Gwalchmei means 'the Hawk or Falcon of May'[1]; and with it should be compared the tradition that the eagles of Llyn Llumonwy, or Loch Lomond, used to congregate on the eve of the Calends of May to give the inhabitants auguries for the year then commencing.[2] As to Modred, Merlin in Malory's Morte Darthur[3] warns king Arthur that he will be destroyed by one born on May-day: hereupon the king collects all the children so born to his lords and ladies, and sends them to sea in a ship: of their number is Mordred, i.e. Modred, who escapes and ultimately slays king Arthur. Equally momentous is the first of May in the tale of Pwyll Prince of Dyved,[4] and in that of Gwyddneu Garanhir and the weir at Aberdovey.[5] Why May-day was such a crisis for the Celtic king, is a question to which we shall have to return. Meantime we are concerned with Lludd, Loth, or Lot.
As Nodons was a river-god in Gloucestershire, so, it would seem, was Lud in Leicestershire. For the town of 'Lud, alias Louth,' as Leland[6] called it, derives its name from the little river Lud or Ludd, in the neighbourhood of which are the hamlets Ludborough, Ludford, and Ludney.[7] Again, Professor Rhŷs conjectures that, as the god Nodons had a sanctuary beside the Severn at Lydney, so the god Lud had a sanctuary by the Thames on or near the site of St. Paul's Cathedral.[8] Here he was represented by the British king Lud, of
- ↑ Rhŷs Arthurian Legend p. 13.
- ↑ Id. ib. p. 238 f.
- ↑ Sir Thomas Malory Le Morte Darthur ed. Sir E. Strachey London 1904 p. 48 f.
- ↑ Lady Guest Mabinogion p. 21, Rhŷs Hibbert Lectures p. 497 ff.
- ↑ Rhŷs Hibbert Lectures p. 545, Arthurian Legend p. 316 f.
- ↑ Camden Britannia ed. Gough ii. 274.
- ↑ S. Lewis Topographical Dictionary of England London 1842 s.vv.
- ↑ Rhŷs Hibbert Lectures p. 129, Celtic Folklore ii. 448.
