Elen Lluyddog: a Cymric Heroine (Helen of the Hosts)

Synonyms: Igraine
Cym: Virgin

Elen Lluyddog is the heroine of the tale of Breuddwyd Maxen Wledig (the dream of Magnus Maximus) and also figures in triad 30 of the Trioedd ynys Prydain. Elen is the Cymric form of the Classical 'Helen' and Lluyddog is a Cymric word that is often translated as "of the hosts" though it can be more accurately rendered as "who has a host". The epithet is explained in triad 30 in that the host of Elen and Magnus Maximus was one of the "three lost levies" of the Island of Britain for they travelled to Brittany to gain the Emperorship of Rome and never returned (in this they were accompanied by Elen's brother, Cynan.

Though the tale of Magnus Maximus' dream is relatively late and Elen has been conflated within it both with Helen of Troy in terms of her beauty and St Helena (the mother of Constantine the Great) and a purported ancestress of the Dyfed line of princes according to Harleian Genealogy II.

In the Breuddwyd Maxen Wledig Elen is the British wife whom Magnus Maximus takes with him to Rome (this seems to have been an early tradition woven into the tale). However, there are allusions in the story that seem to hearken to an earlier mythology that was incorporated into the mythos of Elen Lluyddog. In Maxen's dream Elen is arrayed in fine robes and jewels. She has attendants playing at gwyddbwyll (the Celtic game of gods and leaders) and has a magical seat that transforms itself to seat two as comfortably as it seats a single person. Magnus Maximus scours Europe hunting for this fair woman and when he finds her at Segontium, sitting in a chair of red-gold he takes her to bed, marries her and as her dowry she requests three strongholds to be made for her in Arfon (which was her chief seat), at Caer Llion and at Caer Fyrddin. To move easily from one Caer to the next Elen had roads constructed between them, and the roads were made by her men. For this reason they are called the Roads of Elen of the Hosts, because she was sprung from the Island of Britain, and the men of the Island of Britain would not have made those hostings for any save for her.

Thus Elen would seem to be an echo of an ancestral deity (both in terms of the Cymric lineages and in terms of being an 'originator' figure) who appears to have been particularly associated with Roman Roads. Indeed, some of these Roman roads are known to this day as Sarn(au) Elen (The Causeways of Elen). Whether this represents the survival of an ancient Brythonic road-builder goddess in later mythos can never be known. However, this is an interesting proposition in light of the discovery of Celtic wooden roadways in Ireland and Europe and the re-appraisal of the Celts rather than the Romans as Europe's first large-scale road builders (though the Celts built roads of perishable wood rather than durable stone).

Navigation