Beihefte zur Mediaevistik: Band 28 2015
Andrea Grafetstätter / Sieglinde Hartmann / James Ogier (eds.), Islands 2015 · and Cities in Medieval Myth, Literature, and History. Papers Delivered at the International Medieval Congress, Univer-sity of Leeds, in 2005, 2006, and 2007 (2011) Internationale Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Mittelalterforschung
Olaf Wagener (Hrsg.), „vmbringt mit starcken turnen, murn“. Ortsbefesti- Band 28 gungen im Mittelalter (2010)
Hiram Kümper (Hrsg.), eLearning & Mediävistik. Mittelalter lehren und lernen im neumedialen Zeitalter (2011)
Olaf Wagener (Hrsg.), Symbole der Macht? Aspekte mittelalterlicher und frühneuzeitlicher Architektur (2012)
N. Peter Joosse, The Physician as a Rebellious Intellectual. The Book of the Two Pieces of Advice or Kitāb al-Naṣīḥatayn by cAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Yūsuf al-Baghdādī (1162–1231) (2013)
Meike Pfefferkorn, Zur Semantik von rike in der Sächsischen Weltchronik. Reden über Herrschaft in der frühen deutschen Chronistik - Transforma- tionen eines politischen Schlüsselwortes (2014)
Eva Spinazzè, La luce nell'architettura sacra: spazio e orientazione nelle chiese del X-XII secolo tra Romandie e Toscana. Including an English summary. Con una introduzione di Xavier Barral i Altet e di Manuela Incerti (2016)
Begründet von Peter Dinzelbacher Herausgegeben von Albrecht Classen LANG MEDIAEVISTIK
MEDI 28-2015 83024-160x230 Br-AM PLE.indd 1 11.04.16 KW 15 16:55 Beihefte zur Mediaevistik: Band 28 2015
Andrea Grafetstätter / Sieglinde Hartmann / James Ogier (eds.), Islands 2015 · and Cities in Medieval Myth, Literature, and History. Papers Delivered at the International Medieval Congress, Univer-sity of Leeds, in 2005, 2006, and 2007 (2011) Internationale Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Mittelalterforschung
Olaf Wagener (Hrsg.), „vmbringt mit starcken turnen, murn“. Ortsbefesti- Band 28 gungen im Mittelalter (2010)
Hiram Kümper (Hrsg.), eLearning & Mediävistik. Mittelalter lehren und lernen im neumedialen Zeitalter (2011)
Olaf Wagener (Hrsg.), Symbole der Macht? Aspekte mittelalterlicher und frühneuzeitlicher Architektur (2012)
N. Peter Joosse, The Physician as a Rebellious Intellectual. The Book of the Two Pieces of Advice or Kitāb al-Naṣīḥatayn by cAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Yūsuf al-Baghdādī (1162–1231) (2013)
Meike Pfefferkorn, Zur Semantik von rike in der Sächsischen Weltchronik. Reden über Herrschaft in der frühen deutschen Chronistik - Transforma- tionen eines politischen Schlüsselwortes (2014)
Eva Spinazzè, La luce nell'architettura sacra: spazio e orientazione nelle chiese del X-XII secolo tra Romandie e Toscana. Including an English summary. Con una introduzione di Xavier Barral i Altet e di Manuela Incerti (2016)
Begründet von Peter Dinzelbacher Herausgegeben von Albrecht Classen LANG MEDIAEVISTIK
MEDI 28-2015 83024-160x230 Br-AM PLE.indd 1 11.04.16 KW 15 16:55 Internationale Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Mittelalterforschung
Begründet von Peter Dinzelbacher Herausgegeben von Albrecht Classen
Band 28 · 2015 Hl. Leonhard, S. Maria della Carità, Venedig
Auch in Italien fand der heilige Leonhard von Limoges, Patron der Gefangenen und Viehpatron, seine Verehrer. Dieses mit 1377 da- tierte Hochrelief zu Seiten des Eingangs zur (heute profanierten) Kirche S. Maria della Carità am Canal Grande zeigt ihn mit einem byzantinischen Vortragekreuz und eisernen Fesseln als Attributen. Zu seinen Füßen knien zwei Angehörige einer Bruderschaft, „con- fraternita“, die sich als „penitenti“ mit ihren Geißeln abbilden ließen. Ihm gegenüber ist ein gleichzeitig entstandener und in die gleiche Umrahmung gestellter heiliger Christophoros angebracht. Über bei- den Heiligen thront die Jungfrau Maria. (Bild und Text: Peter Dinzelbacher)
ISSN 0934-7453 ISSN-Internet 2199-806X © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt am Main 2016 Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Peter Lang Edition ist ein Imprint der Peter Lang GmbH. Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlages unzulässig und strafbar. Das gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen. www.peterlang.com Mediaevistik 28 · 2015 1
Inhalt
Aufsätze Herausgegeben von Werner Heinz
Werner Heinz, Eine Festschrift für Albrecht Classen 11 Peter Meister, The Scholar as Poet 15 Andrew Breeze, The Name of King Arthur 23 Connie L. Scarborough, The Disabled and the Monstrous: Examples from Medieval Spain 37 Cristian Bratu, Prologues as Locus Auctoris in Historical Narratives: An Overview from Antiquity to the Middle Ages 47 Penny Simons, Geographies in Aimon de Varennes’ Florimont 67 Sibylle Jefferis, The Influence of the Trojan War Story on theNibelungenlied : Motifs, Characters, Situations 87 Peter Dinzelbacher, „strîtes êre“ – über die Verflechtung von Ehre, Schande, Scham und Aggressivität in der mittelalterlichen Mentalität 99 Christopher R. Clason, A “Courtly” Reading of Natural Metaphors: Animals and Performance in Gottfried’s Tristan 141 Alan V. Murray, Wernher der Gartenaere and the Arthurian Romance: The Intertextuality of Helmbrecht’s Cap 161 Karen Pratt, Adapting the Rose for New Manuscript Contexts: the Case of Poitiers, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 215 175 William C. McDonald, Red Jews and the Antichrist as the Jewish Messiah: Michel Beheim’s Endicrist (c. 1455). With a Translation 195 Andrew Weeks, Deutsche Mystik und mystisches Deutschtum 217 Winfried Frey, Die versäumte Gelegenheit zur Toleranz gegenüber den Juden: Anselms von Canterbury Cur deus homo. Eine Skizze 233 Birgit Wiedl, ...und kam der jud vor mich ze offens gericht. Juden und (städtische) Gerichtsobrigkeiten im Spätmittelalter 243 Thomas Willard, Beya and Gabricus: Erotic Imagery in German Alchemy 269 Reinhold Münster, Die Pilger und die Fleischeslust. Zur Ideengeschichte von Erotik, Kunst und Religion 283 Werner Heinz, Heilige Längen: Zu den Maßen des Christus- und des Mariengrabes in Bebenhausen 297 2 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015
Martha Moffitt Peacock, Mirrors of Skill and Renown: Women and Self-Fashioning in Early-Modern Dutch Art 325 Berta Raposo, Der Gegensatz Nord/Süd als Seitenentwurf in der Mittelalterrezeption Friedrich de la Motte Fouqués 353 William McDonald, A Short Introduction to George F. Jones, Eine Kugel kam geflogen 361 George Fenwick Jones, Eine Kugel kam geflogen (A bullet came a-flying.) 363
Rezensionen Herausgegeben von Albrecht Classen
Gesamtes Mittelalter
Aborte im Mittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit: Bauforschung, Archäologie, Kulturgeschichte, ed. Olaf Wagener (A. CLASSEN) 371 Emily Albu, The Medieval Peutinger Map: Imperial Roman Revival in a German Empire (A. CLASSEN) 372 La Fascination pour Alexandre le Grand dans les littératures européennes (Xe–XVIe siècle): Réinventions d’un mythe, ed. C. Gaullier-Bougassas (R. J. CORMIER) 374 Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, Tim Neu, Christina Brauner (Hgg.), Alles nur symbo- lisch? Bilanz und Perspektiven der Erforschung symbolischer Kommunikation. Symbolische Kommunikation in der Vormoderne (R. LÜTZELSCHWAB) 376 The Arma Christi in Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture. With a Critical Edition of ‘O Vernicle’, ed. by Lisa H. Cooper and Andrea Denny-Brown (R. SCHMITZ-ESSER) 379 Barlaam und Josaphat: Neue Perspektiven auf ein europäisches Phänomen. Hg. von Constanza Cordoni und Matthias Meyer, unter Mitarbeit von Nina Hable (A. CLASSEN) 380 Georg Scheibelreiter, Wappen im Mittelalter (H. BERWINKEL) 382 Thomas Wozniak, Sebastian Müller, Andreas Meyer (Hg.), Königswege. Festschrift für Hans K. Schulze zum 80. Geburtstag und 50. Promotionsjubiläum (H. BERWINKEL) 384 A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges, Part IV: The British Isles. Volume I: Insular and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, ed. N. Morgan and S. Panayotova, with the assistance of Rebecca Rushforth (S. BRUCE) 386 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015 3
Daniel O’Sullivan, ed., Chess in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age. A Fundamental Thought Paradigm of the Premodern World (S. LUCHITSKAYA) 387 Handbook of Medieval Culture: Fundamental Aspects and Conditions of the European Middle Ages. Ed. Albrecht Classen (W. C. JORDAN) 390 Paul M. Cobb, Der Kampf ums Paradies: Eine islamische Geschichte der Kreuzzüge (A. CLASSEN) 392 Alexander Demandt, Der Baum: Eine Kulturgeschichte (A. CLASSEN) 394 Marina Münkler, Antje Sablotny und Matthias Standke, Hgg., Freundschaftszeichen: Gesten, Gaben und Symbole von Freundschaft im Mittelalter (A. CLASSEN) 396 Kerstin Hundahl, Lars Kjær, and Niels Lund, eds. Denmark and Europe in the Middle Ages, c. 1000–1525: Essays in Honour of Professor Michael H. Gelting (L. TRACY) 399 Jan Keupp und Romedio Schmitz-Esser, Hrg., Neue alte Sachlichkeit: Studienbuch Materialität des Mittelalters (A. CLASSEN) 401 Gerhard Karpp, Mittelalterliche Bibelhandschriften am Niederrhein (C. GALLE) 402 Katalog der mittelalterlichen Helmstedter Handschriften der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, Teil 1: Cod. Guelf. 1 bis 276 Helmst (C. GALLE) 404 Katalog der mittelalterlichen Handschriften in Salzburg. Stiftsbibliothek Mattsee, Archiv der Erzdiözese Salzburg, Salzburger Landesarchiv, Archiv der Stadt Salzburg, Salzburg Museum. Katalogband. Unter Mitarbeit von Beatrix Koll und Susanne Lang bearbeitet von Nikolaus Czifra und Rüdiger Lorenz. Registerband. Bearbeitet von Nikolaus Czifra und Rüdiger Lorenz (J. JEEP) 405 Anne Kirkham and Cordelia Warr, ed., Wounds in the Middle Ages. The History of Medicine in Context (L. TRACY) 407 Christina Mochty-Weltin, Karin Kühtreiber, Thomas Kühtreiber und Alexandra Zehetmayer, Wehrbauten und Adelssitze Niederösterreichs, Bd. 3: Das Viertel unter dem Wienerwald (R. WAGENER) 409 Hiram Kümper, Materialwissenschaft Mediävistik: Eine Einführung in die Historischen Hilfswissenschaften (A. CLASSEN) 411 Erik Kwakkel, Manuscripts of the Latin Classics, 800–1200 (S. BRUCE) 412 Literatur- und Kulturtheorien in der Germanistischen Mediävistik: Ein Handbuch. Hrsg. von Christiane Ackermann und Michael Egerding (A. CLASSEN) 414 Mächtige Frauen? Königinnen und Fürstinnen im europäischen Mittelalter (11.–14. Jahrhundert). Hrsg. von Claudia Zey. Unter Mitarbeit von Sophie Caflisch und Philippe Goridis (A. CLASSEN) 416 4 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015
Matter of Faith: An Interdisciplinary Study of Relics and Relic Veneration in the Medieval Period, ed. by James Robinson and Lloyd de Beer with Anna Harnden (R. SCHMITZ-ESSER) 417 The Meanings of Nudity in Medieval Art, hrsg. von Sherry C. M. Lindquist (R. SCHMITZ-ESSER) 419 Medieval Clothing and Textiles, ed. Robert Netherton and Gale R. Owen-Crocker, with the assistance of Monica L. Wright (A. CLASSEN) 421 The Medieval Way of War: Studies in Medieval Military History in Honor of Bernard S. Bachrach, ed. by Gregory L. Halfond (W. SAYERS) 422 Rudolf Simek, Monster im Mittelalter: Die phantastische Welt der Wundervölker und Fabelwesen (A. CLASSEN) 423 Muslim and Christian Contact in the Middle Ages: A Reader, ed. Jarbel Rodriguez (A. CLASSEN) 428 Jean Passini, The Medieval Jewish Quarter of Toledo (R. CORMIER) 429 Georg Patt, Studien zu den Salzehnten im Mittelalter, 2 Bde. (H. KÜMPER) 430 Polemic: Language as Violence in Medieval and Early Modern Discourse. Eds. Almut Suerbaum, George Southcombe, and Benjamin Thompson (F. ALFIE) 431 Thomas Wozniak, Quedlinburg. Kleine Stadtgeschichte (D. NICHOLAS) 433 Suzanne Reynolds, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library at Holkham Hall. Volume I. Manuscripts from Italy to 1500. Part I. Shelfmarks 1–399 (R. LÜTZELSCHWAB) 434 Barbara H. Rosenwein, Generations of Feeling: A History of Emotions, 600–1700 (A. CLASSEN) 437 Michael Mitterauer, St. Jakob und der Sternenweg. Mittelalterliche Wurzeln einer großen Wallfahrt (C. GRAFINGER) 439 Robert Bartlett, Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things? Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation (S. BRUCE) 441 John Carey, Emma Nic Cárthaigh, and Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh, with a fore- word by Bernard McGinn, The End and Beyond: Medieval Irish Eschatology (E. GARDINER) 442 The Medieval Chronicle IX, ed. Erik Kooper and Sjoerd Levelt (A. CLASSEN) 445 Von achtzehn Wachteln und dem Finkenritter: Deutsche Unsinnsdichtung des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit. Mittelhochdeutsch / Frühneuhochdeutsch / Neuhochdeutsch. Hrsg., übersetzt und kommentiert von Horst Brunner (A. CLASSEN) 446 Vergessene Texte des Mittelalters, hrsg. von Nathanel Busch und Björn Reich (A. CLASSEN) 448 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015 5
Katie L. Walter, Ed., Reading Skin in Medieval Literature and Culture. The New Middle Ages (J. BARR) 451 Dorothea Weltecke, Ulrich Gotter und Ulrich Rüdiger (Hg.): Religiöse Vielfalt und der Umgang mit Minderheiten. Vergangene und gegenwärtige Erfahrungen (C. SCHOLL) 453 Siegfried Wenzel, Medieval Artes Preaedicandi. A Synthesis of Scholastic Sermon Structure (C. GALLE) 455
Frühmittelalter
Kristján Ahronson, Into the Ocean: Vikings, Irish, and Environmental Change in Iceland and the North (W. SAYERS) 457 Anthologia Latina. Eingeleitet, übersetzt und kommentiert von Wolfgang Fels (A. CLASSEN) 458 The Dating of “Beowulf”: A Reassessment, ed. Leonard Neidorf (A. BREEZE) 460 Luigi Andrea Berto, In Search of the First Venetians: Prosopography of Early Medieval Venice (A. THALLER) 461 Constance Brittain Bouchard, Rewriting Saints and Ancestors. Memory and Forgetting in France, 500–1200 (E. MEGIER) 463 Claire Breay and Bernard Meehan, The St. Cuthbert Gospel: Studies on the Insular Manuscript of the Gospel of John (S. BRUCE) 465 Peter Brown, The Ransom of the Soul: Afterlife and Wealth in Early Western Christianity (S. BRUCE) 467 Michael D. C. Drout, Tradition & Influence in Anglo-Saxon Literature: An Evolutionary, Cognitivist Approach (J. HILL) 468 Ego Trouble: Authors and their Identities in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Richard Corradini, Matthew Gillis, Rosamond McKitterick, and Irene van Renswoude (C. LANDON) 470 Janine Fries-Knoblach and Heiko Steuer, with John Hines (eds.), The Baiuvarii and Thuringi. An Ethnographic Perspective (M. PIERCE) 472 Clemens Gantner, Freunde Roms und Völker der Finsternis. Die päpstliche Konstruktion von Anderen im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert (C. GRAFINGER) 474 Tim Geelhaar, Christianitas: Eine Wortgeschichte von der Spätantike bis zum Mittelalter (E. MEGIER) 475 Die Gumbertusbibel: Goldene Bilderpracht der Romanik. Hrsg. von Anna Pawlik und Michele C. Ferrari (A. CLASSEN) 479 6 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015
Die Kaiserchronik: Eine Auswahl. Mittelhochdeutsch / Neuhochdeutsch. Übersetzt, kommentiert und mit einem Nachwort versehen von Mathias Herweg (A. CLASSEN) 480 Katalog der lateinischen Handschriften der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München. Die Handschriften aus Regensburg. Band 4. Clm 14401–14540. Neu beschrieben von Friedrich Helmer und Julie Knödler unter Mitarbeit von Günter Glauche (J. JEEP) 481 Arnulf Krause, Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie und Heldensage (W SCHÄFKE) 483 Derek Krueger, Liturgical Subjects: Christian Ritual, Biblical Narrative, and the Formation of Self in Byzantium (V. MARINIS) 486 Natalie Maag, Alemannische Minuskel (744–846 n. Chr.) Frühe Schriftkultur im Bodenseeraum und Voralpenland (J. JEEP) 487 Richard Marsden, The Cambridge Old English Reader (A. CLASSEN) 489 Valerie L. Garver and Owen M. Phelan, ed., Rome and Religion in the Medieval World: Studies in Honor of Thomas F.X. Noble (S. BRUCE) 490 Otfrid von Weißenburg, Evangelienbuch. Aus dem Althochdeutschen übertragen und mit einer Einführung, Anmerkungen und einer Auswahlbibliographie versehen von Heiko Hartmann (A. CLASSEN) 491 Michael Philip Penn, Envisioning Islam: Syriac Christians and the Early Muslim World. Divinations: Rereading Late Antique Religion (S. BOYD) 493 The Old English Martyrology: Edition, Translation and Commentary, ed. Christine Rauer (S. GODLOVE) 495 Markus Schiegg, Frühmittelalterliche Glossen. Ein Beitrag zur Funktionalität und Kontextualität mittelalterlicher Schriftlichkeit (J. JEEP) 497 Juan Signes Codoñer, The Emperor Theophilos and the East, 829–842 (W. TREADGOLD) 500 Victoria Zimmerl-Panagl, Lukas J. Dorfbauer and Clemens Weidmann, ed., Edition und Erforschung lateinischer patristischer Texte: 150 Jahre CSEL: Festschrift für Kurt Smolak zum 70 (S. BRUCE) 502 Anders Winroth, The Age of the Vikings (A. SAUCKEL) 503
Hochmittelalter
Aelred de Rievaulx, Sermons. La Collection de Reading (C. GALLE) 507 Hartmann von Aue, Der arme Heinrich. Mittelhochdeutsch/Neuhochdeutsch. Hrsg., übersetzt und kommentiert von Nathanael Busch und Jürgen Wolf (A. CLASSEN) 509 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015 7
Philippe Buc, Holy War, Martyrdom, and Terror: Christianity, Violence, and the West (E. KUEHN) 510 Lothar Voetz, Der Codex Manesse. Die berühmteste Liederhandschrift des Mittelalters (A. CLASSEN) 512 Helge Eilers, Studien zu Sprache und Stil in alt- und mittelhochdeutscher Literatur (M. PIERCE) 513 Heiko Hartmann, Einführung in das Werk Wolframs von Eschenbach (A. CLASSEN) 515 Joachim Heinzle, Traditionelles Erzählen. Beiträge zum Verständnis von Nibelungensage und Nibelungenlied (M. PIERCE) 516 Eduard Hlawitschka, Die Ahnen der hochmittelalterlichen deutschen Könige und Kaiser und ihrer Gemahlinnen (A. WOLF) 518 Mirabilia Urbis Romae: Die Wunderwerke der Stadt Rom. Einleitung, Übersetzung und Kommentar von Gerlinde Huber-Rebenich, Martin Wallraff, Katharina Heyden und Thomas Krönung (A. CLASSEN) 523 Jan-Dirk Müller, Das Nibelungenlied. 4. neu bearbeitete und erweiterte Aufl. (A. CLASSEN) 524 Rupert T. Pickens, Perceval and Gawain in Dark Mirrors: Reflection and Reflexivity in Chrétien de Troyes’s Conte del Graal (A. CLASSEN) 525 Christine Putzo, Konrad Fleck, ‘Flore und Blanscheflur’ (A. CLASSEN) 526 The Romance of Tristran by Beroul and Beroul II: A Diplomatic Edition and a Critical Edition by Barbara N. Sargent-Baur (A. CLASSEN) 529 Larissa Schuler-Lang, Wildes Erzählen – Erzählen vom Wilden: Parzival, Busant und Wolfdietrich D. (A. CLASSEN) 530 Solomon ibn Abirol (Avicebron), The Font of Life (Fons Vitae). Trans. from the Latin with an Introduction by John A. Laumakis (A. CLASSEN) 531 Die jüngere Translatio s. Dionysii Areopagitae, hg. von Veronika Lukas (R. LÜTZELSCHWAB) 532 Verena Türck, Beherrschter Raum und anerkannte Herrschaft (H. BERWINKEL) 535 John Tzetzes, Allegories of the Iliad. Translated by Adam J. Goldwyn and Dimitra Kokkini (R. CORMIER) 537 Bernardus Silvestris, Poetic Works, .ed. and trans. by Winthrop Wetherbee (R. CORMIER) 538 Chris Wickham, Sleepwalking into a New World: The Emergence of the Italian City Communes in the Twelfth Century (F. ALFIE) 540 Wigamur, ed. and trans. by Joseph M. Sullivan (A. CLASSEN) 542 8 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015
The Histories of a Medieval German City, Worms, c. 1000-c. 1300. Translation and Commentary. Trans. by David S. Bachrach (A. CLASSEN) 543 Roland Zingg, Die Briefsammlungen der Erzbischöfe von Canterbury, 1070–1170 (M. WITZLEB) 545 Christopher Tyerman, The Practices of Crusading. Image and Action from the Eleventh to the Sixteenth Centuries (S. LUCHITSKAYA) 547
Spätmittelalter
Die Augsburger Cantiones-Sammlung. Hrsg., übersetzt und kommentiert von Michael Callsen (A. CLASSEN) 551 Steven Bednarski. A Poisoned Past: The Life and Times of Margarida de Portu, a Fourteenth-Century Accused Poisoner (W. PFEFFER) 551 John Page’s “The Siege of Rouen”, ed. Joanna Bellis (A. BREEZE) 554 Vasil Bivolarov, Inquisitoren-Handbücher (A. KOBAYASHI) 555 Undine Brückner, Dorothea von Hof: “Das buoch der götlichen liebe und summe der tugent” (A. CLASSEN) 559 The Book of Gladness / The Livre de Leesce, trans. annotated, and with an Introduction by Linda Burke (A. CLASSEN) 561 Gisela Drossbach und Gerhard Wolf (Hrsg.), Caritas im Schatten von Sankt Peter (P. DINZELBACHER) 561 Christine de Pizan, Le Livre des epistres du debat sus le Rommant de la Rose (A. CLASSEN) 562 The Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript. Vol. 2 and 3. Ed. and trans. by Susanna Fein with David Raybin and Jan Ziolkowski (A. CLASSEN) 564 Der Stricker, Daniel von dem Blühenden Tal. 3., überarbeitete Aufl. Hg. von Michael Resler (A. CLASSEN) 565 Death, Torture and the Broken Body in European Art, 1300–1650, ed. John R. Decker and Mitzi Kirkland-Ives (A. CLASSEN) 566 Deutsches Literatur-Lexikon: Das Mittelalter. Hrsg. von Wolfgang Achnitz (A. CLASSEN) 568 Clayton J. Drees, Bishop Richard Fox of Winchester (R. LÜTZELSCHWAB) 570 Nikolaus Andreas Egel, Die Welt im Übergang. Der diskursive, subjektive und skeptische Charakter der Mappamondo des Fra Mauro (R. SCHMITZ-ESSER) 572 Arnold Esch, Die Lebenswelt des europäischen Spätmittelalters: Kleine Schicksale selbst erzählt in Schreiben an den Papst (A. CLASSEN) 574 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015 9
Everyday Objects. Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture and its Meanings, hrsg. von Tara Hamling und Catherine Richardson (R. SCHMITZ-ESSER) 576 Claire Fanger, Rewriting Magic: An Exegesis of the Visionary Autobiography of a Fourteenth-Century French Monk (T. WILLARD) 577 Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde in Modern Verse. Trans., with Notes, by Joseph Glaser (A. CLASSEN) 579 Ursula Gießmann, Der letzte Gegenpast: Felix V.: Studien zu Herrschaftspraxis und Legitimationsstrategien (1434–1451) (A. CLASSEN) 580 Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller, Prager Köpfe von Karl IV (A. CLASSEN) 582 Die Inschriften des Landkreises Hildesheim, bearb. von Christine Wulf (R. SCHMITZ-ESSER) 583 Ulrike Jenni, Maria Theisen, Mitteleuropäische Schulen IV (ca. 1380–1400) (J. JEEP) 584 Douglas Kelly, Machaut and the Medieval Apprenticeship Tradition: Truth, Fiction and Poetic Craft (U. SMILANSKY) 587 Sari Kivistö, The Vices of Learning: Morality and Knowledge at Early Modern Universities (E. KUEHN) 590 Die Bibliothek Herzog Johann Albrechts I. von Mecklenburg (1525–1576), beschrieben von Nilüfer Krüger (H. KÜMPER) 591 Maximilians Ruhmeswerk: Künste und Wissenschaften im Umkreis Kaiser Maximilians I. Hrsg. von Jan-Dirk Müller und Hans-Joachim Ziegeler (A. CLASSEN) 592 A Middle English Medical Remedy Book Edited from Glasgow University Library MS Hunter 185, ed. Francisco Alonso Almeida (A. BREEZE) 594 „Mit schönen figuren“ Buchkunst im deutschen Südwesten. Eine Ausstellung der Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg und der Württembergischen Landesbibliothek Stuttgart. Hg. von Maria Effinger und Kerstin Losert mit Beiträgen von Margit Krenn, Wolfgang Metzger und Karin Zimmermann (J. JEEP) 596 Nils Bock. Die Herolde im römisch-deutschen Reich (D. NICHOLAS) 598 Christina Normore, A Feast for the Eyes: Art, Performance & the Late Medieval Banquet (A. RUSSAKOFF) 600 Oton de Granson, Poems. Ed. and trans. by Peter Nicholson and Joan Grenier- Winther (A. CLASSEN) 602 Sophie Page, Magic in the Cloister: Pious Motives, Illicit Interests, and Occult Approaches to the Medieval Universe (S. BRUCE) 604 Passional. Buch I: Marienleben. Buch II: Apostellegenden. Hrsg. von Annegret Haase, Martin Schubert und Jürgen Wolf (A. CLASSEN) 605 10 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015
Paurnfeindts Fechtbuch aus dem Jahr 1516, hg. von Matthias Johannes Bauer (A. CLASSEN) 607 Pedro Martínez García, El cara a cara con el otro: la visión de lo ajeno a fines de la Edad Media y comienzos de la Edad Moderna a través del viaje (A. CLASSEN) 608 Perceforest. Sixième partie. Edition critique par Gilles Roussineau (A. CLASSEN) 610 Coriolano Cippico, The Deeds of Commander Pietro Mocenigo in Three Books. Introduction, translation and notes by Kiril Petkov (A. THALLER) 611 The Works of the “Gawain” Poet: “Pearl”, “Cleanness”, “Patience”, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, ed. Ad Putter and Myra Stokes (A. BREEZE) 613 Wolfgang Riehle, The Secret Within. Hermits, Recluses, and Spiritual Outsiders in Medieval England (J. LUDWIKOWSKA) 615 Rosengarten. Hrsg. von Elisabeth Lienert, Sonja Kerth und Svenja Nierentz. Teilband I: Einleitung, ‘Rosengarten ‘ A. Teilband II: ‘Rosengarten’ DP. Teilband III: ‘Rosengarten’ C, ‘Rosengarten’ F, ‘Niederdeutscher Rosengarten, Verzeichnisse (A. CLASSEN) 617 Alexander Markus Schilling, Mögliches, Unwahrscheinliches, Fabelhaftes: Die “Historia trium regum” des Johannes von Hildesheim und ihre orientalischen Quellen (D. RIEDEL) 618 Sebastian Brant, Indices zu Tugent Spyl und Narrenschiff. Hrsg. von Frédéric Hartweg und Wolfgang Putschke (A. CLASSEN) 620 Gabriele Signori, ed., Prekäre Ökonomien: Schulden in Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit (H. KÜMPER) 621 Charlotte A. Stanford, Commemorating the Dead in Late Medieval Strasbourg: The Cathedral’s Book of Donors and Its Use (1320–1521) (A. CLASSEN) 624 Supplications from England and Wales in the Registers of the Apostolic Penitentiary 1410–1503, volume II: 1464–1492, vol. III: 1492–1503 ed. by P. D. Clark-P.N.R. Zutshi (C. GRAFINGER) 625 Volker Stamm, Grundbesitz in einer spätmittelalterlichen Marktgemeinde: Land und Leute in Gries bei Bozen Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte (A. RAFFEINER) 627 Horst Rupp, Hrsg., Der Waltensburger Meister in seiner Zeit (A. CLASSEN) 629 Rainer Welle, ... vnd mit der rechten faust ein mordstuck. Baumanns Fecht- und Ringkampfhandschrift. Edition und Kommentierung der anonymen Fecht- und Ringkampfhandschrift Cod. I.6.4o2 der UB Augsburg aus den Beständen der Öttingen-Wallersteinischen Bibliothek (A. CLASSEN) 631 William Langland, Piers Plowman: A Modern Verse Translation, trans. Peter Sutton (A. CLASSEN) 632 Der Wunderer, hrsg. von Florian Kragl (A. CLASSEN) 634 10.3726/83024_23 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015 23
Andrew Breeze
The Name of King Arthur
Abstract: Few medieval subjects offer better opportunities for thought and its opposite than the Brit- ish hero Arthur. Evidence for him is limited; books on him abound. So it is worth discussing his name, one of the many things really known about him. Celtic scholars have long derived it from Latin Artorius (and not any native British form); despite that, misconceptions remain. One even notices a decline, so that conclusions accepted in the 1950s are now ignored by senior professors at universities in Britain and beyond. A study of the name Arthur, familiar throughout the middle ages and beyond, may thus honour a medievalist who has done much to enlighten us on them, besides warning us on the fragility of established truth. We begin not in Wales or Cornwall, but Germany. The first person to place Arthur’s name within the context of its time was Heinrich Zimmer (1851–1910), who set out namesakes from early Wales and Scotland, including some of the sixth and early seventh centuries.1 His references were taken up with admirable promptness by Meyer and Nutt. The first reproduced entries from Irish annals, including the seventeenth-century Annals of Clon- macnoise, with its entry for the year 624: Mongan mac Fiaghna, a very well-spoken man, and much given to the wooing of women, was killed by one [Arthur ap] Bicoir, a Welshman, with a stone. Nutt commented on this “Arthur of Britain living only a hundred years after the dux bel- lorum” and mentioned others. In south-west Wales during 600–630 was Arthur map Pedr; in Scotland was an Arthur whose death is recorded by Irish annalists in 596, described as the son (recte, grandson) of Aedhán mac Gabhráin (d. 606), king of Dál Riada. Like Zim- mer, Nutt saw records of the three in about 600 as proving “the existence at this date of the historical Arthur legend.”2 Sir John Lloyd (1861–1947), greatest of Welsh historians, took another line. He believed in Arthur’s historicity, in part because of his name. He cited Sir John Rhŷs (1840–1915) of Oxford on it as “probably of Roman origin and derived from that of the Artorian clan”, which included individuals mentioned by Tacitus and (somewhat disobligingly) Juvenal.3 Sir John Morris-Jones (1864–1929), Lloyd’s colleague at Bangor, indirectly strengthened the derivation of Arthur from Latin Artorius by an analysis of Welsh derivative nouns. A stem -ur is there unknown.4 That points to Arthur as a non-native form, a borrowing. It is not formed from Welsh arth “bear” or any other Celtic term. After Lloyd and Morris-Jones had together connected Arthur with Rome, W. J. Watson (1865–1948) in Edinburgh of- fered further comments. He recorded the battle-death during the 590s in eastern Scotland of Arthur, son (read “grandson”) of Aedhán mac Gabhráin. Aedhán was born in about 533, allegedly of a British (not Irish) mother from one of the dynasties in North Britain. Despite 24 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015 later attacks on them, he had close connections with his British neighbours in his early days. “Born some four years before the death of Arthur, he must have been well acquainted with the story of his exploits, and it is specially notable that he named his eldest son [sic] Arthur: the first Gael, so far as we know, to bear that name.” Watson took the original Arthur as a northern hero, unlike the fifth-century Ambrosius Aurelianus mentioned by Gildas, and thought the hypothesis confirmed by Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh and other Scottish places with Arthurian toponyms. On the etymology of Arthur he said nothing.5 A Latin derivation for Arthur has, nevertheless, stood four-square for a long time. Yet attempts to topple it were indicated by Sir Edmund Chambers (1866–1954). He made vari- ous points. He rejected attempts to explain the form as a corruption of Aurelianus, referring to Ambrosius Aurelianus, fifth-century vanquisher of the West Saxons.Arthur is certainly authentic, because it was applied (if rarely) to other Celts. The Latin life of St Columba (d. 597) by Adhamhnán (Adomnán, d. 704) of Iona mentions a prince Arturius, who be- longed to the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riada (in the Argyll region of western Scotland) and was killed in a battle of 596. A second Irish Artur was the grandfather of Faradach, listed with other ecclesiastics in a law-text of 697. A third Gaelic Arthur (whose father had the British name Bicuir, on which see below) killed Mongán, an Ulster chieftain, in about 624. A fourth Arthur, this time a Welshman, lived in Dyfed (south-west Wales) some twenty years previous. He was the great-grandson of Vortipor (a sixth-century tyrant denounced by Gildas), whose funerary monument can be seen to this day in a Carmarthen museum. These four Celts called Arthur provide strong evidence for the name in early Britain. As for its origin, Chambers touched upon etymologies of a mythological kind relating it to Celtic or Sanskrit expressions for “god”, “bear”, “ploughland”, “stone”, or “hammer”, but also (with greater confidence) to the Romangens -name Artorius borne by Lucius Artorius Castus, who led cavalry in Britain and is commemorated by an inscription of about 200 in a suburb of Split, Croatia. Despite glosses in thirteenth-century manuscripts of the ninth-cen- tury Historia Brittonum (with its famous chapter on Arthur’s twelve battles) which declare “Artur Latine translatum sonat ursum horribilem vel malleum ferreum, quo confringuntur mole leonum”, Chambers put his money, not on a fearsome lion or an iron hammer by which teeth of lions are shattered, but on Latin Artorius.6 The Chadwicks cited Chambers with approval. The lack of early direct evidence for Arthur notwithstanding, the names of Prince Arturius of Argyll (killed in the late sixth century), the Ulster king Mongán killed about 624 in Kintyre ab Artuir filio Bicoir, and the Arthur in Dyfed of the early sixth century, show the name as familiar by 600. It was “clearly Roman”, and its popularity may “have been due to some famous person of that name in the near past”.7 We may add that it later became rare amongst the Britons, as shown by geneal- ogies and other sources of Welsh nomenclature. This adds weight to the case for Arthur as a hero living after about 500. Chambers and the Chadwicks wrote with moderation and sense. There is less of that in Collingwood’s words on the subject. Arthur’s “historicity” can “hardly be called in ques- tion”; he “really lived, and was a great champion of the British people”, bearing “a recog- nized though not very common Roman family name”, which implies that he came from Mediaevistik 28 · 2015 25 a Romanized part of Britain, and was probably “the son of a good family in one of the civitates of the lowland zone”. Later legends of his “noble parentage and birthplace” may be written off as fictions. He was not, of course, a king.8 Despite the chorus for Arthur
An Oxford reference book describes the name Arthur as “subject of much speculation” and “variously derived from Celtic artus ‘a bear’, Irish art ‘a stone’”, but is “more probably of Latin origin”, for there “seems to have been a Roman gens named Artorius”. Its modern fame is due to Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington.33 So in 1977. Here we recall Jackson in 1959: “The name Arthur is unquestionably derived from Artorius.” Our form is from Latin. It is not native to Celtic. The Oxford book is out of date. In a long article on the British hero, Rachel Bromwich (1915–2010) accepted the Latin etymology. Like the fifth-century St Patrick and Ambrosius Aurelianus, Arthur bore a Ro- man name. She saw him as a Northern leader, perhaps an opponent of “Anglian raiders and settlers in the East Riding” of Yorkshire. Nevertheless, centuries later his cult had struck roots in Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany. She cited doubts of Thomas Jones (1910–1972) of Aberystwyth on Arthur’s links with Mount Badon, of which early Welsh vernacular tradi- tion knows nothing. Therafter she went badly wrong, following Constance Bullock-Davies of Cardiff on the form Arcturus for the hero in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Latin writers like Peter of Blois and Gervase of Tilbury, and taking it to imply that this hero belonged to the north, that is, “north-west Europe”, and “was ‘bear-like’ in his characteristics”.34 Her thinking was muddled. Medieval writers used Arcturus because it was as familiar from Vergil and other classical authors as Artorius was not. Arcturus is the third brightest star in the sky, after Sirius and Vega. It is in the constellation of Boötes by the Great Bear. Hence its name, “Bearkeeper”, from Greek arktos “bear” and ouros “guard”. It has nothing to do with Arthur as north-western warrior or resembling a bear. Writers like Peter of Blois and Gervase of Tilbury, who knew nothing of Welsh arth “bear”, used Arcturus because Artori- us was unfamiliar to them. The point is proved (as noted below) by corrupt manuscripts of Juvenal, where Arcturus is a bad reading for Artorius in his third satire. In the twelfth-century Book of Llandaff, Arthur, great-grandson of Vortipor of Dyfed, appears as father to the donor in a forged charter (nominally of about 625) granting lands at Llandeilo Fawr, near Carmarthen. Of 850 or so names occurring in these documents, it is unique.35 The rareness of the form in early documents is singular. It makes the more remarkable its four occurrences in about 600. Arthur appears in another Oxford book, which comments on “a growing movement” for his historicity, but also David Dumville’s blistering attack of 1977 on it, and so comes to no conclusions.36 Charles Thomas (b. 1928) sides with the anti-historicists. He says this. “Many will agree with Dr David Dumville’s cri de coeur: ‘The fact of the matter is that there is no historical evidence about Arthur; we must reject him from our histories and, above all, from the titles of our books.’ Any sane person would agree. These enticing Will- of-the-wisps have too long dominated, and deflected, useful advances in our study.”37 Stur- dy dismissal also comes from James Campbell (b. 1935) of Oxford. For him, there are historical allusions to Arthur in three places only: the Gododdin, Historia Brittonum, and Annales Cambriae. “That is all. And on that little, all the imagination of the learned and unlearned has run riot.” Almost the sole merit of “the inexhaustible, if rather ridiculous, interest in trying to work out who the ‘real’ Arthur was” is to remind us how little we know Mediaevistik 28 · 2015 29 of fifth- and sixth-century events.38 But Dr Campbell ignores the evidence of Arthur’s name and namesakes. They cannot be brushed aside. In a posthumous work, Morris showed himself unrepentant to the end. During the 470s or so, Ambrosius Aurelianus “was replaced by Arthur”, whose name suggests a comparable “origin and background” in “the families of great Roman landlords”; he became “emperor, the last Roman emperor in Britain”, whose “empire set about the recovery of the whole of the former Roman diocese, to the farthest limits that Roman rule had ever reached”, from the Clyde to Colchester, even if its time was brief, for the “restoration of past forms could not take root.”39 After such insouciance, no surprise that another scholar wrote in outrage on the lack of evidence for the above in Gildas or elsewhere, and how “No figure on the borderline of history and mythology has wasted more of the historian’s time”, with use of the title “Age of Arthur” for the whole period 350–650 demonstrating “a total disregard of the valid historical evidence.”40 At this point we leave history for philology. Latinists will findArturius or Arcturius for Artorius in bad texts of Juvenal but not good ones, above all Montpellier, Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Médicine, MS H 125, of the late ninth century.41 That Artorius perplexed the medieval scribes shows it as unusual. The point is worth recalling. As for its most famous bearer, the editors of the eleventh-century Mabinogion tale of Culhwch observe merely how, whatever his ultimate origins, “in early literature he belongs, like Fionn, to the realm of mythology rather than to that of history.”42 Against that we may remark that Fionn mac Cumhaill was not called after any Roman. Nevertheless, the equating of Arthur with a mythical Irishman is continued by Dr Padel. He rejects as unhistorical the references to Arthur’s battles in Annales Cambriae. As insecure is his view of Arthur’s namesakes in western Britain of the years about 600, which he associates with Irish settlements and Arthur as “primarily a figure of folklore”. This being hard to reconcile with his having a Roman name and a slightly unusual one at that, Dr Padel revives the association with Lucius Artorius Castus, described as “a Roman centurion of the late sec- ond or the third century who was appointed to lead two legions from Britain against the Armoricans; our knowledge of him comes from a memorial to him in his native Dalma- tia”, although he shares nothing “with the figure of Arthur” except “his campaign on the Continent” set out by Geoffrey, and not by any source earlier than Geoffrey.43 Yet Lucius Artorius did not lead campaigns in Brittany, as we shall see. Nor is there any reason why a Roman leader of about 200 should gain fame from Argyll to Carmarthen four centuries later. A connection is out of the question. Despite silence on his name, Dr Lloyd-Morgan stresses Arthur’s associations with North Britain in the Gododdin’s praise of a hero mighty in slaughtering his foes, “though he was no Arthur”.44 We shall find other reasons for placing the historical Arthur in the North. Rod- ney Castleden offers comments on Arthur’s name which will mislead non-philologists.45 More evidence comes from an important paper by Ken Dark of Reading, which performs an act of rehabilitation, maintaining on the basis of the Arthurs of Wales and Scotland that there was a historical original behind them, despite David Dumville’s supposed vaporizing of him in 1977. Dark cites five such persons. They are respectively Arthur son of Pedr, in 30 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015
West Wales; Arthur grandson of Aedhán son of Gabhrán, in Scotland; Arthur, son of Bi- coir, who killed the Ulster king Mongán in 624 or so; and Artúir grandfather of Feradach, an Irish cleric recorded in 697. Dark cites a fifthArtuir in an early inscription at Toureen, near Tipperary, but this may be dismissed (it was not recognized by Koch [cf. note 53] in 2007). Dark stresses the Irish context of each, the ruling house of Dyfed being related to those in southern Ireland. He rightly dismisses the notion of Arthur as a pagan deity. Lit- erature in the Celtic languages has mythology in plenty, but nothing to substantiate this. He also rejects identification of Lucius Artorius Castus as the original Arthur, preferring instead a warrior active in Gaelic Scotland or West Wales in the sixth century, who became “a military hero among Irish elites with British connections in the later sixth and seventh centuries, and possibly also among the Britons”, this “prototypical” figure perhaps being active in Dyfed, although this is very uncertain.46 Unfortunately, there are problems here. If the Irishness of the historical figure is emphasized, it is curious that his later fame was amongst Britons, from Scotland to Brittany, and not at all amongst the Irish. Nor was his name obviously Irish. Arthur will have been a Briton. Despite interesting material on Latin and vernacular sources, there is nothing about his origins in Dr Padel’s Arthurian book.47 Yet it avoids the pitfalls into which Frank Reno disappears. After starting well by quoting Sir John Lloyd and J. P. S. Tatlock on Arthur as rare in early British nomenclature, he goes wrong in relating it to Welsh ardd ‘high’, a “descriptor for Ambrosius Aurelianus, which became an epithet”.48 This is absurd. Arthur has nothing to do with ardd. Mr Reno does not know what he is talking about. We are on better ground with Nick Higham (b. 1950) of Manchester, despite philological deficiencies. He says much on Lucius Artorius Castus as a possible “origin for King Arthur in the second century” (though to no avail, for Burley in 2005 was to destroy the case for all time). As for the Arthurs in Dál Riada and beyond, he sees them as “exclusive to Irish or Irish-related families”, desiring “to capture whatever mythological kudos and religious potency already surrounded the name.”49 Why a warrior called Artorius should have had such qualities more than (say) one called Agricola or Donatus he does not explain. We have noted above that there are no grounds for seeing the British hero as trailing clouds of mythological glory. His origins have nothing to do with bears, gods, or Celtic paganism. He is a figure of this world, and bears “the well-attested Roman name Artorius”, which had “unprecedented currency among the Celts of Britain in the sixth century.”50 That currency is set out at length by Ann Dooley of Toronto in an interesting account. It is a pity that she seems unaware of Banner- man on Aedhán’s descendant Arthur as his grandson, and Aedhán’s mother Lluan as from Brechin in Scotland, not Brecknock in south-east Wales.51 There is definitive comment on the epitaph of Lucius Artorius Castus from near Split, Croatia. It cites a paper of 1997 by Xavier Loriot on its “mythe historique”. Loriot read its account of how Artorius, “commander of two British legions”, led them ADVERSUS ARME[NIO]S “against the Armenians”, rejecting the earlier reading ARM[ORICANO]S “Armoricans” (of northern Brittany). The case for any campaign in Gaul thus collapses, as does that for a link with Arthur. Birley cites Higham and others as believing it possible, but remarks tersely that “It must now lapse”.52 Also decredited is the inscription with the form Mediaevistik 28 · 2015 31
“Arthur” at Toureen, Ireland. No “Arthur” appears amongst these many inscriptions as set out by Koch.53 The form will be a misreading by earlier epigraphers. Both the inscription in Croatia and the one in Ireland are, nevertheless, mentioned by Martin Aurell, who further derives Artorius from reconstructed Common Celtic arto-wiros “bear-man”, even though it would be strange if a Dalmatian had a Celtic name. He gives the names of the five or six later Arthurs, following Dark’s paper of 2000, including the one allegedly commemorated near Tipperary.54 The new Welsh encyclopedia is silent on the name.55 Artúr son of Aedhán son of Gabhrán is mentioned by James Fraser. Like Ann Dooley, he passes over Bannerman’s arguments for him as Aedhán’s grandson and for his great-grand- mother Lluan as from Brechin in eastern Scotland, even though it actually supports his pro- posal for Artúr’s descent from a “North Briton” and not a princess of Brecknock, Wales.56 In a later review, Nick Higham limits himself to surveying the “nationalistic, dynastic, and ideological agenda” of Historia Brittonum and similar texts, all “seeking to manipulate the past to serve present needs”.57 Professor Charles-Edwards says still less. Arthur being on the fringe of history, he scarcely figures in his narrative, unlike the battle of Mount Badon attributed to him.58 Professor Halsall of York offers a contrast. He does not neglect the Brit- ish hero. He says too much. What to pick from his mountain of misinformation is not easy. But here is a specimen. He tells us that “there are perfectly reasonable Celtic etymologies for Arthur, based on the word arto ‘bear’, such as ‘Arto-rigos’ (Bear-King) or, less plau- sibly, ‘Arto-uiros’ (Bear-Man).”59 This despite Kenneth Jackson’s 1959 statement, “The name Arthur is unquestionably derived from Artorius, not rare in the history of Rome.” Professor Halsall’s book demonstrates the decline in British academic standards since the 1950s. Other writers will not detain us long. Dr Padel’s book of 2000 has re-appeared with an index and new pagination, but unaltered text. It discusses Arthur as a folklore hero, but says nothing on historicity.60 Amongst a mass of data in one book, Flint Johnson is silent on the evidence from Dál Riada and Dyfed.61 We find no enlightenment from him elsewhere.62 For a last word, Gerard Morgan of Aberystwyth tells us this. “The opinion of most leading scholars is that, if Arthur was a historical person, then we know nothing about him, not a single hard fact about his life.”63 And so we end with an ignorance that is complete. The first part of our discussion ends here. It shows gathering disbelief in the historical Ar- thur, even in his very existence. Nevertheless, what follows will rescue us from this pit of darkness, indicating various things which can be known about the British hero. First is the cheering implication that he really existed. There has been a tendency to make him out as as unhistorical as Fionn mac Cumhaill, the Irish giant, because of the folklore nature of later traditions. But it is not difficult to think of historical persons with legendary reputations. Nobody doubts that Hruodland existed, had a Frankish name, was Prefect of the Breton March, and died a soldier’s death in the Pyrenees on 15 August 778, for all the fantastic distortions of the eleventh-century Chanson de Roland.64 Similarly and for Wales, all accept that the Roman emperor in the Mabinogion’s “Dream of Maxen”, a love-story of about 1200, derives from Magnus Maximus, a Spanish commander who in 32 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015
383 usurped military power in Britain, invaded Gaul and defeated the emperor Gratian, but was executed by Theodosius in 388.65 Roland and Magnus Maximus had chroniclers to supply data on them. Yet there is no reason to think him less historical than them. Second, his name is undoubtedly Latin, not Celtic. He is in good company. We have already cited Jackson’s 1953 list of Roman names absorbed by British. Others used by the Britons figure in early inscriptions and Celtic-Latin texts. One example, from south-east Scotland, was discussed by Jackson. It stands in a lonely spot at Yarrowk- irk, eight miles west of Selkirk, and reads HIC MEMORIA PERPETUA IN LOCO INSIGNISIMI PRINCIPES NUDI DUMNOGENI HIC IACENT IN TUMULO DUO FILII LI BERALI. “This is the eternal memorial: in this place lie the most illustrious princes Nudus and Dumnogenus. Here lie in the grave the two sons of Liberalis.” The princes had British names (the first corresponds to Welsh Nudd), their father a Latin one, and they lived in the early sixth century, as shown by the style of the lettering. All are otherwise unknown.66 Yet the monument proves that, even beyond the Em- pire, Latin names survived amongst British rulers. Another instance is provided by an inscription of similar date at Llannor, near Pwllheli in north-west Wales. It reads IOVENALI FILI ETERNI HIC IACIT, “[Monument] of Juvenal son of Eternus, here he lies”. It compares with a further monument, at Dolbenmaen twelve miles to the east, which mentions Beccurus (perhaps a namesake of the Bicoir whose son Artuir killed Mongán in about 624). Juvenal and Eternus, otherwise unknown to history, offer proof of romanitas in British society after the Fall of Rome.67 Artorius or Arthur may have had more in common with them and with Liberalis, ruling lands by Yarrow Water, than with the opulent Romanized magnates of south Britain. Third, we can be sure that the British warrior had become famous by the later sixth century. Earliest of those called after him is Arthur (d. 596), grandson of Aedhán (d. 608) son of Gabhrán in Scotland; then come Arthur, son of Bicoir, who killed the Ulster king Mongán in 624 or so, and Arthur son of Pedr, active in West Wales during 600 / 630; while the Artúir grandfather of Feradach, an Irish cleric recorded in 697, will also have been born in about 600. The use of an uncommon Roman name by dynasties either British or related by marriage to British dynasties is hard to explain had there not been an earlier hero Arthur. His importance may have been mainly symbolic. Here we again refer to Roncevaux in 778. It was “a defeat with no military significance, but it appealed to those qualities which held men together throughout Europe: personal valour, faithfulness to lord and companions, and confidence in the Christian religion and in the aid of saints.” As a result, we “can dimly see that the names of Roland and Oliver were already famous in the tenth century.” Contrast the battle of the Lech in 955, which in “ensuring the territorial stability of the European nations” was “perhaps not less important than Marathon in the formation of Greece”, but “left no memories behind it.”68 A battle somewhere in North Britain, as insignificant as that at Roncevaux, may lie behind the fame of Arthur, otherwise a local magnate as little known to history as Roland, Prefect of the Breton March. Fourth, we should not only discard the Celtic etymologies cited by Aurell and Halsall, but can be sure that Arthur was not a god, on the simple grounds that members of the Celtic Mediaevistik 28 · 2015 33 pantheon were not called after Romans. The same goes for lords and ladies in early Welsh tradition, despite their Celtic names.69 This applies still more to supposed mythological aspects of the twelfth-century Four Branches of the Mabinogi.70 Fifth, any association with Lucius Artorius Castus must be dropped. The hero of medie- val romance does not derive from this Dalmatian commander of about the year 200. Sixth, we can locate him in the North. All authorities agree that the siege of Mount Ba- don, mentioned by Gildas, was in southern England. It was probably at the Iron Age hillfort of Ringsbury above Braydon Forest, near Swindon, the “Badon” of Latin chroniclers being a corrupt rendering of the form giving Braydon. Of the twelve battles attributed to Arthur in Historia Brittonum, it is the only one which must be in the South; but it can be dissociated from Arthur. It was not his victory. The proof of that is in early Welsh vernacular tradition of Arthur, which knows nothing of Badon. Although this is no place for complete analysis of the notorious battle-list, which deserves a study of its own, the other battles must be in the North.71 The implication is of the original Arthur as a hero of North Britain, living beyond Hadrian’s Wall, like the Liberalis of the sixth-century Yarrowkirk monument. Hence the use of his name by the dynasty of Dál Riada, linked by marriage with dynasties of North Britons; hence, also, the notorious occurrence of his name in the Gododdin, the “oldest Scottish poem”. On this question, Rachel Bromwich will have been right and Kenneth Jackson (for once) wrong. Arthur will have lived in the early sixth century, and not the fifth. He died a hero’s death at Camlan, near Carlisle, in 537, accounting for the princes baptized with his name after 570 or so. Seventh is his not being of royal blood. Even _Historia Brittonum_ calls him merely dux bellorum. He stands outside all early British royal genealogies, unlike the fifth-century Vortigern, from whom the rulers of Powys claimed descent (no doubt falsely). Our conclusions are hence clear. Arthur really existed; he had a Roman name; his career ended at Camlan on Hadrian’s Wall in 537; he was not the victor of Badon in southern England, instead having associations with the Scottish Borders; he was not of royal blood (and had no known descendants), but his name was soon given to those who were. In short, he in many ways resembles the Liberalis of the Yarrowkirk Stone: a local magnate of North Britain who spoke British, yet came from a family which admired Roman culture (despite living beyond the Empire), spoke Latin, christened its children with Latin names, and commemorated its dead with Latin epitaphs. The bones of Arthur are surely buried somewhere in northern England or southern Scotland, where Artorius belonged to a society of men called Agricola, Liberalis, or Tacitus. It is in the context of Romanized Britons like these that we shall find the origins of Arthurian history and Arthurian legend, where we shall advance with security if we grasp with a firm hand the principles adopted by Heinrich Zimmer in 1893, used by Chambers, the Chadwicks, and Jackson, but neglected by more recent commentators. 34 Mediaevistik 28 · 2015
Endnoten
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