From Ritual to RomanceWeston, Jessie L. (Jessie Laidlay)
Religion
From Ritual to Romance
Weston, Jessie L. (Jessie Laidlay)
Grail -- Legends -- History and criticism; Romances -- History and criticism
The problem then is to find a Welshman who, living at the end of the
eleventh and commencement of the twelfth centuries, was well versed in
the legendary lore of Britain; was of sufficiently good social status
to be well received at court; possessed a good knowledge of the French
tongue; and can be shown to have been on friendly terms with the Norman
nobles.
Mr Edward Owen, of the Cymmrodorion Society, has suggested that a
certain Welsh noble, Bledri ap Cadivor, fulfils, in a large measure,
the conditions required. Some years ago I published in the _Revue
Celtique_ a letter in which Mr Owen summarized the evidence at his
disposal. As the review in question may not be easily accessible to
some of my readers I will recapitulate the principal points.[11]
The father of Bledri, Cadivor, was a great personage in West Wales, and
is looked upon as the ancestor of the most important families in the
ancient Dyfed, a division now represented by Pembrokeshire, and the
Western portion of Carmarthen. (We may note here that the traditional
tomb of Gawain is at Ross in Pembrokeshire, and that there is reason to
believe that the _Perceval_ story, in its earliest form, was connected
with that locality.)
Cadivor had three sons, of whom Bledri was the eldest; thus, at his
father’s death, he would be head of this ancient and distinguished
family. At the division of the paternal estates Bledri inherited, as
his share, lands ranging along the right bank of the lower Towey, and
the coast of South Pembrokeshire, extending as far as Manorbeer, the
birthplace of Giraldus Cambrensis. (This is again a geographical
indication which should be borne in mind.) Cadivor himself appears to
have been on friendly terms with the Normans; he is said to have
entertained William the Conqueror on his visit to St David’s in 1080,
while every reference we have to Bledri shows him in close connection
with the invaders.
Thus, in 1113 the _Brut-y-Tywysogion_ mentions his name as ally of the
Norman knights in their struggle to maintain their ground in, and
around, Carmarthen. In 1125 we find his name as donor of lands to the
Augustinian Church of St John the Evangelist, and St Theuloc of
Carmarthen, newly founded by Henry I. Here his name appears with the
significant title _Latinarius_ (The Interpreter), a qualification
repeated in subsequent charters of the same collection. In one of these
we find Griffith, the son of Bledri, confirming his father’s gift.
Professor Lloyd, in an article in _Archaeologia Cambrensis_, July 1907,
has examined these charters, and considers the grant to have been made
between 1129 and 1134, the charter itself being of the reign of Henry
I, 1101-1135.[12]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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