§ 44. And eagerly did Guorthemir fight four1 battles against them. The first battle on the river Derguentid;2 the second on the ford, which is called in their language Episford,3 in our language Rithergabail,4 and there Hors fell together with the son of Guorthigirn, whose name was Categirn; the third battle he fought in the plain by Lapis tituli,5 which is on the shore of the Gallic sea, and the barbarians were overcome and he was victorious, and they, put to flight as far as their keels, and entering into them like women, were drowned. But he after a short interval died. And before his death he said to his house-host that they should place his sepulchre in the harbour, whence they had made their exit, on the shore of the sea, ãwhere I entrust it to you. Although they may hold a harbour of Britain in another part and shall have dwelt there, yet in this land they will ever remain.ä But they despised his 68 command and did not bury him in the place where he had ordered them.
§ 45. And the barbarians returned in vast numbers, for Guorthigirn was a friend to them on account of his wife. And no one was able boldly to drive them away, because they occupied Britain not through their own valour, but by the will of God. Who shall be able to resist and strive against the will of God? But as the Lord wills he acts, and it is he who rules and governs all the nations.
It happened after the death of Guorthemir, the son of King Guorthigirn, and after the return of Hengist with his hordes, that they urged forward a treacherous scheme to deceive Guorthigirn with his army. And they sent messengers to procure peace that there might be everlasting friendship between them. And Guorthigirn with his followers of higher birth took counsel and considered what they should do. At last it was one counsel with them all that they should make peace. And their messengers returned, and they afterwards contrived a meeting that from either side Britons and Saxons should assemble in one place without arms, so that there might be strong friendship.
§ 46. And Hengist gave command to all his house-host, that each one should place his knife under his foot in his boot, ãand when I shall cry out to you and say ÎEu Saxones eniminit saxas,â draw out your knives from your boots and plunge them into them, and make a brave stand against them. And slay not their king but hold him for my daughterâs sake, whom I have given to him to wife, because it is better for us that he should be ransomed from our hands.ä And they contrived a meeting and assembled in one place, and though the Saxons spoke friendly they were all the while like wolves in their hearts, and they sat sociably, man by man. Hengist, as he had said, made a shout, and all the three hundred elders of King Guorthigirn were massacred.6 And he alone was taken and chained. 69 And for the redemption of his life he gave them very many regions, to wit, Essex and Sussex.
§ 47.7 Saint Germanus used to preach to Guorthigirn that he should turn to his Lord and separate himself from his unlawful marriage. And he fled miserably to the region which takes its name of Guorthigirniaun, Gwrtheyrnion,8 from his own name, that he might there hide himself with his wives. And saint Germanus pursued after him with all the clergy of the Britons, and there he sojourned forty days and forty nights and used to pray on a rock9 and used to stand day and night.
And again Guorthigirn withdrew ignominiously to the citadel of Guorthigirn,10 which is in the region of the Demeti, Dyfed,11 by the river Teibi, Teify. And in his wonted manner saint Germanus pursued him, and 70 fasting there with all the clergy he sojourned for his cause12 three days and as many nights. And on the fourth night about the hour of midnight the whole citadel fell by fire sent suddenly from heaven, the heavenly fire burning it. And Guorthigirn, together with all who were with him and together with his wives, perished.
This is the end of Guorthigirn, as I have found it in the Book of the blessed Germanus.
§ 48. Others give a different account. After that all the men of his nation had risen against him on account of his crime, both the powerful and the weak, both slave and free, both monks and laity, both small and great, and whilst he himself is wandering vagrant from place to place, at last his heart broke and he died without praise. Others have said, the earth opened and swallowed him up the night the citadel was consumed about him because of those who were burnt with him in the citadel; not any of their remains were found.13
He had three sons, whose names are Guorthemir, who used to fight against the barbarians, as we have said above; the second, Categirn; the third, Pascent, who reigned in the two reigns of Buelt and Guorthegirniaun after the death of his father, Ambrosius bestowing them on him, who was king among all the kings of the British nation;14 the fourth was Faustus, who was born to him of his own daughter, and saint Germanus baptized him and reared him and taught him. And he built a great locum,15 monastery, on the bank of the 71 river which is called Renis, and it remains to this day. And he had one daughter, who was the mother of saint Faustus.16
§ 49. This is his genealogy, which goes back to the beginning, to wit, Fernmail, who reigns now in the two regions, Buelt and Guorthigirniaun, the son of Teudubir, that is Teudubir, king of the region of Buelita, the son of Pascent,17 the son of Guoidcant, the son of Moriud, the son of Eldat, the son of Eldoc, the son of Paul, the son of Mepurit, the son of Briacat, the son of Pascent, the son of Guorthigirn Guortheneu,18 the son of Guitaul, the son of Guitolin, the son of Glovi.
Bonus,19 Paul, and Mauron were three brothers, sons of Glovi, who built a great city on the bank of the river 72 Severn, which is called in the British tongue Cair Glovi, but in Saxon Gloecester.
Enough has been said of Guorthigirn and of his stock.
Saint Germanus returned after his death to his own country.
§ 50. Saint Patrick was at that time20 a captive among the Scots, and his master was named Milchu, and he was a swineherd with him. And in the seventeenth year of his age he returned from captivity, and by the permission of God he became afterwards learned in Holy Writ, and arrived in Rome, and for a long time sojourned in that place for the purpose of reading and of considering the mysteries of God, and he perused the books of the Sacred Scriptures. But now, while he was there during seven years, Palladius was sent first as bishop to convert the Scots to Christ by Cælestin, Bishop and Pope of Rome.21 But God hindered him by means of sundry tempests,22 for no one can receive anything on earth unless it shall have been given him from on high. And Palladius started from Ireland and arrived in Britain and died there in the land of the Picts.
§ 51. When the report of the death of Bishop Palladius was heard, another messenger, Patrick, is sent to convert the Scots to the faith of Christ by Cælestin, the Roman pope, and by an angel of God, whose name was Victor,23 Theodosius and Valentian then reigning,24 and saint Germanus the bishop advising and exhorting. Germanus sent an elder, Segerus, with him to a certain wonderful man, a supreme bishop, Amatheam regem,25 73 living in the neighbourhood. There the saint, knowing all things which were to happen to him, the holy bishop received the order of bishop from Amatheo rege, and assumed the name which is Patrick, because previously he was called Maun.26 Auxilius and Iserinus and others were at the same time ordained with him to a lower order.
§ 52. Then with blessings received and all things perfected in the name of the Holy Trinity he entered a ship which had been made ready and arrived in Britain, and preached there not many days. And all digressions of movement being avoided, he descends the Irish Sea with the ship at top speed and with a prosperous breeze. The ship being loaded with foreign marvels and spiritual treasures proceeded to Ireland, and he baptized them.
§ 53. From the Beginning of the World to the Baptism of the Irish are five thousand three hundred and thirty years. In the fifth year of King Loygare he began to preach the faith of Christ.
§ 54. And so saint Patrick was preaching the Gospel of Christ to foreign nations for forty years, apostolic miracles he was wont to perform, to the blind he gave sight, the leprous he cleansed, the deaf he made to hear, demons he drove from bodies possessed by them, the dead he raised to the number of nine, many captives of both sexes he redeemed at his own charge, three hundred and sixty-five abecedaries27 or more than that he wrote out. Also he founded churches to the same number, three hundred and sixty-five. He ordained three hundred and sixty-five bishops, or more than that, in whom was the Spirit of God. Presbyters to the number of three thousand he ordained, and converted to the faith of Christ twelve thousand persons in the one region of Conachta, Connaught, and baptized them. And he baptized seven kings in one day, who were the sons of Amolgith. Forty days and forty nights he 74 fasted on the top of the hill Eile, that is Cruachan Eile,28 on which hill in the overhanging mist he asked three petitions on behalf of these of the Irish who meekly received the faith. His first petition is, so say the Scots, that each one should undergo penance, although at the very extremity of his life; the second, that they should not be destroyed by barbarians for ever; the third, that not a single Irishman should have survived at the coming of the Judgement, because in honour of Patrick they will be destroyed seven years before the Judgement. On that tumulus he blessed the people of Ireland, and to that end he ascended it to pray for them and to behold the fruit of his labour. And there came to him innumerable birds of many colours that he might bless them, which means that all the saints of the Irish of either sex should come to him in the Day of Judgement as to their father and master that they might follow him to judgement. After these things he departed in good old age where he now rejoices for ever and ever, Amen.
§ 55. In four ways are Moses and Patrick made equal, namely, an angel addressed them in a burning bush; secondly, he fasted on a mountain forty days and forty nights; thirdly, they were alike in age, one hundred and twenty years; fourthly, no one knows his sepulchre, but he was buried secretly, no one knowing. Fifteen years he was in captivity; in his twenty-fifth year he is chosen for a holy bishop by Amatheo; for eighty-five years he preached in Ireland.
The subject demanded that we should treat at greater length concerning saint Patrick, but I determined to shorten it in favour of this abbreviated account.
1 Only three are named, cf. the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (four English victories mentioned, three only named: (1) Agaelesthrep, where Horsa fell; (2) Crecganford; (3) Wippedesfleot, outside Kent; (4) unnamed).
2 Probably the river Darent, which the writer Welshifies into Derwennydd. As the Cray falls into the Darent close to Crayford, this battle probably equates with that at Crecganford.
3 If one favours the theory that Hengist and Hors are nicknames, ãStallion and Mare,ä the real names may be supposed to have been Octha and Ebissa; and as Hors is made to fall at Episford, there may be a connection between Episford and Ebissa.
4 I.e. Rhyd yr afael (in modern Welsh), ãthe ford of the holding,ä an attempt to translate Agaelesthrep, read as ãAgaelesford,ä said to be Aylesford in Kent.
5 The Stone of the Inscription, said to be Stonar, which the writer does not attempt to render into Welsh. It is possibly the monument which Bede supposed to bear Horsaâs name.
6 ãPractically the same story is told by Widukind (I, 6 f.) in his account of the early history of the Old Saxons. Possibly it may have arisen from an ætiological myth; but in any case the story would seem to be of Saxon originä (Munro Chadwick, 42).
7 This section provides the Third and Fourth Excerpts from the Book of St. Germanus.
8 I.e. ãthe land of Vortigern,ä between the Ieithon and the Wye in modern Radnorshire.
9 The eminence on which the Church of St. Germanus (now St. Harmons, Radnorshire) stands. In view of the Welsh and Irish custom of consecrating new monasteries by prayer and fast of forty daysâ duration (Bede, iii, 23; Life of Cybi, § 13; Life of Beuno, § 9), it is evident we have here an account of the foundation of St. Harmons in 430.
10 Craig Gwrtheyrn in Llanfihangel Yeroth, Carmarthenshire, ãa wild, precipitous, rocky eminence,ä says Richard Fenton in 1804, ãoverhanging the Teify and commanding up and down the vale, crowned with an encampment surrounded by entrenchments of loose stones, seven or eight lines in some places on the river side. The area on the summit in circumference 468 paces. It is called Castell Gwrtheyrn,ä i.e. Vortigernâs Castle. At the base of this eminence is Ffynnon Armon, ãGermanusâs Well.ä
11 Note that Vortigernâs fort on the Teify is said to be in Dyfed, which was prior to the ninth century, for Seisyll, King of Ceredigion, had annexed the three cantrefs of Ystrad Tywi, in which the fort stood, and joined them to the four cantrefs of Ceredigion, the seven cantrefs being called Seisyllwg. This excerpt, therefore, must have been written before Seisyllâs conquest, whose son Arthien died in 807.
12 causaliter.
13 It is to be observed that only one different account of Vortigernâs death is given here, namely that he died a vagrant (cf. § 42, n. 6). The other only varies as to the manner of his death by the river Teify.
14 Gwertheyrnion together with Buellt, the latter the country west of the river Wye, north of the Eppynt range, included in modern Breconshire, is assigned to Pasgen, son of Vortigern, by Ambrosius, who evidently is mapping out provinces in Wales, as did Meirion, son of Tybion, son of Cunedda Wledig, among the sons of Cunedda (see XXXII, XXXIII, under Pedigrees, below, pp. 113-4).
15 locus, Welsh llog, ãmonastery.ä
16 Faustus, Abbot of Lerins from about 433 to about 462, when he became Bishop of Reii in Provence. That he built a great monastery on the banks of a river Renis is possibly a misunderstanding of Lerinensis (whence Lerins) and Regium (whence Riez or Reii).
17 This is Pasgen Buellt, the time of whose floruit may be determined thus (Y Cymmrodor, viii, 86), which confirms that statement that Fernmail lived in 830, the date of writing.
Insert Family Tree
(no indent)
The last-named, Howel fab Rhys fab Arthfael, was a contemporary of Asser (80), and is mentioned by him as reigning King of Glywysing prior to 893, when he finished his book on the Life of Alferd. Howel, who died at Rome in 885, was grandfather of Morgan Hen (d. 974), whence the names ãMorgannwg,ä ãGlamorgan,ä etc.
18 Gwrtheyrn Gwrthenau, Vortigern the Gainsayer, because he withstood St. Germanus. Cf. I. Williams, Canu Aneirin, lxxix.
19 Bonus, Paul, Mauron, three brothers, sons of Glovi, with a fourth brother, Guitolin (i.e. Vitalinus), father of Guitaul (i.e. Vitalis). With Bonus cf. Bonosus, British emperor in c. 275, and with Vitalinus, cf. § 66.
20 St. Patrick was born c. 389 and taken captive c. 405. He escaped c. 411-412.
21 Prosper (A.D. 431), ãPalladius, ordained by Pope Cælestin, is sent as first bishop to the Scots (i.e. the Irish), believing in Christ.ä
22 ãby means of sundry tempestsä is an addition to Muirchu, i, 8.
23 Victorius (Muirchu, i, 7).
24 425-450.
25 Amator, Bishop of Auxerre, died in 418, when he was succeeded by Germanus. The Irish form of Amator was Amatorig, whence the above Amatheam regem, etc. As Amator died too early to have consecrated Patrick as bishop, the above account seems confused. It was probably Amator who ordained him deacon and priest, and Germanus who made him a bishop.
26 Mawn (the Magonus of Tirechan).
27 Abecedaries, probably booklets containing a compendium of Christian doctrine; abecedarium yielded Welsh egwyddor, alphabet.
28 Croagh Patrick, close to Westport.