sparkey
Great Adventurer
- Messages
- 2,250
- Reaction score
- 352
- Points
- 0
- Location
- California
- Ethnic group
- 3/4 Colonial American, 1/8 Cornish, 1/8 Welsh
- Y-DNA haplogroup
- I2c1 PF3892+ (Swiss)
- mtDNA haplogroup
- U4a (Cornish)
The Men Scryfa is an ancient, tall standing stone near Land's End in Cornwall, with a rich tradition of legend associated with it. Its name means "Inscribed Stone" in Cornish, since it has something written on it: "RIALOBRANI CUNOVALI FILI," translated as "Royal Bran [a name meaning "raven"], son of the Glorious Prince." Current archaeological evidence suggests that the standing stone itself dates to the Bronze Age, consistent with many of the other standing stones that dot the Cornish countryside, but the inscription is clearly much younger, dating to ca. 500CE.
Analysis of what, exactly, the inscription means, has focused mainly on local tradition, as we don't have anything written down about it until over a millennium after it was inscribed. All sources I could find about it, however, including Hunt, Bottrell, Lach-Szyrma, etc., were consistent about what the story was: Rialobrani, or Ryalvran in Cornish, was a giant, and the son of a Prince who established a Christian church in that area of Cornwall. He held a hillfort (variously Lescudjack, Caer Bran, or others), but was driven from it, before returning and winning a battle in which he was killed and buried, with the Men Scryfa erected to mark his grave. At the Men Scryfa, he waits to return, to protect Cornwall from future invasions.
Now, most sources have taken these stories at face value: Ryalvran was probably a local warlord, now lost to history, who died in battle. But I think there is much more to Ryalvran than that, and the answer should be obvious to any Brythonic historian. Here's my proposal...
"Ryalvran" ("Royal Bran") must be the Cornish variant of the Welsh "Bendigeidfran" ("Blessed Bran"), the legendary king of the British in the second branch of the Mabinogion. Mabinogion scholars are virtually unanimous in their analysis of Bendigeidfran, declaring him to be an ancient character from pagan mythology, and not an actual king. However, unlike Bendigeidfran's legendary father, Llyr, scholars generally haven't attempted to associate him with a pan-Celtic or pan-Brythonic archetype. Well, here's your pan-Brythonic archetype. There is too much evidence of the association between the Mabinogion's Bendigeidfran and the Cornish oral tradition about the Men Scryfa to ignore:
As far as I know, I'm the first to make this connection so completely, so I'm interested in any input from anyone else interested in Celtic tradition. I have read about supposed connections of the name of the hillfort Caer Bran to either Ryalvran or Bendigeidfran... I would go farther and say that they all derive from the same tradition.
Analysis of what, exactly, the inscription means, has focused mainly on local tradition, as we don't have anything written down about it until over a millennium after it was inscribed. All sources I could find about it, however, including Hunt, Bottrell, Lach-Szyrma, etc., were consistent about what the story was: Rialobrani, or Ryalvran in Cornish, was a giant, and the son of a Prince who established a Christian church in that area of Cornwall. He held a hillfort (variously Lescudjack, Caer Bran, or others), but was driven from it, before returning and winning a battle in which he was killed and buried, with the Men Scryfa erected to mark his grave. At the Men Scryfa, he waits to return, to protect Cornwall from future invasions.
Now, most sources have taken these stories at face value: Ryalvran was probably a local warlord, now lost to history, who died in battle. But I think there is much more to Ryalvran than that, and the answer should be obvious to any Brythonic historian. Here's my proposal...
"Ryalvran" ("Royal Bran") must be the Cornish variant of the Welsh "Bendigeidfran" ("Blessed Bran"), the legendary king of the British in the second branch of the Mabinogion. Mabinogion scholars are virtually unanimous in their analysis of Bendigeidfran, declaring him to be an ancient character from pagan mythology, and not an actual king. However, unlike Bendigeidfran's legendary father, Llyr, scholars generally haven't attempted to associate him with a pan-Celtic or pan-Brythonic archetype. Well, here's your pan-Brythonic archetype. There is too much evidence of the association between the Mabinogion's Bendigeidfran and the Cornish oral tradition about the Men Scryfa to ignore:
- Ryalvran's burial place is not indicative of him having been real royalty. Actual Dumnonian royalty (like Tristan and Donyarth) got new monuments upon their death, not traditions that they are buried at a more ancient site, as seems to be the case with Ryalvran. Also, the euphemism for his father, rather than using an actual name, is apparently unique.
- Ryalvran and Bendigeidfran both have the naming pattern [positive adjective] Bran (meaning "raven").
- Ryalvran and Bendigeidfran are both said to have ruled from a fortified place by the sea.
- Ryalvran and Bendigeidfran are both said to have been giants.
- Ryalvran and Bendigeidfran are both said to have died in battle.
- Ryalvran and Bendigeidfran are both said to have continued to have supernatural powers after their death, and to have continued to protect their people even after they were buried.
- Ryalvran and Bendigeidfran are both said to have been members of families who introduced Christianity to their land.
- Ryalvran and Bendigeidfran are both said to have had glorified fathers, possibly indicating a suppressed tradition that they were born of deities. Indeed, for Bendigeidfran's father, Llyr, we have a direct link between him and the Irish sea god, Lir. For Ryalvran's, it's less clear, due to the use of the euphemism "Cunovali," but it's probably not a stretch to assume that Cunovali refers to Llyr or a similar deity.
As far as I know, I'm the first to make this connection so completely, so I'm interested in any input from anyone else interested in Celtic tradition. I have read about supposed connections of the name of the hillfort Caer Bran to either Ryalvran or Bendigeidfran... I would go farther and say that they all derive from the same tradition.