[348] Ord. Vit. 670 B. “Incolis Britonibus sævo Marte repulsis, fines suos dilatavit, et in monte Dagaunoth, qui mari contiguus est, fortissimum castellum condidit.” Orderic has clearly got hold of the right names and the right incidents; but he has misconceived the topography.
Dwyganwy passes as the stronghold of that Maglocunus or Maelgwyn, whom Gildas (Ep. 33) addresses as “insularis draco, multorum tyrannorum depulsor, tam regno quam etiam vita” (cf. Nennius, c. 62, and Ann. Camb. 547, the year of his death). See Giraldus, It. Kamb. ii. 10; Descrip. Kamb. i. 5 (where he calls it “nobile castellum”), vol. vi. pp. 136, 176.
[349] Ord. Vit. 670 C. “Interim mare fluctus suos retraxit, et in sicco litore classis piratarum stetit. Grithfridus autem cum suis per maritima discurrit, homines et armenta rapuit, et ad naves exsiccatas festine remeavit.”
[350] See N. C. vol. iii. p. 176.
[351] Ord. Vit. u. s. “Clamor vulgi Robertum meridie dormitantem excitavit, eique hostilem discursum per terram suam nuntiavit. Ille vero, ut jacebat, impiger surrexit, et mox præcones ad congregandum agmen armatorum per totam regionem direxit. Porro ipse cum paucis bellatoribus imparatus Guallos prosecutus est, et de vertice montis Hormohevæ, qui nimis arduus est, captivos a piratis ligari, et in naves cum pecoribus præcipitari speculatus est.”
Orderic must surely have confounded the Orm’s Head itself with the lower hill of Dwyganwy. It is there, in or near his own castle, that we must conceive Robert sleeping, not on the Orm’s Head itself, or on any casual point of the flat ground between the two. To climb the higher of the two peaks of Dwyganwy would be perfectly natural, and would give him a wide enough view over the whole country. But to conceive him first crossing the flat, and then climbing a huge mountain for no particular object, seems quite out of the question.
[352] Ib. “Marchisus audax, ut leo nobilis, vehementer infremuit, hominesque paucos qui secum inermes erant, ut, antequam æstus maris rediret, super Guallos in sicco litore irruerent, admonuit.”
[353] Ord. Vit. 670 C. “Prætendunt suorum paucitatem, et per ardui montis præcipitium descendendi difficultatem.”
[354] Ib. “Nimis doluit, impatiensque moræ per difficilem descensum sine lorica cum uno milite nomine Osberno de Orgeriis, ad hostes descendit.” I cannot identify this Osbern, unless he be “Osbernus filius Tezonis,” who in Domesday (267 b, 268 b) holds a good deal of land in Cheshire under Earl Hugh, but none seemingly under Robert himself. For Orgères see Stapleton, ii. lxxxv.
[355] Ib. 670 D. “Quem cum viderent solo clypeo protectum et uno tantum milite stipatum, omnes pariter in illum missilia destinant, et scutum ejus jaculis intolerabiliter onerant, et egregium militem letaliter vulnerant. Nullus tamen, quamdiu stetit et parmam tenuit, ad eum comminus accedere, vel eum ense impetere ausus fuit.” Cf. the account of the death of Siccius in Dion. Hal. xi. 26. He has an ὑπασπιστής to play the part of Osbern of Orgères.