrongly attributed to Strathclyde in Scotland, Huail has hitherto sat uncomfortably in our record books.
One particular query arises out of the relationship between Arthur and Huail that was one of conflict over a long period . Legend has it that the conflict was over Huail making passes at a girlfriend of Arthur. Later at a dual arising out of that conflict Huail injured Arthur.
All that, if it was true, would have been difficult to achieve in practice as the Huail of tradition was in Scotland, and Arthur never went there.
Their common girlfriend would have to have lived somewhere near Lancaster for each to have access to her; courting would have been a slow process.
In later life Arthur killed Huail and the legends pertaining to that are all in North Wales. Huail's Castle at Llanegwad, at the top-end of the tidal estuary, would have been an ideal place as a pirates lair. One can only imagine that Arthur was attacking Huail at his base in order to put a stop to his antics, or as the romantics amongst us would prefer over jealousy.
As such the battle would have been a relatively modest affair until it was linked to the slightly later battle where Cerdic in his second attempt to regain the Gower of his wife's family had attempted to attack Arthur through the back door.
The east bank of the River Tywi at Llanegwad nr Nantgaredig is about as perfect as one could get in any attempt to sneak up on Arthur at Tir Y Dail. 'Nantgeredig' is the Celtic for Cerdic's Brook that could point to the exact spot of Cerdic's attack at the very western extremity of the region Lynwys.
The later battle of Rhydderch, then in old age, was fought for him by Peredur and Cwrgi who killed Gwendoleu a Prince of Powys, and son of Ceido who was both a son and grandson of Vortigern who had fathered him on his own daughter. Rhydderch's wife Gwendydd was sister to Merlin and niece to Daldaf , son of Cynin, the deceased former King of Demetea.
His heir was Merlin, but despite requests by his subjects for him to accede to the throne Merlin declined so to do. For an unknown reason Gwenddoleu moved in to the vacancy, apparently with Merlin's acquiescence, but not with Gwendydd's approval.
Rhydderch had until very recently been a king in Strathclwyd but because of the Angle pressures there and Gwendydd's need to rescue her family's realm Rhydderch came south to the Tywi Valley.
In traditional history it would be difficult to bring these various events into the same time-frame as Dark Age dates are frequently out of synchronisation. In the case of these three battles they were particularly difficult to reconcile so the explanation as to how this was achieved will be more fully explained in my following book where the date structures are set in place for the whole period of the Dark Age.
After the death of Gwenddoleu Merlin' 'went mad' and ran into the nearby wood where he went to live in a cave. Spenser in his poem 'Faery Queene' placed Merlin in a cave at Dynefwr, Dr Arbour Stephens more accurately places it in a bank of the River Cothi near Dynefwr, a favoured place for our Angling friends. At the top end of that valley lies the largest of the Roman Gold mines on the Mainland.
Just above the junction of the Rivers Cothi and Tywi are the recently discovered remains of the second largest Roman fort on the Mainland.
In my attempt to link everything properly together it was perceived that the reference in the Mabigonion to the retreat by Gwrych, Twrch's son, from Arthur's fourth battle against Twrch at Pontardawe (Arthur's Battle No 5 on Nennius' list) there was a reference to where Gwrych went via 'Cilardun' en-route to Cerdigion. Cilardun translated as the Fort on the Narrowing' , or hidden place, where that narrowing was taken to be where the valley narrows at Llanegwad and the fort was then presumed to have been Huail's Castle.
Optionally the 'fort' could have been the then undiscovered Roman fort slightly up river at Dynefwr.
The name Cilardun reappears in converted form in another story in the Mabinogion 'Lady of the Fountain'. The story, in its French form takes place near the place called Broccilande that in the Celtic story would have been Bro Cil-ar-dun meaning the hinterland of Cilardun.
The Cat Coit Celidon and the Coed Cellydon are complimentary descriptions of Cilardun. Cat Coit Celidon meant 'the battle-site at the wood Celidon', optionally spelt 'Cellydon' in the poems, where cell meant the monastic type cell of a Christian monk or the temple of the earlier Pagans, and 'Don' meant waves/surf/top of the tide.
In total that describes a monks cell/temple at the top of the tide near the old fort at the narrowing of the valley, where the Cil of Cilardun could also have meant 'secret 'or 'hidden' So we have a battle-site near the wood where there was a temple or monastery that was in either in a hidden part of the valley, in the narrowing of the valley, or where the river narrowed, and where there was a fort. All that came together at Llanegwad.
We have Merlin, ever present in and around Carmarthen, and we have the cave in which he sought refuge after the death of Gwendoleu, that was at the side of the River Cothi. He had been a Prince of the North where he is absolutely known to have been a Prince of Powys north of the Tywi Valley, we have the two Forts the smaller one of Huail, and the extra-ordinarily large one of the gold seeking Romans. In addition the correct title of the battle at which Peredur and Cwrgi fought on behalf of King Rhydderch against Gwendoleu was the 'Battle of Arfderydd', not as acclaimed in traditional history as the Battle of Arthuret.
Arfderydd/Arfderwydd itranslates as 'the defence of the Druids', an apt description of a defended temple that archaeological evidence would suggest for the site at Llanegwad, where today stands an ancient 10th Century Church built on the site of an earlier church at the side of a site upon which arrow heads have been found and where ancient bones have appeared over many years.
Although Peredur has his local connections through the stories by Chretien des Troyes, in the search for the Holy Grail, so too has Merlin and Sir Gawain in their search. Merlin and Sir Gawain were brought-up as devout Christians in early Christian families yet they still retained, as did many other people, their links to the old Pagan rituals and the ritualistic sites.
By a quirk of history there is the reference in the old stories of both Merlin and Sir Gawain, friends of long standing, each being dedicated to 'Fortuna' (she of the wheel of Fortune), 'Lady Luck' who has her site of spiritualism immediately adjacent to the hamlet of 'Llanegwad'.
Strange how all that should come together at such a tiny hamlet that nature has tucked away in peace and quiet. In the accepted history for these battles not a single piece of evidence/folk-lore/or myth can be attached to the battle supposedly having been fought at Arthuret above Carlisle where history has preferred to locate these battles even though Arthuret did not exist at the time of Arthur.
Peredur's real history will evolve in due course, it spreads from West Wales to Wroxeter so is deserving of greater attention than to slip it in here. Merlin was the Grandson of Cynin Gôf, (Wise Cynin) St Cynin/King Cynin who introduced Chritianity to West Wales and who is recorded in Geoffrey of Monmouth's story as King Demetrus King of Demetea.
What strange tales lie beneath our feet if we but had the time to dig deep enough!
Researching each of Arthur's battles has been fraught with problems but none more so than Battle No 7 where past writers have conflated some of the detail of three battles, two against Arthur, and one against King Rhydderch some 34 years later.
The two against Arthur were very close in time to each other, and all three were geographically in the same immediate vicinity. Nennius describes Arthur's Battle No 7 as having been fought at Cat Coit Celidon, and the records refer to Rhydderch's as having been at Cellyddon.
Rarely across the many claims for Arthu's other battle-sites are we given the name of Arthur's adversary, but in the case of Battle No 7 two names appear. Huail, and the Cerdic of Battle No 1. Huail, a pirate, was the son of King Caw of Strathclwyd, and was the brother of Gildas. Huail operated around the coast of Cambria and the presumption is that he had a base in 'Elmet' near the mouth of the River Clwyd with the research for this battle showing that he had a small castle at Llanegwad where these three battles took place.
Because King Caw and his family came from Strathclwyd in North Wales, and because all things related to that region have been wrongly attributed to Strathclyde in Scotland, Huail has hitherto sat uncomfortably in our record books.
One particular query arises out of the relationship between Arthur and Huail that was one of conflict over a long period . Legend has it that the conflict was over Huail making passes at a girlfriend of Arthur. Later at a dual arising out of that conflict Huail injured Arthur.
All that, if it was true, would have been difficult to achieve in practice as the Huail of tradition was in Scotland, and Arthur never went there.
Their common girlfriend would have to have lived somewhere near Lancaster for each to have access to her; courting would have been a slow process.
In later life Arthur killed Huail and the legends pertaining to that are all in North Wales. Huail's Castle at Llanegwad, at the top-end of the tidal estuary, would have been an ideal place as a pirates lair. One can only imagine that Arthur was attacking Huail at his base in order to put a stop to his antics, or as the romantics amongst us would prefer over jealousy.
As such the battle would have been a relatively modest affair until it was linked to the slightly later battle where Cerdic in his second attempt to regain the Gower of his wife's family had attempted to attack Arthur through the back door.
The east bank of the River Tywi at Llanegwad nr Nantgaredig is about as perfect as one could get in any attempt to sneak up on Arthur at Tir Y Dail. 'Nantgeredig' is the Celtic for Cerdic's Brook that could point to the exact spot of Cerdic's attack at the very western extremity of the region Lynwys.
The later battle of Rhydderch, then in old age, was fought for him by Peredur and Cwrgi who killed Gwendoleu a Prince of Powys, and son of Ceido who was both a son and grandson of Vortigern who had fathered him on his own daughter. Rhydderch's wife Gwendydd was sister to Merlin and niece to Daldaf , son of Cynin, the deceased former King of Demetea.
His heir was Merlin, but despite requests by his subjects for him to accede to the throne Merlin declined so to do. For an unknown reason Gwenddoleu moved in to the vacancy, apparently with Merlin's acquiescence, but not with Gwendydd's approval.
Rhydderch had until very recently been a king in Strathclwyd but because of the Angle pressures there and Gwendydd's need to rescue her family's realm Rhydderch came south to the Tywi Valley.
In traditional history it would be difficult to bring these various events into the same time-frame as Dark Age dates are frequently out of synchronisation. In the case of these three battles they were particularly difficult to reconcile so the explanation as to how this was achieved will be more fully explained in my following book where the date structures are set in place for the whole period of the Dark Age.
After the death of Gwenddoleu Merlin' 'went mad' and ran into the nearby wood where he went to live in a cave. Spenser in his poem 'Faery Queene' placed Merlin in a cave at Dynefwr, Dr Arbour Stephens more accurately places it in a bank of the River Cothi near Dynefwr, a favoured place for our Angling friends. At the top end of that valley lies the largest of the Roman Gold mines on the Mainland.
Just above the junction of the Rivers Cothi and Tywi are the recently discovered remains of the second largest Roman fort on the Mainland.
In my attempt to link everything properly together it was perceived that the reference in the Mabigonion to the retreat by Gwrych, Twrch's son, from Arthur's fourth battle against Twrch at Pontardawe (Arthur's Battle No 5 on Nennius' list) there was a reference to where Gwrych went via 'Cilardun' en-route to Cerdigion. Cilardun translated as the Fort on the Narrowing' , or hidden place, where that narrowing was taken to be where the valley narrows at Llanegwad and the fort was then presumed to have been Huail's Castle.
Optionally the 'fort' could have been the then undiscovered Roman fort slightly up river at Dynefwr.
The name Cilardun reappears in converted form in another story in the Mabinogion 'Lady of the Fountain'. The story, in its French form takes place near the place called Broccilande that in the Celtic story would have been Bro Cil-ar-dun meaning the hinterland of Cilardun.
The Cat Coit Celidon and the Coed Cellydon are complimentary descriptions of Cilardun. Cat Coit Celidon meant 'the battle-site at the wood Celidon', optionally spelt 'Cellydon' in the poems, where cell meant the monastic type cell of a Christian monk or the temple of the earlier Pagans, and 'Don' meant waves/surf/top of the tide.
In total that describes a monks cell/temple at the top of the tide near the old fort at the narrowing of the valley, where the Cil of Cilardun could also have meant 'secret 'or 'hidden' So we have a battle-site near the wood where there was a temple or monastery that was in either in a hidden part of the valley, in the narrowing of the valley, or where the river narrowed, and where there was a fort. All that came together at Llanegwad.
We have Merlin, ever present in and around Carmarthen, and we have the cave in which he sought refuge after the death of Gwendoleu, that was at the side of the River Cothi. He had been a Prince of the North where he is absolutely known to have been a Prince of Powys north of the Tywi Valley, we have the two Forts the smaller one of Huail, and the extra-ordinarily large one of the gold seeking Romans. In addition the correct title of the battle at which Peredur and Cwrgi fought on behalf of King Rhydderch against Gwendoleu was the 'Battle of Arfderydd', not as acclaimed in traditional history as the Battle of Arthuret.
Arfderydd/Arfderwydd itranslates as 'the defence of the Druids', an apt description of a defended temple that archaeological evidence would suggest for the site at Llanegwad, where today stands an ancient 10th Century Church built on the site of an earlier church at the side of a site upon which arrow heads have been found and where ancient bones have appeared over many years.
Although Peredur has his local connections through the stories by Chretien des Troyes, in the search for the Holy Grail, so too has Merlin and Sir Gawain in their search. Merlin and Sir Gawain were brought-up as devout Christians in early Christian families yet they still retained, as did many other people, their links to the old Pagan rituals and the ritualistic sites.
By a quirk of history there is the reference in the old stories of both Merlin and Sir Gawain, friends of long standing, each being dedicated to 'Fortuna' (she of the wheel of Fortune), 'Lady Luck' who has her site of spiritualism immediately adjacent to the hamlet of 'Llanegwad'.
Strange how all that should come together at such a tiny hamlet that nature has tucked away in peace and quiet. In the accepted history for these battles not a single piece of evidence/folk-lore/or myth can be attached to the battle supposedly having been fought at Arthuret above Carlisle where history has preferred to locate these battles even though Arthuret did not exist at the time of Arthur.
Peredur's real history will evolve in due course, it spreads from West Wales to Wroxeter so is deserving of greater attention than to slip it in here. Merlin was the Grandson of Cynin Gôf, (Wise Cynin) St Cynin/King Cynin who introduced Chritianity to West Wales and who is recorded in Geoffrey of Monmouth's story as King Demetrus King of Demetea.
What strange tales lie beneath our feet if we but had the time to dig deep enough!
