King Arthur’s Mysterious Sister, Ancestress of the Kings of Britain
In the Arthurian legends, there is sister of Arthur who is often overlooked. In fact, her very existence as a distinct figure in the legends is rarely acknowledged. Yet, she is portrayed as a notable ancestress of the kings of Britain. What do we know about her? Where in the Arthurian legends does she even appear? And was she a real person?
Who Was King Arthur’s Mysterious Sister?
The most obvious reference to King Arthur’s mysterious sister comes from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, written in c. 1137. In this landmark Arthurian text, Geoffrey writes about a prophecy given by Merlin around the time of the death of Aurelius Ambrosius, the paternal uncle of Arthur.
Upon the death of Aurelius, his younger brother Uther succeeded him as king. A startling event marked the death of Aurelius and the ascension of Uther. A comet appeared in the sky. It is described as a star with a ray issuing forth from it. At the end of this ray was fire in the form of a dragon.
Out of the mouth of the dragon came two additional rays. One of them pointed towards Gaul, while the other pointed towards the Irish Sea. This second one terminated in seven lesser rays.
Explaining the Sign
Merlin was summoned by Uther to explain this dramatic omen. According to Merlin, addressing his words to his lord:
“For the star, and the fiery dragon under it, signifies yourself, and the ray extending towards the Gallic coast, portends that you shall have a most potent son, to whose power all those kingdoms shall be subject over which the ray reaches. But the other ray signifies a daughter, whose sons and grandsons shall successively enjoy the kingdom of Britain."
Thus, according to Merlin, Uther would have a son who would rule over the kingdoms of Gaul. It is obvious, from the rest of the Historia Regum Britanniae, that this is supposed to be Arthur. Geoffrey later goes on to present Arthur as engaging in a conquest of Gaul and dominating it under his rulership.
However, what is less obvious in the context of the Arthurian legends is the fulfilment of the second ray. As Merlin explains, this represents a daughter whose sons and grandsons ruled as kings of Britain. There is nothing in Geoffrey’s own account which matches this.
This prophecy in the Historia Regum Britanniae, therefore, is the key source for King Arthur’s mysterious sister. The prophecy in itself does not provide her name (just as it does not provide Arthur’s name). Nonetheless, can we identify her with any of Arthur’s other recorded sisters?
Suggested Theories Regarding King Arthur’s Mysterious Sister
A variety of suggestions have been made regarding the identity of this sister, though few, if any, are particularly convincing.
Anna, Wife of Lot of Lothian
Perhaps the most obvious option is that it is the one sister whom Geoffrey does mention by name. In his account of Uther taking Igerna for himself, he states that they had as children Arthur and Anna. He does not mention any more children (although other Arthurian tradition, supported even by Geoffrey himself, shows that there were others).
Since Anna is the only sister of Arthur’s explicitly mentioned by name, it is evident that she is the one to whom Geoffrey gives the most emphasis. Thus, she is ostensibly the most obvious candidate for the mysterious sister represented by the second prophetic ray.
This Anna is described as marrying Lot of Lothian, a prominent king of the north of Britain. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account, she had at least two children, Walgan and Modred (better known as Gawain and Mordred).
These are prominent Arthurian characters. Therefore, it is attractive to interpret her and her children as the subject of this prophecy. Some commentators have taken this viewpoint.
Problems with This Identification
There are at least three main problems with this identification. The first problem is that there are seven lesser rays emanating from the ray which represents Arthur’s sister. These clearly represent the ‘sons and grandsons’ mentioned by Merlin.
However, Geoffrey does not present Anna as having a long line of descendants. In fact, her progeny ends when Mordred’s two children are killed by Constantine, the successor of Arthur. Gawain, for his part, is not presented as having any children. Therefore, it is difficult to see how this identification could explain the detail of the seven lesser rays.
Furthermore, Merlin specifically says that this sister’s “sons and grandsons shall successively enjoy the kingdom of Britain”. This was not fulfilled in the case of Anna’s descendants. Mordred was made the regent of Britain, but his two sons are not recorded as ever being kings. Gildas refers to them merely as ‘royal youths’.
Gawain is recorded as a king in other records, but he is never presented as founding a dynasty.
While Anna is given other children in later versions of the Arthurian legends, these children are not presented as kings who successively rule over Britain.
Some scholars, such as John Matthews, suggest that the prophecy relates to Gawain, but that it goes unfulfilled. This is hardly logical. There is no reason whatsoever to suppose that the prophecy would go unfulfilled. It certainly did not go unfulfilled in the case of Arthur, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account.
A third issue with this identification is that the ray which represents Arthur’s sister is described as extending towards the Irish Sea. This does not match Anna, since her husband Lot ruled in Lothian, which is in southeast Scotland.
Therefore, there is no good case at all to be made that Anna the wife of Lot of Lothian is the mysterious sister featured in this prophecy of the comet.
The Alternative Anna, Wife of Amon of Dyfed
Another possibility emerges when we take into consideration the evidence that Anna was actually not the wife of Lot. In fact, the weight of evidence suggests that the wife of Lot was a completely different sister of Arthur, a woman named Gwyar.
According to this theory, Anna was another sister whose name came to be accidentally applied to Gwyar. The real Anna, supposedly, should be identified as the historical Anna of Gwent, the wife of Amon of Dyfed and mother of the famous Saint Samson of Dol.
As well as giving birth to Samson, the early Life of St Samson also tells us that Samson had at least five brothers. That makes a total of six sons. If just one of them had a grandson who succeeded him as king, this could perhaps be interpreted as fitting the seven rays representing ‘sons and grandsons’.
Problems with This Identification
However, essentially the same objections raised against the previous identification apply just as much in this case. Samson himself was a religious figure. He served as the bishop of Dol in Brittany. He was never a king. According to the Life of St Samson, all five of his brothers also eventually ‘surrendered to God’, pursuing religious lives.
Thus, it is evident that none of them became kings and founded dynasties. All the evidence we have suggests the opposite, that their respective family lines ended with them.
Again, we should also note that Anna married Amon of Dyfed and moved with him to Brittany at some point (it is very likely that Amon can be identified as Annun ap Emyr Llydaw, since Samson is described as the cousin of Iudual, king of Brittany). Hence, there is no connection whatsoever to the Irish Sea.
The Unnamed Sister Who Married Budic of Brittany
Another possibility is raised by Geoffrey’s one reference to another sister of Arthur. He explains that Arthur had a sister who married Budic, the king of Brittany. Geoffrey does not name this sister, and within the narrative of the Historia Regum Britanniae, it clearly cannot be Anna (or Gwyar) the wife of Lot.
In some ways, this identification shows some promise. The son of this unnamed sister and King Budic is Hoel. He, in turn, is presented as becoming king of Brittany, although other evidence shows that this was while his father Budic was still alive.
Later in the Historia Regum Britanniae, Geoffrey speaks of several descendants of Hoel as successively becoming the kings of Brittany. The line goes from Hoel, to his son Hoel II, to his son Alan, to his son Hoel III, to his son Salomon, to his nephew Alan II.
This produces a total of six kings descended from Arthur’s unnamed sister, the wife of Budic, very nearly matching the prophecy’s stated total of seven.
Problems with This Identification
The obvious problem with this identification is that Brittany is not Britain. The prophecy as foretold by Merlin very clearly said that the sister’s sons and grandsons would rule over Britain. Geoffrey of Monmouth almost always refers to Brittany as Armorica. Very occasionally, he calls it ‘Armorican Britain’.
Therefore, there is really no support for the idea that this prophecy about the descendants of Arthur’s sister ruling over Britain had its fulfilment in the history of Brittany.
Furthermore, the total of six kings of Brittany does not match the seven lesser rays that appeared as part of the sign.
Another issue is that, yet again, the connection to the Irish Sea is left unexplained by this identification.
The Most Likely Identity of King Arthur’s Mysterious Sister
While Arthur is given a few more sisters in the Arthurian legends, none of them provide any coherent explanation for this prophecy. Furthermore, it seems perverse to look at traditions from after Geoffrey wrote, involving characters obviously invented later, to try to explain this prophecy, since it obviously must have had a meaning when Geoffrey wrote it.
In all likelihood, this prophecy preserves a lost tradition. From the glimpses of Arthurian tradition that exist from before Geoffrey of Monmouth, it is abundantly clear that he left out large amounts of information about Arthur and his reign. We find many other family members of Arthur mentioned in Welsh tradition, for example.
Therefore, it is likely that this prophecy mentioned by Geoffrey had something to do with a family member whom he either did not know about or just neglected to include fully. The only objection to this understanding would be if he made up the prophecy himself, but there is no reason whatsoever to conclude that.
The Importance of Identifying the Real Uther Pendragon
It may be that the answer to this mystery comes from viewing the woman in question not as King Arthur’s sister, but as Uther Pendragon’s daughter. While this may seem like a redundant distinction, there is one argument regarding the identity of Uther Pendragon that makes it very important.
The word ‘Pendragon’ is a title, meaning ‘Chief Warrior’. This is well accepted. However, it is likely that ‘Uther’ is also part of the title. It appears to be the Welsh word ‘uthr’, with the meaning of ‘fearsome’ in this context. Thus, the full title would be ‘Fearsome Chief Warrior’.
This is the kind of generic title which could logically apply to all manner of powerful kings. For example, the Elegy to Uthyr Pendragon seems to be about King Arthur himself. Arthur also appears with that title in Pa Gur.
Therefore, it is entirely possible that the father of Arthur was actually not the father of the woman represented by the second ray. It may be that this prophecy actually comes from a conflation of two different men both known by the same title.
We find this same phenomenon in the case of Emyr Llydaw. This is actually a title meaning ‘Emperor of Brittany’. The evidence suggests that this title was used by Budic II, Budic III, and possibly Daniel the father of Budic II. Yet in the Welsh sources, they appear to treat it as if it were the personal name of a single figure, making their children siblings rather than the more distant relatives that they actually were.
Tewdrig as the Real Uther Pendragon
In the case of the Uther Pendragon described by Geoffrey of Monmouth, his career closely matches that of Tewdrig, a king of southeast Wales in the fifth and sixth centuries (following the chronology in the Oxford Dictionary of Saints: Fifth Edition).
For example, it appears that Tewdrig led a military expedition to Dyfed, southwest Wales, and drove out the Irish dynasty that was ruling there in about the year 500. This matches closely with what Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote concerning Uther.
An even more striking example is seen by comparing the accounts of their deaths. Tewdrig’s death story is found in the Book of Llandaff, written at around the same time as the Historia Regum Britanniae. We find that the two accounts are almost beat-for-beat identical.
Therefore, it is evident that Geoffrey’s account of Uther Pendragon is taken, in large part at least, from the historical career of King Tewdrig. This is the case whether Tewdrig really was connected to the historical King Arthur or not (one prominent theory identifies Arthur as Athrwys, the grandson of Tewdrig).
The reason that this is so significant is that Tewdrig is recorded as having a daughter who ended up being very important.
Marchell, Daughter of Tewdrig
What do we know about Tewdrig’s daughter, and how does she help us to explain the prophecy recorded in the Historia Regum Britanniae? The first thing we know is that she was named Marchell. She appears in a variety of medieval documents.
According to these documents, Tewdrig sent Marchell to Ireland to protect her from a plague that was afflicting Britain at the time. She must have been quite young, since she is described as an only child at the time, meaning that this was before the birth of Tewdrig’s son Meurig.
While in Ireland, Marchell married an Irish prince named Anlach. They had at least one son together, whom they named Brychan. When Brychan was two years old, they all moved to Britain, where Marchell received an inheritance in what is now Brecon. The name of this region, unsurprisingly, comes from their son Brychan.
Brychan became the king of Brycheiniog, and his descendants continued ruling the area for centuries thereafter.
How Marchell Explains the Prophecy of Arthur’s Mysterious Sister
From this information alone, we can already see how Marchell matches well with the description of Arthur’s mysterious, unnamed sister in the prophecy in the Historia Regum Britanniae. Unlike any of the other proposed candidates, Marchell actually satisfies the detail of being associated with the Irish Sea.
Just as the second ray emanating forth from the dragon (Uther Pendragon) shone towards the Irish Sea, so Marchell was sent by her father Tewdrig in that direction, across the Irish Sea and over to Ireland itself.
Furthermore, just as the descendants of Arthur’s unnamed sister would go on to rule Britain, the descendants of Marchell through Brychan went on to rule over one of the Brythonic kingdoms during the Dark Ages.
The Seven Lesser Rays
However, what about the specific reference to ‘seven lesser rays’? Does this mean that this theory can only work if Brychan had only six successors?
Although the number ‘seven’ has often been assumed to be literal by commentators, we must remember that the medieval scribes were generally very familiar with Biblical expressions and symbolism (Gildas provides a strikingly strong example of this).
In the Bible, the number ‘seven’ is often used in a symbolic way. As one scholar explained:
“In many contexts, it conveys not just the number 7, but the idea of wholeness and perfection.”
Similarly, it has also been described as representing ‘completion’. Therefore, the fact that there are seven rays which emanate from the ray does not necessarily mean that there would literally only be seven descendants who would rule over Britain.
After all, in Merlin’s explanation of the sign, he does not specifically mention the number seven. All he says is that the woman’s ‘sons and grandsons shall successively enjoy the kingdom of Britain’.
Therefore, the fact that the omen in the sky shows seven rays may have simply been a way of representing all of the royal descendants, rather than it actually meaning that there would literally only be seven of them.
Marchell’s Many Royal Descendants
However, a potential objection to this explanation about Uther’s daughter is that Marchell’s son Brychan, along with his descendants, only ruled over Brycheiniog. This was a relatively minor kingdom within Wales, much smaller than the likes of Gwynedd, Powys, or Dyfed.
Therefore, is it really plausible that she could fit the description of the one whose ‘sons and grandsons shall successively enjoy the kingdom of Britain’?
As a matter of fact, Marchell was the ancestress of many kings from all over Britain throughout the Dark Ages, not just the petty kings of Brycheiniog. How so? Marchell’s son Brychan famously became the father of many sons and daughters. Many of these daughters married important kings and princes.
Northern Kings
For example, a daughter named Lluan married Gabran of Dal Riada and became the mother of Aedan. He was one of the most powerful kings of Britain in the late-sixth century.
Another daughter, named Nyfain, is recorded as marrying Cynfarch. He was the father of Urien Rheged, one of the most powerful kings of the sixth century. In fact, his kingdom – Rheged – is sometimes proposed as being the most powerful kingdom in Britain at its height in the late-sixth century. After Urien came Owain, another notably powerful king.
Cynfarch was also the father of Llew, also known as Leudonus or Lot, the king of Lothian in southeast Scotland. Another son was Arawn, a more obscure king of some part of southern Scotland.
Therefore, some of the most important and powerful kings of the north of Britain in the mid- to late-sixth century were descended from Marchell the daughter of Tewdrig.
Southern Kings
What about the kings of the more southern region of Britain, such as what is now Wales? We have already seen that Marchell was the ancestress of the kings of Brycheiniog. However, she was also the ancestress of several other Welsh kingdoms.
For example, one of the daughters of Marchell’s son Brychan was Gwladus. She married Gwynllyw, a king of a significant part of what is now Glamorgan. They were the parents of Cadog, a prominent religious figure. He evidently also had political power over much of Glamorgan, for he is described as giving it to a certain king named Meurig at one point.
Another daughter of Brychan, named Marchell (evidently after Brychan’s own mother), is recorded as marrying Gwrin Farfdrwch of Meirionnydd, a large region within the powerful kingdom of Gwynedd.
Perhaps an even more significant example is Tudglid, another daughter of Brychan. She married a king named Cyngen and became the mother of Brochwel Ysgithrog. He later ascended to the throne of Powys, one of the most powerful kingdoms in Wales in the sixth century and after.
His son, Cynan Garwyn, was particularly powerful, and he may well be the Aurelius Caninus to whom Gildas directed some comments in De Excidio. In turn, Cynan’s son Selyf continued the line of powerful kings. In fact, there is reason to believe that Selyf was the leader of the Welsh forces at the famous Battle of Chester in c. 616. Subsequently, Cynan’s dynasty continued for at least several more centuries.
Sons and Grandsons Ruling Over Britain
In summary, it is abundantly clear that Marchell’s many descendants really did go on to rule over Britain. There was no single line descended from her that kept the role of the preeminent dynasty, but this is not inconsistent with the visual of seven ‘lesser rays’ emanating from her in the sign described in the Historia Regum Britanniae.
As we have seen, her descendants included some of the most prominent and powerful kings of the north of Britain throughout the sixth and seventh centuries, such as Aedan of Dal Riada and his descendants, Urien Rheged and his son Owain, and others.
In southern Britain, we have seen that Marchell was the ancestress of the kings of Brycheiniog, Meirionnydd, and Powys.
Therefore, far more than any other candidate for King Arthur’s mysterious sister, Marchell matches the description seen in the heavenly sign described in the Historia Regum Britanniae and Merlin’s interpretation of it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, King Arthur’s mysterious sister is the unnamed subject of one of two rays emanating from a dragon-shaped comet. The comet represents Uther Pendragon. One ray represents his son Arthur, while the other ray represents a daughter. It shines in the direction of the Irish Sea and has seven lesser rays emanating from it. This is interpreted as meaning that the sons and grandsons of this daughter would rule Britain.
By far the most likely candidate for this mysterious sister of Arthur is not Anna, nor the unnamed wife of Budic of Brittany, but Marchell. She was the wife of Tewdrig, the king who seems to have formed much of the basis of Geoffrey’s account of Uther Pendragon.
Marchell travelled across the Irish Sea to Ireland, where she married Anlach. Her descendants through her son Brychan included the kings of Dal Riada, Rheged, Lothian, Meirionnydd, Powys, and Brycheiniog, many of whom were some of the most important and powerful kings of their day. The number ‘seven’ evidently represents all the descendants collectively, rather than being a literal number.
Sources
Bartrum, Peter, A Welsh Classical Dictionary, 1993
Bromwich, Rachel, Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain, 2014
Farmer, David, Oxford Dictionary of Saints: Fifth Edition Revised, 2011
Howells, Caleb, King Arthur: The Man Who Conquered Europe, 2019
Matthews, John, Sir Gawain: Knight of the Goddess, 2003
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