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Petts, David. (2007) 'De Situ Brecheniauc and Englynion y Beddau : writing about burial in early medievalWales.', Anglo-Saxon studies in archaeology history., 14 . pp. 163-172.

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Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 14, 2007

De Situ Brecheniauc and Englynion Y Beddau:Writing about Burial in Early Medieval Wales

David Petts

Early medieval archaeology has always had an uneasyrelationship with textual evidence, bouncing between overoptimistic uses of written sources to interpret both eventsand processes recognised in the archaeological record tothe cynical rejection of the value of historical evidenceand approaches to the study of material culture. I The useof written evidence to illuminate early medieval attitudesand practices surrounding death. burial and com­memoration have a particularly long hjstory of use andabuse. All too often, certain prominent texts. such as theAnglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, have been employed asillustrations of early medieval burial practices. 2 Thisapproach focuses on extracting nuggets ofrealia from thetexts to confirm archaeological interpretations, as if textsrecord first-hand observations or objective recollectionsof mortuary practices. Texts are often adduced tosupplement archaeological evidence, and in doing so,material culture serves merely as an addendum orillustration to the written sources of the period. A range ofearly medieval Welsh texts, such as the Englynion yBeddau, Marwnad Cynddylan and the Historia Briflonumhave been used in this manner to explicate early Welshburial practices.)

It is important to acknowledge the complexity of suchexercises. Whilst documentary evidence may certainlysh~d light 00 contemporary and past burial practice insome instances, the relationship between text and practiceis a complex one. It is important to understand the socialand political context in which the text was produced.the choices and selections made in how mortuary ritesare portrayed and the possible literary elaborations towhich texts can be subject. Rather than the wholesaleadoption or rejection of the written evidence for informour understanding of early medieval mortuary practices,this paper suggests that a fruitful way forward lies inregarding both as meaningful 'discourses' involving bothideas and practices. In this light, early medieval literatureand archaeological evidence were not Iwo separatestrands running along in parallel, yet separate, tracks.Instead, as this paper will show, the wider threads of

discourse about death and burial that ran through earlymedieval Welsh society was expressed in a dialoguebetween the textual record and mortuary practice in arecursive relationship with each other. By exploring theways in which two texts, the Englynion y Beddau andDe Situ Brecheniauc, wrote about burials and mortuarymonuments, I want to try and explore the discursiverelationship between text and material culture in earlymedieval Wales. While this is not the place to reviewthe rich corpus of archaeological evidence for burials.cemeteries as well as inscribed and sculpted monumentsof early medieval Wales, the paper hopes to illustratethat both texts, graves and monuments fonned part ofan emerging ideology and practice about the role ofburial and commemoration in society from the ninth tothe eleventh centuries AD.

Englynion y BeddauThe text most frequently adduced in discussions ofburialin early medieval Wales is the collection of three-lineenglynion (stanzas) known collectively as the Englyniony Beddau (Stanzas of the Grave) or Beddau Milwyr ynysPrydein (The Graves of the warriors of the Island ofBritain).· This consists of 73 stanzas describing themythical burial places of famous, and not so famous,Welsh warriors. The stanzas have been recorded fromseveral sources. but the most extensive collection comesfrom the Black Book ofCarmarthen, the earliest versiondating from the second quarter of the thirteenth century.Although no known manuscript examples predate AD1000, consensus, based on the metrical patterns andtextual history. points to a ninth/tenth century date.'

The verses seem to be full of evidence for burial inbarrows and cairns in a variety of topographicallocations: on the seashore, on mountains, by rivers, inchurches and at fortified sites. It is noticeable, however,that out of all the graves mentioned only six are locatedin ecclesiastical contexts. Dylan is buried at L1anfeunowhich can probably be identified as Clynnog Fawr in

164 David Pells

Caemarvonshire· and the grave of Ceri Long-sword isplaced 'in the churchyard of Corbre' at Heneglwys inAnglesey,' eynon is buried at L1anbadam,' Owain abUrieo at L1anforfael' and L1emenig is buried at L1anelwy,probably 5t Asaph. 1o It is this rarity of church burialthat should warn against using the Eng/ynion y Beddaufor understanding contemporary (ninth/tenth century)burial practice. let alone earlier rites. Whilst it is hardto be certain about the date that churchyard burial becamedominant in early medieval Wales, archaeological andwritten evidence would suggest that it was likely to havebeen commonplace by the time the Englynion y Beddauwere composed. The kings of Gwynedd were burying atL1angadwaladr by the end of the seventh centuryll andthe crosses from L1antwit Majorl~ suggest that it was aroyal burial site in the tenth century. Other documentaryevidence. such as De Situ Brecheniauc and CognacioBrychan suggest that in the tenth century churches wereseen as the appropriate place for royal burial. Equallyunlike Type I stones, the seventh. to tenth-century Type2 cross-marked stones are found almost exclusively onecclesiastical sites and excavations at ecclesiasticalcentres such as LJandough show a long·sequence ofburials from the seventh century onwards

It is clear that the Englynion y Beddau do not recordcontemporary burial practices. but neither is there reasonto believe that the mortuary practices of earliergenerations were being accurately portrayed. This isbecause while cairns, mounds Bnd graves with structuresare known dated to sixth to ninth centuries AD fromWales, they do not correspond in any direct way withthe descriptions recorded in the EngJynion y Beddau,Nonetheless. the source does seem to be deliberatelyconjure up a vision of monuments that serves to connectthe contemporary landscape to a perceived, mythicalpast. Indeed, it has even been suggested that the use ofthe old-fashioned three-line englynion form rather thanthe more usual four-line englynion form was a deliberate'archaicizing' literary device. ' ) If so, then the subjectmatter and literary style unify to strengthen the message.

There is also other evidence to suggest that this groupof poems is not describing a simple historical past, buta more subjective mythic past. Whilst not all of thewarriors mentioned in the EngJynion y Beddau areidentifiable, there are at least three groups ofrecognisableindividuals. The first group, and in some ways the most'historic' are a group of heroes usually identified withthe 'Old North', the gwr y gogledd: Rhydderch theGenerous, Owain ab Urien and Cynon ap Clydno Eidyn. '4Their historical context is in the northern kingdoms ofStrathclyde, Rheged and Gododdin. In the poems,however, they are localised in a Welsh geographicalcontext; Owain ab Urien is buried in LJangorfaeJ andRhyddercb at Aberech. U

A second overlapping group includes those associatedwith the emerging Anhurian cycle, such as Bedwyr,Gwalchmai, Cynon, March and Gwythur,I6 though it is

recorded that the grave of Anhur himself was 'thewonder of the world', as its location was unknown.Again, although perhaps originally from a NonhemBritish context, they too were localised in Wales.

The final group includes individuals who wereprobably euphemerised pre-Christian gods that may havesurvived in Christian culture as heroes, such as Dylanand Lieu Lawgyffes. 17 Most ofthe other names mentionedare otherwise unknown, but Jones has suggested thatmany of the names were eponyms derived from the namesof landscape features. For example, he equates Epyntwith the Epynt mountain, near L1angamarch. 11 In othercases individuals are related to well known landscapefeatures:

20 Three graves of three steadfast ones are on aconspicuous hillin Pant Gwyn GwynionogMor and Meilu and Madog.

Looking at these groups of identifiable individuals it isclear that many of the stanzas in the EngJynion y Beddauare not historicizing the Welsh landscape, butmythologizing it. It is one of the few examples oftopographical and onomastic lore known from the earlyWelsh poetic tradition. Two verses describing the route ofrivers are found in Canu HeJedd but there is nothingcomparable to the Irish metrical dindsenchar. However,there arc Irish parallels in a group of tenth century poemsfrom Leioster, such as 'On the Graves of the leinsterMen', written in 972 by Broccan the Pious ofthe monasteryat CloRmon:.

A few earlier examples of topographical lore can befound within Wales. The bcst.known examples are the'Wonders of Britain' from the H;slOria Brittonu,"."These ",irabiUa first appear in the Harleian text derivedfrom a redaction of AD 829/30. In this short collection,however, the emphasis is on miraculous properties ofcertain sites, such as unmeasurable tombs or applesgrowing on an ash tree, rather than linking the wondersto particular historical or mythical stories.2G Even whenone of the sites is connected with a named individual,such as Amr, son of Arthur.21 it is the miraculous natureof the site rather than its historical context that justifiesits mention. However, these examples are operating in adifferent genre to the engJynion y beddau in which thelocations are made significant by the presence of theindividual warriors, and there is a notable lack of anysignificant supernatural elements.

This mythologiution of the Welsh landscape is bestseen in the context of the lime in which it was writtendown. The ninth and tenth centuries were a period ofgreat tension in the Welsh kingdoms, caught betweenthe expanding Saxon kingdoms to the east and the Danes,known as the 'Black Gentiles', threatening from Irelandand Scotland to the west and north. It is noticeable thatat least two of the groups of the identifiable individualsin the EngJynion y Beddau, the Anhurian group and the

De Situ Brecheniauc and Englynion Y Beddau: Writing about Burial in Early Medieval Wales 165

gwyr y gogledd, were known for their struggles againstAnglo-Saxon expansion. Arthur was associated witb thebanles of Badon and Carnian. There is also an explicitreference to tbe Banle of Camlan in the text:

12 Tbe grave of Osfran's Son is at CarnIan,after many a slaughter;the grave of Bedwyr is on Tryfan Hill

It is possible that these graves were believed to havebeen in Merioneth, where the village of Carnian (SH 8512), is 12 km south orUyn Tegid (Bala lake), which isassociated with Morfran, son ofTegid, who was believedto have escaped the Banle of Carnian. Also 18km fromCamIan is Twyn where a fourteenth century praise-poemto St Cadfan alluded to Osfran in a positive Iight.u

It is in this context that the stanzas can be bestappreciated: they literally write a history of resistance toinvaders of the landscape of Wales. Indeed, there iseven an overt reference to wlUfare against the Saxons.

16 Whose is the grave of good reputewho would lead a compact host against L10egr[England]?The grave of Gwen, son of L1ywarch is this

The warriors with names are eponymous with landscapefeatures were therefore connected to the Welshcountryside onomastically, and there is evidence tosuggest that some of the sites mentioned were actuallyprehistoric monuments: prominent ancient sites whoseoriginal construction was lost in time. The descriptionof the graves at Gwanas may suggest that a megalithicchambered tomb was being referred to, possibly one thathad been robbed out and explored without notablediscoveries:

29 The long graves on Gwanas, -they who despoiled them did not discoverwhat they were, what their mission was.

30 The war-band of Oeth and Anoetb came thitherto their man, to their servant;let him who would seek them dig Gwanas

The possible references to treasure being found in thegraves, may suggest the discovery of prehistoric grave­goods, considering the lack of a tradition of grave-goodSin early medieval Welsh graves:

60 The grave of Tatlogau, son of L1udd is tn hishomestead yonder,as he is in his durance,whoso would dig it would find treasure.

Equally the references to four-sided stone graves may wellbe better understood as the remains of prehistoricmonuments, rather than looking for parallels with Pictishcairns orthe early medieval squa.rebarrows at Tandderwen:

63 Whose is the four·sided gravewith its four stones at its head?The grave of Madawg, fierce horseman.

Jones has also identified the grave of Dylan. with thestanding stone, known as Maen Dylan close to ClynnogFawr, on the beach between Aherdesach and Pontlyfni.He has also suggested that the three graves of Cynon,Cynfael and Cynfeli. recorded as being on Cefn CelfiH

may be identified as the three standing stones, on thefarm of Cefn Celfi, near Neath.2--t

The poem transforms the landscape of Wales with itslandmarks, both natural and prehistoric, into a landscapeof resistance to Saxon and Danish incursions. Theemphasis on landmarks and legendary heroes with atradition ofdefending Wales serves to place the Englyniony Beddau as part ofthe arsenal ofliterary weapons built bythe Welsh in the tenth century against the English and theVikings. This means that any attempt to use the stanzas asa way to directly understand fifth-to seventh-century burialpractice must be carried out with extreme caution. Whilstthere may certainly be echoes of earlier burial practices,they are to be understood through a ninth- or tenth-centurylens. Whether burial sites of a fifth- to seventh-cenrurydate were being accurately remembered or not, it doesappears that the composers of the Englynion y beddouwere interpreting and portraying mortuary monwnents ina mythological rather than an 'historical' or'archaeological' manner.

But how can it help us bener understand strategies ofmortuary behaviour in ninth- and tenth-century Wales?It seems that this appreciation of the literature as ameans by which death and landscape were mythologized,sheds new light on at least one unusual burial site fromthe period, namely the unique memorial known as thePillar of Eliseg.2~ This is a curious structure. drawingfrom a range of traditions in an unusual act of culruralbricolage that created a unique memorial. The columnmay have originally been sunnounted by a cross headand is clearly inspired by eighth- and ninth-centuryMercian cross-shafts. Like the Mercian monuments, thescuLpture may have evoked links with Rome and theRoman past through its form and also thecommemorative context ofrayal power and ecclesiasticalpatronage. However, the extensive inscription recordsthat it was set up by the King of Powys, Cyngen, whodied in 856.11 carries a genealogy of the kings ofPowyslinking Ihem back to the mythical fifth-century Brilishking Vortigem and the Roman imperial usurper MagnusMaximus. It connects this mythical past to the prestigeof Cyngen's recent ancestors, recording the success ofCyngen's grandfather, Eliseg, in warfare against theEnglish. In the 840s or early 850s, when it was probablyerected, the kingdom of Powys was again suffering fromincreased pressure from both Anglo-Saxons. Aethelwulfwas probably raiding into Powys in 853, and there mayhave been attacks from the increasingly powerful

166 David Pelts

The grave ofGwell inY Rhiw FelenThe grave ofSawyl inLlangollenL10rien guards'roebuck's leap'

Bed Sawyl yn Llan Gollen

Bed Gwell yn y Riw Velen

Gwercheidw lIam yrbwch Lloryen

This seems to place at least two legendary burial sites inthe same general area as the Pillar of Eliseg (Fig. I).The grave of Sawyll. one of the sons of Lywarch Hen isin Llangollen. Patrick Sims-Williams has pointed outthat there was a site named Rhiwfelen only about 5miles from L1angollen.19

Within its more immediate vicinity. the Pillar did notstand alone. Although the adjacent Valle Crucis Abbeywas not built until 1201. an earlier scnlement stood at thesite. Its name, L1anegwestl. is a clear indicalion that achurch also stood in the immediate environs, suggestingthat Eliseg's Pillar was only one element of an dispersedelite landscape possibly incorporating both secularresidences and a monastic complex.)(llt can be seen thatthe Pillar ofEliseg was not only drawing on a generalisedtradition associating the burials of heroes with moundsand prehistoric monuments, but more importantly, atradition which was already expressed locally in wrinenand perhaps also in oral traditions. We see here interplaybetween text and material culture. It is not possible to saywhich influenced which. ralher. together lhey created astory about the tombs of heroes as guardians of thelandscape against foreign incursions to produce a newmythology about the Welsh landscape. This traditionreached into earlier burial traditions and linked them withhistorical traditions, bolh oral and textual. It must haveinfluenced the construction and subsequent interpretationof sites such as lhe Pillar of Eliseg and lhe olher ninth­and tenth·century re-used barrows. For example, the cross-­incised stone from Ty'n y Cae. Nefyn (Caemarvonshire)was reputed to have been erected on a mound in whichbones had been found.}' Intriguingly. this stone stood on aboundary between Pistyll and Nefyn parishes. Anotherexample is the ring-cross associated wilh a probableprehistoric standing stone al L1echgynfarwy.n

Wilhout knowing about the Englynion y Beddau wecannot fully understand the significance oflhc inscriptionand fonn of the Pillar of Eliseg nor its siting on an earthmound. The texNal evidence allows us to move from anabstract concept about the use of a mound as a marker ofterritoriality.B such as is common in interpreting theearly medieval use of mounds for burial sites.J.4 to acontextually-specific understanding of monumenl reuse.linking into clearly defined discourses about therelationship between burial, landscape and defenceagainst aggression.

It is important to be aware of lhe diversity of contentwilhin lhe Englynion y Beddau. They should be seen as acollection ofpoems, rather than a single body ofwork.. Assuch, despite the lheme of burial places that they share,

'''''

"GnYeorS-Yl~

LJansoIIcn Aj.. lJ)fnJt.v

Figure J. The environs of Ihe Pillar of Eliseg.Denbighshire

kingdom of Gwynedd under the leadership of MerfynFrych and Rhodri Mawr. 21.

The cross wilh its surviving commemorative columnwas only one element of lhe monument. The stone itselflies on an earth mound - a unique position for a mid-ninthcentury memorial stonc. Antiquarian investigation in theeighteenth century revealed a stone cist and a silver coin.11 has been suggested that these were the remains of aprehistoric burial and that it was a case of the earlymedieval re·use ofan earlier medieval barrow. l1 However.there is extensive evidence for early medieval re-use ofburials and there is no reason to assume that this burialwas not early medieval in date. 28 Consequently. thememorial could have been raised on a site that Cyngenknew (or believed or even invented) as the burial moundof one of his ancestors.

I would argue that as well as using Anglo-Saxonsculptural traditions and Welsh genealogical traditions.this monument also has a dialogue with either theEnglyn;on y Beddau or related contemporary traditionswhich placed the graves of heroes. notably those whohad resisted foreign invasion (in this context foreignrefening to the English and the kingdom of Gwynedd),at prominent burial mounds. Ultimately, this ideologicalweapon was not a success; Cyngen was forced into exilewhere he died. He was the last recorded king of Powysuntil the last quarter of the eleventh century. Be that asit may. the monument can be interpreted as a statementof resistance to Mercian hegemony, made more effectivethrough its adoption of Mercian commemorative icon­ography to achieve this.

Intriguingly. one of the Englynion y Beddau, inter­polated into the body ofthe L1ywarch Hen poems includesreferences to sites in the vicinity of the Pillar of Eliscg:

De Situ Brecheniauc and Englynion Y Beddau: Writing about Burial in Early Medieval Wales 167

!.he actual way the theme is explored varies considerably.As has been noted 'the stanzas combine the lore of place·names with lists of heroes ... in some the commemorationof the hero being the more important and the location of!.he grave remaining vague'.}} These stanzas were clearlyexploring a range of issues beyond simply burial, whilstthey partly functioned to graft the stories of the past heroesto the present landscape, the situation was not this clearcut. The references to the long graves on Gwanas note thatit was not known who was buried there,)6 and many heroesare given no precise burial place. However, whilst somestanzas appear to be 'elegiac poetry for its own sake',nthere is a still a clear thread running through the verseslinking quasi-historical events to real places.

Whilst the Englynion y Beddau were ultimately com­mitted to paper it is probable that they were primarilyintended to be heard rather than read. Whether recordedon manuscript or committed to memory, the mainpurpose of the stanzas was to be perfonned. Referencesin stanza 42-3 mention bardic training, indicating thatit is most likely that the poem would have indeed beenrecited by a bard. In royal household this is most likelyto have been either the pencerdd (chief poet) or harMteul" (poet of the warband).)1 The role of the barddleulu is significant in this context. The Welsh Law ofHywel Dda record that the bard was to declaim whilstplunder was being divided and or when the bodyguardwas sening ofTon a raid. J9 This declamation was intendedto inspire the warrior; the poem to be recited in thelorweth redaction of the laws was meant to beUnbeiniaeth Prydain (The Sovereignty of Britain). Ithas been suggested that this was an alternate name ofthe Armes Prydain.~ It is probable that this is preciselythe kind of context in wbich the Englynion y Beddauwould have been recited. The recorded text suggeststhat there was an element of interplay between the oratorand the audience:

Stanza 46 Whose is this grave and this?Question me for I know it.. ..

As well as providing entertainment, it is likely that such

interplay provided a mechanism that prevented the reciterfrom changing or altering the confent of the poemexcessively. This control over content is profoundlyimportant if the political and ideological content of thestanzas is acknowledged. In the same way that theaudience acted as a control on shifts of content andinterpretation in the oral and textual tradition, the sameprocess may well have taken place between the poems andthe actual burial record. The burials and the poems bothacted as mechanisms that informed the interpretation ofthe other, but also acted to constrain the way in which theywere understood. This recursive ideological buttressingwould have acted to check any attempts to contest thepolitical narratives embedded within their structure.

De Situ Brecheniauc and Cognacio BrychanThis emphasis on the burial of mythological figures atsignificant points in the natural landscape and rarely atchurch sites contrasts with the short sections on burialfound in the [wo early medieval Welsh texts known asDe Situ Brecheniauc and Cognacio Brychan (CB).probably written in or near Brecon. De Situ Brecheniauc(OSB) (On the circumstances of Brychan) is first knownfrom a larger manuscript collection that may have beenput together around 1200, perhaps at Monmouth Priory(BL Cotton Vespasian A xiv). The Cognacio Brychan(CB) (The Kin of Brychan) is only Known from atranscript made at Brecon by Sir John Prise (1502-55),but probably originally derived from an earlier lostmanuscript, possibly of thirteenth century in date.··Although in their current fonn they are probably dateno earlier than the late eleventh century, they deal sospecifically with the royal dynasty of Brycheiniog thatthey were almost certainly compiled at an ecclesiasticalcentre with close links to the ruling family. Brycheiniogceased to exists as a polity in the late tenth century.giving a rough terminus ante quem for the creation"~

Both follow a similar pattern-outlining the circum­stances of birth. career and death of the early kingBrychan (dated to approximately the sixth century). the

Table I. Comparison ofsections of the 'Brychan documents' dealing 'With the burial sites ofBrychan and his kin.Lotin taken from Wade-Evans (/944) and the English translation from Thomas (1994. /37-40)

Sepulchrum Brachan eJt in insula, que vocalUr £nys Brachon. que est;uxta Manniam.Sepulchrum Re;n filii Brachon in LondeuailocSepulcnlm in Kannauc Alerther in Brt!CheniaucSepulcnlm An/ouch, ante h()$t;um eccluie de Ltme.JfH!tU·

The grave of Brachm is in the island called Enys Brachan. which isnext to Mannia. The grave of Rein, son ofBrachan, in Landeuailac.The grave of Kannal.lC, Merthit in Brccheniauc. The grave ofAnlal.lch,before the door of the church of lIanspe1it .

CogfUldD B,)'cJe""

Brichan iDee' in MynovIn val/e, qui dicitur Val/[is] Br[l]chaAnl/ach ;acCI antt' hOSlium eccles;t' LlanyspiditReyn.fiJius Brichan. iocet apud LlanwlIiooSepu1chrum KyMUC in Merthy KytJauc in Brecht'niouc;

Brichan lies in Mynal.l in the valley which is called VallisBichan. Anllach lies before the doot of the church atLlanyspydyt. Reyn. son of Brychan, lies al lIanvayloc.The grave of Kynauc. in Merthyr Kynauc inBrechtiniawc.

168 David Pelts

•

--

o.'-'

•....."'"""

Figure. 3. Location of sites mentioned in Brychandocuments

another church that has produced a carved cross stone(Fig. 2b). Both versions record that he was buried antehostium - before the doors. Interestingly, the twelfth­century Life of St Cadog contains a foundation legendfor this church, suggesting it was founded by the saint,Brychan's grandson, who was given the land by hisgrandfather after he was miraculously fed by a mousethat had a cache of wheat concealed within a tumulusnearby....

Several anempts have been made to identify the burialsite of Brychan himself (MannialMynau). CharlesThomas suggested that he was buried on Lundy Islandbefore being translated to Hanland.H In a review ofThomas's book Philip Bartholomew suggested that thecrannog at L1angorse might be a benet candidate.... Thisis an equally unlikely location, particularly consideringthat excavation has shown that the crannog dates to thelate ninth or tenth century AD, several hundred yearsafter Brychan's death.tl

Apart from the site of Brychan's burial, the othersare all securely located in the heartland of the kingdomof Brycheiniog, close to other significant ecclesiasticaland royal sites (Fig. 3). For example, other sitesmentioned in the Srychan documents include 'GarthMatrun' (probably Talgarth), L1ansefin, Meidrim,'Benni' (probably the hillfort near the mouth of theYsgir). Important ecclesiastical sites mentioned includethose noted as burials sites and L1angasty Tal-y-llynclose to L1angorse lake and its crannog. Anotherreference to the burial site of a king of Brycheiniog isalso known, a charter granting Lann Cors to L1andaffinwhich King Awst of Brycheiniog (fl. first half of theeighth century) makes reference to L1angorse as theproposed burial place of himself and his sons."

The most intriguing aspect of these two Brychan tClttsis the lack of similar, biographical histories of secularfigurts from this date. Instead, they appear to have manyofthe hallmarks ofcontemporary hagiographical writing.Most of our early Welsh bagiographic material belongsto the eleventh to twelfth centuries, such IS the vitae

-_.---

founder of the eponymous kingdom ofBrycheiniog. Bothalso contain genealogical material relating to Brychan'sdescendents. Finally, and importantly for this paper,they also contain similar sections noting the burial placesof Brychan and his immediate family.)

Both are very similar, and clearly identify the burialplaces of the king and his sons. The three sons are ofBrychan are all buried in churches. The burial place ofRein has been identified with lIandyfaeiog Fach (Breeks)which lies about two miles to the north of Brecon. Bythe tenth century lhis was clearly a burial site of someimportance because two inscribed stones have beenrecorded coming from the site. One, now lost. is toopoorly known to make any guesses about its date, butthe second is an unusual Type 3 stone with a raredepiction of a warrior (Fig. 2a).·1 The grave of Kennaucis found at Merthyr Cynog and Annlauch at L/arlSbyddyd,

Figure 2. Images of inscribed stones (a) Llandy/ae/ogFach (Brects); (b) Llansbyddyd (Brecks)

De Situ Brecheniauc and Englynion Y Beddau: Writing about Burial in Early Medieval Wales 169

a

...," .,,~..11~~--

/) ~ == .' '", - -

• 'lift ~ ..." .....

1..=1 ••u ..· '"

"'51': .M.r<" lI'0"

St Mdangell's ChurchPtliliall/ MtltJlIl.dl t

••

b

Figure 4. Archaeological evidence for shrines and holy groves (a) Pennant MelangeJ/ (Powys): (b) Clynnog Fawr(Caernarvonshire)

incorporated into the Book of L1andaff, Rhigyfarch' slife ofSt David and Lifris' Life ofSt Cadog. However,there was certainly an earlier tradition of writing storiesabout Saints lives; the life of Saint Samson dates tobetween the seventh and ninth centuries (broadlycontemporary with the Brychan documents). Althoughwritten in Brittany, probably at Landevennec, theconnections between the Breton and Welsh church wereextensive. Indeed the author of the Vita claimed to haveborrowed from the Acta of Saint Samson, which hadbeen brought overseas by Henoc, the Saint's cousin. It isequally likely that the eleventh to twelfth century Welshsaints lives were drawing on earlier hagiographicalmaterial, though clearly rewritten for a contemporaryaudience.

The broad parallels between the Brychan documentsand the saint's life take a number of fonns including theemphasis on lineage and ancestry, the recording of

miraculous events and the emphasis placed on recordingthe death and burial place of the subject"~ Morespecifically, the recording of the burial of Brychan'ssons in or near a church, clearly reflects the recordingof the burial sites of saints within or close to churchstructures. For example. SI Brynach was recorded asbeing beneath the eastern wall of his church)O whileGwynllyw was described as being placed either by thewall on the south side of his own monastery'l or in thefloor of the church.s2 Tatheus was also recorded as beingburied under the floor of the church.n David and Padamwere both buried in the grounds of their monasteries."

Whilst the burials recorded in the Brychan documentsappear to reflect burial practices associated with saintsin hagiography, what they do nOI seem 10 reflect is theburial practice of the sixth century. when Brychan andhis immediate family are likely to have had their floruit.Indeed, there is linle to suggest that these church sites,

170 David Peas

Merther eyDog. L1andyfaelog Fach and Llanysbyddid,were exceptionally early foundations (i.e. pre-eighthcentury). The only tentative evidence for an earlyestablishment of these sites is a lost stone fromL1andyfaelog Fach, which is recorded as having the nameCArVe inscribed upon it.~'

From what relatively little we know about the gravesof holy individuals in the ninth to eleventh century, thedocumentary evidence appears to be bom out in thearchaeology (Fig. 4). The tombs of Welsh saints appearto have remained beneath ground, though they may oftenhave been surrounded by a small building or chapel,known as a capel y bedd or cell y bedd. For example,the excavated shrine of 51 Melangell al PennantMelangell shows that the original central burial wasplaced in an apse at the east end of the church, beneatha large stone slab (and 'ante hostium': before a door). Itwas not until the twelfth century that the Romanesqueshrine that can now be seen was built. Sf! The capel ybedd of Saint Beuno at Clynnog Fawr in Gwynedd alsocontained a central focal stone-lined grave, rather thana built shrine. 51

The presence of a saint's body or relics became anincreasingly important way of asserting a sphere ofinfluence over an ecclesiastical property in the ninth totenth century, as well as becoming increasingly importantcommodities in their own right. Most of the Saint'slives wrinen in tbe eleventh and early twelfth centuryare clearly intended to help validate claims to propertyand associated rights in the face of increasing pressurefrom Normans, as well as in internecine tensions overecclesiastical jurisdiction. For example, the Life of 51Cadog ends with a series ofchaners recording the giftingof land to the saint and his monasteries.s,

It is in this context that we should see this record ofroyal burials. The kingdom of Brycheiniog was in·creasingly under pressure from neighbouring kingdomsfrom the ninth century onwards. The Welsh annals recordbattles against Gwent (s.a. 848 ASC) and Asser's Life ofAifred(ch.80, c. 885) records the submission ofmembersof the royal family to Alfred, seemingly an attempt tocourt protection from the powerful monarch in the faceof pressure from the sons of Rhodri Mawr.S9 The areaalso came under threat in the early tenth century, whenthe crannog of lIangorse was destroyed by the armies oflady Aethelflaed of the Mercians.60

As well as pressure from rival Welsh kingdoms andAnglo-Saxon armies, there was also the possibility ofecclesiastical rivalry - indeed it is in this context thatwe should perhaps understand the reference tolIanysbyddid in the Life of 5t Cadog." Disputes aboutterritory were common between early medieval Welshmonasteries and dioceses.

The descriptions of the burials in the De SituBrycheniog and Cognacio Brychan should not be takenas historically accurate descriptions of the burials ofsixth century British nobility, Instead we need to see the

text in context; they are attempts to use a burial- actualor believed - as an indicator of the primacy of a claim tocontrol the central heartland of Brycheiniog,

ConclusionsThis paper has discussed two broadly contemporary texts,both dealing with the burial of important, secularmembers of early medieval Welsh society, yet they bothseem to be talking about death and burial in contrastingways. The Englynion y Beddau situates elite burial sitesaway from churches at important points in the landscape,often seemingly associated with prehistoric monumentsor significant natural features. The second text, theBrychan documents, firmly locates the burials ofBrychan 's family in churches, indeed churches that seemto be important ecclesiastical centres on the basis ofother early medieval evidence. It records these burialsin a document that seems to be drawing on existinghagiographic traditions, and aims to link the seculardynasty of Brycheiniog into traditions of sainthood andsaintliness.

How do we reconcile these seemingly contrastingstrategies for recording burial sites in early medievalWales? The simple answer is, we do not have too. It isimportant to avoid the mind-set that says we can onlyhave one contemporary discourse about burial rites. Wehave discovered here two complimentary dialogues aboutdeath and burial; dialogues that include the practice ofburial as well as literary writing about it. It appears thatelites in early medieval Wales were creative in seekingsources of ideological legitimation, turning to bothmartial and ecclesiastical prototypes for defining modesof power. This may well express the tensions betweenthe Welsh nobility and the increasingly powerful Church.By appealing to anliquarian traditions and historicalprecedents, burial practice and textual descriptions ofburial appealed to the past as a source of legitimationfor the present.

The production of biographies of individuals andfamilies in the medieval period is closely linked tostrategies for ideological and political legitimation.'2For example, in early medieval Wales, Saint's livessometimes incorporated grants ofland to saints connectedto the ecclesiastical institutions that were responsiblefor the production of the vita. In his discussion of thebiography of Gruffud ap eynan, Rhys Jones bas noted·Iay biographies also incorporated discourses of powerthat helped to legitimise certain socio-spatialformations'.,l The transfonnation of oral historical andgenealogical narratives to textual ones in the ninth totenth century reflected a wider process of transition fromoral to textual in the medieval period.... It bas often beensuggested that the move to written record prevents themanipulation of the infonnation contained within thenarrative structure. However. this is not necessarily so;the opposition between 'fluid' oral narrative and 'fixed'

De Situ Brecheniauc and Englynion Y Beddau: Writing about Burial in Early Medieval Wales 171

textual narrative is not so clear-cut. There are goodexamples from early medieval Welsh contexts ofwrinenversions of the same broad genealogies providingalternate genealogical data.'s As suggested above therelationship between the bard and his audience mayhave acted as a constraint on the manipulation ofcontent;equally textual records can be vulnerable to alteration.manipulation and rewriting. In the context ofthe Brychandocuments and the related burial evidence it is likelythat the parallel material and textual records bothfacilitated and constrained political interpretations. Thepresence of the documentary record has limited attemptsto re-interpret the meaning embedded in the ecclesiasticalsites (which may have been contested); equally thetraditions associated with the sites and their materialremains would have acted as a constraint on attempts torewrite textual histories.

These textual representations of burial combine withvarying burial prac1ices to form wider discourses aboutdeath and burial in the ninth century Wales. These dis­courses are intimately related to the ebb and flow ofdynastic politics and wider debates about the sources ofsocial power in the region. The tension between thechurch and the secular elite is partly reflected in thediverging ways in which burial is presented in these twotexts. Crucially, these discourses may have served toinfluence wider attitudes to the production of symbolicplaces in the early medieval landscape, swinging fromthe bounded, nodal points formed by early ecclesiasticalsites with their tigbtly defined boundaries to the morediffuse landscapes of mythology and legend. which is

NotesI. MlnJ.and 2001.2. Hill. 1998.3. E.g. Davin 1996. 18S-6.4. JODCII967.S. Joan 1967, 100.6. £84.7. £B 5.8. £B8.9. £813.

10. £8 SO; Joan 1967, 100-1.II. Nasb-Willianu 1950, no.l3.12. Nub-Williams 1950. DOl 2ll. 223.13. Rowlaads 1990. 143.14. £89--11. 13-14.IS. EB 13-14.16. £B 8. 12.44.17. EB4,lS.18. £B 26; Jone. 1967, 109--10.19. HB 67-75.20. Roberts 1991.88-93.21. HB 73.22. Siml--Williamll993, 57.23. £JJ 65.24. JODe$ 1967. 113.25. Nub-Williams 1950,00.112.

being actively created outside the church. Increasingly,from the tenth to twelfth century the church itselfappearsto become involved in the struggle to make places outsidethe bounds of the church itself symbolically important;this is reflected in the increasing emphasis on imbuingmeaning on natural sites found in saint's lives of thisperiod. A good example of this can be found in Rhig­yfarch's Life of Saint David, when the scene ofNonita'sconception is marked by the miraculous appearance of apair of large stones 'in order to declare before bandthe significance of her offspring· ...

The eighth to tenth century was a fluid and difficulttime of the Welsh nobility, faced with increased internalfriction combined with renewed external threats fromboth the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. Whilst thechurch provided important ideological support.. it wasalso posing a threat of its own. with its increased demandsfor fiscal powers and exemptions from serviceobligations. By bringing together the evidence fromhistorical texIS and archaeological evidence it can beseen that the consequence of this was a period oforiginality and creativity by the elites when seeking waysto project images in death that implied power andconsequence in life.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank the anonymous referee who savedme from some wilder flights of fancy. and made methink again about the context of production andreproduction of early medieval Welsh literature.

26. Maund 2000. 41 OlIvia 1982. 106-7. ASC S.I 8S3.27. E.g. Edwuds 2001.28. Ibid.29. Sina-Williams 1993.47.30. Silvester 2001.87; RobilUOll 1998. 194.31. Nuh-Williams 1950.90,99.32. Ed....ards 2001. 30.33. E.g. Vln dc:r Noor1 1993; Shepherd 1979.34. ibid.35. Stephens 1986. 179.36. EB 29-30.37. RO'l't'lands 1988. 183.38. Jmkinl 2000.39. Ibid., 149--50.40. Jmkinl 2000. ISO.4!. Sims-Williams 1993.56.42. Simi-WillillllJ 1992. S6-7; Dumville 198]. 148. a.4.43. Nash-Williams 1950.49.44. VC 11; Comer 1988.45. Thomas 1994. 131-180.46. Banholome.... 1m.47. Campbcllaod Lane 1989.41. UI46.49_ Hmkm 1991.SO. VB 16_51. ve28.

172

52. VG 10.

53. n'11.54. YO 65; VP 29.55. Nash-Williams 1950, 74, 50.56. Britnell 19948, 1994b.57. RCAHMW 1960. 36-42.58. VC 55--69.59. Durnvillc 1982.

David Pelts

60.•.1.916 ASC.61. vcn.62. Jones 2004.63. Ibid,461.64. Clanchy 1993.65. Thornton 1998.66. ~ Dauid 4.

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