Breeze, Andrew. The Battle of Brunanburh and Welsh Tradition

• Author: Breeze, Andrew
• Title: "The Battle of Brunanburh and Welsh Tradition."
• Published in: Neophilologus 83/3
• Place, Publisher: n/a
• Year: 1999
• Pages: 479-82
• E-text:
• Reference: Breeze, Andrew. "The Battle of Brunanburh and Welsh Tradition." Neophilologus 83/3 (1999): 479-82.

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• Key words: history (sagnfræði)

Annotation

Max Förster interpreted the word cattybrunawc in a twelfth-century Welsh poem on St. David as referring to the Battle of Brunanburh (cad Tybrunawc), a conclusion that Alistair Campbell rejected. Breeze supports Förster's view that cattybrunawc is the Battle of Brunanburh and argues that kattybrudawt in a tenth-century poem in the Book of Taliesin is a second Welsh reference to the battle. This older poem makes mention of a 'Red Man of the Battle of Brunanburh'; in Egils saga, Olafr 'the Red' is defeated when he attempts to invade England. Egils saga is an unreliable witness to the battle, however, and it may only be a coincidence that both references are to a 'Red' man.

Lýsing

Max Förster túlkaði orðið cattybrunawc í velsku kvæði frá tólftu öld sem fjallaði um heilagan Davíð á þá lund að það vísaði í orustunnar á Vínheiði (cad Tybrunawc). Alistair Campbell hafnaði þessari tilgátu en Breeze tekur undir með Förster og heldur því jafnframt fram að samskonar tilvísun til orustunnar megi finna í öðru velsku kvæði frá tíundu öld, Lofkvæði Taliesins, þar sem orðið orðið kattybrudawt er notað. Þetta eldra kvæði nefnir "rauðan mann í orustunni á Vínheiði" en í Eglu segir af misheppnaðri tilraun Ólafs rauða til að ráðast inn í England. Egla er hins vegar ekki ábyggilegur vitnisburður um orustuna og það kann að vera tilviljun að í báðum heimildum er vísað í "rauðan" mann.

References

Chapter 51: Ólafur rauði: "Who was the 'Red Man of the Battle of Brunanburh' of the tenth-century Welsh poem ['Taliesin's Song of Praise']? It is curious that Egils saga describes Athelstan's defeat of Olafr 'the Red', a king of Scots who had invaded England. If the Welsh poet meant Olaf Guthfrithason as 'The Red Man of the Battle of Brunanburh', who would increase because of a strong man of the line of Anarawd... he may have had in mind a Welsh alliance with the Northmen of Dublin... Yet it would be foolish to rely much on Egils saga, written in the fourteenth century. That the Norse saga refers to Olafr the Red at Brunanburh, and the Welsh poem to a Red Man of Brunanburh, may be coincidence" (p. 481-82).

Links

• Written by: Katelin Parsons
• Icelandic/English translation: Jón Karl Helgason