ON ST. ELAETH, CONFESSOR, ON THE ISLAND OF ANGLESEY,
SIXTH CENTURY
CommentaryElaeth, confessor, on the island of Anglesey. (S.)
[1] From what stock St. Elaeth sprang, From what stock St. Elaeth, king and poet, drew his origin is shown by the genealogy in the codex Peniarth 45, of the end of the thirteenth century: Elaeth urenhin, mab Meuruc, mab Idno; ac Omen Grec, uerch Wallawc, mab Lleennawc, y uam [S. Baring-Gould and J. Fisher, Lives of the British Saints, vol. IV, p. 372, col. 2. The codex had been described by J. G. Evans, Historical Manuscripts Commission. Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language, vol. I, pp. 379–80.] . In Latin, and with the form of the names brought to the present-day spelling: Elaeth the king, son of Meurig (this is the Welsh form of the name Mauricius), son of Idno; and Omen Greg (whether "hoarse" or "Greek" is uncertain), daughter of Gwallog, son of Lleenog, (was) his mother. The other genealogical codices that mention Elaeth agree, except that some write the mother's name Omen [Omen Grog, in the Book of John Brook of Mawddwy, in Lewis Morris in the Myvyrian Archaiology, 2nd ed., p. 424, col. 2. The editors, learned men, advise that Onien Greg should be read, ibid., note 1. Note that onen in Welsh means "ash tree".] , others Onnen [Hafod MS. 16, written about the year 1400, now in the public library of Cardiff, in the Myvyrian Archaiology, 2nd ed., p. 416, cols. 1–2. A copy of that codex is Harleian 4181, in the British Museum, of the beginning of the eighteenth century, in W. J. Rees, Lives of the Cambro British Saints, p. 268, no. 48; cf. Baring-Gould and Fisher, op. cit., vol. I, p. 86, no. 4. The long book of Thomas Truman in the Iolo Manuscripts, p. 127. Add the codex of Robert Davies in the collections of Lewis Morris, Myvyrian Archaiology, 2nd ed., p. 424, col. 2, and some other codex or codices, I know not which, marked there with the letters L. M.] , or, what comes to the same, Onen [The codex of Thomas Hopcin, about the year 1670, in the Iolo Manuscripts, p. 101, no. 22.] , others Elen [So another codex, copied by Thomas Williams between the years 1578 and 1609, in the collections of Lewis Morris, Myvyrian Archaiology, ibid.; likewise the codex called Llyvyr Bodeulwyn, ibid. But both report this lineage so corruptly that scarcely anything is to be made of it. The collection of histories called Hanesyn Hen, however, we have not seen. Baring-Gould and Fisher write that it does not disagree with the others, vol. II, p. 425, note 2.] , which is the Welsh form of the name Helena. One codex The codex of Thomas Williams cited above, ibid. traced the paternal line back to Coel Godebog, the founder of one of the holy tribes of Wales, and with its help the pedigree has been constructed Baring-Gould and Fisher, vol. I, pp. 91–92. in this manner: Coel Godebog, Ceneu, Gorwst Ledlwm, Meirchion Gul, Idno, Meurig, Elaeth. If this is true, at what period he lived. it may be conjectured that St. Elaeth lived in the sixth century; for Coel Godebog is said to have lived before the middle of the fourth century Rice Rees, An Essay on the Welsh Saints, pp. 89–91. . The saint's maternal grandfather, Gwallog ab Lleenog, a most valiant man and renowned in the ancient annals of Wales [E.g. Myvyrian Archaiology, 2nd ed., p. 407, col. 2, no. 71; J. Loth, Les Mabinogion, 2nd ed., vol. II, p. 258, nos. 37–38. His lineage is read ibid., p. 335, no. IX. On him read Loth, same vol., p. 142, note 1.] , is read to have been a friend of King Arthur [In the narrative entitled Chwedyl Gereint vab Erbin, in J. G. Evans, The White Book Mabinogion (Pwllheli, 1907), col. 406; cf. Loth, same vol., p. 142.] . But in the very thick darkness of Welsh history, this indication of date too is altogether doubtful.
[2] His deeds. From what source the more recent writers fished out their account of the deeds of Elaeth we have not discovered Rice Rees, op. cit., p. 271; J. G[ammack, in W. Smith and H. Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography, vol. II, p. 66, col. 2; Baring-Gould and Fisher, vol. II, p. 425.] . This is roughly what they relate: that he was a king in the northern parts of what is now England; that then, driven from his ancestral kingdom by enemies, by the same adverse fortune by which Pappo was struck, he chose the same manner of life Above, p. 189, no. 4. and took refuge on a small island near Anglesey [Now called Ynys Seiriol, in the parish of Penmon, not far from the town of Beaumaris.] , where he spent piously and devoutly what remained of his life in the monastery founded by St. Seiriol. However that may be, it seems more certain that the church was founded by St. Elaeth the king where now stands the parish church of the village of Amlwch, His cult in the village of Amlwch. on the northern shore of the island of Anglesey; for the place was formerly called from the saint's name Llan Elaeth Frenin [Llan Eleth Frenin, codex Peniarth 147, written about the year 1566, in J. G. Evans, Report, same vol., p. 912, col. 3; Llan Eleth neu Amlwch (that is: Llan Elaeth or Amlwch), the codex of John Brooke of Mawddwy, written in the years 1590–1591, ibid., notes 18 and o.] , that is, the Enclosure of King Elaeth. There is a spring there sacred to him, called in Welsh Ffynnon Elaeth, once famous for the cure of various diseases and for oracles, which were given from the movements of an eel. For a fish of that kind was kept in the spring; one of the local inhabitants played the part of the soothsayer. But sometimes, when the eel lay hidden, one had to wait several days Owen Jones, Cymru yn hanesyddol, vol. I, p. 92, under Amlwch. . An altogether similar method of divination was used also at the sacred spring of St. Kebius in the village of Llangybi, in the county of Carnarvon Baring-Gould and Fisher, vol. II, pp. 212–13. .
[3] Feast day. Most sources assign the feast of St. Elaeth to the 10th of November [The calendar of the year 1481 attached to the little work of John Edwards the younger, grammarian, in Baring-Gould and Fisher, same vol., pp. 425–26; the calendar in the British Museum codex add. 14882, written in the year 1591, ibid.; the calendar in the codex Peniarth 187, written in the year 1659, in J. G. Evans, Report, same vol., pp. 1014, 1043–45; Browne Willis, A Survey of … Bangor, p. 282.] ; one codex, however, to the 11th, by a mere slip of the pen, as it seems: for the same codex also put St. Cynfarwy one day later [The codex Peniarth 219, written about the year 1615, edited by J. G. Evans, same vol., pp. 1043–1045.] . Finally, a few things must be said about the two poems which are ascribed to St. Elaeth [Both poems are read in the ancient codex called the Black Book of Carmarthen (twelfth century), whose image J. G. Evans reproduced, Facsimile of the Black Book of Carmarthen (Oxford, 1888). Both were edited by W. F. Skene, The Four Ancient Books of Wales (Edinburgh, 1868), vol. I, pp. 501–503, and vol. II, pp. 35–37; J. G. Evans, The Black Book of Carmarthen (Pwllheli, 1906), pp. 70–71. The first poem alone had already been edited from some codex in the Myvyrian Archaiology, 1st ed., vol. I (London, 1801), p. 161; 2nd ed., p. 123. On the metrical art of these poems, see J. Rhys, The Origin of the Welsh Englyn and kindred Metres (= Y Cymmrodor, vol. XVIII, 1905), pp. 125, 151.] . Pseudepigraphal poems. Both are written with the greatest piety on religious matters, but must without any doubt be relegated among the pseudepigrapha. For the voice of learned men is one and unanimous, that no Welsh poems such as we read are older than the ninth century, and that most of those which are read in the Black Book were composed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries G. Dottin, Les litteratures celtiques (Paris, 1924), p. 31. .