Night of the Long Knives (Arthurian)
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The Night of the Long Knives is the name Geoffrey of Monmouth gave to the (possibly apocryphal) treacherous killing of native British chieftains by Jute, Angle, and Saxon mercenaries at a place (a hall, a monastery, or perhaps Stonehenge) on Salisbury Plain in ca. 460. The event came to be known as Brad y Cyllyll Hirion ('The Treachery of the Long Knives') in Welsh.
The traditional figure Vortigern, who had supposedly become the high king of the Britons in the wake of the abandonment of Britain by the Roman Empire, had invited Angles and Saxons from Germania to settle in Kent as a means of warding off incursions by Picts and Scots. The settlers, however, grew in number, and when a dispute arose over payment, began themselves to raid British villages and establish independent kingdoms.
The Night of the Long Knives, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, took place at a banquet in modern-day Wiltshire ostensibly arranged to seal a peace treaty, which may have been the cession of Essex and Sussex in exchange for intermarriage between Rowena, the daughter of Saxon chieftain Hengest, and Vortigern. The story claims that the "Saxons"—which probably includes Angles and Jutes—arrived at the banquet armed with their long knives (saxes) hidden on their persons. During the feast, on a given word of command, they pulled their knives and killed the unarmed Britons sitting next to them. Variously described as the only escapee are Vortigern himself, and Saint Abban the Hermit.
The historical existence of any of these events or persons is conjectural. Textual evidence is weak and begins in the 7th century with Nennius. Geoffrey embroidered the tale considerably.
[edit] Modern significance
As Brad y Cyllyll Hirion, the event had, and still holds, a potent symbolism in Welsh national consciousness. In 19th century Wales, the term Brad y Llyfrau Gleision ('The Treachery of the Blue Books') was coined to refer to the report of the English commissioners on education in Wales, published in parliamentary blue covers in 1847, which was widely seen as an attack on the Welsh language and a slur on the Welsh people. One of the effects of the report would be the exclusion of the Welsh language from Welsh schools for several generations and a consequent fall in the number of Welsh speakers.[1]
The name was later used for a similar purge in Nazi Germany.
[edit] References
- ^ Prys Morgan, 'From Long Knives to Blue Books' in Welsh Society and Nationhood (ed. R. R. Davies et al., Cardiff, 1981)
