LL-L "Oral tradition" 2004.07.20 (05) [E]

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From: Ruth & Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "Oral tradition" 2004.07.19 (04) [E]

Dear Sandy Fleming

Subject: "In the media"

> I'm not really up to date on the theories of Arthur, but I've often
wondered
> why  Arthurs Seat (a large promontory of volcanic rock within the city of
> Edinburgh) is so called.

> Also, why is there such a strong tradition of Merlin in Berwickshire in
the
> Scottish Borders? They have "Merlin's Cave", for example, and a local
> tradition that particularly associates Merlin with the river Tweed.

> And why do archeologists still keep digging in Wales for evidence of
Arthur
> when they never manage to find anything? The idea that Avalon or Camelot
was
> at Glastonbury in Somerset is an obvious linguistic gaffe - Arthur was
said
> to have built a city of glass, but the "glas" in Glastonbury refers to the
> woad that used to be grown there (cf Welsh "glas" - "blue/grey/green").

> I was wondering if perhaps, like the works of other Welsh poets, stories
of
> Arthur were taken to Wales by refugees from the Lothians when the
Brythonic
> kingdom there fell to the Northumbrians? Does the name "Arthurs Seat" go
> back a long way?

I'm with you there. The late Prof. Abercrombie of St Andrews told me that
the 'Inglis' speaking parts of Scotland were once Welsh-speaking, & the
language receded to English less by conquest (of course there was a complete
turnover in aristocracy, as in the Norman conquest of England) than by
cultural drift (which continues to this day). Since it wasn't by invasion or
population displacement, the Brythonic names & tales stayed with the
locations identified in the 'Folk Record'.
But he said that the Arthurian Tradition was entrenched in all Brythonic
communities before Anglo-Saxon hegemony, which accounts for the breadth &
consistency of the tradition among groups so thoroughly isolated, in the
Lothians, Whales, Cornwall & Devon, & (a special case - they were once
Island British) Brittany.
The Arthurian Tradition was once very strong, embracing the whole Island. I
wonder what he did to get Gildas so cut up that he cut him out of British
History?
The writings of Geraldus Cambriensis makes it plain that it was not so
'dark' in the 'Dark Ages' of your Island. Records of the time were made at
the time, & kept, & they survive. But there is a real & measurable gap in
British history covering exactly the Arthurian period, & the manifest
disparity between the rich folk record & the bare scholastic record shows it
was deliberate, on the part of the official record keepers. I hope those
clerics are proud of what they did!

I reckon archaeological research of the Arthurian period should cover the
whole Island, & auger in on folk traditions, not the 'historical record'
(which is "cooked"). Before the balkanisation of Britain under the Angles,
Saxons (my ears prick up here!) & Jutes (or were they Geats?) the Island had
a unitary Roman administration, infrastructure, military, road system & even
national consciousness (which is remembered in the Lay of Mancsen Wledig).
To my mind, the Count of Britain may well have held court in Glastonbury &
sat on Arthur's Seat. If Harold of England could fight battles at Stamford
bridge & at Sandlac in such a short space of time just think what a few
cavalry brigades could do along Roman roads!

Yrs sincerely,
Mark

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