A King Arthur for today

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A King Arthur for today is the one you are going to find in Pig Boy. He is also the oldest King Arthur anywhere on record. He is quite different to the one you may know from popular images, films and books. In fact, I reckon that this ancient Arthur is a lot more up to date.

Where does the King Arthur in Pig Boy come from?

Pig Boy as imagined by Arthur Joseph Gaskin

This King Arthur turns up in medieval Welsh manuscripts that contain a number of stories called 'The Mabinogion'. They are tales of wonder and transformation set in a distant Welsh past. Their original audience was ancient Welsh rulers. Within this group of stories there are a number of stories about King Arthur. The story of Pig Boy is the earliest of them all.

The original story is called 'Culhwch and Olwen'. Culhwch is the hero of the story and I have renamed him Pig Boy, which is close to what the original name means. Olwen is the name of the young woman he falls in love with and the whole story is about how Pig Boy gets the help of King Arthur to complete all the tasks that her father, the giant, has set. I toured a storytelling performance version of the story called Hunting the Giant's Daughter with a singer and musician over a period of eight years.

When is it historically set?

This story is set in mythical time, rather than historical time so this is a hard question to answer. The world of the story is completely Celtic with almost all the characters coming from the Celtic countries of Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and Cornwall. There are no main characters or locations from Roman, Norman or Ango-Saxon times to help us date it. Sometimes the descriptions of Arthur's court remind us of medieval courts from the time that the story was written down but there is also a big emphasis on cauldrons which were important object in ancient Celtic civilizations and were sometimes ritually thrown into lakes.

Stone spearheads. Very old and very sharp!

There is one very interesting moment that takes us back to a pivotal moment in human history. The time when stone tools were superceded by metal ones. When Pig Boy and his friends face the giant he throws a stone-tipped spear at them. Each time the spear is thrown Pig Boy, or one of his companions, grabs the spear and throws it back. By the time the spear hits the giant it has turned form stone to iron. Could we be seeing the rise of a metal based culture over a stone based culture in this moment? If so it takes us back around four to five thousand years. A King Arthur for today with roots that go way back.

Why is this Arthur different?

First of all let's look at what this story does not have. There is no sword in the stone, no round table, no Lancelot or Galahad and no Merlin. These elements all arrived much later as the stories were popularised by Geoffrey of Monmouth and spread throughout Europe. What we have in Wales is a story that is more magical and grittier. Although there is a court it is not particularly courtly with a lot of rough and tumble rather than perfect table manners and spotless wimples. This story is as interested in animals as much as people and the main adversary in the story is a wild boar. The animal/human division is not clear either. People can turn into birds and the wild boar I just mentioned was once human.

The other fascinating thing is that many of the locations in the story are there to be seen today. You can trace the hunt of the Great Wild Boar from Ireland, through the sea and over to Pembrokeshire. From there the story continues the hunt along the coast of South Wales and then on a dizzying rampage up and down the Welsh valleys. On the banks of the river Wye there is a rock called Carn Cafall on which the imprint of Arthur's dog is still to be seen, made as they hunted the Great Wild Boar.

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Why is it interesting today?

This is story with a King Arthur for Today because it addresses many of the things that we are interested in as modern people. We are finding a new relationship with nature. One that sees our lives and the natural world as bound together. Our stories are not merely facts but set in the world around us. A world that sustains us and without which we couldn't survive.

It also blurs the animal/human divide and gives precedence to the knowledge that animals have. One of my favourite parts of the story is where there is a quest for oldest animal. Each one is older and wiser than the next until they finally find the creature who can help them in their quest.

This is a very male story and is basically about a male rite of passage to adulthood. At a time when the portrayal of men in the media is not intelligent, observant or useful it is good to hear from our ancestors. Pig Boy succeeds because he gets help from his peers and mentors. He works hard to master practical skills and face his feelings of failure and inadequacy. He understands the importance of the natural world and being part of a skilled and committed group and is open to the magic all around him.

Once you get into the stories and their intimate connection with landscape the need to find a real life person called Arthur vanishes. The evidence is in the marks made in the land by the events the stories tell. The proof is not in an inscription on a gravestone but the scattered bits of story that are spread all over Wales and beyond like a huge story treasure-hunt.

Bodies, Men and Women

Although there is a strong male focus in the story all the female characters are powerful and push the action along. In many ways the men's activities are in orbit around the women whose help, curses and promises make the story move. The strongest character in the whole story is undoubtedly the Very Black Witch Daughter of the Very Bright Witch who Arthur has to face in the (very dark) darkness of her cave.

Sir Galahad by George Frederic Watts. There are no soppy knights in Pig Boy

Unlike the later Arthurian stories, there is no moralising or religion in Pig Boy. The emphasis is more on how you do what you do rather than why. Your story will be told if you do what needs to be done with all your heart and skill and for the benefit of your wider tribe. Like other older Welsh stories of King Arthur, there are often examples of how conflict arises inside the tribe and the consequences this can have. These tales were intended for an audience of future leaders and many aspects of them clearly present the problems and challenges of statecraft. Perhaps some of today's leaders would benefit from reading them!

The Otherworld - the realm of unreason

This King Arthur is a worldly leader and a canny political operator. He is also well versed in the uses of magic and our connection with nature and its wisdom. Above all he understands the vital importance of Annwfn - the Welsh mythological otherworld. I'll talk more about Annwfn in another post, so I'll just say that it is a brilliant and subtle way of talking about the irrational parts of ourselves.

A bit of Celtic mist for you. Taken from the top of Carn Ingli (Angel Mountain) in Pembrokeshire at dawn on the Summer Solstice.

Our rational minds are great at working out the logistics of getting what we want and spotting contradictions. But our irrational self is where we get our passion and drive from. In much modern treatment of the irrational it is placed as a layer 'under' our normal awareness. The genius of the Welsh tradition is that it sees the boundary between rationality and irrationality as continually shifting. You can go from one to the other through song, story, nature, ritual or even doing nothing. The King Arthur in Pig Boy is a strategist who knows when to summon an army and he also knows when to use magic, talk to the animals or walk into the darkness of a cave to face the scariest witch of all. In other words, just the kind of King Arthur we need for today.