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“Then isn’t our comes too late for Arthur?”
“Not really, Em. Most of the tales associate Arthur with sixth century British kings like Urien and Cador.”
“Oh!” Emily sat down abruptly, her legs giving out.
“Are you all right?” he said in alarm, coming to her side.
“Yes, yes! It’s just—overwhelming! I mean Arthur! The greatest king in British history!”
“Hold on a minute, Em. We don’t know it’s anything to do with him at all, the name may just be a coincidence.”
She took a breath and let it out slowly. “You’re right, of course. I’m getting ahead of myself. But oh, Deo, I’ve got tingles, what if it is?”
“Only one way to find out. We need to comb through the Arthurian texts to see if we can find anything pertinent. I’ve got Geoffrey of Monmouth here, but Rob will have the others in his library, I’m pretty sure. I’ll go fetch them; you take a look at Geoff.” He handed her a copy of the History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth and headed downstairs.
It was a translation from 1718 by Thomson and contained a gazetteer and index at the back, she was pleased to see. She started to comb through the entries. By the time Deo came back, she was beside herself.
“Deo! Look, this must be where the identification of Caelyr with Leicester comes from. I found it in the gazetteer at the back. But the really exciting bit? I’ve found his name! The spelling is a bit different, but that would be the variation between Welsh and English, I think. He’s actually mentioned in the text!”
She showed him the passage.
“It gives a list of leaders gathered at one time—consuls—and gives a name, Jugein of Leicester. And there is another reference—possibly a variant spelling—here with Jonathal of Dorchester, commanding the third division of troops at the Battle of Suesia! It must be him; don’t you think?”
“The Battle of Bedegraine isn’t the Battle of Suesia,” objected Deo.
“No, it’s a different battle, but it shows he was a battle commander. And that he fought for Arthur!”
Deo nodded slowly. “Perhaps,” he said cautiously. “But is the name similar enough?”
“Gyn could be a variant of gein, couldn’t it? And we know that part of the name is missing so couldn’t the first part be Ju? His father’s name is Wig something. Couldn’t it be Wigein? Jugein and Wigein are just variant spellings of the same name, aren’t they?”
He smiled ruefully at her. “You make a good argument, Em. Now if we could locate Bedegraine . . .”
“Which books did you get?”
“Bede, Wace, Layamon, and good old Mallory. Which did you want?”
“Mallory! Bedegraine sounds to me like something that he would use.”
He nodded, handing over the volume and sitting down with the rest.
Emily took Mallory and thumbed to the back, looking for an index and was gratified to find one. “Got it!” she said a moment later. “The Battle of Bedegraine in the forest of Bedegraine!” She looked up, grinning. “And here, oh my gosh, Mallory says ‘After this Merlin departed from his master and came to King Arthur, that was in the castle of Bedegraine, that was one of the castles that stand in the forest of Sherwood.’”
“Sherwood is close to here, north of the river Trent,” said Deo, putting down his book but keeping a finger in it to mark his place.
“Oh, Deo, this does sound like it might be something that actually happened.”
“Maybe. Though you need to remember, Em, there have been a lot of forgeries over the years associated with Arthur.”
“But don’t you think—?”
“I don’t know, Em. It’s very tempting,” he admitted.
“But you’re not convinced? Surely if someone were going to manufacture a forgery, they would do it about someone famous, like Bedivere or Cai? Not an obscure commander no one has heard of. The cross was broken and buried a long time ago . . .”
“It does look persuasive, Em. I’m just wary of claiming something that is so closely associated with Arthur. Particularly Mallory’s Arthur, who is much more fable than fact. The names in Mallory’s work are largely fictitious, whereas the ones in Nennius, Bede, and even Geoffrey are much closer to history.”
She sighed.
