THE GOOD KING Lud
As we scan Geoffrey's History we find a character who is of equally important mythological stature and gains more than a couple of paragraphs in the Text. This character is the 'so it seems' well loved good king Lud.
The below statue is supposedly of king Alfred 'the Great' one of the first Saxon kings to bring together the later Anglo-Saxons against the much later invasion from western Europe of their consolidated stolen lands.
However the masterful poets Wordsworth and Blake both identified the statue as king Lud- this point would carry much weight even without the knowledge of Blake's interest in Druidry and his ultimate placement as high Druid of Britain later in life. The fascinations and connections that Wordsworth held with the 'craft' of many initiatory traditions also play into the overall image of something very important in the observation made by these two highly steeped men.
King lud is talked about by Monmouth but if we now focus on place names and scan a map of Britain we find that there are no less than 68 places with 'lud' at their beginning. From Lud , Ludlow, Ludville, Ludhampton, Ludham , Luddington and all the way down to 8 Ludgates leading down in a sweeping line from northern wales to london - the diffusion of the name is wide and you find it right across England , Wales , Scotland and Ireland. There is a place called 'Lud' in the Shetland isles and then a Ludgvan in Cornwall - this king whoever he actually was did alot of travelling or, was thought of so highly that his name spread... like wildfire.
The below statue is supposedly of king Alfred 'the Great' one of the first Saxon kings to bring together the later Anglo-Saxons against the much later invasion from western Europe of their consolidated stolen lands.
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However the masterful poets Wordsworth and Blake both identified the statue as king Lud- this point would carry much weight even without the knowledge of Blake's interest in Druidry and his ultimate placement as high Druid of Britain later in life. The fascinations and connections that Wordsworth held with the 'craft' of many initiatory traditions also play into the overall image of something very important in the observation made by these two highly steeped men.
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King lud is talked about by Monmouth but if we now focus on place names and scan a map of Britain we find that there are no less than 68 places with 'lud' at their beginning. From Lud , Ludlow, Ludville, Ludhampton, Ludham , Luddington and all the way down to 8 Ludgates leading down in a sweeping line from northern wales to london - the diffusion of the name is wide and you find it right across England , Wales , Scotland and Ireland. There is a place called 'Lud' in the Shetland isles and then a Ludgvan in Cornwall - this king whoever he actually was did alot of travelling or, was thought of so highly that his name spread... like wildfire.
-example-
'LUD' PLACENAMES
Monmouth describes Lud as a Warrior King Who was fond of hosting lavish feasts and throwing parties - this was on account of him and his fathers re-conquering Britain and removing the presence of the latest invading force. He tells of the rest of the lineage both Pre and Post Lud however these links are some of the most tentative and have not stood the test of 'Historical' time. It is left to another later author (Owain Tanwen) to translate Bladud to B'lladdud in the welsh language and this would then in turn be 'the Ludud' or 'the Lud' in Latin. This gives us a very fresh new angle to look at bath's founding figure from and indeed the dates with which we have become accustomed do not fit the bill.
The 400-800 years that separate Lud and Bladud fall away when we note Monmouth's skewing of all the details and chronology when laid up against the outline of the welsh legends - it shows to us that Bladud, Lud and Lludd are in fact the same people.
'LUD' PLACENAMES
Whilst there are numerous places that begin with the name of our selected king it is by no means proof that they were indeed named after him- it is however proof that this name in some way held importance for the whole of Ancient Britain. Lud has no meaning in latin or welsh as a word of it's own - so we must then investigate the roots of this word. As mentioned earlier this word covers the whole of Britain, here is one intriguing example:
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Monmouth describes Lud as a Warrior King Who was fond of hosting lavish feasts and throwing parties - this was on account of him and his fathers re-conquering Britain and removing the presence of the latest invading force. He tells of the rest of the lineage both Pre and Post Lud however these links are some of the most tentative and have not stood the test of 'Historical' time. It is left to another later author (Owain Tanwen) to translate Bladud to B'lladdud in the welsh language and this would then in turn be 'the Ludud' or 'the Lud' in Latin. This gives us a very fresh new angle to look at bath's founding figure from and indeed the dates with which we have become accustomed do not fit the bill.
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In tracking back it seems as though Bladud or B'lladdud WAS the -young- king Lud or in the powerful welsh mythology of the MABINOGION it denoted the boyhood of the legendary warrior king ''Lludd''. This character however is much older than the Lud and Bladud of Monmouths text and has much more importance in the history of ancient Britain. While The legends of wales are known to have been re-written in the periods between 400 and 900 ad - all scholars and Celtic mythologists understand that LLudd is a figure who comes from the murky ancient times of Albion perhaps THOUSANDS of years earlier.
The 400-800 years that separate Lud and Bladud fall away when we note Monmouth's skewing of all the details and chronology when laid up against the outline of the welsh legends - it shows to us that Bladud, Lud and Lludd are in fact the same people.
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In looking at Geoffrey's text we have shown that less than a historian he was an artist- and as such he has kept certain themes and histories whilst fragmenting them throughout the narrative to add progressively to the tale in the style of a true epic . Whilst he was an artist we can also call him rightly a mythologist as he audaciously tried to carry on his Kings of Britain were the Iliad of homer ended ... with the destruction of troy. His contention was that Brutus (a roman name incidentally) an heir to the throne of troy- fled from the destruction and came to Britain and formed Trinovantum or New Troy. This has been shown by hundreds of historians , archaeologists and anthropologists to be false.
Daniel J.Tatman
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In the next post will shall examine the next king in our line of angled mirrors - the hugely influential and loved welsh warrior king - 'Lludd Llaw Eraint'.Daniel J.Tatman
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