Poem 31 of the Black Book of Carmarthen, a mid-13th century manuscript, is known from its first line as Pa gur yv y porthaur? or Pa gur, or alternatively as Ymddiddan Arthur a Glewlwyd Gafaelfawr. It is a fragmentary, anonymous poem in Old Welsh, taking the form of a dialogue between King Arthur and the gatekeeper Glewlwyd Gafaelfawr, in which Arthur boasts of his own exploits and those of his companions, especially Cai the Fair. Pa gur is notable for being one of the earliest vernacular Arthurian works, and for alluding to several early adventures of Arthur which are now lost. Its precise age is not known and has been the subject of wide-ranging disagreement, but scholarly opinion now tends to favour a date of c. 1100.
Summary
Pa gur is in places a very difficult text, and translations of it vary widely. This summary is based on the version of Jon B. Coe and Simon Young. The poem begins with Arthur asking the porter's name. Glewlwyd Gafaelfawr duly identifies himself and returns the question, upon which Arthur names himself and says his party consists of Cai the Fair and "the best men in the world". Glewlwyd demands Arthur vouch for them, so Arthur names his men and praises their exploits: Mabon son of Modron, Uthr Pendragon's servant; Cyscaint son of Banon; Gwyn Goddyfrion; Manawydan son of Llŷr, who bore "pierced shields from Tryfrwyd"; Mabon son of Mellt; Anwas the Winged and Llwch the Windy-Handed, who have been defending Edinburgh; and finally Cai, who "would implore them, while he slew them, three at a time." The subject now turns to Arthur himself, who is said to have fought against a witch in the hall of Afarnach, against a certain Pen Palach in the dwellings of Disethach, and against dog-heads at the mount of Edinburgh. Bedwyr Perfect-Sinew slew his enemies by the hundred, and he fought ferociously on the shores of Tryfrwyd. Arthur again praises at length Cai's prowess in battle, only to interrupt himself with the reflection that
I had servants, it was better when they were alive.
"Before the lords of Emrys", Arthur says, "I saw Cai at haste." Not only is his vengeance heavy and his anger bitter, but
When he drank from a horn he would drink like four.
So mighty a warrior is Cai that his death can only be contrived by God himself. Cai and Llachau, we are told, "fulfilled battles". Cai attacked nine witches at the peak of Ystafngwn, and lions in Anglesey. Then follows the beginning of a description of another of Cai's adversaries, the terrible cat of Palug, against whom "his shield was polished".
Nine-score soldiers would fall as its food; nine-score champions…
The dating of Old Welsh texts presents great problems, even the linguistic criteria for dating them not having yet been agreed on. Pa gur is a case in point. In 1959 the great linguist Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson went no further than saying that it was probably older than the Norman period. In later years Rachel Bromwich, John Bollard and A. O. H. Jarman were agreed in assigning it to the 10th or 11th century, with Brynley Roberts tentatively narrowing that down to the 10th, though John T. Koch believed that the 9th century or even the 8th was possible. However, recent scholarly opinion has tended to favour a later date of around 1100. The question of where Pa gur was written has received less attention, but Patrick Sims-Williams has suggested south-east Wales. He argues from certain similarities to, firstly, the Vita Sancti Cadocis of Lifris of Llancarfan, a work with a Glamorgan subject and author, and secondly, an episode of the Welsh romance of Peredur set in Gloucester, near the south-east Welsh border. He also interprets the poem as including a reference to the river Ely, in Glamorgan.
The character of Arthur
The Arthur of Pa gur is a folk-tale figure, a wandering hero leading a band of other heroes in an irresponsible life of adventures that pit them against monsters and magical adversaries, rather like the fíanna of early Irish literature. His companions – including Cai and Bedwyr, both important figures in later Arthurian legend – each have their own qualities which they can bring to any encounter, but Arthur is a fighter in his own right, not just a commander. It has been suggested that Arthur himself has supernatural powers in the poem, specifically the ability to make himself and his men invisible, though this interpretation rests on a contested translation of a difficult line. The general tone of the poem can be seen as light-hearted. At the same time, Arthur's repeated use of the past tense in his boasts about his companions' exploits arguably give them an elegiac tone, suggesting the possibility that we should see the Arthur of the poem as a man past his glory years and living in the past with a sadly diminished following.
