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| Country diary: a hidden well recalls a seventh-century massacre | Country diary: a hidden well recalls a seventh-century massacre |
| (4 months later) | |
| Pentrefelin, Gwynedd Swirling sands made for a journey as perilous as the doctrinal disputes of the dark ages | |
| Jim Perrin | |
| Sat 7 Oct 2017 05.30 BST | |
| Last modified on Mon 27 Nov 2017 15.49 GMT | |
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| The minor road climbs steeply to debouch on a rushy pasture between Mynydd Ednyfed and Bryn Braich y Saint. The views from up here are of startling breadth and loveliness. To the south the land falls away to where Afonnydd Glaslyn and Dwyryd spill into Tremadog Bay. | The minor road climbs steeply to debouch on a rushy pasture between Mynydd Ednyfed and Bryn Braich y Saint. The views from up here are of startling breadth and loveliness. To the south the land falls away to where Afonnydd Glaslyn and Dwyryd spill into Tremadog Bay. |
| Over on the southern shore, yews surround the clas (Celtic Christian monastic settlement) of Llanfihangel-y-Traethau. | Over on the southern shore, yews surround the clas (Celtic Christian monastic settlement) of Llanfihangel-y-Traethau. |
| From there pilgrims, en route to Bardsey, during the “dark ages”, took guides to conduct them across a treacherous and ever-changing swirl of sands to the northern shore – a journey as perilous as doctrinal disputes within the early British church. | From there pilgrims, en route to Bardsey, during the “dark ages”, took guides to conduct them across a treacherous and ever-changing swirl of sands to the northern shore – a journey as perilous as doctrinal disputes within the early British church. |
| Looking down from this “Hill of the Arm of the Saint”, in my mind’s eye I see back into the early seventh century; see the ragged group of survivors – professors of the Pelagian heresy, non-believers in the Pauline doctrine of original sin – who fled to this formerly wild and remote place after the massacre in 613 of the monks at Bangor Iscoed. | Looking down from this “Hill of the Arm of the Saint”, in my mind’s eye I see back into the early seventh century; see the ragged group of survivors – professors of the Pelagian heresy, non-believers in the Pauline doctrine of original sin – who fled to this formerly wild and remote place after the massacre in 613 of the monks at Bangor Iscoed. |
| By Bede’s testimony, 1,200 monks were slaughtered there, though that early example of political spin the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has it as a mere 200. | By Bede’s testimony, 1,200 monks were slaughtered there, though that early example of political spin the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has it as a mere 200. |
| Either way, this fearful band of 50 – Iscoed’s Abbot Dunawd among them – traversed the sands, wild geese chorusing them across like fateful choirs, and climbed Braich y Saint. | Either way, this fearful band of 50 – Iscoed’s Abbot Dunawd among them – traversed the sands, wild geese chorusing them across like fateful choirs, and climbed Braich y Saint. |
| A well, there, bearing Dunawd’s name, is marked on the map. Search assiduously and you’ll find it. There are clues: polished steps in an earth bank, a tiny, fenced-off enclosure behind. If you delved beneath its tangled briars you’d find a stone basin into which a spring rises. In the recent past it was mired by trampling cattle. Thorns now preserve a resurgent purity. | A well, there, bearing Dunawd’s name, is marked on the map. Search assiduously and you’ll find it. There are clues: polished steps in an earth bank, a tiny, fenced-off enclosure behind. If you delved beneath its tangled briars you’d find a stone basin into which a spring rises. In the recent past it was mired by trampling cattle. Thorns now preserve a resurgent purity. |
| It’s one of those lost chapters in the text that lies everywhere under Welsh turf – quiet, insignificant, more or less forgotten, yet speaking more clearly about the tormented history of this small and jewelled nation than any grander monument I know. | It’s one of those lost chapters in the text that lies everywhere under Welsh turf – quiet, insignificant, more or less forgotten, yet speaking more clearly about the tormented history of this small and jewelled nation than any grander monument I know. |
| So I come here often, to bear continuing witness to Pelagian truths, and their upholders’ flight from the forces of barbarism. | So I come here often, to bear continuing witness to Pelagian truths, and their upholders’ flight from the forces of barbarism. |
| Follow Country diary on Twitter: @gdncountrydiary | Follow Country diary on Twitter: @gdncountrydiary |
| Jim Perrin is giving this year’s lecture in honour of Country diarist William Condry, “A Thoreau for Our Time”, tonight at 7.30pm, MoMA/Tabernacle, Machynlleth, Wales. www.thecondrylecture.co.uk | Jim Perrin is giving this year’s lecture in honour of Country diarist William Condry, “A Thoreau for Our Time”, tonight at 7.30pm, MoMA/Tabernacle, Machynlleth, Wales. www.thecondrylecture.co.uk |
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