Lochmaben Stone
RWYF DRAGON
In Kychwedyl am dodyw o galchuynyd (Llyfr Taliesin XVIII), Owain son of Urien or the god Mabon or Owain in his incarnation as Mabon is referred to as 'rwyf dragon.' The full phrase is actually
In Kychwedyl am dodyw o galchuynyd (Llyfr Taliesin XVIII), Owain son of Urien or the god Mabon or Owain in his incarnation as Mabon is referred to as 'rwyf dragon.' The full phrase is actually
'ri rwyf dragon', which Professor John Koch renders "king, leader of chieftains [lit. = 'dragons‘] (see http://cadair.aber.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/handle/2160/4646/Pennod3.pdf?sequence=3).
Let us go to the GPC definition for rwyf, modern Welsh rhwyf:
rhwyf2, rhwy3
[H. Grn. ruy, gl. rex, (gurhemin) ruif, gl. edictum, Llyd. C. ro(u)e, roy, Llyd. Diw. roue]
eg. ll. rhwyfau, (geir.) rhwyon.
Brenin, arglwydd, rheolwr, pennaeth, arweinydd:
king, lord, ruler, chieftain, leader.
Dragon, once again, had the following meanings:
dragon
[bnth. Llad. llafar dracŏn-em a’r ff. l. dracŏnes]
eg. ac e.ll., hefyd ll. -au.
a Ymladdwr, gwron, arweinydd rhyfel, pennaeth, tywysog; nerth milwrol:
warrior, hero, war leader, chieftain, prince; military power.
pen3
head, chief(tain), leader, lord, master, ruler, director, senior member.
'rwyf dragon' is found used in several other medieval Welsh praise poems, although, so far as I've been able to determine, its earliest use is in Llfyr Taleisin XVIII. Rhwyf corresponds quite nicely with pen, and if dragon were to be rendered in a similar fashion in both honorifics, then the conveyed sense would be the same.
I'm not saying that Owain as rwyf dragon should be identified with Uther Pendragon. I still hold to the view that the latter is his father, Urien (see http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/09/my-case-for-uther-pendragon-as-urien.html). The point I'm trying to make is that a title very much like that of Pendragon was used in an early poem on Urien's son.
In passing, I would revise Koch's translation somewhat. 'Dragon' is not plural in the text, and so there is no reason to make it so. Instead, I would simply put down "King, Warrior/Chieftain-leader" or some such.
Dr. Simon Rodway passed this along regarding ri rwyf dragon:
"I think that ri rwyf dragon (roughly ‘dragon-like lord king’ or something) could refer to either Owain or Mabon. Thus ‘king’ would perhaps not be meant literally, but as ‘leader’, ‘great man’ or something, unless, that is, there was a tradition that one or other of them was a king. In all three refs to Mabon in this poem, he is clearly a person not a place. I suppose it’s possible that Mabon is a metaphor for Owain due to the fact that the two of them had mothers called Modron, but they could equally be two characters, both fulfilling the ‘mab darogan’ role, cf. ‘Llynges Fôn’ in the Red Book of Hergest where the two are mentioned together in a way which, if I have read it correctly, they must be two separate people (Mabon karedic y gyweithas[...] ac Owein...).
There is an edition and translation of the Book of Taliesin poem with useful notes by Marged Haycock, Prophecies from the Book of Taliesin (Aberystwyth, 2013), poem 3. There is also a translation by John Koch in The Celtic Heroic Age, ed. John T. Koch and John Carey, second edition (Andover + Malden, MA, 1995), pp. 349—51, cf. pp. 347-48 for notes on Mabon and Modron and their connection with Owain."
UDD DRAGONAWL
In a MS. of the CANU LLYWARCH HEN (see note on page 122 of Sir Ifor Williams' edition), the following strophe is found in the 'Pen Urien' section of 'Marwnad Urien Reged':
Pen a borthav o du pawl,
Pen Urien, udd dragonawl;
A chyd dêl dydd brawd, ni'm tawr.
The head I carry on a pole,
the Head of Urien, dragon-like lord...
I translate dragonol thusly, although more metaphorical meanings are offered by the GPC:
dragonol
[dragon+-ol]
a. a hefyd fel eg.
Ffyrnig, dewr, gwrol; rhyfelwr, ymladdwr dewr:
ferocious, brave, valiant; warrior, brave fighter.
And udd in the GPC:
udd
[< *iudd (cf. e. prs. H. Gym. Iudhail (> Ithel), Gripiud (> Gruffudd), e. prs. H. Grn. Iudprost, Bleidiud, e. prs. H. Lyd. Iudcant) ?< *i̯oudh-, ?cf. Llad. iubeō ‘gorchmynnaf’]
eg. ll. (prin) uddydd, a hefyd gyda grym ansoddeiriol.
Arglwydd, pennaeth, brenin, hefyd am Dduw ac yn ffig.:
lord, chief, king, also of God and fig.
What we have in 'udd dragonawl', then, is an honorific very much like Pendragon. The strophe in question is also interesting in that the head of a dragon-like lord on a pole is oddly reminiscent of the dragon-head carried by Uther in Geoffrey of Monmouth's HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIAE.
"I think that ri rwyf dragon (roughly ‘dragon-like lord king’ or something) could refer to either Owain or Mabon. Thus ‘king’ would perhaps not be meant literally, but as ‘leader’, ‘great man’ or something, unless, that is, there was a tradition that one or other of them was a king. In all three refs to Mabon in this poem, he is clearly a person not a place. I suppose it’s possible that Mabon is a metaphor for Owain due to the fact that the two of them had mothers called Modron, but they could equally be two characters, both fulfilling the ‘mab darogan’ role, cf. ‘Llynges Fôn’ in the Red Book of Hergest where the two are mentioned together in a way which, if I have read it correctly, they must be two separate people (Mabon karedic y gyweithas[...] ac Owein...).
There is an edition and translation of the Book of Taliesin poem with useful notes by Marged Haycock, Prophecies from the Book of Taliesin (Aberystwyth, 2013), poem 3. There is also a translation by John Koch in The Celtic Heroic Age, ed. John T. Koch and John Carey, second edition (Andover + Malden, MA, 1995), pp. 349—51, cf. pp. 347-48 for notes on Mabon and Modron and their connection with Owain."
UDD DRAGONAWL
In a MS. of the CANU LLYWARCH HEN (see note on page 122 of Sir Ifor Williams' edition), the following strophe is found in the 'Pen Urien' section of 'Marwnad Urien Reged':
Pen a borthav o du pawl,
Pen Urien, udd dragonawl;
A chyd dêl dydd brawd, ni'm tawr.
The head I carry on a pole,
the Head of Urien, dragon-like lord...
I translate dragonol thusly, although more metaphorical meanings are offered by the GPC:
dragonol
[dragon+-ol]
a. a hefyd fel eg.
Ffyrnig, dewr, gwrol; rhyfelwr, ymladdwr dewr:
ferocious, brave, valiant; warrior, brave fighter.
And udd in the GPC:
udd
[< *iudd (cf. e. prs. H. Gym. Iudhail (> Ithel), Gripiud (> Gruffudd), e. prs. H. Grn. Iudprost, Bleidiud, e. prs. H. Lyd. Iudcant) ?< *i̯oudh-, ?cf. Llad. iubeō ‘gorchmynnaf’]
eg. ll. (prin) uddydd, a hefyd gyda grym ansoddeiriol.
Arglwydd, pennaeth, brenin, hefyd am Dduw ac yn ffig.:
lord, chief, king, also of God and fig.
What we have in 'udd dragonawl', then, is an honorific very much like Pendragon. The strophe in question is also interesting in that the head of a dragon-like lord on a pole is oddly reminiscent of the dragon-head carried by Uther in Geoffrey of Monmouth's HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIAE.
I've not been able to find Welsh uthr or aruthr being applied to Urien. However, there is the epithet 'oruchel wledig' for Urien (see http://testunau.org/testunau/taliesin/llt57_urien_vrechwydd.htm). The GPC has aruchel as meaning "(very) high, tall, lofty, elevated; exalted, supreme, splendid, majestic; lofty (of language, style, feeling, &c.), sublime, noble." According to John Koch, "uthr means ‘awful’ or ‘awesome’, originally something ‘high, lofty’; cf. Old Irish úachtar ‘height’ < Celtic *ouctro-, Modern Irish meanings include ‘cream’ (note also uachtarán ‘president’)." With uchel being Welsh for 'high, tall', etc., it may be that Uthr as a name should be seen as a rough equivalent of aruchel.
In fact, the root for uchel and uthr are the same:
higher *ouxtero-, SEMANTIC CLASS: measure, Early Irish óchtar, úachtar ‘higher part’, Welsh uthr ‘fearful, dreadful, awful, terrible, tremendous, mighty, overbearing, cruel; wonderful, wondrous, astonishing, excellent’, Cornish euth (??) (Pok.: not cogn.) ‘dread, horror, terror’, Breton euz (Middle Breton), euzh ‘abomination, atrocity, horror’
high *ouxselo-, SEMANTIC CLASS: measure, British Uxel(l)a ‘high place’, Gaulish Uxello- ‘high’, Early Irish úasal ‘high, noble’, Scottish Gaelic uasal ‘noble, proud’, Welsh uchel ‘high, tall; high(-ranking), exalted, important, solemn, sublime, splendid, excellent, noble, stately, respectable, commendable’, Cornish huhel- (Old Cornish), ughel ‘high’, Breton uchel, uhel (Old Breton), uhel ‘high’
over *ouxs(V) (?), SEMANTIC CLASS: measure, Early Irish ós, úas ‘over’, Scottish Gaelic os ‘above’, Welsh uwch ‘above, on top of, over, on, beyond, also fig., ?after, in front of; above, more than; higher, farther up, taller, higher(-ranking), better, greater’, Cornish a-ugh ‘over’, Breton a-uc’h ‘above’
In fact, the root for uchel and uthr are the same:
higher *ouxtero-, SEMANTIC CLASS: measure, Early Irish óchtar, úachtar ‘higher part’, Welsh uthr ‘fearful, dreadful, awful, terrible, tremendous, mighty, overbearing, cruel; wonderful, wondrous, astonishing, excellent’, Cornish euth (??) (Pok.: not cogn.) ‘dread, horror, terror’, Breton euz (Middle Breton), euzh ‘abomination, atrocity, horror’
high *ouxselo-, SEMANTIC CLASS: measure, British Uxel(l)a ‘high place’, Gaulish Uxello- ‘high’, Early Irish úasal ‘high, noble’, Scottish Gaelic uasal ‘noble, proud’, Welsh uchel ‘high, tall; high(-ranking), exalted, important, solemn, sublime, splendid, excellent, noble, stately, respectable, commendable’, Cornish huhel- (Old Cornish), ughel ‘high’, Breton uchel, uhel (Old Breton), uhel ‘high’
over *ouxs(V) (?), SEMANTIC CLASS: measure, Early Irish ós, úas ‘over’, Scottish Gaelic os ‘above’, Welsh uwch ‘above, on top of, over, on, beyond, also fig., ?after, in front of; above, more than; higher, farther up, taller, higher(-ranking), better, greater’, Cornish a-ugh ‘over’, Breton a-uc’h ‘above’
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