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Legends of King Arthur and Camelot
King Offa and the English Tradition
Introduction
It seems a little surprising that noone had ever connected King Offa of Angelland to the legendary King Arthur before because there is similarity in the names and Offa's queen's name, Cynethryth, is similar to Guinevere in meaning also. It was in 1986 that I first noticed that Offa and Arthur might be connected, perhaps because I was living in London and the similarity is more noticeable in London speech. I had also seen how words transformed in moving from one European language group to another from time spent on the Continent. Eventually, having returned to my home region, Market Harborough, I happened on the idea again and then researched it thoroughly using the Dictionary of National Biography and other reference works which were available locally. Most people who have written about the Arthurian legends do not seem even to have researched in as much detail as is readily available in the DNB and their opinions as to the origins of the legends do not have much value.
It does not seem possible that the amount of correspondence between Offa and Cynethryth and Arthur and Guinevere could have arisen by chance and people have always reworked traditions to promote their own culture and region so it need not seem surprising that that has happened in this case.
My research led to a deeper understanding of the English peoples' culture and the processes at work in the development of history which I have dealt with in a more thorough treatment called "In The Name Offa Arthur", ISBN : 0 9536579 0 6.
For a more thorough treatment of these matters called "In The Name Offa Arthur" please contact me at 26, Patrick St., Market Harborough, Leicestershire, LE16 9HP. Tel. 01858 466790. The ISBN is 0 9536 579 0 6.
1 Arthur & Guinevere
It is well-known that there is no clear evidence of a Celtic hero of long ago called Arthur but it was a completely new idea to people that the person underlying the legends was the English king of the 8th century, Offa the Great, of Angelland. When the subject is considered with an open mind, however, it becomes increasingly obvious.
Offa and Arthur are similar names and both seem to be linked to an ancient father-god. The Welsh version of Arthur, Arfor, is especially like Offa and in London speech and American speech the similarity is very noticeable. Also Offa's queen's name was Cynethryth - later written Cwenthryth – and Earmentruth and Eormenthryth were equivalent forms of another name according to Campbell's work on the Chronicle of Aethelweard so thryth could mean truth. Guinevere is clearly a late latinised form of the name where -vere means true.
Those two names provide more evidence than there is for a Celtic hero at the origin of the legends. The earlier inhabitants of Britain had not managed to preserve a tradition of a great and good king who could protect the people and when such a potent symbol was introduced to them there was a great incentive for them to adopt it.
Under Charles' Wain in the Oxford English Dictionary are mentioned legends which must really have connected Charlemagne to Offa, not to a Celtic Arthur of a much earlier time but people were eventually led to believe that the great man they had heard so much about was a Welsh hero of long before. Some details of the real person's life had to be used to lead people into that alternative understanding.
It would have been more difficult to work an English king's life into Celtic legend if the church had not been involved in it because most scholars were churchmen. It was a Welsh monk who started the new interpretation of things. His name was Nennius and Dunstan's Classbook in the Bodleian Library records some of his propaganda in favour of Welsh culture which was to counter an attack by an English scholar. Because political authority passed from central Angelland it was advantageous for other parts of England to promote the Celtic version also.
2 Camelot
The first name known for the magical and mystical place in the legends was Camlan and it can be related to Gumley in Leicestershire. Lan and llan are Welsh equivalents of ley and land (OED) and Cam is pronounced like Gum in Welsh speech. Lot meant the same as ley in Norman times which is when the legends became widely known throughout Europe.
Gumley was a special place in early England because councils were held there to discuss the running of the church. There was a fortress at Gumley and since Offa and Cynethryth had several children the queen must have had a secure home. It is not hard to imagine the king, on his journeying from place to place to keep order in the nation, thinking and speaking of being back with his loved ones again and the place concerned becoming a place of wonder to the people.
There were other important places in Angelland such as Tamworth which was probably a garrison town since it gave quick access to the Welsh marches. Brixworth had the great church of those times and Offa caused Lichfied to be made into the centre of a fourth archbishopric which was concerned with central England. Some early kings of Angelland were entombed at Repton and other sites include Croft, Great Glen, Wistow, Irthlingborough and Oundle. Derby, Nottingham, Peterborough, Worcester and Gloucester were also settlements of central Angelland. St. Albans, Chelsea and the City of London were important political centres further to the south in Angelland.
Because of its central location and its defensibility Gumley fits best as Offa and Cynethryth's home. The old English name for Gumley is Godmundesleah and because words of regal type, such as gumstol which meant "throne", began with gum-, most likely in all of them a contraction of Godmund was involved.
With reference to a dictionary of early English it can be seen that Godmund meant 'good guardian' and also meant something to do with the king's peace so the connection with the king is unavoidable.
3 Merlin and the Sword in the Stone
Although it is a wonderful idea it is difficult to believe that anyone could be made a king because he could draw a sword from a block of stone but that fits as a symbolic story about producing arms from the ironstone of the East Midlands area, the Northamptonshire ironstone. No one during the last 2000 years could have dominated the country militarily without control of the area which is by far the largest iron-bearing region of Britain. Chambers' work on Beowulf refers to a legend of King Offa - who he thought must have been a King Offa of Angel - who won a great kingdom for himself with just his single sword while still a boy. That is very similar to what is told about Arthur. Under Canute English missionaries went to Denmark and there may have been confusion about who that Offa really was.
Long ago men who could take stone and treat it to produce metal were considered with awe by simple, uneducated people and they were intricately involved with the alchemists of popular imagination who still have a special place in literature. There is such a character in The Lord of the Rings which is the most popular work of fiction in modern times.
The character, Merlin, may stem partly from Guthlac of Crowland who helped Aethelbald to gain control but there would have to have been a separate origin of the name itself which seems to stem partly from mere which means lake. Also lin seems to be connected to the Welsh word, llyn, which has a similar meaning. When iron ore was dug out it tended to leave lakes behind. Added to this is the fact that the early English settlers, having come across the North Sea from the low-lying lands in what are now the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Northern Germany into similar land in England and then onward, were skilled at using lakes for drainage and defence. If it is a combination of English and Welsh, Merlin reflects the mixing of cultures which brought the English nation about. This is shown in even the words for mother and father, Mam and Dad.
4 The Lady of the Lake
The association between iron production, swords and lakes was workable poetically, into the image of the Lady of the Lake who can readily be taken as a symbolic representation of the nation for whose favours warriors fought and who gave them the arms they needed. The idea perhaps evolved to dispel any notion that the flooded quarries had connections with unpopular characters such as Grendel's mother in "Beowulf" who also lived at the bottom of a lake.
Comely, referring to a young woman may be connected to the name, Gumley. There are still remains of what was evidently a defensive ditch visible which people call Offa's Dyke – the same name as that used for the wall between England and Wales. The ditch would have prevented use of a battering ram which the sloping land would otherwise have made possible.
It is the steep slopes surrounding Gumley which were the primary military attraction - and the spring in case of siege. There are also lakes close by and marks in the field above the church show the outline of buildings or of a palisade. There is also a great burial mound by a lake which may be where Offa - and therefore the man who gave rise to the legends of King Arthur - was finally laid to rest. He died on July 29, 796.
As well as loving Offa in the high way of love "Beowulf" says that Cynethryth ruled with vision. A queen was important in ceremony as shown by the role of cup bearer described in "Beowulf" which fits best as relating to early English settlement at Eastry or on the island of Thanet. The role of cup bearer has been revived in the Christian church in modern times which may be an indication of a tendency to return to ancient traditions.
5 Weland and the Cradle of English Civilisation
Gumley overlooks the Welland Valley and as well as changing people's understanding of the lives of King Offa the Great and Cynethryth powerful people who wanted to promote their own regions and interests have tried to write the Welland out of English history and legend. It was mentioned in "Beowulf" as the maker of Beowulf's coat of mail, Weland. That name would have been used to please the smiths of the region. The river leads right into the iron-producing area and it was important because of trade in iron and wool. Medbourne was a river port in Roman times and of course trade continued when the English took over.
There is evidence at Hothorpe and the Coombs at Sibbertoft that boats were hauled between the Welland and the Avon in early English times and it must have been a great deal easier to use the river and haul boats the 3 miles necessary on skids than to travel around the coast which needed 3 changes of wind and could so easily end in disaster on the rocks. The name, Sibbertoft may derive from these activities.
According to legend Weland was taken into captivity which corresponds to conquest by the Danes when they took over much of England in a later wave of immigration. Although it was said that Weland killed someone and made a bowl from his skull as depicted on the Frank's casket, that most likely relates to the Lombard king, Alboin, who really had such a thing done and even made his wife, the man's daughter, drink from the bowl. Lombards, who were Orthodox, were defeated by the Franks and became an integral part of the church in Italy and it would have suited them all to have projected such an unpleasant story onto others.
Weland became famous in Germany and Scandinavia and to help to keep control of England elsewhere the river trade on the Welland must have been ended at a later time but the name lived on in legends among the trading and traveling peoples of the northern lands eventually being taken up by Wagner. Versions of the name include Wieland, Wayland and Volund. This last may have been influenced by the trade in wool for which the region was also famous.
6 The Mother of Parliaments and the Round Table
Councils to decide on the running of the church in England were held at a famous place called Clovesho for 150 years or so in the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries and an early name for Lubenham - Lobenho - points to this being the place. H.P.R. Finberg also remarked on this likelihood in his book on the formation of England. Lubenham would have been in a good location for the king to keep an eye on proceedings and was also on a main trade route to help delegates to get there easily. People used rivers rather than roads where possible in those times.
In the Dictionary of National Biography under Beornwulf, evidence is given of disagreements between the church and central Angelland, which led to the church refusing to baptise people. At that time Clovesho was the site of political councils also, the Witan. Although the word, parliament, only came into use with the Normans the system had been running long before they came and it is incorrect to say that the Magna Carta represents the origin of the parliamentary system but saying that led people away from memories of Clovesho and Gumley and their special place in British history.
Because of such serious disagreements in England there was no truly unified system between the Mercian period and the time Sweyn, Canute and then William the Conqueror restored order, although the period of Danish control of half of England has mostly been written out of English history. However, it seems that Shakespeare's King Lear must derive at least partly from the Danish period when the great Danish sea king would have been based somewhere in the area. Geoffrey of Monmouth gained a bishopric from his deceptions concerning Arthur and King Llyr and the latter probably originates from Leire and Leirecester - Caerlyr in Welsh.
Because Offa was a first among equals it seems likely that those councils or subsidiary meetings of knights gave rise to the legends of the Round Table and there may have been a symbolic connection with the tableland of central England which the other kingdoms surrounded.
7 Love Most High
People who gain control of a country usually play down the influence of earlier traditions and the great reputation of Clovesho as a place where so much had been decided for so long would have made it difficult to maintain authority in another area. Later leaders are unlikely to have kept the original name in use although the location would not have become unknown as it did unless records were destroyed as when so much of English history was destroyed by religiously motivated mobs in the reign of Edward VI and later.
It seems that Cloveshoh was changed to "cloven hoof" but people in modern times would not necessarily agree that there is anything wrong with a cloven hoof whether understood as real or symbolic. Clovesho meant "council high" from the same origin as the word, club. The beginning of the name would have been dropped to give Lobenho and loben would have meant "loved" as it still does in German. That is consistent with the reputation of Offa and Cynethryth as preserved in the legends, particularly from before Norman times.
It seems that because the name Clovesho was in use at such a formative time in the development of the English nation it left an influence in the language. The clubs symbol may have derived from it, representing the bishop's crooks of the different parts of the church in England in early times. They seem to be present on ceremonial maces, still symbols of parliamentary authority in Britain.
A four-leaved clover would then be lucky because of association with the fourth archbishopric set up by Offa against Canterbury's wishes. That would make it more of a popular symbol of good luck than an official one. To be in clover is to be in a happy state. A horseshoe's similarity to the letter, C, and that it completes the name Clovesho may explain why many say that is lucky also and the connection with Offa and Cynethryth make it an appropriate symbol for weddings. Underlying this is the understanding of the high way of love of Offa and Cynethryth referred to in "Beowulf". The Holy Grail also comes from "Beowulf". It was recovered from the dragon by Wiglaf, son of Weohstan, which fits for Wigston.
8 Legacy
Long, long ago the English peoples' ancestors had extended their influence into the Mediterranean and there is an extended account of these matters which goes into that in more detail. Suffice to say here that the northern peoples and the Mediterranean peoples had long been known to each other when the Roman missionaries came to England seeking to displace the earlier, more orthodox Christian tradition as the English in time displaced the Welsh. At some point legends arose about a Roman giant of what is now Belgium whose task was to keep the northern peoples in order. Eventually the church found it preferable to allow the glorious tradition of such a famous English king and queen as Offa and Cynethryth to be undermined not least because Offa had opposed the archbishop of Canterbury when he insisted on the new See of Lichfield.
King Offa the Great and Cynethryth at Cloveshoh and Gumley were heirs to a tradition begun by Penda which encouraged the different racial groups to work together and they emphasised man and woman as being more complementary, in keeping with the English tradition, rather than opposite which is the usual religious interpretation derived from the Bible. That the Welland Valley gave rise to several characters in legend who were among the most celebrated in all the world was too much for the church and more influential parts of England to accept and that was true for more than 1000 years but now it is clear that Gumley and Cloveshoh and Offa and Cynethryth were extremely important in the formative years of the English nation.
Of the places connected with Offa and Cynethryth the one which was to win renown throughout all the world and which has become a symbol of a king's love for his queen, his home and his people is - through the name Camelot - Gumley, the good guardian's land.
Copyright ã Andrew Burbidge 1993, 1994, 1998, 2002. All rights reserved.