ARTHUR LEGENDS.
“For there was no man knew from whence he came;
But after tempest, when the long wave broke
All down the thundering shores of Bude and Boas,
There came a day as still as heaven, and then
They found a naked child upon the sands
Of wild Dundagil by the Cornish sea;
And that was Arthur.”
Idyls of the King—Tennyson.
The scarcity of traditions connected with King Arthur is not a little remarkable in Cornwall, where he is said to have been born, and where we believe him to have been killed. In the autumn of last year (1863) I visited Tintagel and Camelford. I sought with anxiety for some stories of the British king, but not one could be obtained. The man who has charge of the ruins of the castle—was very sorry that he had lent a book which he once had, and which contained many curious stories, but he had no story to tell me.
We hear of Prince Arthur at the Land’s End, and of his fights with the Danes in two or three other places. Merlin, who may be considered as especially associated with Arthur, has left indications of his presence here and there, in prophetic rhymes not always fulfilled; but of Arthur’s chieftains we have no folk-lore. All the rock markings, or rock peculiarities, which would in West Cornwall have been given to the giants, are referred to King Arthur in the eastern districts.
Jack the Giant Killer and Thomas Thumb—the former having been tutor, in his own especial calling, to King Arthur’s only son,[24] and the latter the king’s favourite dwarf[25]—are, except in story-books, unknown. Jack Hornby,[26]—if he ever lived near the Land’s End, unless he is the same with “Little Jack Horner,”—has been so long a stranger, that his name is forgotten.
The continuance of a fixed belief in the existence of Arthur is easily explained. The poets and the romance writers have made the achievements of a British chieftain familiar to all the people; and Arthur has not only a name, but a local habitation given to him equally in Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland.
Mr Campbell, in his “West Highland Tales,” gives a “Genealogy Abridgment of the very ancient and noble family of Argyle, 1779.” The writer says this family began with Constantine, grandfather to King Arthur; and he informs us that Sir Moroie Mor, a son of King Arthur, of whom great and strange things are told in the Irish traditions—who was born at Dumbarton Castle, and who was usually known as “The Fool of the Forest”—was the real progenitor of “Mac Callen Mor.” From this Moroie Mor was derived the mighty Diarmaid, celebrated in many a Gaelic lay—“to whom all popular traditions trace the Campbell clan.”
“Arthur and Diarmaid,” writes Mr Campbell, “primeval Celtic worthies, whose very existence the historian ignores, are thus brought together by a family genealogist.”
“Was the Constantine grandfather to Arthur one of the five tyrants named by Gildas?”—I quote from Camden[27] and Milton.[28]
Constantinus, son of Cador, Duke of Cornwall, Arthur’s half-brother by the mother’s side, “a tyrannical and bloody king.”
Aurelius Conanus, who “wallowed in murder and adultery.”
Vortipore, “tyrant of the Dimeta.”
Cuneglas, “the yellow butcher.”
Maglocunes, “the island dragon.”
It is curious to find a Scotch genealogist uniting in one bond the Arthur of Dundagel and the ancestors of the Argyles of Dumbarton.
May we not after this venture to suggest that, in all probability, the parish of Constantine, (pronounced, however, Cus-ten-ton,) between Helstone and Penryn, may derive its name from this Constantinus, rather than from the first Christian emperor.
Again, the family of Cossentine has been often said to be offsets from Constantine, the descendant of the Greek emperors, who was buried in Landulph church. Seeing that the name has been known for so long a period in Cornwall, may not this family rather trace their origin up to this Constantine the Tyrant?
THE BATTLE OF VELLAN-DRUCHAR.[29]
The Sea Kings, in their predatory wanderings, landed in Genvor Cove, and, as they had frequently done on previous occasions, they proceeded to pillage the little hamlet of Escols. On one occasion they landed in unusually large numbers, being resolved, as it appeared, to spoil many of the large and wealthy towns of Western Cornwall, which they were led to believe were unprotected. It fortunately happened that the heavy surf on the beach retarded their landing, so that the inhabitants had notice of their threatened invasion.
That night the beacon fire was lit on the chapel hill, another was soon blazing on Castle-an-dinas, and on Trecrobben. Carn Brea promptly replied, and continued the signal-light, which also blazed lustrously that night on St Agnes Beacon. Presently the fires were seen on Belovely Beacon, and rapidly they appeared on the Great Stone, on St Bellarmine’s Tor, and Cadbarrow, and then the fires blazed out on Roughtor and Brownwilly, thus rapidly conveying the intelligence of war to Prince Arthur and his brave knights, who were happily assembled in full force at Tintagel to do honour to several native Princes who were at that time on a visit to the King of Cornwall. Arthur, and nine other kings, by forced marches, reached the neighbourhood of the Land’s-End at the end of two days. The Danes crossed the land down through the bottoms to the sea on the northern side of the promontory, spreading destruction in their paths. Arthur met them on their return, and gave them battle near Vellan-Druchar. So terrible was the slaughter, that the mill was worked with blood that day. Not a single Dane of the vast army that had landed escaped. A few had been left in charge of the ships, and as soon as they learned the fate of their brethren, they hastened to escape, hoping to return to their own northern land. A holy woman, whose name has not been preserved to us, “brought home a west wind” by emptying the Holy Well against the hill, and sweeping the church from the door to the altar. Thus they were prevented from escaping, and were all thrown by the force of a storm and the currents either on the rocky shore, or on the sands, where they were left high and dry. It happened on the occasion of an extraordinary spring-tide, which was yet increased by the wind, so that the ships lay high up on the rocks, or on the sands; and for years the birds built their nests in the masts and rigging.
Thus perished the last army of Danes who dared to land upon our western shores.
King Arthur and the nine kings pledged each other in the holy water from St Sennen’s Well, they returned thanks for their victory in St Sennen’s Chapel, and dined that day on the Table-men.
Merlin, the prophet, was amongst the host, and the feast being ended, he was seized with the prophetic afflatus, and in the hearing of all the host proclaimed—
“The northmen wild once more shall land,
And leave their bones on Escol’s sand.
The soil of Vellan-Druchar’s plain,
Again shall take a sanguine stain;
And o’er the mill wheel roll a flood
Of Danish mixed with Cornish blood.
When thus the vanquished find no tomb,
Expect the dreadful day of doom.”