Ein brenin a fu, ein brenin a fydd

Legendary  Landmarks

llanborth

Traveling south along the main A487 from Aberaeron and Aberystwyth towards Cardigan, take a turning to your right at Sarnau and head along a small road until you get to Penbryn where you can park and walk down the footpath to the National Trust beach SN 292525.  Alternatively turn off the main road just before Tan-y-groes and drive down to Tresaith where you can park right next to this beautiful little cove. 280 515

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Date:

Legend

 

The battle of Llongborth is recorded in the early Welsh poem ‘Geraint filius Erbin’ that survives in some early medieval manuscripts but would originally have been handed down orally through the bardic tradition:

Elegy for Geraint

Before Geraint, the enemy's scourge,
I saw white horses, tensed, red,
After the war cry, bitter the grave

Before Geraint, the unflinching foe,
I saw horses jaded and gory from battle,
After the war cry, a great driving force

Before Geraint, the enemy of tyranny,
I saw horses white with foam,
After the war cry, a terrible torrent.

In Llongborth I saw the rage of slaughter,
And biers beyond all number,
And red-stained men from the assault of Geraint.

In Llongborth, I saw the clash of swords,
Men in terror, bloody heads,
Before Geraint the Great, his father's son.

In Llongborth I saw spurs,
And men who did not flinch from the dread of the spears,
Who drank their wine from the bright glass.

In Llongborth I saw the weapons,
Of men, and blood fast dropping,
After the war cry, a fearful return.

In Llongborth I saw Arthur's
Heroes who cut with steel.
The Emperor, ruler of our labour.

In Llongborth Geraint was slain,
A brave man from the region of Dyvnaint,
And before they were overpowered, they committed slaughter.

Under the thigh of Geraint swift chargers,
Long their legs, wheat their fodder,
Ruddy ones, swooping like spotted eagles.

Under the thigh of Geraint swift chargers,
Long their legs, grain was given them,
Ruddy ones, swooping like black eagles.

Under the thigh of Geraint swift chargers,
Long their legs, restless over their grain,
Ruddy ones, swooping like red eagles.

Under the thigh of Geraint swift chargers,
Long their legs, grain-scattering,
Ruddy ones, swooping like white eagles.

Under the thigh of Geraint swift chargers,
Long their legs, with the pace of the stag,
With a nose like that of the consuming fire on a wild mountain.

Under the thigh of Geraint swift chargers,
Long their legs, satiated with grain,
Grey ones, with their manes tipped with silver.

Under the thigh of Geraint swift chargers,
Long their legs, well deserving of grain,
Ruddy ones, swooping like grey eagles.

Under the thigh of Geraint swift chargers,
Long their legs, having corn for food,
With the assault of brown eagles.

When Geraint was born, open were the gates of heaven,
Christ granted what was asked,
Beautiful the appearance of Glorious Prydain.

 

For a long time the dominant theory regarding the location of this battle has associated it with a certain young British nobleman Geruntius mentioned in a letter by the Saxon bishop of Aldhelm in Wessex in 705.  He appears in the genealogies of the Celtic kingdom Dumnonia (the south west peninsula of Britain).  This has long led to the battle’s identification with the unlikely sites of Longport in Sommerset or even Portchester in Hampshire.  This argument rests upon the association of Dyfnaint and Dumnonia, which were certainly synonymous in later material, however Dyfnaint or Dyfneint is a name found in several places in Wales and I am of the opinion that this battle was almost certainly a Welsh affair.  That is not to say that this noble Geraint could not have held lands in Dumnonia and yet fought a battle in Wales but his presence in the vicinity of Penbryn and Tresaith is attested by several local place names.  The name Llongborth translates as ‘Ship Port’ or ‘Harbour’ and Geraint was referred to in the Triads (early Welsh poetic lists) as one of the ‘three sea-fairers of Ynys Prydein’.  It is possible therefore that Geraint’s force was a mobile sea-borne war band that could have held both west Wales and south west England within their sphere of operation.

 

Regardless of this the Welsh claim to the battle site is strong, almost unassailable.  Theophilus Evans in 1740 claimed that ‘It is the judgement of some that the place which the bard calls Llongporth is Llamporth in the parish of Penbryn in Ceredigion.  There is a place near there commonly called Maesglas, but the old name was Maes-y-llas (The Field of the Killing) or Maes Galanas (The Field of the Massacre).  There is another site in the neighbourhood, in the parish of Penbryn, called Perth Geraint.’  Arthurian researchers Blake and Lloyd also note that in this vicinity are also to be found sites named Beddgeraint (grave of Geraint), Betws Geraint (Prayerhouse of Geraint) and the nearby Cardigan castle was until the eleventh century known as Din Geraint (Fortress of Geraint).  There is also to be found nearby Cilgeran castle (Retreat of Geraint), Jonathan Caredig Davies recorded in his 1911 ‘Folklore of West and Mid-Wales’ that ‘this spot where the remains of the castle now stand was known in ancient times as Dyngeraint, so named from Geraint, one of King Arthur’s Knights’. Although there is a possibility the two could have been confused.

ARTIST:

The beach at Tresaith, sometimes known as Llanborth, the supposed site of the battle of Llongborth at which Geraint was slain.

Proposed artwork:

(including Beddgeraint): Ancient British hero Geraint ap Erbin, contemporary of Arthur and one of the great sea-fairers of the isle of Britain is said to have met his glorious death here as recorded in the early Welsh elegy ‘The Death of Geraint’.  Geraint was said to have been a knight of the round table and the hero of many tales such as his quests in search of adventure for the love of Lady Enid. Nearby Maesglas (its name derived from Maes Galanas -Field of the Massacre) probably marks the battlefield at which he met his demise while Old Castle Farm near Cardigan marks the site of the old Din Geraint - Fortress of Geraint and Beddgeraint, to the south, his Grave.  I propose two installations to mark the grave of Geraint and the battle at which he was killed.

At Beddgeraint I propose the installation of a sparrow hawk sculpture of natural materials, such as wood, leaf matter etc. The sculpture would sit presiding over some kind of elongated mound, recalling a cairn.  The overall impression will reference the angel statues that perch over graves with their stony permanence.  Here the sparrow hawk of transient and biodegradable materials will rest over this imagined grave.   The whole piece will deal with issues of permanence versus transience and the idea that a transient life can live on in the monument of living stories, symbolised by living branches and leaves, without the need for permanence in stone.

The second installation will take an even more transient form, it will comprise a performance involving the installation of several toy swords inserted in a scattered formation across Penbryn beach at dusk in the manner of crosses or tomb stones.  The swords will recall the men who fell here, referencing not only the warriors who fought here fifteen hundred years ago but also the more recent battles on the beaches of Normandy and the rows of tombstones that stand there in testament to the dead. 

 

August 2006

Chris Collier, Steph Lowe, Alex Boyce

Images of The Finished Artwork:

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