[11] Rhys, _Arthurian Legend_, p. 48. In Chap. I. of the same work Rhys puts and answers the main question suggested in these pages as follows: “How did Arthur become famous above other (Welsh, or British) heroes, and how came he to be the subject of so much story and romance? The answer, in short, which one has to give to this hard question must be to the effect, that besides a historic Arthur there was a Brythonic divinity named Arthur, after whom the man may have been called, or with whose name his, in case it was of a different origin, may have become identical in sound owing to an accident of speech” (_A. L._, p. 8). [12] The chief authorities on Nennius are Mommsen (see his edition of the _Historia_, and of Gildas, in _Mon. Germ. Hist._, Berlin, 1898), and Zimmer (_Nennius Vindicatus_, Berlin, 1893). See, also, Fletcher (_The Arthurian Matter in the Chronicles_, Boston, 1906) and M. R. James (_Camb. Hist. of Eng. Lit._, Vol. I. Ch. 5). Thurneysen (_Zeitschr. f. Deutsche Philologie_, 1897) fixes 827 as the date of the completion of the _History_. [13] This date must be accepted if we are to believe Nennius’s statement that he was a disciple of Elbodugus, or Elfodd, bishop of Gwynedd. [14] Chap. 56. [15] _ipse dux erat bellorum._ [16] This is simply the Welsh (modern, _cad coed_) for “the battle of Celidon Wood.” [17] Rhys, _Arthurian Legend_, p. 7. [18] _Arthurian Legend_, p. 7. [19] A number of chieftains are styled _gwledig_ in the _Mabinogion_ (see index to edition of Welsh _Red Book_, text by Rhys and Evans, p. 342). Among them is one Amlawdd, or Amlodd, who in _Kulhwch and Olwen_ is the father of Goleuddydd, the mother of Kulhwch, “a boy of gentle birth and cousin unto Arthur.” In a poem ascribed to Taliesin the deity even is called _gwledig_--“gwledig nef a phob tud,” “ruler of heaven and of every land.” [20] Viz., to the tale, included in Lady C. Guest’s _Mabinogion_, called ‘The Dream of Maxen Wledig.’ The glorification of Maxen, or Maximus, in Welsh tradition suggests many points of analogy with the story of Arthur. [21] Lloyd, _Hist. of Wales_, Vol. I. p. 100. [22] See the opening words of ‘The Lady of the Fountain,’ “Yr amherawdyr Arthur oedd yng Kaer Llion ar Wysc.” See also _The Dream of Rhonabwy_, _passim_. [23] _Arthurian Legend_, p. 7. See also _The Welsh People_ (Rhys and Jones), pp. 105 _sqq._ [24] The most elaborate and ingenious expositions of this theory will be found in Skene’s _Four Ancient Books of Wales_, Vol. I. Chap. 4, and Stuart-Glennie’s _Arthurian Localities in ‘Merlin’_ (Early Eng. Text Soc., 1869). [25] “Mons Badonicus” is still unidentified. Guest, in his _Origines_ _Celticæ_ (ii. 187-189) makes a brave attempt to prove that it was Badbury in Dorset. [26] _Hist. Reg. Brit._, Bk. IX. Ch. 4. [27] _Ecclesiastical Sonnets_, i. 10. [28] _Coming of Arthur._ [29] The translation is that of Dr H. Williams in his edition of Gildas (Cymmrodorion Record Series, London, 1901), p. 63.