Lailoken, or Myrddin, or Merlin

Given that lovely unhistorical-but-charming BBC series, Merlin, is back on the telly this weekend I pulled this number out of my archives. I’d like to claim at least one Merlin for Cumbria, please. 

Six hundred years after the death of a wild man in the woods of southern Scotland, Geoffrey of Monmouth assembled some scraps of poetry written in the intervening years and added him to his History of the Kings of Britainas King Arthur’s right-hand man, Merlin.

Merlin and Arthur by Gustave Dore

There are several different sources in old Welsh literature for Myrddin, or as we usually spell it, Merlin. Some, referring to events in Wales itself, mention Merlin Ambrosius or Merlin Emrys, and these took place at the end of the Roman era. Others were linked to the Cymry of northern Cumbria, entangled as a by-line in the story of the Battle of Arthuret, which took place a couple of hundred years later. This Merlin was Merlin Wyllt, or Merlin Silvestris, or Merlin ap (son of) Madog Morfryn.

One ring to rule them all… the 9thc Kingmoor Ring

Picture time!

Kingmoor Ring copyright British Museum

I bet you’re thinking, ‘ooh, that looks a bit like the ring in Lord of the Rings’. Well, you wouldn’t be far wrong. This ring is 9^th century and made by anglo-saxons, and JRR Tolkien was an expert in anglo-saxon language and literature. I don’t doubt he knew the Kingmoor Ring very well.

It’s called the Kingmoor Ring because it was found at

Loki: Cumbria’s man in chains

One of the joys of having your own blog is the statistics. I know that doesn’t sound riveting, but look at this collection of Google search terms that apparently led people to my blog:

How long does ham keep in the freezer¹

Loki stone at Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria

Blimey – usage history²

What to call colour which shines every colour³

Is eveling a word?⁴

Mistress with man in chains⁵

I’ll gloss over the first four, but the fifth reminded me very much of the 10^th-century, viking-made Loki stone at Kirkby Stephen in the Eden Valley (which should tell you plenty about the way my mind works). It was found in 1870, and after a short sojourn on display in the churchyard, it was moved inside the church to protect it from the weather. This is a hefty chunky of sandstone with a carved figure with horns, a beard, a belt, and chains. He doesn’t look too happy about it, but then, according to Norse mythology, those chains are actually his son’s entrails.

The Treaty of Eamont Bridge in 927CE: the first English/Scottish union?

The UK news today is dominated by a meeting between the UK prime minister and the Scottish first minister about the possibility of Scotland declaring independence. There is much talk of the 1707 Act of Union, and of James VI/I, but in fact the first union between the English and the Scots was negotiated right here in Cumbria on 12^thJuly, 927CE.

Athelstan from All Souls College Chapel, Oxford

At this point in history, it wasn’t about England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. There was Mercia and Wessex; Northumbria and Dublin; Strathclyde and Cumbria; the Scots; various Welsh provinces and a whole lot more. There was no concept of a combined Britain, never mind UK.

Dinogad’s Smock: a 6th-century Cumbrian lullaby

About 1400 years ago, a Cumbrian mother sang a song to her new baby, a boy called Dinogad.

Page from the Book of Aneirin

Dinogad’s smock is pied, pied –

Made it out of marten hide…¹

So our baby boy is wrapped in pine marten furs; perhaps he was born on a cold, wintry day like today. The poem goes on to describe how Dinogad’s daddy went out with his dogs, Giff and Gaff, to catch fish, deer, boar and grouse, presumably to provide a very rich dinner for a very large household.

Guest Post: Tim Clarkson on early medieval Cumbria

Tim Clarkson knows his stuff. With a PhD in Medieval History and an MPhil in Archaeology under his belt, he’s written a couple of splendid books that master that trickiest of things: they are proper works of academic history, but you can sit down and read them like a novel. I wholeheartedly recommend The Men of the North as your route into the Northern Britons who lived in Cumbria and Scotland.

Tim recently wrote this post on his very interesting blog, Senchus. It’s such a perfect summary of all that tricky early medieval stuff here in Cumbria, that I’d rather you read this than any second-rate mumblings I could produce! Read, enjoy, and go over to visit his blog.

Many thanks to Tim for giving his kind permission to reproduce his words below. Note that copyright is entirely his; contact Tim at his blog if you wish to quote any of it.

Terminology Topics 5: Cumbria

To many people, the name ‘Cumbria’ means the English county created in 1974 from an amalgamation of Cumberland and Westmorland

Uther Pendragon, c. 440CE – c. 500CE

Uther Pendragon, the father of King Arthur, was conspicuous by his absence from my recent series of posts on Arthurian characters in Cumbria. In fact, he’s absent from almost all academic histories and most popular histories; he occasionally turns up at the lighter end of folklore… and in quite a few TV programmes.

Pendragon Castle, Cumbria

And yet you don’t have to be in Cumbria for long before you find that Pendragon Castle, Uther’s home, is right here in the Eden Valley. There’s even a little ditty about it:

‘Let Uther do what he can

Eden will run where Eden ran.’

Pendragon Castle is surrounded by a deep ditch and it was believed that Uther planned to divert the nearby River Eden to fill it, but failed, and was immortalised in slightly poor rhyme.

In 1902, the local historical society gathered some traditional stories about Pendragon Castle. The Rev. Wharton said that Uther died at Pendragon castle; it was besieged by Saxons, who, unable to break the defences, poisoned the well. Canon Simpson reported that Uther’s ghost could be seen riding at break-neck speed from the castle, across Orton Scar towards Penrith.²

Owain map Urien, King of Cumbria c.590-597CE

The name ‘Owain’ resonates in Cumbria, especially in the Eden Valley. If you ask someone, they might mention that he was a great warrior. They’ll say that they think there’s a connection to King Arthur, and that he’s buried at the Giant’s Grave in Penrith (although the evidence leans towards it being the grave of a different Owain¹).

In reality, like all these early medieval kings, facts are had to come by. Owain was the son of the famous Urien of Rheged, and he inherited his father’s kingdom, and his father’s wars.