Scholars in Wales have discovered that parts of one of the most important books in Welsh history was erased and some of the texts on its animal-skin pages overwritten. The book is titled The Black Book of Camarthen and includes Arthurian stories, Christian prayers and poetry.

A page from the Black Book of Camarthen (National Library of Wales photo)

In passages that were not erased, Merlin, Arthur, Cuchulainn, Uther Pendragon, the hero Gereint, the poet Taliesin, Cyridwen, Fairy King Gwyn ap Nudd and other figures of Dark Ages legend, myth and tall tale make appearances in the 750-year-old, 54-page book. It is the oldest known surviving book entirely in the Welsh language and has some of the earliest references to Myrddin (Merlin) and Arthur.

In Henry Gilbert’s King Arthur’s Knights: The Tales Retold for Boys and Girls, Arthur and Merlin appeal to the Lady of the Lake. ( Wikimedia Commons )

The verse portrays Arthur and Myrddin (Merlin) before they were king and wise counselor to kings, respectively. In one poem, Arthur is a supplicant to enter the court of a king. Myrddin is a wild man driven mad in battle and extolling the virtues of trees.

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Professor Paul Russell and Myriah Williams of the Cambridge Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic told Past Horizons that a man who owned the book in the 16 th century, probably Jaspar Gryffyth, erased verse, doodles and marginalia that had been added to the manuscript over the centuries as it changed hands.

Using photo-editing software and ultraviolet light to examine the vellum pages, the scholars revealed poetry that is unknown in the Welsh canon. The poems are fragmentary, but they hope with further analysis they can read the text, which they think is the ending of a poem on a preceding page and a new poem at the bottom of the page.

Past Horizons quotes Williams as saying:

The margins of manuscripts often contain medieval and early modern reactions to the text, and these can cast light on what our ancestors thought about what they were reading. The Black Book was particularly heavily annotated before the end of the 16th century, and the recovery of erasure has much to tell us about what was already there and can change our understanding of it .

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In text that was not erased, the Black Book contains the oldest known poem about Arthur. He seems to be the leader of a band of warriors seeking entrance to the court of a king. He tries to persuade a king to allow him to enter by extolling the virtues of his heroes:

Arthur distributed gifts,

The blood trickled down.

In the hail of Awarnach,

Fighting with a hag,

He cleft the head of Paiach.

In the fastnesses of Dissethach,

In Mynyd Eiddyn,

He contended with Cynvyn;

By the hundred there they fell,

There they fell by the hundred,

Before the accomplished Bedwyr.

On the strands of Trywruid,

Contending with Garwlwyd,

Brave was his disposition,

With sword and shield;

Vanity were the foremost men

Compared with Cai in the battle.

The sword in the battle

Was unerring in his hand.

They were stanch commanders

Of a legion for the benefit of the country- Bedwyr and Bridlaw;

Nine hundred would to them listen;

Six hundred gasping for breath

Would be the cost of attacking them.

Servants I have had,

Better it was when they were.

This is a translation of Old Welsh into modern English. The book can be read, except for a few chapters, at the Celtic Literature Collective . “Currently housed at the National Library in Wales, the Black Book of Carmarthen (Peniarth MS 1) is a manuscript dating to the middle of the thirteenth century. It is believed to have been the work of a single scribe at the Priory of St. John in Carmarthen,” says the Celtic Literature Collective introduction to the book.

The most treasured book in Welsh history (National Library of Wales image)

In the prayer “ A Skillful Composition ,” the writer expresses how impossible it is to convey in language the power of God. An excerpt:

A skillful composition, the pattern being from God,

A composition, the language, beautiful and pleasant, from Christ.

And should there be a language all complete around the sun,

On as many pivots as there are under the seat,

On as many winged ones as the Almighty made,

And should every one have thrice three hundred tongues,

They could not relate the power of the Trinity.

The Celtic Literature Collection says of two poems attributed to Merlin, “The poems are often attributed to Myrddin, as one of his ‘prophetic’ poems made during his madness in Celydon.” Merlin had a “wild man” phase before he became the wise counselor of four British kings, though it’s possible Scottish stories of Lailoken were attached to Myrddin in the Middle Ages.

As a source for Myrddin as a wild man of the woods, the webpage Arthuriana : Myrddin/Merlin names several poems, including “ The Apple Trees ” and “ The Dialogue of Myrddin and Taliesen ” from the Black Book of Carmarthen . The webpage states:

“In most of these poems the subject – who is either named as Myrddin or is generally assumed to be him – is portrayed as a Wild Man of the Woods living in Coed Celyddon (the 'Caledonian Forest'), where he has fled to after losing his reason ('wandering with madness and madmen') in the northern battle of Arfderydd, fought between rival chieftains c. 573 A.D.; with this lapse into madness Myrddin is said to have acquired the gift of prophecy. The antiquity of these traditions is however suspect, at least in their attachment to Myrddin. In Scottish sources there is a virtually identical tale of a Wild Man to that summarized above, but in these he is named Lailoken rather than Myrddin.”

Past Horizons calls the book a labor of love and says, “Despite its value today, the Black Book of Carmarthen (so called because of the color of its binding) was not an elaborate production, but rather the work of a single scribe who was probably collecting and recording over a long period of his life.”

Featured image: Under UV light, verse and images show up (National Library of Wales photo)

By Mark Miller