The
Chronicles of the Brittany Kings
The
fictionalized adaption of the Brittany Kings from Constantine to Uther
Pendragon
Prelude
to King Arthur
By
Jimmy Loong
29/9/2022
After
the lapse of one year; frozen in time and ideas lashed to the brink of
idleness, the chronicles begin once more.
4/11/22022
I
came to end the tale here at 68,188 words.
Credit
of the image above to Uther, on
horseback and disguised as Pelleas, watches Lady Igraine picking flowers in Uther
and Lady Igraine by Warwick Deeping, illustrated by Wladyslaw T. Benda
The
inspiration to the tale came from here;
Uther is best known from Geoffrey's Historia Regum
Britanniae (1136) where he is the youngest son of King of
Britannia, Constantine. His eldest brother Constans
succeeds to the throne on their father's death, but is murdered at the
instigation of his adviser Vortigern, who
seizes the throne. Uther and his other brother, Aurelius Ambrosius, still children, flee to Brittany.
Vortigern makes an alliance with the Saxons under Hengist, but it
goes disastrously wrong. Aurelius and Uther return, now adults. Aurelius burns
Vortigern in his castle and becomes king.
With Aurelius on the throne, Uther leads his brother in arms
to Ireland to
help Merlin bring
the stones of Stonehenge from
there to Britain. Later, while Aurelius is ill, Uther leads his army against
Vortigern's son Paschent and his Saxon allies. On the way to the battle, he
sees a comet in the shape of a dragon, which Merlin interprets as presaging
Aurelius's death and Uther's glorious future. Uther wins the battle and takes
the epithet "Pendragon",
and returns to find that Aurelius has been poisoned by an assassin. He becomes
king and orders the construction of two gold dragons, one of which he uses as
his standard.
He secures Britain's frontiers and quells Saxon uprisings with
the aids of his retainers, one of whom is Gorlois, Duke of
Cornwall. At a banquet celebrating their victories, Uther becomes
obsessively enamoured of Gorlois' wife Igerna (Lady Igraine), and a war ensues
between Uther and his vassal. Gorlois sends Igerna to the impregnable castle
of Tintagel for
protection while he himself is besieged by Uther in another town. Uther
consults with Merlin who uses his magic to transform the king into the likeness
of Gorlois and thus gain access to Igerna at Tintagel. He spends the night with
her and they conceive Arthur, but the next morning it is discovered that
Gorlois had been killed. Uther marries Igerna and they have a daughter called
Anna (in later romances she is called Morgause and is usually Igerna's
daughter by her previous marriage). Morgause later marries King Lot and
becomes the mother of Gawain and Mordred.
Uther later falls ill and the wars begin to go badly against the
Saxons. He insists on leading his army himself, propped up on his horse. He
defeats Hengist's son Octa at Verulamium (St Albans),
despite the Saxons calling him the "Half-Dead King". However, the
Saxons soon contrive his death by poisoning a spring which he drinks from near
Verulamium.[5]
Uther's family is based on some historical figures; Aurelius
Ambrosius is Ambrosius Aurelianus, mentioned by Gildas, though
his connection to Constantine and Constans is unrecorded. It is possible that
Uther himself is based at least partially on Tewdrig, a historical king of
Glywysing in the sixth century, given the strong similarities between their
death stories. Depending on the source, Uther may either be the son of Constantine III, as is
related in the Welsh Triad 51,[14] or
he may be the son of Constantine of Dumnonia, as related in
Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain.[15]
Other medieval
literature[edit]
In Robert de Boron's Merlin, Uther Pendragon
kills Hengist after an assassination attempt by the Saxon leader and Merlin
creates the Round Table for him. In the Prose Lancelot Uther
Pendragon claims to have been born in Bourges. He takes an army to Brittany to fight against King Claudas at Bourges, a
situation resembling that of the historical ruler Riothamus who went to
Brittany to fight ravagers based in Bourges. Uther also appears in the chivalric romance Sir Cleges as the king
to whom Sir Cleges brings the Christmas cherries, obtained by miracle.[16]
There is an alternative account of
Uther Pendragon's background in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival. A certain Mazadân
went with a fairy named
Terdelaschoye to the land of Feimurgân. (This looks like a garbling of some
source that told of Mazadân's alliance with the Fay Morgan in Terre de
la Joye; the "Land of Joy".) Mazadân becomes father of two sons,
Lazaliez and Brickus. Brickus becomes father of Utepandragûn, father of Arthur,
while the elder son, Lazaliez, becomes father of Gandin of Anjou, father of
Gahmuret, father of Parzival (Percival). Uther Pendragon
and Arthur here appear as the scions of the junior branch of an unattested
House of Anjou. Early German literature's
motif of Uther's descent from fairies, believed to have relied on some now lost
Celtic material, may have been meant to explain Arthur's connection with Avalon. Since, according
to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Caliburn was a gift
from Avalon, and Arthur was taken to Avalon to be healed. Layamon in his Brut also said
that Arthur was given various blessings by fairies.
Richard Carew's Survey
of Cornwall (1602) drew on an earlier French writer, Nicholas Gille,
who mentions Moigne, brother of Uther and Aurelius, who was duke of Cornwall, and
"governer of the Realme" under Emperor Honorius. Carew's brief account of Arthur's birth also
mentions a sister, Amy, also born to Uther and Lady Igraine.[17]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uther_Pendragon
The references I took ideas and extracts are listed here
with appreciation as it led me to complete this tale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldol,_Consul_of_Gloucester#:~:text=Eldol%2C%20or%20Edel%2C%20a%20Briton,a%20knight%20of%20great%20prowess.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treason_of_the_Long_Knives#:~:text=The%20Treason%20of%20the%20Long,Plain%20in%20the%205th%20century.
https://www.inheritage.org/almanack/cumbria-england-forgotten-celtic-kingdom/
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/Stone-Circles-in-Cumbria/
https://druidry.org/druid-way/teaching-and-practice/druids-stone-circles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinas_Emrys
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totnes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespasian#Invasion_of_Britannia
https://www.visittotnes.co.uk/troy-totnes-tale-brutus-stone/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutus_of_Troy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_(mythology)
http://www.vortigernstudies.org.uk/artsou/historia.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortimer
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/anglo-saxon/earlychurch/germanus.html
https://www.historyhit.com/key-weapons-of-the-anglo-saxon-period/
https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-important-events/hengist-and-horsa-0013768
https://bantarleton.tumblr.com/post/618902648945623040/the-battle-of-dun-nechtain-the-picts-crush-the
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_settlement_of_Britain#Gildas'_De_Excidio_et_Conquestu_Britanniae
https://folklorethursday.com/legends/british-legends-aurelius-ambrosius-legendary-king-of-the-britons/
https://folklorethursday.com/legends/british-legends-treachery-murder-lust-and-rowena-the-rule-of-vortigern/
https://kingarthur.fandom.com/wiki/Constans_(King_of_Britain)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosius_Aurelianus#Scholarship_questions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uther_Pendragon
https://ztevetevans.wordpress.com/2020/02/12/vortigerns-rule-the-assassination-of-king-constans/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortigern
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_of_the_British_monarch
https://conisbroughanddenabyhistory.org.uk/article/2-hengist-and-ambrosius/
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+mode+of+attack+on+a+castle+Britons+ear&oq=the+mode+of+attack+on+a+castle+Britons+ear&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i10i160l4.18260j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
https://greathall.chaosium.com/Pendragon%20Forum%20Archive/index.php/t-2845.html
https://kingarthur.fandom.com/wiki/Ambrosius_Aurelianus#According_to_Geoffrey_of_Monmouth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_cry#History
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/britain-clairvoyant/a/high-king-gillomanius-of-ireland-article
https://ztevetevans.wordpress.com/tag/prophecy-of-the-star-and-the-fiery-dragon/
https://jesus.net/pentecost/?gclid=CjwKCAjw79iaBhAJEiwAPYwoCC5A-Gy2U4rk4dIvN4pipRO8DnNwrB4ympXCB8nij1fRqKJ9EvGnHBoCousQAvD_BwE
http://www.vortigernstudies.org.uk/artfam/pascent.htm
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/britain-clairvoyant/a/battle-of-menevia-article
https://oath-of-crows.obsidianportal.com/wikis/battle-of-menevia
https://kingarthurpendragon.fandom.com/wiki/Estregales
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendragon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorlois
http://www.zendonaldson.com/twilight/camelot/infopedia/t/tintagel.htm
http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/triads1.html#:~:text=Three%20Great%20Enchantments%20of%20the,son%20of%20Collfrewy%20his%20nephew.
https://wno.org.uk/news/three-is-the-magic-number
https://www.bookofthrees.com/the-symbolism-and-spiritual-significance-of-the-number-three/
https://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/2016/11/uther-pendragon-man-myth-or-legend.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menw
https://deadliestblogpage.wordpress.com/2018/11/14/the-age-of-arthur-part-seven-cerdic-the-saxon/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrarchy
https://www.google.com/search?q=when+did+rome+occupy+britain&oq=when+did+Rome+occupied+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i22i30l9.16432j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_Roman_rule_in_Britain
https://www.britainexpress.com/History/roman/civitas.htm
Thank you.
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